International Conference: Current Security Challenges for the Western Balkan Region Addressed by Means of Joint Responsibility and Cooperation Yet by the end of the 1980s, the European check, Qaradawi realizes that the Brotherhood Brothers began to view the Muslim presence in can operate freely in Europe where, thanks to its the West differently. Top Brotherhood scholars activism and ample nancing, it can started to redene some centuries-old religious overshadow other currents of Islam. qualications, stating that the traditional distinction between dar al Islam(land of Islam) Qaradawi has a simple recipe for how the and dar al harb(land of war) did not reect the Islamist movement can become the guide of current reality. While the West could not be Muslim communities in the West.“Try to have considered dar al Islam because sharia was not your own small society within the larger enforced there, it could not be considered dar al society,” says Qaradawi,“your own Muslim harb either, because Muslims were allowed to ghetto.” The Egyptian cleric advocates the practice Islam freely and were not persecuted. creation of a web of Islamic centers, think The scholars decided, therefore, that it was tanks, magazines, mosques, and conferences possible for them to create a new legal so that the Islamist movement can spread its category. They concluded that the West should politicized version of Islam among Western be considered the dar al dawa(land of Muslims. At the same time, Qaradawi preaching), a territory where Muslims live as a advocates moderation and relative openness minority, are respected, and have the afrmative when dealing with non-Muslims. At least in 24 duty to spread their religion peacefully. 17 these early stages, he writes, confrontation can only damage the movement, whereas displaying The implications of this decision go far beyond a moderate façade will allow the Brothers to the merely theological aspect. By redening the operate under the radar screen. nature of the Muslim presence in the West, the Brothers also changed the nature of their own From the beginning of the 1990s, the European role in it. The characteristics of this new role are Brothers began to implement this new strategy precisely outlined in the seminal book Priorities specically designed for the West. The small of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, organizations created by Brotherhood published in 1990 by the top Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Yusuf al Qaradawi. 18 “pioneers” have grown signicantly in size and independence. In essence, there is no formal Qaradawi devotes a large section of his book to Muslim Brotherhood organization in any the presence of Muslim minorities in Western European country. Yet it is fair to say that in countries and the unprecedented opportunity virtually all European countries operate that this phenomenon may represent for the organizations and networks with historical, Islamist movement, which, in Qaradawi's nancial, personal, organizational and words, can“play the role of the missing ideological ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and leadership of the Muslim Nation[umma] with all other Islamic revivalist movements worldwide. its trends and groups” in guiding and shaping What is being termed as the“European the minds of Muslim immigrants living in the Brotherhood” is essentially a fairly small, West. While the Islamist movement can informal network of activists tied together by exercise only a limited inuence in Muslim marriage, business ties, old friendships, and, countries, where hostile regimes keep it in most importantly, a shared vision. Each 17 Xavier Ternisien, Les Frères musulmans(Paris: Fayard, 2005), pp. 190-2. 18 Yusuf al Qaradawi, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase(Swansea, UK: Awakening Publications, 2000).