A 200,000-dollar scandal… moral collapse within the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood abroad
In recent hours, a new financial scandal has surfaced within the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood members who fled to Turkey. Brotherhood leader Salama Mohamed Abdelkawy has been accused of seizing a large sum estimated at nearly 200,000 dollars belonging to one of his colleagues in the organisation, after promising to establish a private school in Istanbul, only to disappear and fail to implement the project.
The incident raises fundamental questions about the nature of internal relations within the Brotherhood’s networks abroad and the extent of the organisational and moral decline that has plagued the group for years.
Details of the case were published by “Akhbar Al-Youm”, which confirmed that the victim handed over the full amount under a clear agreement, but the accused leader did not take any concrete steps before disappearing completely. This led to major disputes within Brotherhood circles in exile, with direct accusations of theft and fraud.
According to the report published on the “Akhbar Al-Youm” website, the crisis was not viewed as a mere financial disagreement. It turned into a full-fledged internal scandal, particularly since Abdelkawy has long presented himself as a “preacher” within the organisation, which amplifies the weight of the accusations against him.
Sources reported that those close to the incident described what happened as “a breach of moral boundaries”, reflecting the depth of the rift created by this episode inside the group’s ranks in Turkey. Such cases reveal the fragility of the movement in an external environment where it has lost its traditional centre of oversight and discipline.
The scandal appears to be another episode in a continuing series of collapses affecting the Brotherhood in recent years, whether through confessions from defectors or through media investigations exposing internal power struggles and the absence of internal regulation.
According to multiple sources, some leaders have turned into networks seeking quick profits under the guise of educational and preaching projects, exploiting the organisational ambiguity currently affecting the international movement after its leadership became scattered between Turkey, Europe, and elsewhere.
Observers note that legal pressures and financial scrutiny imposed on the organisation in various countries have driven some of its members into suspicious deals presented as charitable fundraising or educational investment, resulting in widespread fraud, exploitation, and lack of accountability.
Indicators also show that the decline of organisational centralisation — following deep rifts between the London, Istanbul, and Cairo factions — has led each group to operate independently, allowing individual and opportunistic behaviour to spread among certain leaders. This incident highlights the extent of internal disarray, where the absence of oversight has manifested in actions damaging the organisation’s own reputation.
The circulation of such scandals in the media deepens the crisis of trust between the Brotherhood and its base, especially since the group has relied for decades on moral and religious discourse to uphold its ideological project.
Analysts believe that this scandal, despite the small number of people directly involved, will have a negative impact on the movement’s ability abroad to regain any degree of social legitimacy, after some of its leaders appeared as individuals seeking personal gain even at the expense of their supporters.
Thus, the image of the Muslim Brotherhood is shifting from a movement claiming “preaching purity” to a network of competing interests consuming what remains of its moral and organisational credibility.
