The Egyptian Dar Al Ifta’s Islamophobia Watch warned on Monday of the negative impact of political Islam, specifically the Muslim brotherhood group, on Muslims in Germany.

Islamophobia Watch said in a statement posted on Facebook that political Islam would “create panic and fear of Muslims in German society,” in light of press reports saying that “political Islam and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates are moving to Germany as one of the safe havens for the group.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in December 2013 after the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi earlier that year.

“The new US administration has been pushing brotherhood members to leave the US and search for other alternatives, with some attempting to move to Canada and others to Germany, as [the group] owns one of the oldest Islamic centres there, established in 1960 with a [current] membership of 13,000,” the statement read.

The observatory said that “far-right religious groups use [political Islam] to distort the image of Islam, and [they pose a danger] to the future of Western societies,” calling on German Muslims to not fall for the propaganda of political Islam.

Islamophobia Watch was established in 2015 with the aim “combating Islamophobia in the West,” according to the organisation’s Facebook page.

Germany, which has an open-door policy for refugees, receiving almost half-a-million asylum seekers in 2016 alone, had between 4.4 million and 4.7 million Muslims living in Germany as of 2015, according to a report by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in December 2016.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week temporarily banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for three months, though the order was struck down by a federal court this week.

The executive order, which has been widely referred to as a “Muslim ban,” has stirred a backlash domestically and globally.

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