France's Interior Ministry has banned an Imam training centre over accusations of promoting radical Islam and armed jihad.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced the ban on the European Institute of Human Sciences (IESH), a training centre for Islamic religious leaders in the Bourgogne region of central France.
The IESH was founded by the Muslims of France group, formerly known as the Union of Islamic Organisations of France, and has repeatedly come under fire for its association with extremism and its links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The French Central Office for the Suppression of Large Financial Crime raided the centre last year after the IESH was accused of taking undisclosed funds from dubious foreign sources - including from Qatar.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced the ban on the European Institute of Human Sciences
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PICTURED: The European Institute of Human Sciences (IESH), a training centre for Islamic religious leaders in the Bourgogne region of central France
|In a social media post announcing the ban, Mr Retailleau said the school was guilty of promoting "radical Islam" and “legitimising armed jihad”.
He wrote: “The fight against the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood movement continues.
“I thank the state services that, on a daily basis, wage this vital battle to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from advancing their Islamist agenda.”
Just months ago, French intelligence published a bombshell report describing the Muslim Brotherhood has spent decades infiltrating national and European institutions as part of a “Western conquest strategy”.
It comes just months after French intelligence published a report describing the Muslim Brotherhood has spent decades infiltrating national and European institutions
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According to Le Figaro, the report cited the Muslim Brotherhood's founder Hassan al-Banna saying: “We will pursue this evil force to its own lands, invade its Western heartland and fight to defeat it until the whole world cries out in the name of the Prophet.”
The review also noted at least 139 mosques across France have ties to the group.
The dean of IESH, Larabi Becheri, has denied that his training centre has received foreign funding and accusations the school is a hotbed for extremism.
Mr Becheri said: "We train French-style imams to avoid radicalism."
The review also noted at least 139 mosques across France have ties to the group
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The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist organisation founded in Egypt in 1928 and has long advocated for the creation of a global society united by Sharia law.
It has faced bans and tight restrictions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE, and has been designated as a terrorist organisation in Austria.
Terror group Hamas, which carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel, has previously described itself as the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, despite a review commissioned by the British Government in 2015 concluding the group has a "highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism", it has been allowed to carry out its activities on British soil.
After the statement was published, then-Prime Minister David Cameron said: "The Muslim Brotherhood’s foundational texts call for the progressive moral purification of individuals and Muslim societies and their eventual political unification in a Caliphate under Sharia law.
"Both as an ideology and as a network, it has been a rite of passage for some individuals and groups who have gone on to engage in violence and terrorism.
"Muslim Brotherhood-associated and influenced groups in the UK have at times had a significant influence on national organisations which have claimed to represent Muslim communities."