NGO Tied To Global Muslim Brotherhood Launches EU-Funded Report On Counterrorism Policies

On 29 March 2021, the Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism (ENAR) held a vir­tu­al event launch­ing an EU-fund­ed report about the impact of Euro­pean counter-ter­ror­ism laws and poli­cies on groups at risk of racism. Accord­ing to a Face­book announce­ment, the event fea­tured appear­ances by sev­er­al high-lev­el EU offi­cials and MEPs:

The Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism has under­tak­en a research project to assess and doc­u­ment the Impact of the counter-ter­ror­ism and counter-rad­i­cal­iza­tion mea­sures on groups at risk of dis­crim­i­na­tion and racism. This research project specif­i­cal­ly exam­ines the expe­ri­ences of counter-ter­ror­ism and counter-rad­i­cal­i­sa­tion mea­sures by mem­bers of groups that are at height­ened risk of fac­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion and racism in France, Ger­many, Hun­gary, Poland and Spain.

Read the rest here.

Read the full report here.

In its report, ENAR made sev­er­al pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions, includ­ing that all EU counter-ter­ror­ism leg­is­la­tion should auto­mat­i­cal­ly expire after a fixed time and that EU insti­tu­tions should reg­u­lar­ly and proac­tive­ly engage with civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions on counter-ter­ror­ism mea­sures. ENAR also said the devel­op­ment of these poli­cies and prac­tices was ground­ed on prej­u­dices about Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties and demand­ed the EU refrain from using “vague and gen­er­al labels such as Jihadism, Islamism, and polit­i­cal Islam,” argu­ing that their ana­lyt­i­cal val­ue was out­weighed by their stig­ma­tiz­ing impact.

The report launch event was host­ed by two Swedish and Ger­man MEPs and fea­tured con­tri­bu­tions by high-lev­el EU offi­cials and pol­i­cy­mak­ers, includ­ing the EU Com­mis­sion­er for Equal­i­ty and the EU Commission’s Counter-Ter­ror­ism Pol­i­cy Offi­cer. Pan­elists also includ­ed ENAR Chair Karen Tay­lor and Chafi­ka Atta­lai, for­mer Inter­na­tion­al Project Man­ag­er at the Col­lec­tive Against Islam­o­pho­bia in France (CCIF), a con­tro­ver­sial Islam­o­pho­bia watch­dog that in 2020 was dis­solved by the French gov­ern­ment as part of its crack­down against groups accused of rad­i­cal­ism. In Octo­ber 2020, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) pub­lished an analy­sis that con­clud­ed CCIF was an Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tion, describ­ing in detail its cam­paign­ing efforts against sec­u­lar­ism and its ties to orga­ni­za­tions part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) in Europe, a transna­tion­al Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tion cov­ered by the GIOR.

ENAR is an asso­ci­a­tion of over 150 NGOs describ­ing itself as “the voice of the anti-racist move­ment in Europe” with head­quar­ters in Brus­sels, Bel­gium. ENAR Direc­tor Michaël Priv­ot, who in 2008 open­ly acknowl­edged that he was a mem­ber of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood,  has served in lead­ing posi­tions in sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions tied to the GMB, includ­ing as a board mem­ber of the Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions, the youth/student arm of the GMB in Europe. In March 2020, the GIOR report­ed that ENAR and CCIF lead­ers par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al anti-racism sum­mit co-orga­nized by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion that fea­tured appear­ances by the EU Com­mis­sion Pres­i­dent and the Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Parliament.

Pri­or GIOR report­ing on CCIF has also included:

• A Novem­ber 2020 report  that the French gov­ern­ment had dis­solved CCIF, accus­ing it of being an “Islamist dis­pen­sary work­ing against the Republic.”

• A Novem­ber 2020 report that for­mer CCIF Inter­na­tion­al Project Man­ag­er Chafi­ka Atta­lai par­tic­i­pat­ed in a web pan­el dis­cus­sion orga­nized by a think tank close to the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment that accused France of Islamophobia.

• A Feb­ru­ary 2021 report  that CCIF had been part of a coali­tion of 36 NGOs tak­ing action against France at the UN Human Rights Coun­cil (UNHCR) over its alleged sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion of Muslims.

• A Feb­ru­ary 2021 report  that CCIF had regrouped in Bel­gium under a new name.