Sovereign Media traces a transatlantic push for an Islamophobic resolution passed in the EU Parliament
Author: Sovereign Media contributor on anti-imperialism
The European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution on Oct 8 calling for Muslim Brotherhood-linked entities to be assessed for the EU terrorist list and for a crackdown on EU funding to groups accused of “Islamist entryism.”
The resolution also listed “hatred of Israel” among markers of radicalisation.
While resolutions of this kind are non-binding, it shows the EU institutionalising a framework that treats Muslim civic life as a security threat. The European Commission and the Council could follow up on Parliament’s call with lawmaking measures.
CAM visit to UAE in June 2026
Transatlantic network and support for Islamophobia
Massad Boulos, Trump’s Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs, publicly welcomed it, stating the US “encourages continued cooperation with our European partners to combat terrorism, disrupt violent extremist networks, and protect our shared security”
In May 2026, the White House released a counterterrorism strategy naming the Brotherhood as “the root of all modern Islamist terrorism”.
Washington, DC-based, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which has been noted in its push for the illegal war on Iran, was one of the think tanks that have pursued this line, part of a transatlantic network of policy institutes whose campaigns have dovetailed with both Emirati efforts to outlaw the Brotherhood and Israeli-aligned pushes to reframe Muslim civil society as a security threat.
FDD welcomed the October 8 vote in a policy brief the following day, with its Senior Envoy for Europe, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, arguing that Europe should “stop funding Islamist networks” and closing with a call for the US officials to “encourage” the European Commission to translate evidence into funding reviews and exclusions.
Another DC outfit – Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), an Israel-aligned NGO that also celebrated the resolution and said it has been “proud to collaborate with” MEP Céline Imart (European People’s Party), “in pushing for action against the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In the CAM statement, the NGO also boasted about CAM’s Executive Director of European Affairs, Shannon Seban, visiting Abu Dhabi in June 2026 to meet with “top Emirati experts on extremism and counter-terrorism” to discuss “best approaches for tackling radical ideologies.”
For its part, the UAE’s Ambassador to the EU participated in a June 2026 European Parliament conference titled “Muslim Brotherhood: a real threat to Europe,” where he promoted the UAE’s 2014 designation model and called on European policymakers to follow it. The conference was hosted by the ECR group, another right-wing group in Europe.
Photo: https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/news/2026/6/2/uae-muslimbrotherhood#1
Mohammed Ismail Al Sahlawi, UAE Ambassador to the European Union, speaking to ECR Group about “threats posed by the Muslim Brotherhood across Europe” in June 2026
UAE, Saudi and Egypt praised
Mary Khan, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), of the Germany – Alternative für Deutschland party, during the debate praised the UAE government for banning the Muslim Brotherhood in 2014.
While the Emirates had acted, she said, the EU had done the opposite in 2015; by addressing the Union directly with its “open border policy,” it had clearly laid the foundation for such “radical Islamist structures.”
Other right-wing MEPs of the ECR Group, like Dutch Sander Smit and French Nicolas Bay, have also praised Saudi Arabia and Egypt, along with the UAE, for banning the Muslim Brotherhood. Both made extremely Islamophobic remarks in their debates.
“For decades, Europe has suffered from communal separatism, crime, and even terrorism. Our people are confronted with Islamism, with the insidious and underhanded actions of the Muslim Brotherhood, this brotherhood that seeks to conquer our nations, our centers of power, our social life, and our territories,” Bay said.
Condemned by anti-racists groups
Anti-racist groups in Europe have strongly condemned the resolution. A coalition of nine civil society organisations slammed it as reaching “a new high of Islamophobic attacks on civil society”, accusing the European Parliament of outlining plans to “discredit, defund and censor civil society” and marking “a devastating shift away from democratic values”.
The statement noted that the resolution specifically targeted civil organisations like the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and the Collective against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE)
Emmanuel Achiri of ENAR said the resolution gives institutional legitimacy to a politics of suspicion targeting Muslim communities and the organisations defending their rights. He said this comes against a backdrop of rising racism, including anti-Muslim racism in Europe.
He noted ENAR had also recently lost its EU structural grant, calling it deeply concerning and highlighting the growing pressure on independent anti-racist civil society at precisely the moment when its work is most needed.
When Opposition to Israel Becomes “Radicalisation”
The resolution’s listing “hatred of Israel” as a marker of radicalisation is probably one of the clearest pieces of evidence yet that this is not about terrorism at all. It is about criminalising any opposition to Israeli interests that was pushed by the DC circuit, using Muslim communities as the scapegoat.
