Belgium has become an important center for the global Muslim Brotherhood

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The Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium

April 14, 2008

Steve Merley, Senior Analyst

The NEFA Foundation

[Belgium has become an important center for the global Muslim

Brotherhood in Europe. Since its origins in early student organizations,

the Belgian Brotherhood network has grown to include Hamas support

infrastructure and local Islamic groups that in turn are part of the

Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the global Muslim

Brotherhood umbrella group in Europe. Belgium also serves as the FIOE

national office. One individual, Bassem Hatahet, appears to be the most

important figure in the Belgian Muslim Brotherhood.]


Background

The Global Muslim Brotherhood has been present in Europe since 1960 when Said

Ramadan, the grandson of Hassan Al-Banna, founded a mosque in Munich.1 Since that time,

Brotherhood organizations have been established in almost all of the EU countries, as well as

non-EU countries such as Russia and Turkey. Despite operating under other names, some of

the organizations in the larger countries are recognized as part of the global Muslim

Brotherhood. For example, the Union des Organizations Islamiques de France (UOIF) is

generally regarded as part of the Muslim Brotherhood in France. The network is also

becoming known in some of the smaller countries such as the Netherlands, where a recent

NEFA Foundation report detailed the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in that country.2

Neighboring Belgium has also become an important center for the Muslim Brotherhood in

Europe. A 2002 report by the Intelligence Committee of the Belgian Parliament explained

how the Brotherhood operates in Belgium:


“The State Security Service has been following the activities of the International

Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium since 1982. The International Muslim

Brotherhood has had a clandestine structure for nearly 20 years. The identity

of the members is secret; they operate in the greatest discretion. They seek to

spread their ideology within the Islamic community of Belgium and they aim

in particular at the young people of the second and third generation of

immigrants. In Belgium as in other European countries, they try to take control

of the religious, social, and sports associations and establish themselves as

privileged interlocutors of the national authorities in order to manage Islamic

affairs. The Muslim Brotherhood assumes that the national authorities will be

pressed more and more to select Muslim leaders for such management and,

in this context, they try to insert within the representative bodies, individuals

influenced by their ideology. With this purpose, they were very actively

1 Ian Johnson, “How a Mosque for Ex-Nazis Became Center of Radical Islam,” The Wall Street

Journal, July 12, 2005.

2 Ron Sandee, “The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands,” The NEFA

Foundation, December 2007.

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involved in the electoral process to carry out the election of the members of

the chief body for the management of Islam in Belgium. Another aspect of

this strategy is to cause or maintain tensions by positing that a Muslim or

Islamic association is a victim of Western values, hence the affair over the

Muslim headscarf in public schools.“3 4


Three factors have contributed to this development in Belgium. First, high

concentrations of Arabic-speaking, immigrant populations are a natural support base for the

Muslim Brotherhood and Belgium has such a large and concentrated Islamic population,

estimated at about 400,000, which is about 4% of the total population.5 The majority of these

are Arabs, mainly Moroccans who have settled mostly in Brussels and the French-speaking

areas of the South with about half living in the Brussels conurbation. This has brought the

percentage of Muslims in Brussels to approximately 17%.6 Second, the presence of important

EU institutions in Brussels is a logical attractor for any Muslim organization with aspirations for

achieving legitimacy at the Europe-wide level. Finally, the Belgian government is the only

European government not to have acted against the local branch of a Hamas fund-raising

organization, discussed later in this report, with strong ties to the Brotherhood, allowing it to

operate freely while branches in other countries were shut down or restricted.

In addition to these factors, the Belgian government appears to have created a power

vacuum in the Muslim community by ending its relationship with the Saudi-sponsored Islamic

Cultural Center of Brussels (ICCB). Founded in 1969, the ICCB is chaired by the Saudi

Ambassador and receives most of its funding from the Saudi Muslim World League. Until

1990, the ICCB had been treated by the Belgian government as the official representative of

the Muslim Community in Belgian and allowed it to recommend imams and teachers who

were then appointed by the government. However, opposition to the ICCB from the local

Muslim community forced an end to its role, and in 1994, the government appointed a

committee of 17 Muslims called "De Belgische Moslim Executieve" in Dutch or "L'Exécutif des

musulmans de Belgique" in French.7 The newly created organization took over the role of the

ICCB in appointing teachers and imams and served as the basis for an election at the end of

1998 that created the Representative Council of the Belgian Muslim Communities, the

officially recognized organization of Muslims in Belgium.8 Although participants in these

organizations were vetted by the Belgian government to weed out extremists, the jockeying

for power that took place attracted the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood, which may have

created organizations in order to further its legitimacy.


The environment resulting from these factors fostered the creation of a set of

interrelated institutions that constitute the Muslim Brotherhood in Belgium today. The

remainder of this report will examine these institutions, paying special attention to their

structure, leadership, and public activities. It is important to note that almost none of the

organizations or individuals that are part of the global Muslim Brotherhood identify

3 Sénat et Chambre des Représentants de Belgique, Session De 2001-2002, Rapport d'activité

2001 du Comité permanent de contrôle des services de renseignements et de sécurité, 19 Juillet

2002,

http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPubDoc&TID=33618007&LANG=fr.

4 http://www.comiteri.be/rapports/rapport2001def_nl.pdf.

5 “Islam & Muslims in Europe,” euro-islam.info/pages/belgium.html.

face=ErasITC-Medium>

6 http://www.briobrussel.be/assets/andere%20publicaties/en_35_bs4en.pdf

7 “Islam in the Benelux Countries” in Shireen T. Hunter (ed.), Islam, Europe's Second Religion: The

New Social, Cultural, and Political Landscape.

8 Lionel Panafit, “First for Islam in Belgium,” Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2000.

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themselves as such and no doubt, if asked, would deny any such connection. It is therefore

necessary to establish such a connection to the Muslim Brotherhood through analysis of

factors that include the history, affiliations, ideology, and backgrounds of the organizations

under question and their leaders. It should further be noted that this kind of structural analysis

is, by nature, limited and can only reveal the public structure of a Muslim Brotherhood

network. As the Belgian parliamentary report explained, the global Muslim Brotherhood

operates clandestinely and these clandestine structures are not normally accessible through

examination of the public record. In the U.S., for example, previously secret documents have

recently come to light that revealed an extensive and covert Muslim Brotherhood

infrastructure in that country.9 Nevertheless, public information can provide a great deal of

useful information about Brotherhood structures, leadership, and activities and can point the

way for investigators with access to non-public information.


Early Student Organizations

Muslim Brotherhood networks often began as student and/or youth organizations

and Belgium was no exception. The earliest known Muslim Brotherhood organization was

the Association Humanitaire pour la Promotion de la Jeunesse (AHPJ).10 Founded in May

1988, the AHPJ was identified as one of a number of Muslim Brotherhood organizations

operating under other names by a July 2002 report of the Belgian parliamentary Intelligence

Committee.11 Bassem Hatahet, later to become one of the most important individuals in the

Belgian Muslim Brotherhood network, was elected as the Secretary of the AHPJ in January

1991, serving in that position until November 1996.12 13 This report also says that the AHPJ

was also operating under the name Union Islamique des Etudiants et de la Jeunesse en

Belgique (UIEJB), which Belgian records show was founded in April 1995 and dissolved in

February 2000.14 15 In February 1999, Bassem Hatahet attended a conference in Kuwait

where he was described as being affiliated with the Islamic Students Union in Belgium, likely

the UIEJB.16

The Belgian parliamentary report describes the student organizations as:

“...also close to the Turkish movement ‘Milli Gorüs’. These associations publish

a newspaper which propagates anti-Western ideas and anti-Zionists. They

actively supported the Muslim cause in Afghanistan by the collection of funds

and the exchanges were made with the ‘Office of Afghan Mujahideen in

Brussels’. They organize camps where immigrants of second and third

generations are indoctrinated.”


9 Douglas Farah, Ron Sandee, and Josh Lefkowitz, “The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States:

A Brief History,” The NEFA Foundation, October 26, 2007.

10 Résultat recherche Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises (BCE) et Registre du Commerce

http://kbo-bce-ps.mineco.fgov.be/ps/kbo_ps/kbo_search.jsp?VO=19F1B415.

11 Sénat et Chambre des Représentants de Belgique, Session De 2001-2002, Rapport d'activité

2001 du Comité permanent de contrôle des services de renseignements et de sécurité, 19 Juillet

2002,

http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPubDoc&TID=33618007&LANG=fr.

12 Association humanitaire pour la Promotion de la Jeunesse "Transfert du Siege Social

Modifications Aus Statuts Conseil D’Administration”, published December 12, 1991.

13 Association humanitaire pour la Promotion de la Jeunesse “Nominations-Exclusions Transfert

Du Siege Social”, published November 28, 1996.

14 Résultat recherche Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises (BCE) et Registre du Commerce

http://kbo-bce-ps.mineco.fgov.be/ps/kbo_ps/kbo_search.jsp?VO=1B4AB0F5.

15 Résultat recherche Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises (BCE) et Registre du Commerce

http://kbo-bce-ps.mineco.fgov.be/ps/kbo_ps/kbo_search.jsp?VO=1B4AB0F1.

16 “Students Discuss Ways to Secure Detainees' Freedom,” Kuwait Times, February 24, 1999.

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Both the student organizations were registered at Brussels

addresses belonging to the charity Islamic Relief. A 1989 statement

in a leaflet attributed to the L'Association des étudiants

musulmans”, likely the above organization, is an early hint of the

modus operandi of the Muslim Brotherhood described in the

Belgian parliamentary report:

“This document concerns you, young immigrant. Today it’s

the headscarf, tomorrow forbidden to speak Arabic in

schools? Its time to act so that the authorities know we are

not toys.”17 Islamic Relief

A Hamas Support Network in Verviers

Founding of Al-Aqsa Belgium


The next Belgian Muslim Brotherhood organization to be created was the Belgian

branch of the Al-Aqsa Foundation, founded in September 1993, and called Al-Aqsa

Humanitaire.18 Al-Aqsa Belgium was, in turn, the Belgian branch of the parent organization

which had been established in Germany as the Al-Aqsa e.V in July 1991. Another Al-Aqsa

branch had been established in the Netherlands one month before the Belgian branch, and

all three organizations shared the same director, as well as having other board members in

common.19 The declared purposes of Al-Aqsa Belgium included a series of humanitarian

activities on behalf of Palestinians inside and outside Belgium, including support of orphans,

formation of institutions in Palestine, and aiding other NGOs “who come to the assistance of

the Palestinian people.”


Al-Aqsa Belgium was first registered in Verviers, an economically distressed

municipality of approximately 52,000 residents located in the Belgian province of Liège and

close to the cities of Aachen, Germany and Heerlen, the Netherlands where the Al-Aqsa

branches in those countries were first registered.20 The registration address is a small

commercial/residential building in the Hodimont area of Verviers, a former working-class

neighborhood that has become largely Islamic in character. The original signatories to the Al-

Aqsa Belgium registration and their self-provided occupations were Mahmoud Amr (political

scientist, journalist), Mohamed M. El Hajjaj (independent entrepreneur), Nimeh Amro

(cleaning lady), Bassem Hatahet (businessman), Abdallah Larhouasli (elementary

schoolteacher), Mostafa M. Busif (technician), and Ali Sonlu (technician).

17 Translated version of web.archive.org/web/20070612023207/users.skynet.be/suffrageuniversel/

be/bemimu001.htm at

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://web.archive.org/web/20070612023207/users.sky

net.be/suffrage-universel/be/bemimu001.htm.

18 Belgian registration document, September 23, 1993.

19 Ron Sandee, “The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands,” The NEFA

Foundation, December 2007.

20 Belgian registration document, September 23, 1993.

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Mahmoud Amr Mahmoud Amr is a Jordanian who was

the former Chairman of the Al-Aqsa Foundation head office in

Aachen, Germany, as well as the former Chairman of the

Netherlands Al-Aqsa branch, now headed by Ali Sonlu. At the

time Al-Aqsa Belgium was created, Mr. Amr listed his profession

as “student,” and a telephone number of his belonged jointly to

an Arab student association in Aachen, as well as to a Belgian

students organization.21 22 A 1993 interrogation of Hamas

operatives in Israel revealed that Mr. Amr was considered by them Mahmoud Amr

to be a “senior Hamas figure in Germany” who could be contacted through the Muslim

Brotherhood center.23 The Thüringen State intelligence agency also reported that Mahmoud

Amr maintained “close relations” with the German Muslim Brotherhood organization.24 The

interrogation additionally revealed that Mr. Amr was in touch with both the Hamas

leadership in Germany, as well as Hamas elements in Jordan. Nimeh Amro, who listed her

address as the same as Mr. Amr’s, is probably a relative and was also one of the founders of

Al-Aqsa Netherlands.


Mohamed El Hajjaji is a Moroccan-born Belgian citizen who has been living in

Verviers since at least 1993 where business records list inactive water/sewer construction and

restaurant businesses in his name.25 A Danish research institute as well as the Belgian security

services link Mostafa Busif to the Algerian GIA. 26

Early Activities on Behalf of Hamas


There is no public record of the early activities of Al-Aqsa Belgium but although the

declared purposes of the organization were humanitarian, by the mid 1990s evidence was

appearing that the Al-Aqsa Foundation as a whole was actually functioning as part of the

Hamas support infrastructure in Europe. In 1998, the German domestic security agency

reported that Al-Aqsa Germany “by means of donations for humanitarian aid in Palestine,

indirectly but effectively supports the aims of Hamas." 27 28 29


In 2001, all three branches of the Al-Aqsa Foundation, including Al-Aqsa Belgium,

were listed as founding organizations of the Union of Good, a worldwide collection of

charities under the direction of global Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Youssef

Qaradawi.30 The list of Union of Good Trustees includes many prominent members of both

21 Belgian registration document, September 23, 1993.

22 RWTH Aachen - Humboldt-Haus-INCAS.

http://www.rwthaachen.

de/aw/main/deutsch/Themen/Einrichtungen/Verwaltung/dezernat/humboldthaus/~

hnv/incas/?Vereine.html= (accessed June 2005, no longer available)

23 “A German Court Upholds a Government Decision to Outlaw the German office of the Al-Aqsa

Charitable Foundation,” Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special

Studies, December 2004.

24 http://www.thueringen.de/de/publikationen/pic/pubdownload415.pdf.

25 Worldbase , August 14, 2005, EL HAJJAJI MOHAMED and Worldbase, April 11, 2007,

EL HAJJAJI MOHAMMED.

26 http://www.flwi.ugent.be/cie/documenten/jihad-dk.pdf.

27 “Palestinian Charity in UK under Attack,” Financial Times, March 13, 1996

28 The Haifa District Court P 000272/03, Before his honour Court President Lindestraum, Date:

12/01/2005 and Judges Y. Dar and A. Schiff.

29 Udo Ulfkotte, “Are Charitable Organizations in Germany Funding Terrorism?”, from

www.faz.com, October 1, 2001.

30 “Implementing Organizations,”

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Hamas and the global Muslim Brotherhood.31 In many European countries, the Union of

Good affiliate has connections to the local Muslim Brotherhood.32 Although the Union of

Good, formerly known as the 101 Days Campaign, describes itself as a humanitarian

charitable organization, it has been described differently by an Israeli intelligence website:

“The Union of Good is composed of a combination of Hamas-affiliated,

designated extremist Islamic funds and foundations around the world. Most of

the money it transfers to the PA-administered territories eventually reaches

Hamas-affiliated institutions, helping Hamas establish itself as a potential

alternative to the Palestinian Authority and maintain a large-scale

infrastructure supporting terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks, as

clearly illustrated by original documents found by Israeli security forces.”33

In addition to its membership in the Union of Good, Al-Aqsa Foundation Chairman

Mahmoud Amr was listed as the registered contact for the 101 Days website, using

Mohamed El Hajjaji’s home as the registered address.34

Pressure Builds


Following the events of September 11, 2001, the Al-Aqsa Foundation’s head office

was coming under pressure in Germany over its connections to Hamas. In October 2001, the

Interior Minister for the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia said that Al-Aqsa was

known to be collecting funds on behalf of Hamas and warned the public against making

donations.35 Around the same time, Mahmoud Amr was called a “Hamas functionary” by a

State intelligence agency. In August 2002, the German government shut down Al-Aqsa in

Germany, seizing money and documents during searches of the group’s offices.36 Also at that

time, the German Interior Minister said that Al-Aqsa raised money for suicide bombers and

their families in Israel, and that it transferred funds to social and humanitarian organizations in

the Palestinian territories that were connected to Hamas. German authorities reported

telephone calls in which a Hamas “cadre” was requesting assistance from Mahmoud Amr

following suicide bombings in Israel, as well as “numerous contacts” between Mr. Amr and

presumed Hamas functionaries.37


Pressure on Al-Aqsa was also building in the Netherlands, where the general

intelligence and security intelligence service had reported in 2001 that Al-Aqsa Netherlands,

now chaired by Al-Aqsa Belgium founder Ali Sonlu, had been collecting money for Hamas

http://web.archive.org/web/20010811052333/http://www.interpal.org/web/organisations.htm.

عوضوم يا - ريخلا فالتئا 31

http://www.101days.org/arabic/modules.php?name=somnaa.

32 Ron Sandee, “The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands,” The NEFA

Foundation, December 2007.

33 “The Union of Good,” Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special

Studies, February 2005.

34 “Whois Record for 101days.org,” whois.domaintools.com/101days.org.

face=ErasITC-Medium>

35 wdr.de - "Al-Aqsa": Unterstützt Aachener Verein die Hamas?:

http://online.wdr.de/online/news2/spenden_al_aqsa/index.phtml.

36 “German Interior Minister Outlaws Arabic Charity Believed to Support to Hamas” [sic],

Associated Press, August 5, 2002.

37 “Bundesinnenministerium legt neues Material gegen Al-Aqsa vor” Agence France Presse –

German Dienstag, 27. Juli 2004.

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since 1993.38 On April 9, 2003, the Ministry of Interior announced a freeze on all financial

activities and assets of Al-Aqsa Netherlands stating that the organization was collecting

money for Hamas and/or organizations related to Hamas that support or develop terrorist

activities.39 In May 2003, the U.S and British governments designated the Al-Aqsa Foundation,

including both the Dutch and Belgian branches, as a terrorist organization and initiated

action to freeze the organization’s funds.40 In its official statement, the U.S Treasury

Department cited action in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands as a basis for its

decision.41 Also cited was the arrest of the head of the Yemeni office of Al-Aqsa, accused of

providing support for both Hamas and Al-Qaida and of having close relations with the

German office. The U.S. described Mr. Amr at the time as “an active figure in Hamas.”

During the same time in which various governments were acting against the Al-Aqsa

Foundation, the Israeli government released a series of documents detailing connections

between the Foundation and Hamas, many of which implicated Al-Aqsa Belgium in the

support of Hamas. Several of these documents also implicate the U.K. charity known as

Interpal, whose chairman Abdul Rahaman Daya was one of the founders of Al-Aqsa

Netherlands.42 43 This information indicates that the Al-Aqsa Foundation was part of a global

network of charities that provided Hamas with between $10-15 million yearly. These

documents, along with other evidence implicating Al-Aqsa Belgium, include:

• Documents from 2003 reveal correspondence between INTERPAL and

Hamas in the Palestinian town of Jenin. In the correspondence, Hamas

thanked Interpal for 12,000 pounds sterling, 4,000 of which came from an

Al Aqsa fund in Belgium.

• In 2003, an Israeli court document reported that members of the Hamas

movement in Israel had been in regular and continuous contact with

activists in Interpal, Al Aqsa, the Union of the Good, and the World

Assembly of Moslem Youth in order to help these organizations transfer

funds to it’s accounts In Israel and the Territories. This contact included

telephone conversations, and correspondence via facsimile, mail and email.

The “activists” identified included Mahmoud Amru and Mahmoud

Hejazi (likely Mohamed M. El Hajjaji.) 44

• At the end of December 2003, a Belgian national identified as Said

Maduhi, was arrested as he attempted to enter the Gaza strip in the

company of a twelve-member delegation including Belgians as well as

38 “MIDDEN-OOSTEN Duitsland verbiedt islamitische al-Aqsa beweging (Samenvatting)”

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau ANP August 5, 2002

39 MinBZK.nl (uk) - Al-Aqsa balances frozen following AIVD investigation:

http://www.minbzk.nl/uk/public_safety/press_releases/al_aqsa_balances.

40 “US, UK Designate Islamic Charity As Terrorist Organization,” Wall Street Journal, May 30,

2003.

41 “Treasury Designates Al-Aqsa International Foundation as Financier of Terror,” U.S. Treasury

Department Press Release, May 29, 2003.

42 Ron Sandee, “The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands,” The NEFA

Foundation, December 2007.

43 British Muslims Monthly Survey, March 1996, Vol. IV, No. 3.

http://artsweb.bham.ac.uk/bmms/1996/03March96.html.

44 The Haifa District Court P 000272/03, Before his honour Court President Lindestraum, Date:

12/01/2005 and Judges Y. Dar and A. Schiff.

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other nationalities. Mr. Maduhi acknowledged meeting with members of

Hamas-affiliated charitable institutions in the Occupied Territories.

Maduhi, who headed the delegation, said that his arrival had been

coordinated by Muhammad Hejazi, director of the Al Aqsa Fund in

Belgium.45

• In October 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department declared that Al-Aqsa

Belgium was “reportedly linked” to the Islamic African Relief Agency

(IARA). In addition to financing Al-Qaida, IARA allegedly moved funds to

the Palestinian territories for use in terrorist activities, serving as a conduit

to Hamas in one Western European country. In part, funds were raised

through IARA collection boxes marked "Allah" and “Israel” indicating that

the funds would be used for attacks against Israelis.46

• In December 2004, a document was released describing the allocation

of funds received from various foundations (including the Al-Aqsa

Charitable Foundation) in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and

Denmark to Hamas’ Al-Islah Charitable Society in Bethlehem. The report

stated that the funds were allocated through the British Hamas-affiliated

Interpal fund, and that some of the funds were bound for Hamas

“terrorist-supportive infrastructure.“47

• In December 2004, a letter was released from Mahmoud Amr to the

Hamas organization, the Orphan Care Society in Bethlehem. The letter

requests that the Society send Mohammed Hejjaji “a list of the orphans

who receive support funds from the institution” in order to assist Al-Aqsa

Germany with its legal problems in Germany. 48 The report adds, “Owing

to the ban on the foundation’s activity in Germany, it maintained its

correspondence through the Belgium branch.”

In July 2002, the Belgian parliamentary Intelligence Committee report stated “Hamas

was present in Belgium via the organization Al-Aqsa in Verviers.” 49 However, despite the

action of other governments and the evidence against the organization cited above, the

Belgian government has taken no action to date against Al-Aqsa Belgium. A Belgian

parliamentary investigation concluded in January 2004 that there was insufficient evidence

to ban the activities of Al-Aqsa Belgium as had been done in German and the Netherlands.50

45 “Belgian National Arrested on Suspicion of Connection to Outlawed Al Aqsa Fund,” Israel

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Release, January 6, 2004.

46 “Treasury Designates Global Network, Senior Officials of IARA for Supporting bin Laden,

Others,” Treasury Department Press Release, October 13, 2004.

47 “A German Court Upholds a Government Decision to Outlaw the German office of the Al-Aqsa

Charitable Foundation,” Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special

Studies, December 2004.

48 “A German Court Upholds a Government Decision to Outlaw the German office of the Al-Aqsa

Charitable Foundation,” Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special

Studies, December 2004.

49 Sénat et Chambre des Représentants de Belgique, Session De 2001-2002, Rapport d'activité

2001 du Comité permanent de contrôle des services de renseignements et de sécurité, 19 Juillet

2002,

http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPubDoc&TID=33618007&LANG=fr.

50 SÉANCE PLÉNIÈRE, www.dekamer.be/doc/CCRA/html/51/ac140.html.

face=ErasITC-Medium color=#c0c0c0>

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Changes in the Organization

Beginning in 2001, Al-Aqsa Belgium underwent a series of organizational changes,

most likely due to the pressure facing the organization at that time. As of September 2002,

Bassem Hatahet, Nimeh Amro, and Mostafa Busif left the board, and Mohamed El Hajjaji took

over as President with Mr. Amr appointed as “Director of Projects.”51 In 2005/2006, more

changes in Al-Aqsa Belgium took place:52 53 54

• Mr. Amr and Ali Sonlu were removed from the board effectively,

severing any official connection between Al-Aqsa Belgium and the

branches in Germany and the Netherlands.

• A series of relatively unknown individuals were appointed as other

officers.

• The name of the organization was changed to AKSAHU.

According to Belgian legal documents, this change was

made to avoid confusion with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,

but it is more likely that Al-Aqsa Belgium had problems

transferring funds, possibly as a result of the U.S.

designation.55

• The registered office was changed to a new facility, located

in a higher income neighborhood just outside the

Hodimont area of Verviers.

Al-Aqsa Verviers

As of February 2006, German police were reported to have been searching

for Mahmoud Amr who was supposed to have been deported as a result of his

activities; investigators assumed that he had fled to Brussels based on information

provided by his wife. 56

Al-Aqsa Belgium today is the only remaining office of the Al-Aqsa Foundation that

continues in operation, testifying to the efficacy of creating redundant organizations, a wellknown

strategy of the global Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Aqsa Belgium maintains a highly

visible office in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, an economically distressed municipality located in

Brussels that is home to a largely Muslim immigrant population. The organization has

another, less-visible office in Verviers which is marked only with a small piece of tape on the

entrance door and Mohamed El Hajjaji, likely the founder of Al-Aqsa Belgium, as well as other

51 A-Aqsa 4800 Verviers ANDERUNGEN AN DER BENENNUNG *** ANDERUNG DER

SATZUNGEN *** ERNENNUNG(EN) *** VERWALTUNGSRAT *** VOLLMACHT

Veröffentlichung: 2002-11-14 N. 022510 Identification : 1619393 MWST oder

Unternehmensnummer: : 450818683

52 “Germany Deports Head of Al-Aqsa Charitable Society,” palestine-info.co.uk in

http://www.jihadunspun.com/indexside_

external.php?article=102871&list=/home.php& accessed May 24, 2005 (no longer

available)

53 http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pdf/2005/04/28/05062700.pdf.

54 http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pdf/2006/11/09/06169923.pdf.

55 http://www.cass.be/tribunal_commerce/verviers/images/1306.0009.pdf.

56 “Hamas-Helfer gesucht,” Focus, February 6, 2006.

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El Hajjaji family members are listed in Belgian phone records at that address. In November

2007, the front door of the Al-Aqsa Belgium office displayed a large poster advertising the

yearly meeting of the German Muslim Brotherhood organization, the Islamische

Gemeinschaft in Deutschland. As the remainder of this report will illustrate, Al-Aqsa Belgium

has organizational ties with other parts of the Belgian Muslim Brotherhood.

Islamic Complex in Verviers

Located one block down the street from a

prior Al-Aqsa Belgium address in Verviers is a

complex of Islamic facilities tied to Al-Aqsa Belgium

and the Belgian Muslim Brotherhood. A newspaper

article on the Hodimont complex traces its origin to

an unidentified Islamic association that had been in

operation since at least 1993.57 According to that

article, the building housing the complex is an

abandoned tannery built in 1936 and bought in

2001 at a cost of 200,000 Euros, financed from the

proceeds of an inheritance that specified the

establishment of a mosque. As of January 2005, Hodimont Complex

the 6000 m2 space was reported to include Internet facilities, a cafeteria, Arabic language

classes, youth and women’s committees, and a mosque that occupies the largest amount of

space.58 The mosque may have been known earlier as Mosquée As Salem but is now called

Mosquée Assahaba.59 60 Attendance has been put at over 1,300 for Friday prayers of which

25% were reported to be women. As of October 2007, Belgian documents refer to Yahya

Lamaalaoui as the Imam for the mosque, with an address down the street from addresses

associated with probable El Hajjaji family members.61

In addition to the mosque, there are at least two other organizations operating from

the complex. The first is known as the Complex éducatif et Culturel Islamique de Verviers

(CECIV). CECIV was established in May 2004 as a successor to the unidentified association

mentioned above and its constitution specifies Islamic youth and social purposes including

cultural, sport, educational, and festival activities.62 The original officers of CECIV were Hassan

Swaid (President), Abdeljallil El Hajjaji, Driss El Hajjaji, Mohamed Darfoufi, and Mohamed

Arabate. Hassan Swaid is German with an address in Aachen, the former location for the

head office of the Al-Aqsa Foundation. In 2003, Swaid was listed as a member of the

Islamische Gemeinschaft in Deutschland, the Muslim Brotherhood organization in

57 ..:: Minorités ::.., www.minorites.org/article.php?IDA=7588.

face=ErasITC-Medium>

58 Quand les musulmans voient grand - Lalibre.be,

http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=90&art_id=203947.

59 www.verviers.be/VIE PRATIQUE/Divers

http://web.archive.org/web/20050309124628/http://www.verviers.be/site_ville/vie_pratique/vp

_divers.html.

60 0865.470.622 Date de début: 26 mai 2004 Dénomination (sociale): Complexe Educatif Culturel

Islamique de Verviers "Mosquée ASSAHABA" Dénomination en français, depuis 26 mai 2004

Abréviation: C.E.C.I.V. Dénomination en français, depuis 26 mai 2004***

61

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/tsv_rech.pl?language=fr&btw=0865470622%20&liste=Li

ste.

62

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/tsv_rech.pl?language=fr&btw=0865470622%20&liste=Li

ste .

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Germany.63 Mohamed Darfoufi, the Treasurer, was listed in 2006 as the Treasurer of Al-Aqsa

Belgium.64 Abdeljallil and Driss El Hajjaji are probably members of Mohamed El Hajjaji’s family.

In September of 2004, Hassan Swaid was replaced as President by Michael Privot, a

convert to Islam whose brother was reported to be the architect for the complex of buildings

housing the CECEIV.65 66 Another CECIV leader in 2005 was Hajib El Hajjaji, probably also a

member of the El Hajjaji and a Verviers City Councilman elected in 2006.67 68 Hajib El Hajjaji

was also listed in 2006 as a member of the leadership of Comite Verviers Palestine (CVP) and

in May 2006, the CECIV complex hosted a pro-Palestinian conference organized by the CVP

featuring far-left Belgian journalist Michel Collon.69 As of October 2007, other than Hassan

Swaid, all of the above individuals were still listed as members of the board of the CECIV.70

An archived web page from April 2006 promotes a conference hosted by CECIV that

featured Muslim Brotherhood figure Tariq Ramadan as the featured speaker.71 Connections

to the Muslim Brotherhood in Brussels are discussed later in this report.

The second organization operating from the complex is known as Essalem and was

founded on August 2, 1996 by Abdeljallil El Hajjaji, Khalid El Abbadi, and Hassan El Azzouzi.72

As of December 2005, Abdeljallil El Hajjaji and Hajib El Hajjaji were President and Vice

President respectively.73 The declared purposes of the organization are similar to those of

CECIV with the addition of civil rights goals such as fighting xenophobia and racism, as well

as “Islamaphobia.”

The Muslim Brotherhood in Brussels

Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe

There are a series of organizations in Belgium linked to the Federation of Islamic

Organizations in Europe (FIOE), a European umbrella group with “close connections” to the

Muslim Brotherhood.74 The FIOE was founded in 1989 and is comprised of some 29 member

organizations, the majority in the EU but also including non-EU countries such as Russian and

63 islam.de / Newsnational / "Deutscher islamwissenschaftlicher Ausschuss der Neumonde"

(DIWAN) meldet: Dienstag, der 25. November 2003, ist Id al-Fitr, www.islam.de/1106.php.

 face=ErasITC-Medium size=2>

64

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/tsv_rech.pl?language=fr&btw=0865470622%20&liste=Li

ste.

65

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/tsv_rech.pl?language=fr&btw=0865470622%20&liste=Li

ste

66 Quand les musulmans voient grand - Lalibre.be,

http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=90&art_id=203947.

67 ..:: Minorités ::.., www.minorites.org/article.php?IDA=7588.

face=ErasITC-Medium>

68 Hajib EL HAJJAJI - page d'accueil, www.hajib.be/Quisuisje.html.

face=ErasITC-Medium>

69 http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pdf/2006/08/02/06126446.pdf.

70

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_tsv/tsv_rech.pl?language=fr&btw=0865470622%20&liste=Li

ste

71 Feuille blanche,

http://web.archive.org/web/20060619154227/http://www.ceciv.be/solidarite.htm.

72 Essalem STATUTS, published September 26, 1996.

73 http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pdf/2006/01/13/06013979.pdf.

74 Ian Johnson, “Islamic Group's Ties Reveal Europe's Challenge,” The Wall Street Journal,

December 29, 2005.

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