Muslim Brotherhood Leader Al-Suwaidan Lauds Western Youth Activism

Kuwaiti Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan has issued a state­ment reflect­ing a broad­er Mus­lim Broth­er­hood strat­e­gy of encour­ag­ing Mus­lim youth in the West to mobi­lize for polit­i­cal and social influ­ence. On 16 May 2025, the Mid­dle East Media Research Insti­tute (MEMRI) report­ed that Tareq Al-Suwaidan, in a pod­cast episode,  had urged West­ern Mus­lim youth to use their cit­i­zen­ship to advance the Islam­ic nation and pres­sure their politi­cians, say­ing “this is your coun­try.” The arti­cle begins:

Kuwaiti Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan called on West­ern Mus­lim youth to use their cit­i­zen­ship to advance the Islam­ic nation and pres­sure their politi­cians, say­ing “this is your coun­try.” He urged them to become active cit­i­zens, par­tic­i­pate in elec­tions, and influ­ence poli­cies in favor of the Islam­ic nation. Al-Suwaidan empha­sized that West­ern Mus­lims have rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties as cit­i­zens and should not iso­late them­selves from soci­ety. He high­light­ed the impor­tance of polit­i­cal activism and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment to sup­port Islam­ic caus­es. Al-Suwaidan’s remarks reflect a broad­er strat­e­gy of encour­ag­ing Mus­lim youth in the West to mobi­lize for polit­i­cal and social influence.

Read more: https://www.memri.org/tv/tareq-alsuwaidan-muslim-brotherhood-western-youth-activism-citizenship

Key Points

• Tareq Al-Suwaidan urged West­ern Mus­lim youth to use their cit­i­zen­ship for Islam­ic caus­es and to pres­sure politicians.

• He empha­sized active par­tic­i­pa­tion in elec­tions and pol­i­cy advo­ca­cy with­in West­ern soci­eties to pro­mote Islam­ic interests.

• Al-Suwaidan framed polit­i­cal engage­ment as both a right and a respon­si­bil­i­ty for Mus­lim cit­i­zens in the West.

• His mes­sage aligns with the broad­er Mus­lim Broth­er­hood strat­e­gy of mobi­liz­ing youth for social and polit­i­cal influence.

FEMYSO’s Muslim Brotherhood Youth Activism

Youth work and out­reach have always been main pil­lars of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood activ­i­ty around the globe. The Broth­er­hood’s youth activism in Europe is exem­pli­fied by the activ­i­ties of orga­ni­za­tions such as the youth/student arm of the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, the Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO), which reg­u­lar­ly engages with EU politi­cians and insti­tu­tions through con­fer­ences and pub­lic cam­paigns. Despite per­sis­tent denials of for­mal ties to the Broth­er­hood, FEMYSO mem­bers have pub­licly hon­ored promi­nent Broth­er­hood fig­ures. The group has been fea­tured in Euro­pean Com­mis­sion pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als, reflect­ing their inte­gra­tion into main­stream civ­il soci­ety initiatives.

FEMYSO has also been vocal in oppos­ing poli­cies like hijab bans and has ben­e­fit­ed from sub­stan­tial NGO and EU fund­ing, high­light­ing their oper­a­tional influ­ence with­in the Euro­pean con­text. The ide­o­log­i­cal and polit­i­cal con­nec­tions between FEMYSO and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood are fur­ther under­scored by the organization’s roots in Broth­er­hood net­works and its leadership’s famil­ial ties to influ­en­tial Broth­er­hood fig­ures. Exter­nal analy­ses reveal that Mus­lim Broth­er­hood youth engage­ment seeks to fos­ter a sense of moral oblig­a­tion, per­son­al pur­pose, and orga­ni­za­tion­al skill.

The activism is marked by gen­er­a­tional ten­sions, with younger mem­bers often push­ing for more pro­gres­sive social agen­das and greater polit­i­cal engage­ment, while also lever­ag­ing dig­i­tal plat­forms for mobi­liza­tion, aim­ing to insti­tu­tion­al­ize an Islam­ic world­view and moral frame­work in society.

Exter­nal References:

• Explor­ing Indi­vid­ual Moti­va­tions for Social Change: Mobi­liza­tion of the Mus­lim Brotherhood’s Youth in pre­revolutionary Egypt
• Strate­gies of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Move­ment 1928–2007
• The Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Britain: A Social Movement?

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.