Irish Senator Calls for Government Action Against Irish Muslim Brotherhood

Gov­ern­ment Action against the Irish Mus­lim Broth­er­hood has become a press­ing demand fol­low­ing Sen­a­tor Sharon Keogan’s high­light­ing of unchecked Islamist influ­ence across Irish insti­tu­tions. On 14 Octo­ber 2025, The Lib­er­al report­ed that the Irish gov­ern­ment had allowed the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood to flour­ish unchecked in the coun­try, with Keogan urg­ing the Min­is­ter for Jus­tice to ini­ti­ate a com­pre­hen­sive probe into the orga­ni­za­tion’s net­works. The arti­cle begins:

Sen­a­tor Sharon Keogan warned the Seanad this after­noon that Ire­land risks allow­ing the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood to “flour­ish unchecked” due to gov­ern­ment inac­tion, urg­ing a for­mal inves­ti­ga­tion into the group’s influ­ence in the coun­try. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, labeled a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion by mul­ti­ple gov­ern­ments and viewed as seek­ing to reshape soci­ety under Islamist prin­ci­ples, has estab­lished a “con­cern­ing foot­print” in Ire­land, accord­ing to the inde­pen­dent Co Meath sen­a­tor. Estab­lished in Egypt in 1928 by Has­san al-Ban­na to pur­sue a uni­fied Mus­lim state—the Caliphate—under sharia law, the orga­ni­za­tion includes Hamas as its Pales­tin­ian off­shoot, a des­ig­nat­ed ter­ror group. Keogan accused the gov­ern­ment of fail­ing “to acknowl­edge, let alone, address” the Brotherhood’s pres­ence and impact. Her remarks come amid the ongo­ing clo­sure of Ireland’s largest mosque at the Clonskeagh Islam­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre (ICCI) in Co Dublin, shut­tered since April over alle­ga­tions of ties among some indi­vid­u­als to a rigid, hard­line Sun­ni ide­ol­o­gy and finan­cial mis­con­duct. The site’s restau­rant and shop con­tin­ue oper­at­ing, and a week­end protest fea­tured fam­i­lies with signs read­ing: ‘Re-open our mosque.” The ICCI stat­ed the clo­sure was imple­ment­ed “as a pre­ven­tive mea­sure to ensure the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the prop­er­ty, staff, chil­dren and mem­bers of the public”.

Read more: https://theliberal.ie/call-for-probe-into-influence-of-muslim-brotherhood/

Key Points

• Sen­a­tor Sharon Keogan urged the Irish gov­ern­ment to inves­ti­gate Mus­lim Broth­er­hood net­works oper­at­ing with­in Irish Islam­ic insti­tu­tions and cen­ters across the country.
• The sen­a­tor warned that the Broth­er­hood has been allowed to flour­ish unchecked in Ire­land, with the gov­ern­ment fail­ing to acknowl­edge or address its ide­o­log­i­cal influence.
• The Islam­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre of Ire­land in Clonskeagh closed in April 2025 amid con­cerns over lead­er­ship ties to hard­line move­ments and finan­cial irregularities.
• Keogan’s call came as part of broad­er Euro­pean and domes­tic pres­sure to strength­en coun­ter­mea­sures against the Broth­er­hood oper­at­ing through asso­ci­a­tions and net­works in Ireland.

Global Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland: Organizational Networks and the ICCI Crisis

The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood’s pres­ence in Ire­land oper­ates through orga­ni­za­tions for­mal­ly rec­og­nized as part of its glob­al net­work. The Mus­lim Asso­ci­a­tion of Ire­land par­tic­i­pat­ed in a 2020 inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence coor­di­nat­ing Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood coun­cils across West­ern nations, demon­strat­ing insti­tu­tion­al links between Irish Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions and the broad­er move­ment. Research from 2009 doc­u­ment­ed the MAI’s mem­ber­ship in the Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions in Europe, now renamed, which rep­re­sents the Broth­er­hood across the con­ti­nent, estab­lish­ing a pat­tern of for­mal affil­i­a­tion that has per­sist­ed over time.

The orga­ni­za­tion­al infra­struc­ture of the Islam­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre of Ire­land (ICCI)  also reveals deep con­nec­tions to Broth­er­hood net­works. The cen­tre cur­rent­ly hosts the Euro­pean Coun­cil for Fat­wa and Research (ECFR) whose for­mer pres­i­dent Yusuf al-Qaradawi was wide­ly iden­ti­fied as a lead­ing Mus­lim Broth­er­hood fig­ure. Research from 2009 iden­ti­fied ICCI Imam Hus­sein Halawa as Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the ECFR and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Nooh Al-Kad­do as hold­ing direc­tor posi­tions with the Europe Trust, rep­re­sent­ing the fund­ing arm of the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, demon­strat­ing long-stand­ing lead­er­ship con­nec­tions. The ICCI also host­ed the head­quar­ters of the Inter­na­tion­al Union of Mus­lim Schol­ars before its relo­ca­tion to Qatar.

Finan­cial irreg­u­lar­i­ties at the ICCI extend back years. A 2009 research report doc­u­ment­ed sub­stan­tial annu­al fund­ing for ICCI oper­a­tions, with a report­ed turnover of 2.4 mil­lion British pounds as of 2007. Audi­tors repeat­ed­ly crit­i­cized the cen­tre’s han­dling of char­i­ta­ble cash dona­tions since at least 2018, express­ing con­cern that funds were not prop­er­ly record­ed or banked. These long­stand­ing con­cerns inten­si­fied in late 2024 when recent inves­ti­ga­tions revealed par­tic­u­lar prob­lems with Gaza char­i­ta­ble funds, prompt­ing the Al Mak­toum Foun­da­tion to deploy audi­tors and board mem­bers to Dublin mul­ti­ple times since Octo­ber 2024.

The con­tro­ver­sy esca­lat­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly in April 2025. A phys­i­cal alter­ca­tion at a meet­ing on April 19th required police inter­ven­tion, and the cen­tre announced a tem­po­rary clo­sure of Ire­land’s largest mosque and the entire cam­pus until a full inves­ti­ga­tion could be con­duct­ed and secu­ri­ty pro­to­cols imple­ment­ed. By May 2025, a senior offi­cial was asked to step down amid con­cerns over improp­er han­dling of Gaza dona­tions and alleged links to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. The Irish Mus­lim Peace and Inte­gra­tion Coun­cil described the sit­u­a­tion as “three decades of failed lead­er­ship” and specif­i­cal­ly cit­ed “ele­ments with ties to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood” as con­tribut­ing to insti­tu­tion­al dysfunction.

From its ear­li­est days, the Broth­er­hood has inter­twined its ide­ol­o­gy with the Pales­tin­ian cause, orga­niz­ing ral­lies and cam­paigns to demand sol­i­dar­i­ty with Gaza through demon­stra­tions and media efforts to mobi­lize sup­port and influ­ence pub­lic opin­ion. Beyond orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­tures, Irish polit­i­cal fig­ures have col­lab­o­rat­ed with Hamas-aligned advo­ca­cy groups con­nect­ed to Broth­er­hood net­works, as when far-left MP Richard Boyd Bar­rett appeared at a 2022 Pales­tin­ian Return Cen­tre panel.

Exter­nal References:
— Inside Dublin Islam­ic cen­tre: pres­sure on ‘senior offi­cial’ to step down amid claims over staff links to banned group — The Irish Times
— The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Ire­land — Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Research Center
— US report high­lights secu­ri­ty ser­vices’ con­cerns over covert Mus­lim Broth­er­hood oper­a­tions in Europe — The Euro­pean Times

Dis­claimer:

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