Ali in Aix-en-Provence conference: Brotherhood conquered Europe; infiltrated its political, social system

Veteran journalist, Abdelrahim Ali, chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors of al-Bawaba News and director of the Centre for Middle East Studies in Paris, has said that dismantling fundamentalist organizations would be a starting point for the restoration of fragile democracies in Europe.

He explained that the riots that swept through French cities over the past days confirm, beyond any doubt, what many political analysts were warning against when it comes to the transformations of democratic systems in France and in other European countries.

Over the past 20 years, Ali said, the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest Islamist fundamentalist organizations in the world, expanded in Europe, especially in France; Belgium; Germany, and the UK.

"The development of Islamist soft power has conquered the political, socio-economic, sports, cultural and educational systems of European societies," he said.

"We simply do not see behind the pluralism of these forces and the division of these groups the fact of the dominant role of the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood on these forces, organizations and groups, and even on the entire European society," he added.

He said Europe had only woken up after a number of terrorist attacks to find that it had fallen into the clutches of this organization.

Ali was addressing the 'New Ways to Democracy' session on the sidelines of a conference in Aix-en-Provence in southern France.

The conference was held under the title 'Resurrecting Hope'. It was held over three days from Friday.

Ali said demographic and ideological factors, especially fundamentalist and extremist elements coming from outside European societies, teamed up with some sectors to play a key role in intensifying these transformations that rebel against the state and the law and reject the values of democracy, in general.

He pointed out that this phenomenon was packed from the inside with factors of its fragility.

"This was evident in the past through the yellow vest protests and then in the pension law protests," Ali said.

"They will appear in any other protests arising from any society's objections to some government actions or policies," he added.

He noted that the approach and goals of fundamentalists (in changing values until reaching the stage of empowerment) include, among other things, the idea of managing savagery, in addition to acts of terrorism and violence.

He said this idea exploits a social phenomenon that has emerged from within those societies, namely the phenomenon of democratic chaos.

Ali also referred to the idea of socio-economic savagery, especially in the suburbs.

He cited that separatist spirit that prevails in the majority of those populated places, which are governed by smuggling and the drug economy and are not controlled by either the security forces or the law.

Attending the same session was a large number of French thinkers and officials. There was also a large number of foreign officials, such as Juhana Vartiainen, the mayor of Helsinki, Finland.

Al-Bawaba will publish Ali's intervention in the seminar in full on Monday in the weekly edition on dialogue between the East and the West.