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Police attacked early in the morning. They broke into apartments, shops and clubrooms on Monday. Officers combed the spots, sniffing dogs sniffed for cash. 30 suspects were brought in for immediate questioning.
The targets of the “Luxor” raid were people and institutions belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in Austria. 930 police officers were on duty. With the raid, the executive achieved a “decisive blow” against the organizations, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) said: “Radical political Islam will have no future in Austria.”
After the attack in Vienna, the Executive is waging a “fight on two fronts,” said the Interior Minister. On the one hand, the killer’s environment will be examined. On the other hand, the executive is targeting supporters and supporters of political Islam. One of them is the Muslim Brotherhood, Nehammer said: “It is one of the prominent players in political Islam.”
The interior minister said the organization was “deeply dangerous” and wanted to undermine democracy. Above all, their aim is to “pressure” Muslims in Austria. It is important to protect everyone who lives here from radical trends, Nehammer said.
Investigations since 2019
There is no direct connection to the attack in the operation. The campaign, originally codenamed “Ramses”, had been planned for a long time. According to the general director of Public Security, Franz Ruf, the investigation has been carried out since the second half of 2019. In the room there are complaints of criminal and terrorist organization, anti-state association, money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Details are not yet known. Ruf noted that evaluating the evidence would take time. Currently 70 suspects attributed to the Muslim Brotherhood are under investigation. According to Nehammer, the State Office for the Protection of the Styrian Constitution and the Graz Prosecutor are in charge.
A sticking point in the research should be the possible financial flows. The suspects and the organizations could have laundered money and passed it on to criminal organizations. CEO Ruf said funds have already been raised “in the millions.”
The Graz prosecutor emphasized that the measures were not directed against Muslims or Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood is not a religious community, but rather advocates political extremism on religious grounds.
Originated in Egypt
The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood dates back to the upheavals of the 20th century. At that time, more and more Western-style nation-states emerged in the Muslim world, and the Islamic “dream of a community of believers” exploded, Orientalist journalist and specialist Michael Kreutz tells the “Wiener Zeitung.”
This created opposing forces. Among them was the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 by the Egyptian primary school teacher Hassan al-Banna. It is considered the oldest and most influential Islamist-Sunni movement and rejects the secular state. The Islamic legal system, Sharia, places it above secular law.
The ban led to emigration
“The central idea of the Muslim Brotherhood is: they want to turn bad Muslims into good Muslims,” says Kreutz. And only someone who obeys Sharia is considered a “good Muslim.” “The organization assumes that a Muslim system will automatically emerge as soon as enough good Muslims live in a country,” says Kreutz. Alcohol will disappear from a country on its own if no one drinks it for religious reasons. Therefore, one can see the Muslim Brotherhood as a “grassroots movement that wants to bring change from the bottom up,” Kreutz explains. However, at the same time, the organization also promotes violence.
Conceived as a rural populist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt initially relied on educational and social initiatives. After the organization became increasingly violent and carried out attacks, it was banned in Egypt since the 1950s. In 2012, Mohammed Morsi was appointed president in Egypt, but in 2013 Morsi was again overthrown by the military.
After the Egyptian ban, many members emigrated abroad since the 1950s and took hold all over the world. One of its affiliated organizations is the Islamic radical Hamas, whose facilities in Austria were also the focus of the raid.
The Muslim Brotherhood ensures its extensive network through various associations, institutions and schools. They try to put people in positions of influence to spread their ideology. The best known international supporters are Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party. The Gulf Emirate of Qatar also supports the move.
“In Europe, the Muslim Brotherhood is playing a double game. They are peaceful and law-abiding. But at the same time they have not renounced violence when directed against Israel,” says Kreutz. One tactic is also to cover up and hide their activities: “You will not find an organization in Europe that says of itself that it is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.” There are numerous associations that represent the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood: “But as soon as you want to immobilize this organization and call it a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, they threaten to take legal action.”
Difficult research
The organization is also not officially represented in Austria. It is not known with certainty who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria, what influence they really wield and what strings they pull.
Austrian journalist and political scientist Petra Ramsauer can tell you a thing or two about how difficult it is to do research on the Muslim Brotherhood. She has dealt intensively with the organization: “This is a secret, elitist association that does not want to be discovered.” Compared to the “Wiener Zeitung,” he referred to a quote from the biography of a Muslim brother: “Nothing that has been written about the Brotherhood is true. It is too complex for outsiders to understand.”
However, there are some clues about the Muslim Brotherhood and its connections to Austria. “The fact is that Austria has been an important base for the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s,” Ramsauer said. Several people close to the brotherhood run companies in Austria. The organization uses Europe mainly as a banking and commercial network and a place of retirement: “In some cases, attempts have been made to acquire citizenship to avoid persecution from the country of origin.”
Personal connections
Youssef Nada settled in Graz in the 1950s. Here, together with other supporters in Germany and Switzerland, he established the organization’s European headquarters, Ramsauer explains. The successful building contractor founded a bank in 1988, which was of enormous importance in funding the brotherhood.
Ayman Ali also settled in Graz after working for Islamic aid organizations during the Balkan wars. He became vice president of the “Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe”. This umbrella organization should belong to groups that are part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. Later, Muslim brother Ali also served in the cabinet of Egyptian President Morsi.
Ramsauer estimates the number of supporters of the organization at 1,300 people in Austria. By no means should all members be portrayed as terrorists planning attacks in Austria, he says. There are more moderate wings, but other parts can be classified as “extremely radical” and “clearly” as a terrorist organization. Although the terrorist organization “Islamic State” and the Brotherhood are “still in separate worlds”, the global activities of the Muslim Brotherhood have, in some way, “paved the way.”
