The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West by Lorenzo Vidino

Author:Lorenzo Vidino
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-09-07T00:03:00+00:00

The organizational structure of today's German-Turkish community reflects this history and these divisions. The vast majority of German Turks85 to 9o percent, according to the German government-do not belong to any mosque association or other officially recognized organization." Some belong to the Alevi community or to various Sufi orders, whose organizations operate mostly at the local level. Therefore, the two largest and most visible organizations are DITIB and Milli Gorii~, whose mutual dislike and opposition has traditionally divided the organized religious Turkish community. Their diametrically opposed ideological positions, combined with their inability to comprise the majority of German Muslims, has prevented the formation of an entity that could legitimately claim the status of KoR and be recognized as a religious community.

The panorama of organized Islam in Germany would not be complete without mention of the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (Islamic Society of Germany, IGD). Founded in 1960, IGD has long been headquartered in the Islamic Center of Munich, which, as seen in chapter 2, was one of the first mosques created by Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers in Europe. Over the years, IGD expanded throughout Germany, reportedly controlling more than 120 mosques throughout the country (a number that German authorities dispute), yet retaining strong ideological and functional connections to its origins.20 It is, in fact, no coincidence that several senior leaders of the Egyptian Brotherhood, including its former murshid, Mohammed Akef, who served as the mosque's imam between 1984 and 1987, have spent extensive time in Munich.21 In 2002, after Ghaleb Himmat, the longtime associate of Yussuf Nada and co-head of the al Taqwa Bank, left IGD's chairmanship after being designated by the United Nations as a terrorism financier, leadership passed to a charismatic 34-year-old named Ibrahim El Zayat.22

If IGD, thanks to its history, is a perfect example of a New Western Brotherhood organization, various characteristics make El Zayat a quintessential New Western Brother. First, mirroring a common pattern, Islamic activism is a family affair for him. His father, Farouk, left Egypt in the i96os and settled in Germany, where he married a German convert to Islam and became the imam of a mosque in Marburg, a university town north of Frankfurt.23 The El Zayats had six children, most of whom have also been involved in Islamic activities, from German Muslim charities to student organizations. Bilal El Zayat, for example, is a founding member of the Muslimischen Jugend Deutschland (German Muslim Youth) and an officer of the Muslim Studenten Vereinigung (Muslim Students' Union)24 Manal El Zayat, who is married to Kamal Helbawy's son, is a graduate of IESH and has been involved in Islamic organizations in various European countries.21

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