Five organizations affiliated with the global Muslim Brotherhood network are active in Italy, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Ministry alleged in a new report on Sunday.
The organizations the report says are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood are: the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy (UCOII); Young Muslims of Italy (GMI); Bayan Institute; The Islamic Alliance of Italy (AII); and Association of Palestinians in Italy (API).
Although their activity is publicly framed as community-based and apolitical, the Diaspora Ministry said there is evidence linking them to the movement, particularly because of individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ministry said there is a significant gap between these organizations’ efforts to project themselves as supporting integration, tolerance, and dialogue, and the actual narratives they espouse, such as comparing Israel to Nazis and giving implicit legitimacy to terrorism.
As part of their ongoing activities, Italian organizations identified with the Muslim Brotherhood hold conferences, camps, cultural events, and protests in cooperation with other bodies, including pan-European organizations identified with the Muslim Brotherhood, radical left-wing organizations, pro-Palestinian groups, and major anti-Israel organizations in Italy.
These organizations are also active on social media.
Muslim Brotherhood-identified orgs. shifting from religious focus to political incitement
The report explains that, since October 7, the Muslim Brotherhood-identified organizations in Italy have shifted from religious-communal rhetoric to active political incitement, and, at times, violent rhetoric. This ranges from the use of extreme terms such as “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and comparisons to the Nazis, alongside the use of fabricated images or images taken out of context.
On the financial level, the report says that these organizations use a decentralized funding system, including local donations, government tax-allocation mechanisms (5×1000), and foreign funding originating from Qatar and Kuwait. UCOII, in particular, received significant funding from the Qatari charity Nectar Trust/Qatar Charity, amounting to at least €30 million.
The report cited the arrest of an Italian Hamas activist, Mohammed Hannoun, and the exposure of a Hamas financing network amounting to millions of euros in December 2025 as an example of the inherent risk in “exploiting legitimate welfare and charitable systems for extremist purposes.”
Organizations maintaining personal connecteds to Muslim Brotherhood
The organizations are also connected to the Muslim Brotherhood through specific individuals. For example, the new president of UCOII, Yassine Baradai, previously served as media director of the Italian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood-identified pan-European organization Islamic Relief.
The Bayan Institute was mentioned in a French intelligence report as a vehicle for disseminating the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, and was linked to Tareq al-Suwaidan, a radical Kuwaiti cleric identified with the Muslim Brotherhood and antisemitism.
The most prominent figures in AII are Hamza Piccardo and his brother Davide Piccardo, both with personal ties to members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The report concludes that organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood are actively working to appropriate the principal representation of the Muslim community in Italy while sidelining more moderate organizations, primarily through control over mosques and educational institutions.
The Jerusalem Post reached out to the organizations for comment.
