Sunday, March 29, 2020

Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


This article is another translation of an original regarding the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. It describes the Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium and was written in French by Willy Wolztain in 2016 for the CCLJ (Centre Comunautaire  Laïc Juif-Secular Jew Community Center). Translation by Fousesquawk. The influence of radical Islam is very strong in Belgium, and Brussels is often described as the epicenter of radical Islam in Europe.


https://www.cclj.be/actu/politique-societe/systeme-freres-musulmans-illustration-par-cas-privot

The Muslim Brotherhood System: Illustration via the Privot Case
- Friday, 20 May 2016 by Willy Wolsztain

More a religious political sect than a  spiritual movement, founded in 1928 by the Egyptian Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood carries a totalitarian vision of the religion. In Europe, they are attempting to Islamicize society in a gradual manner with their ultimate end, the installation of a worldwide caliphate. In order to grasp their true nature, it is enough to observe up close the Muslim Fair of Brussels (FMB), one of their  flagship annual events, along with the Moslem Expo (Antwerp) and the Muslim Expo (Charleroi).

Promotion of the female Muslim dress code, segregation between men and women during conferences, omnipresent prayers, Koranic rants. At the FMB, there reigns an atmosphere of obscurantism, bigotry and conservatism. There the Aksahum Foundation supports the charitable works of Hamas. One can hear the diatribes of hate against Shi'ite Islam (Hassan Iquiousson at the FMB 2015). Anti-Semitic preachers are invited (FMB 2104, Muslim Expo, Charleroi 2-016) Works by Youssef al-Qaradawi, the notorious leading thinker and spiritual guide of the Brotherhood, are distributed.

The founding father Hassan al-Banna always present


The ideology that permeates the Muslim Fair is inspired directly from the founding father, Hassan al-Banna. See his 1947 manifest with its 50 programmed points. One will note in passing how many ideas also influence the Islamic political pressure in Europe ( claims on the Islamic veil, segregation between the sexes, family law, censorship of media and art, etc.) A prophetic microcosm, the Fair prefigures the ideal macrocosm according to the Brotherhood, exact opposite of a liberal Islam, open to the values of individual liberty, democracy, humanism and progress.

We examine the Brotherhood career of Islamologist Michael Privot. We have already dealt with his case elsewhere. In an exemplary manner, it illustrates the "Leninist perspective of taking control", put into practice by the Brotherhood, to use the happy formula of the Egyptian historian, Tewfik Aclimandos.

A completely unusual approach for a member of the Brotherhood, Michael Privot, carried out a Brotherhood "coming out" in 2008. In perfect contrast to the spectacle of the Muslim Fair, Privot presents the European Muslim Brotherhood self-styled "fed-up with the virtues of democracy, human rights, the Nation of laws and responsible citizenship". Interviewed 8 years later after having said he slammed the Brotherhood door, he gave us the same angelic serenade. He shows "the tip of the ear", however. "One has to take the the example of Milli Gorush." Milli Gorush (of the) Turkish Islamist movement, conservative, totalitarian, close in spirit to the Muslim Brotherhood. Since 2012, Michael Privot claims to have broken with the Brotherhood. In truth, that is false. Up to today, he remains closely tied to the active Brotherhood structures in Belgium. And here is the proof.

According to a 2008 American report, "The Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium", Michael Privot co-chaired the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Students Associations (FEMYSO), one of the top organisms linked to the Brotherhood. In 2004, he entered the administrative council of the Educational Islamic Cultural Complex of Verviers- Assahaba Mosque (CECIV) as treasurer, a few months after the establishment of this non-profit. In 2007 he became vice secretary. He only left the board of the CECIV at the beginning of 2015.  Not without leaving behind him a person of confidence, namely Julie "Noor" Pascoet, (who) joined the board at the end of 2014 as secretary. She joined Hajib El Hajjaji (see below), who then sat on the board of CECIV since 2010, as well as Frank "Amin" Hensch, president and imam of CECIV. Pascoet is also a close collaborator of Privot at the head of ENAR-European Network Against Racism, which he leads in a professional role. She worked for Islamic Relief Worldwide, a very important international charitable NGO linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

ENAR, a European network of organizations, has, among its Europeans members, the FEMYSO, already mentioned, as well as the European Forum of Muslim Women (EFOMW), also linked to the Brotherhood. ENAR counts among its Belgian members the Collective Against Islamophobia in Belgium (CCIB) and Muslims Right Belgium (MRB), two propaganda agencies from the Muslim Brotherhood movement. ENAR makes the fight against "Islamophobia", an Islamist obsession, one of its priority actions.

At the beginning of 2013, Privot co-founded Empowering Belgian Muslims (EmBeM), a non-profit where he served as vice president. It is Fatima Zibouh, a researcher at the University of Liege, who leads EmBeM. She also functions as editorial  adviser of Radio AraBel, a local Brussels transmitter. A partner of the Muslim Fair of Brussels, Radio AraBel covers this event exclusively from a temporary studio installed in the heart (of the fair). Among the founding members of EmBeM, we note Brussels representative Mahinur Ozdemir, the first Parliamentarian in Europe to wear the Islamic veil. After having gotten her elected, the CDH excluded her for denying the Armenian genocide. Should that be surprising? The current Turkish president, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, a great democrat as everyone knows, attended the lady's marriage in Istanbul. Another founder of EmBeM: Zaki Chairi, a Radio AraBel host and Islamist Scout leader (Scouts and Muslim Guides of Brussels). Zaki Chairi is the son of Mustapha Chairi, president of CCIB, previously mentioned. EmBeM counts among its administrators Taoufik Amzile, president of the Belgian Association of Muslim Professionals-ABPM. We will return to this (see below). EmBeM figured, along with the CCIB, among the partners of Moslim Expo 2015 in Antwerp, a Muslim Brotherhood event organized in the north of the country.

Nebula of personalities- Network of institutions

In this way, accessible data, though partial, permit the outlining of the active Muslim Brotherhood mechanism in French-speaking Belgium. Not having identifiable bosses and leaders, a nebula of personalities emerges. It adopts the form of a network of non-profits of various social purposes, with converging aims and mutual filtering roles, through cross-participation in boards of directors. To which should be added de facto associations (Muslim Rights Belgium) and limited public companies (Radio AraBel). What is shown in the table is French-speaking Belgian level with connections in Flanders, an international level, as well as positions of external, strategic influence, for example, within ENAR. By the number of its administrators also belonging to the boards of sister non-profits, the Michael Privot's CECIV appears to be at the center of the mechanism.

The Tarek Al-Suwaidan episode at the Brussels Muslim Fair (FMB) in 2014 offers an opening (view) of the operational function of this apparatus. Remember that the authorities prohibited entry into Belgium of this Kuwaiti preacher on  grounds of anti-Semitism. The CECIV, during the time when Michael Privot was still director, co-organized the FMB along with the League of Belgian Muslims (LMB). On the Facebook page of the Fair is shown a reservation banner with the CECIV logo alongside those of the French editor Gedis and the LMB, the official organizer.  After the incident, Privot put out a press release. He was sorry for "the lack of differentiation" between the LMB and Gedis. He avails himself of EmBeM, but takes care not to denounce CECIV. The press award him a "patent of virginity" under the title, "discordant voice". A discordant voice? Or skillful against fire?

At the end of the Merley report in 2008 an info chart shows the central position of Michael Privot within the Muslim Brotherhood structures in Belgium. Hajib El Hajjaji, previously mentioned, appeared by his side. He still figures today among his close (associates). We could find them together during a  conference which EmBeM organized at Anderlecht on 12 May 2015 at Espace Poicare/Dar al Quran- a Brotherhood institution. Michael Privot introduced the debate. Hajob El Hajjaji manages the location.  He also chairs the Collective Against Islamopobia in Belgium, mentioned above. He has practiced professionally on behalf of the ABPM of Taoufik Amzile and was administrator for a time. As for Julie Pascoet, administrator/secretary of CECIV and Michael Privot's right arm at ENAR, she participated in the European Parliament on March 2, 2016 on behalf of ENAR in the conference, Women Against Islamophobia". The session was held under the leadership Deputy Soraya Post (Sweden, Feminist Party, Socialist Group). ENAR co-organized the event along the European Brotherhood federations, FEMYSO and EFOMW, already mentioned.

 Belgian elites bet on the Muslim Brotherhood?

In spite of his insistent denials, Michael Privot persists in frequenting Muslim Brotherhood circles in an active manner. Ex-officials of the Brotherhood like Farid Abdelkrim or Mohamed Louizi denounce the ideology, exposing its hidden function, (and) help combat it. They take risks. Nothing of the sort for Michael Privot. On the contrary he reveals nothing about the organization which he, nevertheless, worked inside for years. He makes soothing comments about the Brotherhood. He saves the day. We can commit errors of youth. To have adhered to a fascist-type movement. But if you break with it, you must pay the debt. You must work to destroy it. A question of democratic credibility. Privot is very careful. This con artist is an excellent showcase for the Muslim Brotherhood. And it works.

Because it is exclusively those non-Muslims, media types, academics, politicians who have created and maintain the visibility and the notoriety of Michael Privot. Here 40 years, our political elites (and the Royal Palace) have outsourced the Islam of Belgium to Saudi Arabia. Today, we are paying very dearly for this fatal choice. Would our current elites  bet on the Muslim Brotherhood to out-source Islam 2.0 to them? A disastrous calculation. Like the Saudi Salafism in the past 40 years, the ever-so-close Brotherhood ideology programs and softens the brains and renders them permeable to the jihadist sirens of tomorrow.

Friday, March 27, 2020

The Muslim Brotherhood in Luxembourg

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com




This article is the latest in a series regarding the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe-country by country- which are translated from the original. The below article was written by Yoan Kaufman in Mediapart and is dated June 14, 2018. It describes the MB's use of Luxembourg as a financial center. It was written in French and is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://blogs.mediapart.fr/yoan-kaufman/blog/140618/enquete-luxembourg-le-paradis-fiscal-des-freres-musulmans


Investigation: Luxembourg, the fiscal paradise of the Muslim Brotherhood?
14 June 2018 by Yoan Kaufman  Blog: The Blog of Yoan Kaufman


If Switzerland is known to have been a rear base of the Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, Luxembourg has long been ignored. However, historically, the Grand Duchy has played a central role in the financial strategy of this organization.

mbflag3
"In the name of God. The Islamic bank of Luxembourg"
-Mediapart


Luxembourg has become one of the strongholds of worldwide Islamic finance, and its authorities boast about it: "As the second largest world center for funds and host of the world's principal stock exchange for stock securities, Luxembourg is today a key center  for the development of Islamic finance in Europe," states Tom Theobald, Luxembourg's deputy director general for Finance at the end of 2017.   

It is true that the publicity and lobbying carried out around this "Islamic finance" lends credence that this "finance" would be cleaner, more ethical because it is religious! In the name of God, is it less neo-liberal or less opaque? Nay. Such affirmations are absurd at best and at worst deceiving.
But in reality, the valuation of this so-called new market quite simply, hides the financial infiltration strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood and certain Gulf countries.

A project built for over 40 years....
In 2005, the Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson, published a remarkable work: "The conquest of the West", which everyone unfortunately forgot and would be good to update.
In this book, the investigator-journalist recalls that after the attacks on 11 September, the Swiss police conducted a search at the home of Youssef Nada, chairman of a group named al-Taqwa, which was suspected of having financed al-Qaeda. In Nada's house, the police seized an exceptional document, (which) had to do with "Project" of the Muslim Brotherhood written in 1981. This document established the global strategy of the Brotherhood and more specifically, that which was envisioned for Europe.

During a second search of the offices of al-Taqwa, investigators found another document fascinatingly named "Financial Strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood".

This edifying text details the financial structures created by the leaders of the Brotherhood during the 1970s, thanks to funds principally coming from the Gulf countries.

The central position of Luxembourg is clearly exposed in the first pages. "The Islamic International Bank of Luxembourg is the principal entity  that directs and controls all other institutions. ARINCO, an affiliated entity manages the long term investments." And here we are!

A booming business...
These structures have been used to clandestinely finance Islamic centers of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe and the US in order to, as Sylvain Besson writes, "extend the sphere of Islam and put an end to the hegemony of the West on the world." 
One of the figures who has long held the keys to Islamic finance in Luxembourg is named Gamal Attia, of Egyptian origin and an influential member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He notably founded the Islamic Development bank of Jedda and was, not incidentally, a close (associate) of Youssef Nada....
Gamal Attia himself has been a consultant-expert for the UN during the 1980s. He is also considered with his compatriot, Abou Saud, as the father of Islamic finance
 If ARINCO was dissolved in 1989 and the International Islamic Bank of Luxembourg in 1994, that, of course, doesn't mean that the business has disappeared, quite the contrary.
The Brothers have only reorganized themselves and enlarged their influence in financial circles, to the point that Islamic finance has become a trend phenomenon, which gains more terrain each day....
As the next article will reveal, the structures affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood still use Luxembourg as a fiscal paradise to protect their war chest. A mysterious financial fund which I was able to identify holds amounts in excess of 150 million euros.
To follow

Saturday, March 7, 2020

The Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


The below article in AD.NL appeared in February and concerns the testimony of a Dutch terrorism expert before the Dutch Parliament. The expert, Ronald Sandee, identified mosques and individuals in the Netherlands as having connections to the Muslim Brotherhood as well as having received funding from Kuwait and Qatar. Translation by Fousesquawk.


https://www.ad.nl/politiek/moskeeen-in-rotterdam-en-amsterdam-in-de-greep-van-conservatieve-moslimbroeders~a3966d2a/

"Mosques in Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the grip of conservative Muslim Brothers"

The Rotterdam mosque De Middenweg and the Amsterdam Blue Mosque are in the grip of the Muslim Brothers. (Brotherhood). The message from the terror expert and investigator Ronald Sandee on Monday during his testimony in the mini-case in the Second Chamber (Parliament) on unwanted foreign influence in Islamic institutions.

Although both steadfastly deny it, Sandee named Chairman of the Board Jacob van der Blom and imam Yassin Elforkani of the Blue Mosque as Muslim Brothers (members of Muslim Brotherhood). Van der Blom is also founder of the De Middenweg (mosque).

Sandee has no hard evidence, but: "If it runs like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it may be a duck," Van der Blom and Elforkani  "follow the ideology" of the Muslim Brothers.

The mosque in New West, built with money from Kuwait and Qatar, played a large role in the hearing. Sandee, ex-employee of the military intelligence service, also spoke extensively about the international Muslim Brotherhood. According to him, the organization strives for a "sharia state" in which Islam leads.

Veils

The Muslim Brothers are commonly well-educated, articulate, and "anti-integration", said Sandee. According to him, they encourage women to wear veils, and hammer on "Islamophobic tendencies in society.

Sandee named the Blue Mosque as a striking example of the influence from the Gulf region. When Kuwait came in as financier around 2006, a high-ranking Kuwaiti official took over the company that owns the real estate, (and) according to Sandee, still now determines the course of the mosque. 

Sandee also said he heard talk about young converts in the Blue Mosque, who are fairly intimidating in imposing their views. "But that is only hear-say."

Middenweg

In the Blue Mosque, and also in the Middenweg (also financed by the Gulf region and with the same owner as the Blue Mosque) you see, according to Sandee, the influence of the Muslim Brothers on the speakers and training. In that connection, he also named the Essalam Mosque in Rotterdam, the largest in the Netherlands.

With respect to the money flow from the Gulf, the Netherlands is a little too naive, perhaps gullible. "I have the feeling that countries like Turkey and Qatar follow a completely conscious strategy in influencing Muslim communities abroad. But we are stuck on freedom of religion." 


He advocated for measures to limit foreign funding. He mentioned the Austrian Islam Law as an example, which contains a ban on foreign financing. Her also suggested a European ban. "That would be a possibility to come down on unwanted influence in one blow."

Real Estate


The Parliamentary Commission asked the necessary questions about Jacob van der Blom, ex-director of the Essalam Mosque, which, according to Sandee, is well connected with Qatra Charity, a prominent donor to Islamic institutions in Europe. Van der Blom has for years been director of Europe Trust Netherlands, the owner of De Middenweg and the Blue Mosque. According to Sandee, that is the real estate branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which serves as a  branch of the Birmingham-based mother company, Europe Trust. "I have the feeling that if Europe Trust in Birmingham claims the property, that will happen."

Recently, Sandee signaled a cross-pollination between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists. "A sort of Dutch Salafism or Dutch Brotherhood".

Sandee was also asked about a detailed article that he wrote last last for an American research site, in which he swept the floor with the Amsterdam Deradicalization Policy, which, according to him, is on the leash of dubious figures. Signs about people (who are) radicalizing have been swept under the carpet, said Sandee.

 

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Bernie's Funding Dreams

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Up until recently I have not been watching the Democrat debates. Then, last week, I watched the last hour or so of the debate in Nevada. It was then I realized that this was fun! So I made a point to sit dumbfounded through the South Carolina debate a few days ago. Now this is entertainment.

There were so many high points I can't remember them all. There was Joe Biden pounding his chest and telling everybody that 150 million people (in the US) had died by guns since 2007 and how he and Barack (Obama) stopped the Ebola virus dead in its tracks. To someone out there he pointed his finger and stated, "I'm coming for ya". And there was the classic claim (later refuted) that he had been arrested in Soweto, South Africa attempting to see Nelson Mandela in prison at Robbins Island).Tom Speyer announced that on Day One (of his presidency) he would declare a national emergency (on the Corona virus). There was Elizabeth Warren  saying she would "work with our allies and use every tool in our toolbox". Translation? She has no idea what she would do.Virtually everybody on stage devoted time to pandering to the largely African-American voting block in South Carolina.

That brings me to Bernie Sanders.

Aside from defending his proposed budgets and quibbling about how many hundreds of trillions of dollars it would cost, he also-out of the blue-announced that he was going to "provide funding for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Native Americans to open legal marijuana dispensaries and keep them out of the hands of the big corporations."

Really?

Now Bernie Sanders is a lot of things (including being a Marxist), but I don't think he is racist. But my questions to Mr Sanders are these: How and why did you make the connection between the above three groups and selling legal marijuana? Is that all you think of their abilities? Is that your key to revitalizing the inner cities- by flooding them with marijuana?  Maybe I am missing something, but isn't this akin to Planned Parenthood having so many of its facilities in the inner cities? I'm not saying that the current directors of PP are consciously trying to reduce the black population-even though that was definitely the intent of Margaret Sanger, the founder of PP's predecessor agency.

But I digress. Back to Sanders.

Bernie Sanders may be a joke, but he is the most dangerous man on the stage. His ideas are befuddled and the opposite of what is good for this country. When you consider all his past statements about socialism, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc, you really have to wonder what's going on in that mind of his. This is a man who has defended the Castro regime in Cuba. This is a man who took his honeymoon in the former Soviet Union. This is a man who has seen the bread lines and actually defended them!
And this is the man who now promises to provide tax payer funding to minorities to open marijuana clinics (whether they want to or not I am guessing).