A fresh accusation claims that the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs is indirectly funding groups that the German government considers Islamist.

The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs has started a new initiative led by Socialist Party member Manuela Schwesig to engage with the Muslim community in Germany. One group that the ministry has given €100,000 to so far is the German-Islamic Association in Frankfurt (DIV) which have one group in their membership that the German government classifies as an Islamist group, reports Allegemeine Zeitung.

According to the domestic security services in Germany, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the group known as the European Institute for Human Sciences (EIHW) is a “training ground” for the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany. The security services believe that the group have been spreading radical Islamic ideas since at least 2014, explaining that “students of EIHW are taught the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood”.

The ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood is directly linked with radical Islamist belief which has become a pervasive force across Europe and North America.

In the UK a government report published in December 2015 revealed that the Brotherhood has direct links with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The report claimed that the Brotherhood had “significant influence” over the MCB, which is the largest Muslim organisation in the UK and is considered by many to be the voice of moderate Islam.

When asked about connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and the European Institute for Human Sciences, the DIV admitted that the group receives around €100,000 a year from the German federal government, but their spokesman Mohammed Khallouk assured that the group was a champion of “compliance with the values of our free democratic order”. Mr. Khallouk also confirmed the membership of the EIHW in his organisation, but said he couldn’t take any position on links to the Muslim Brotherhood or any other Islamist movements.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution claims that the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany has attempted to infiltrate Muslim organisations in the country.

Along with accusations that the Brotherhood has already infiltrated the UK through the MCB, in the United States there are also claims to links between the Brotherhood and the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Retired U.S. Navy Captain Joseph R. John went as far as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist front groups present a fifth column, infiltrating governments across the West.

The security service in Germany considers the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood to be serious enough that they call them a “dangerous threat to the democratic constitution”, and that the organisation is working with other groups at municipal, regional and national levels to further their objective of promoting a radical form of Islam.