The Islamischen Gemeinschaft Milli Görüs (IGMG), the German branch of the Turkish Islamist organization known as Millî Görü?, has announced that 2500 people participated the IGMG “Day of brotherhood and Solidarity ” in Hasselt, Belgium on June 1. According to the report, prominent speakers at the event included Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Community of Milli Görüs, O?uz Üçüncü and a member of the Indonesian parliament. The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was said to have been invited but was unable to attend. The presence of Dr. Ceric at such an event is interesting given his apparent desire to assume a position of leadership over Islam in Europe. A report of the German domestic intelligence agency describes the IGMD as follows:
The IGMG is the most important Islamist organisation in Germany in terms of membership, finances and level of organisation. Membership is estimated at 26,500, although the IGMG reaches out to a much wider audience on account of its dense network of facilities and its diverse events and publications. The majority of followers are immigrants from Turkey who are now living permanently in Germany. The organisation claims to have more than 200,000 members across Europe in a total of 740 mosques and cultural clubs, 514 of them in Germany alone.
The report goes on to say that the IGMG had links with banned Islamist parties and supports antisemitic ideas holding Jews, Zionists, or Israel responsible for all the ills in the world. The IGMG has close links with the German Muslim Brotherhood organization whose leader, Ibrahim El-Zayat is married to the sister of Mehmet Sabri Erbakan who is in turn the nephew of Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of Turkish Milli Görüs. Mr. El-Zayat is highly active in managing Millî Görü? properties in Germany and in Holland where a mosque project he was involved with has become embroiled in controversy.