Al-Ittihad striker and former Real Madrid player, Karim Benzema, has made headlines after the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, accused him on television of having “notorious links with the Muslim Brotherhood” , an organization considered terrorist in France, according to RTVE. The accusation comes just a few days after Benzema published a message on X (formerly Twitter) against Israel's military actions and in defense of the inhabitants of Gaza.

This Islamist organization, considered at different times as a terrorist organization by countries such as Russia or the United States, has its roots in Egyptian society, where it has come to govern and where it currently operates through a non-violent methodology.

One of the most important Islamist organizations

The Society of the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt, then a de facto colony of the British Empire.. Their fundamental values that they still maintain are based on Islamism, the doctrine that defends the implementation of 'sharia' and Islam in all aspects of public life and the State. Throughout Egyptian history in the 20th century, they have acted as a welfare and social aid network while remaining in conflict with the British authority in Egypt and with the successive Egyptian rulers, originally consisting of a paramilitary group that He became involved with the Palestinian cause in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.

The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most important organizations in the Islamic world, has lived in legal limbo for practically its entire history, varying between more radical stages (through satellite organizations) and times of greater peaceful and social activity.. They played a key role in the 2011 Arab Spring and the fall of Hosni Mubarak, and came to power through their satellite party, Freedom and Justice, led by candidate Mohamed Morsi, although a subsequent coup d'état overthrew their government. In 2013 they were outlawed in Egypt and many of their members were prosecuted and sentenced.. Despite this, its social support network allows the organization to maintain its influence throughout Egypt and the Islamic world.

According to National Geographic, currently the Muslim Brotherhood defends, like any Islamist organization, the implementation in Egypt and throughout the Muslim world of 'sharia' or Islamic law as a fundamental norm of the State and of public and private life, although they defend it from a peaceful stance, through gestures of social action and as moral references of Islamism. However, its influence and ties to other Islamist groups have called its status into question.

Its close ties with Hamas or Hezbollah

As a leading organization in the Islamic world and despite not opting for a violent doctrine, there are many ties that unite the Muslim Brotherhood with other more radical and violent groups such as Hamas in Palestine or Hezbollah in Lebanon, considered terrorist organizations by much of the world. Western world. In fact, they are considered responsible for the creation of Hamas and key to the birth of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

Currently, neither the United States nor the European Union include it on their list of terrorist organizations, although member states such as France or Austria do.. In fact, several questions have been asked in the European Parliament in relation to its inclusion on the list and the supposed close relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Students Organizations (FEMYSO), which has participated in European meetings. of youth.