France toughens its stance against the Muslim Brotherhood
- Measures announced
- Increased influence of the group
- Political and social reactions
- A threat without direct violence
France has decided to radically change its strategy towards the Muslim Brotherhood. After years of discreet monitoring, President Emmanuel Macron chaired a high-level security meeting on Wednesday to analyse an official report detailing the Islamist group's activities in the country. The Élysée confirmed that there has been a shift from a policy of mere surveillance to one of direct confrontation, both legal and political.
The report, prepared by two senior government officials and presented at a meeting with the prime minister and several key ministers, concludes that the Muslim Brotherhood — an organisation founded in Egypt in 1928 — represents a threat to national cohesion, not so much through direct violent action, but through organised ideological infiltration that seeks to undermine national values.
According to the document, this infiltration is carried out mainly through religious and educational institutions and cultural centres, and is aimed at spreading a discourse contrary to French secularism and the principles of the Republic. The report argues that the group acts covertly, avoiding direct confrontation with the state, but promoting a cultural Islamisation that, in the medium and long term, could destabilise the country's social fabric.
Measures announced
Although many of the planned measures will remain confidential, the Élysée Palace indicated that some will be made public in the coming days. These include legal and administrative restrictions on organisations considered to be affiliated with the group, as well as legislative reforms to curb the advance of political Islam in France.
The executive stressed that this new strategy is not intended to stigmatise Islam or Muslims in general, but to combat political Islam and its extremist offshoots. ‘We fully agree that we must not generalise in our relations with Muslims. We are fighting against political Islam and its extremist excesses,’ the French presidency stressed in a statement.
The report also fuels the debate on the use of religious symbols in public spaces. Macron's party has proposed banning the hijab for girls under 15, arguing that it represents a form of coercion that undermines gender equality and children's rights. It also proposes criminalising parents who force their daughters to wear it.
These initiatives are in addition to the existing ban on the abaya in public schools, enacted in 2023, and reflect a progressive hardening of French secularism towards visible expressions of religion.
Increased influence of the group
The government's growing concern is supported by figures such as those provided by researcher Hélène de Lauzon. In 2024, in an article published by Le Journal du Dimanche, she quoted a French intelligence expert who claimed that the number of members of the Muslim Brotherhood in France doubled between 2019 and 2023, from 50,000 to 100,000.
She also pointed to a significant increase in the visibility of conservative Islamic practices in everyday life, such as the wearing of the hijab and abaya, and specific demands in public spaces and workplaces. According to the report, all of this reflects a process of ‘coordinated cultural Islamisation’.
Political and social reactions
The report has sparked a wave of political reactions. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (far right), accused the government of historic inaction and reiterated on social media that ‘we have always proposed measures to eliminate Islamic fundamentalism.’
Her successor and current party president, Jordan Bardella, stated on France Inter that, if they came to power, they would ban the organisation.
In contrast, the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF) — identified in the report as the national branch of the Brotherhood — described the accusations as unfounded and dangerous. In an official statement, it denounced that ‘the constant association between Islam, political Islam and extremism is not only wrong, but also encourages Islamophobia and social violence’.
A threat without direct violence
Although the report rules out any clear desire on the part of French Muslims to establish an Islamic state or implement sharia law, it does identify a long-term strategy of ‘silent subversion’ of institutions.
‘The phenomenon represents a threat in the short and medium term. We are not facing a hostile separatist situation, but a hidden objective,’ states the document quoted by Le Figaro, the first media outlet to publish excerpts from it, which described it as ’shocking.’