The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (“FIOE”) is the umbrella body of Muslim Brotherhood aligned institutions in Europe. It has a number of affliate bodies, including the European Councilfor Fatwa and Research (“ECFR”), headed by the Muslim Brotherhood leader and cleric, Yusuf al Qaradawi.
In the United Kingdom, its main affiliate is the Muslim Association of Britain, although it is linked to other Muslim Brotherhood connected organisations. You can read a briefing on the FIOE here. Given its nature, this will surprise you not a jot:
The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE) received with great sorrow, the news of the death of the French thinker, Roger Garaudy, known to the world as a distinguished philosopher with a life of diverse contributions and interactions across the world.
The late Roger Garaudy rose to prominence in the field of thought and philosophy, and for his opinions and stances, won many friends and opponents, from different schools of thought, in the distinct phases of his life. In addition, his embracing of the Islamic religion was a crowning moment in a journey distinguished by ideological diversity, which embodied a special place for him among the Muslims, who saw in him an example of the confluence of civilisations and cultures.
Whether people agree or disagree with pioneering thinkers, they cannot in any way ignore the vibrant ideological and human life of a thinker, who spent close to a whole century of our lifetime, with a keen concern for achieving understanding between nations, and interaction between civilisations.
The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe extends its condolences to the family of the great thinker, Roger Garaudy, his admirers, and the Muslim public in France, on the death of this man who left this world, yet lives on through his works, philosophical legacy, and humane example; we ask Allah, the Almighty, to receive him with His Bountiful Mercy, and to accept him among the righteous.
Brussels, 15 June 2012
The reason for the adulation of Garaudy, is that he was a prominent neo Nazi Holocaust denier, and antisemite. Indeed, Garaudy was convicted of Holocaust denial in France in 1998. Roger Garaudy categorically states that gas chambers were not used to kill Jews. Garaudy thinks that the number of 6 million Jews killed is a “myth“. For this reason, he is very popular among the Islamist far Right and their supporters.
For example, he was cited in a lecture by Ismail Patel of Friends of Al Aqsa (as documented by Engage and shown by citations of Garaudy in a Friends of al Aqsa report). Similarly, PSC and Guardian favourite, Ben White recommends the writings of Roger Garaudy on Zionism, on p.162 of White’s first book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners’ Guide, in the ’select bibliography’.
There is a seamless web, between the Muslim Brotherhood and sections of both the European far Right, and the European far Left.
And, indeed, the mainstream Left.
