Jamal Badawi, an important leader of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has lectured a camp sponsored by the Native European Muslim Assembly (NEMA), a part of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. An article posted on Islam Online describes both the activities at the camp, attended chiefly by new Greek Muslims, as well as describing the founding of NEMA, a previously unknown part of FIOE:
Imagine 60 native European Muslims to gather in one place for four days to discuss, learn, and seek beneficial inspiration for overcoming any challenges facing them as European Muslim reverts – that is what the Native European Muslim Assembly (NEMA) current camp looks like. As one of the associations of the Federation of Islamic Organizationsin Europe (FIOE), NEMA organizes its second annual meeting for EU Muslim converts in Istanbul. The camp, which started on April 10 and lasted for three days, aimed at reinforcing a European-scale network for the new Muslims. “NEMA has already held two important meetings; the first took place in Brussels which aimed at getting accurate view of new Muslims, determining the main challenges, and setting an action plan for NEMA’s task while the second one was in Birmingham, UK, where the reverts’ monitors had a series of training sessions,” said Dr. Hany El-Deeb, NEMA’s president. “This project came very late as it should have been launched years ago,” said Dr. Ayman Ali, FIOE’s secretary general,referring to NEMA’s recent launch that was founded after the FIOE’s New Muslims Committee (NMC)’s workshop in May, 2007… This camp is our first experience in gathering Muslim converts from different European countries at the same place and time,” declares Wanees Mabrook, head of the Dua`wah department in the FIOE…..Over the four-day camp, EU reverts are presenting their successful experiences to set models for the other participants….Participants are coming from different European countries, but Greek Muslim participants represent the majority.
The article also describes Dr. Badawi’s lectures to the camp as well as describing some of his background:
While Dr. Jamal Badawi’s lectures were advantageous for many participants who came to learn from him how to respond to controversial questions and how to deal with other non-Muslims in general, networking also was of interest to many of the camp attendants. As one of the projects that was founded and operated under the umbrella of the FIOE’s Da`wah department, NEMA camp’s organizers were keen to involve Dr. Jamal Badawi in the camp. Dr. Badawi is a prominent Muslim Canadian scholar and a member of the Islamic Juridical [Fiqh] Council of North America, the European Council of Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Islamic Scholars. At the camp, a couple of lectures are given by Dr. Badawi on different issues that have to do with European Muslim converts, such as converts’ isolation and the way of integration, balanced Islam, how to deal with controversial questions about Islam, etc.
Dr. Badawi’s early history before his emigration from Egypt indicates that he was likely a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. A new report from the Hudson Institute on the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood frequently mentions Dr. Badawi as a leader in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and he often travels to Europe to attend Brotherhood events.
A report on FIOE by the NEFA Foundation describes the organization as follows:
The Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) claims to be an independent organization representing the interests of Muslims in Europe. In reality, the FIOE is an umbrella group that comprises the global Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. Strong links connect FIOE’s leadership central institutions and member organizations to the Brotherhood, as well as to Saudi Arabia. Funding for the FIOE is derived largely from Gulf sources, including some of the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates. The FIOE has strong ties to Hamas and Hamas fund-raising organizations, and some FIOE member organizations show evidence of links with Al-Qaida. The FIOE recently opened a headquarters office in Brussels and has had some success in positioning itself as a “dialog partner” for the EU and other important institutions.