After U.S. Sanctions, Muslim Brotherhood Resorts to Evasion and Threatens Europe
U.S. sanctions targeting a Muslim Brotherhood leader in Europe have reopened the debate over the group’s activities and financial flows, while prompting renewed calls for a comprehensive and wide-ranging crackdown on its networks.
The United States imposed new sanctions last Thursday on a senior figure in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, along with three individuals and three entities, accusing them of providing financial and logistical support to Hamas, which the U.S. Department of the Treasury described as one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s branches.
The sanctions mark the first U.S. measures targeting the Muslim Brotherhood on the European continent, although they are directed at individuals, and have once again brought attention to the group’s activities and operations across Europe, as well as the funding channels it has allegedly developed over decades by taking advantage of the continent’s climate of freedom, according to observers.
In this context, German expert Sigrid Hermann warned that the Muslim Brotherhood could seek to circumvent the sanctions imposed by the United States and channel its funds through alternative routes, highlighting, in her view, the depth of the threat posed by the group in Europe.
She said she believes the U.S. sanctions will have organizational consequences. However, the Muslim Brotherhood has, to date, established numerous alternative pathways, meaning that funds could simply be redirected through different channels without the flow of money coming to a halt.
In Austria, according to Hermann, the authorities are expected to monitor this development, namely the sanctions, and examine any potential overlap with measures that have already been taken as part of efforts to counter the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since November 2020, Austria has been conducting judicial investigations into the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism-related activities, after police raided dozens of locations and targeted individuals linked to the group in a security operation known as “Operation Luxor.”
“A Branch Operating in the Shadows”
The German expert, however, warned of the growing threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in the United Kingdom. She said political parties there are facing numerous political difficulties and crises, which are slowing the response to the U.S. sanctions.
Elsewhere, Hermann said that the United States is primarily focused on the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, while another branch is operating behind the scenes and attempting to advance the group’s objectives, referring to the activities of the Syrian branch in Europe and Germany.
She explained: “In my assessment, the most successful branch at present is the Syrian one. Organizations linked to it receive substantial public funding in Europe under the banner of supporting Syrian refugees in returning to their homeland.” According to her, however, the group receives these funds while simultaneously working toward the opposite outcome: keeping Syrians in Europe in order to preserve its resources and influence by exploiting the situation of these migrants.
According to observers, combating the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe requires a comprehensive and coordinated strategy covering the key countries where the group operates and addressing all relevant areas, including financing, associations, political circles, and education.
More broadly, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the latest U.S. sanctions targeted Mahmoud El-Ibiary, who resides in the United Kingdom and is reportedly also an Austrian citizen.
El-Ibiary serves as secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Secretariat. Washington accuses him of raising funds for organizations that had previously been sanctioned by the United States over their links to Hamas, including Filistin Vakfi and Hayat Yolu, as well as cooperating with entities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to provide financial support to the movement.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for his part, said that the administration of President Donald Trump “will continue to pursue terrorists and anyone who finances them.”
He added that individuals and entities using charities, businesses, or clandestine financial networks to support Hamas “will be exposed, sanctioned, and held accountable.”
He further stated: “These measures build on previous rounds of sanctions targeting Hamas’s and the Muslim Brotherhood’s global financing networks.”
