The Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization is a long-time radical Islamic movement that aims at recovering an Islamic political order (caliphate) based on Islamic religious law (Shariah) on the remnants of Western liberalism. The financial system of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is considered to be the movement's red line which cannot be crossed. Their sources of funding and the size of their trade, without broaching the subject of legitimacy, are all managed by the group's Guidance Office. The Brotherhood has never accepted any state scrutiny on its undeclared economy and considers any interference in its financial networks as a blatant trespassing of security agencies aimed at reducing its popularity in the Egyptian political street. The secrecy surrounding the MB funding sources prompted political researchers to focus their attention on the movement's finances. This is of fundamental importance because the Brotherhood has been using its undisclosed financial networks to spread their extremist thought and to fund other subsidiary groups in both the Arab and Islamic worlds. The extent of the Muslim Brotherhood's economic activity and funding sources is uncertain. MB leaders claim that there is no central economic body responsible for funding its activities. According to them, all funds come directly from the monthly subscriptions of its members estimated at $187 million annually. Each administrative office is charged with independently managing the economic activity of its respective sector. However, some Islamic intellectuals suggest that their international financial network is based on private donors outside of Egypt, mainly "charity funds" (zakat) collected in mosques and estimated at $600 million annually. The mosque, for the MB, is considered as the axial place for religious education and mobilization; and it is worth mentioning that the Brotherhood has nearly 3,000 religious centers and mosques across Europe. Around 2-3 million Muslims frequent those centers, according to studies published outside Egypt. The MB's financial networks also include profits from investments made by the movement and its members in various companies and enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere. Mr. Farah Douglas, former head of the Washington Post office in western Africa, said that the Brotherhood had managed to establish a concrete structure of offshore companies in parallel with the phenomenon of modern Islamic banks at the beginning of the 80s. Based on early Brotherhood documents and public records, businessman Ibrahim Kamel was among the Brotherhood's leaders who built huge international corporations outside Egypt. Kamel is the founder of Dar al Maal Al Islami Bank (DMI) and its offshore structure in Nassau, Bahamas. Kamel's financial foundation was fundamentally used as cover to open bank accounts and move money in difficult-to-trace paths protected by bank secrecy laws. The coming articles will dig into the Brotherhood's techniques in building their secret economic empire away from their rivals in Egypt as well as its major offshore corporations.
