The Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland

Islam in Ireland has developed independently from Islam in other countries in Western Europe while remaining under the influence of the same movements and ideologies as currently shape its interpretations in the Muslim world. This means that the Irish context has allowed expressions of Islam to develop uniquely, even though these expressions reflect the dominant trends that are driven by supporters of popular movements in contemporary Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) in particular has had the most influence in the institutionalisation of Islam in Ireland. Its involvement in the creation of Muslim networks in Ireland is complex and varies from case to case. There might only be historical links to the Muslim Brotherhood in certain Irish Muslim institutions, whereas others have come to share similar ideological orientations over time. There are also Muslim organisations in Ireland that openly involve direct participation of members of the Muslim Brotherhood at varying levels, while others share links that are only circumstantial.

It is difficult to assess the Brotherhood's involvement in Irish Islam, owing to its nebulous nature as a political ideology that has spawned several offshoot organisations with similar objectives but no connection whatsoever to the institutional hierarchy in Egypt. The Brotherhood's influence in Ireland could be described as an ideological overlap with symbolic figures in the Brotherhood's historical development, alongside a commitment to the larger objectives of global political Islam as expressed by similar organisations. For this reason, the influence of the Brotherhood may look like a broad conglomeration of religious values loosely connected to political objectives that underlie its ideology, even though it may be difficult to pinpoint explicit references to the Muslim Brotherhood in Irish institutions at first glance.

It is worth mentioning that the self-identification of individual Irish Muslims with the Muslim Brotherhood has shaped the overall analysis of Muslim institutions in Ireland in this light. This self-identification has played an important role in connecting institutions within the Irish Muslim landscape to the ideological influences of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially since some institutions may deny any such affiliation in public. It is difficult, however, to ignore the testimonies of Irish Muslims who proudly proclaim their affiliation to the Brotherhood in private and insist that these very institutions represent the Brotherhood's world-view in Ireland.