History records that a person by the name Muhammad was born into the tribe of Quraysh

in the city of Makkah in 570 C.E. His father, Abdullah, died before his birth. When

Muhammad was six years old, his mother, Amina became ill and died. Thus, at a very

young age Muhammad experienced the loss of his parents and became an orphan.

For the next few years Muhammad was entrusted to his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib.

When Muhammad was eight years old, his grandfather also passed away. His uncle Abu

Talib, a well-respected member of the Quraysh tribe, took responsibility for him.

Muhammad grew up to become an honest and trustworthy businessman. Indeed,

Muhammad's upright and dependable reputation earned him the designation al-Amin

("the Trustworthy One") among his fellow Makkans, and even invited a marriage

proposal from Khadijah, a businesswoman in Makkah for whom Muhammad worked.

At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad married Khadijah, a widow who was his elder by

fifteen years. Their marriage lasted twenty-five years, until Khadijah's death. Muhammad

and Khadijah had six children: two sons died in early childhood, and four daughters lived

to bless their household.

While most of his fellow Makkans were polytheists, Muhammad refused to worship the

traditional tribal deities and often retreated to meditate and worship the One God of his

ancestor, Abraham. At the age of forty, while meditating in the cave of Hira in the

mountains above Makkah, Muhammad received the first of many revelations, beginning

with the Arabic word Iqra, meaning "Read" or "Recite." Soon afterwards, he was

commanded to convey the Divine message and thus became the last messenger of God,

according to the Qur'an.

"Read, in the name of thy Lord, Who Created-

Created man, out of a clot (embryo).

Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,

He Who taught the use of the pen-

Taught man that which he knew not." (Qur'an, 96: 1-5)

Muhammad spent the remaining twenty-three years of his life receiving revelations from

God and advocating the message of Islam among the peoples of the Arabian peninsula

and working to implement the principles and teachings of Islam in human society. After

suffering severe persecution from the polytheistic Makkans for 11 years, he and his

fellow Muslims emigrated to Yathrib, a city 200 miles north of Makkah, where he

established Islamic rule. The city was renamed Madinah (short for Madinat an- Nabi, City

of the Prophet). In the following years, the message of Islam brought more and more

tribes in the Arabian peninsula into the fold, creating a new community based on

common religious principles, rather than tribal or other affiliations. Muhammad died in

632 C.E. at the age of 63. His tomb is located adjacent to the Masjid an-Nabawi

Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle East. Its motto is telling: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."[1]

While the Brotherhood's radical ideas have shaped the beliefs of generations of Islamists, over the past two decades, it has lost some of its power and appeal in the Middle East, crushed by harsh repression from local regimes and snubbed by the younger generations of Islamists who often prefer more radical organizations.

But the Middle East is only one part of the Muslim world. Europe has become an incubator for Islamist thought and political development. Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations. Unlike the larger Islamic community, the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal may not be simply "to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be," but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States.[2]

Four decades of teaching and cultivation have paid off. The student refugees who migrated from the Middle East forty years ago and their descendants now lead organizations that represent the local Muslim communities in their engagement with Europe's political elite. Funded by generous contributors from the Persian Gulf, they preside over a centralized network that spans nearly every European country.

These organizations represent themselves as mainstream, even as they continue to embrace the Brotherhood's  radical views and maintain links to terrorists. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community.