European Parliament passes controversial 'Islamism' resolution, raising fears of discrimination

As protests in France escalated into violence last weekend, the French far right was quick to deploy racist language blaming Muslim youths. Weeks earlier, when thousands of migrants tried to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Spain's far right branded it an organised "invasion" by Moroccans.

US President Donald Trump also weighed in, arguing the problem was that "Islam wants to take over".

While it is predictable that the far right would exploit crises to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment, the view that Islam and Muslims are to blame for Europe's mounting difficulties is no longer confined to the extreme end of the continent's political spectrum.

Last week, as student protests heated up in France, the European Parliament quietly passed a resolution "on the need for an EU strategy to counter creeping Islamism and the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood network". The text was tabled by the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the parliament's largest group and the party of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The resolution passed with 381 votes in favour, 167 against and 15 abstentions. Four other groups voted almost unanimously with the EPP: the far-right Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, the liberal Renew Europe, and the European Conservatives and Reformists.

The Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens mostly voted against but could not block it.

The resolution, built on a controversial French government report on "political Islam", makes a series of unsupported claims with far-reaching consequences for Muslim communities.

It defines "creeping Islamism" as "a political strategy aimed at influencing, gradually structuring, infiltrating institutions and legitimising an ideology". The text asserts that "Islamist influence operates through a vast and fragmented ecosystem of associations, foundations and cultural, educational, religious, charitable, university, youth, anti-discrimination or social action structures".

More specifically, the resolution states that "diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-discrimination frameworks may be diverted into tools of institutional legitimisation, by embedding a politically charged religious identity into legitimate objectives of minority protection". In other words, networks such as the Muslim Brotherhood "infiltrate" European society through anti-Islamophobia initiatives.

The resolution is non-binding and EU member states are not obliged to implement it. Its call to add the Muslim Brotherhood and related individuals and entities to terrorist lists is unlikely to be enforceable across Europe, since the organisation has renounced violence as a political tool.

Yet the resolution still lends legitimacy to an ideological framework that could have serious consequences for Muslim communities.

It casts doubt on Islamic institutions and organisations that operate independently of the state, and frames the participation of Muslim civil society in public life as a form of infiltration.

The resolution names several organisations, including the Brussels-based European Network Against Racism (ENAR), as enabling this kind of "Islamist" behaviour, and calls for blocking their access to EU funding and restricting any EU-funded entity from working with them. The vague notion of a "Muslim Brotherhood network" means anyone could be labelled as associated with it.

This can easily be exploited by outside actors — and has been. The United Arab Emirates, for example, has funded a wide-ranging campaign in Europe and elsewhere to smear individuals and organisations as members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Notably, months before the resolution was tabled, a UAE ambassador attended a conference titled "The Muslim Brotherhood: The Real Threat to Europe" held at the European Parliament. While UAE influence is present, the resolution itself also raises the issue of "foreign funding" allegedly supporting "creeping Islamism" from Qatar or Turkey — another sign of the geopolitics at play behind the scenes.

Most importantly, the resolution treats protecting Muslims from racism as part of an Islamist infiltration plot. This could directly affect initiatives and public debates aimed at tackling Islamophobia in European societies.

Symbolically, the resolution is a major win for right-wing anti-Muslim forces in Europe. It shows the European Parliament has begun abandoning any firewall against the far right as the centre right edges ever closer to it. The EPP appears to have absorbed almost entirely the far-right agenda while seeking to soften it with the language of national security.

The resolution also shows how Islamophobia in Europe has evolved. The fear is no longer of immigrants as strangers who cannot "integrate", but of Muslims capable of speaking up and defending their civil rights.

For the centre right, this anti-Muslim framework pays political dividends. Not only can it reap electoral gains from stoking anti-Muslim fear, it can also attack leftists who choose to reject racism and stand up for Muslim communities.

It is no surprise that the idea of "Islamo-gauchisme" — Islamo-leftism — is being pushed in French politics. Jean-Luc Melenchon of the left-wing La France Insoumise is especially popular in marginalised communities and a strong presidential candidate. He is now accused of encouraging "rioters", implicitly Muslims.

This dual attack on the left and on Muslims echoes the old Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy theory, which blamed Jews for the spread of communism aimed at destroying Western civilisation.

Today, "Islamo-leftism" serves conservatives, liberals and the far right as a scapegoat in their effort to complete a counter-revolution against the modest progress the West has made in addressing racism and inequality since the 1960s. Their project appears to be a fortress Europe without Muslims.

However flimsy the basis of the resolution on "creeping Islamism", we should expect even more dubious legal moves from conservative coalitions in individual member states to restrict Muslims' ability to act beyond state control, especially when they defend their civil rights. Meanwhile, fearmongers will keep blaming Islam for social ills and legitimate anti-austerity protests, and politicians will keep directing public anger at Muslim communities to distract from their own governing failures.

What is needed now is a robust response to this conservative counter-revolution through the firm defence of civil liberties for all.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.