The French government has dissolved the European Institute of Human Sciences (IESH), a school of imams believed to be promoting “radical Islam” and legitimizing “armed jihad” and which had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, it said.
The decree was announced on the official Legifrance website by President Emmanuel Macron, First Minister Francois Bayrou and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Wednesday. The organization’s assets were frozen in June 2025, and it closed its doors at the beginning of July 2025.
Citing Article L. 212-1 of the Internal Security Code, the ministers said that they have a duty to dissolve all organizations “which provoke armed demonstrations or violent acts against persons or property; which either incite discrimination, hatred, or violence against a person or group of persons based on their origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, real or presumed ethnicity, nation, so-called race, or religion, or propagate ideas or theories tending to justify or encourage such discrimination, hatred, or violence; or which engage, on French territory or from this territory, in acts aimed at provoking terrorist acts in France or abroad.”
IESH was established on 18 June 1990 with the aim of training and qualifying imams and Muslim leaders, teaching Islamic and human sciences, and promoting Islamic knowledge and culture.
According to the Council of Ministers, IESH was affiliated with the Federation of Muslims of France, a key branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in France. FMF promotes a radical Islamist ideology advocating for a society governed by Islamic law, the ministers added.
The ministers provided the example of the dean and head of the Theology Department at IESH in Château-Chinon, “Mr. B,” who is a member of two organizations founded by Youssef al-Qaradawi, the former spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
IESH's many possible crimes
In terms of ideology, the decree claims that IESH promotes, including to minors, a radical ideology that legitimizes violent acts against individuals, promotes discrimination, hatred, and violence against non-Muslims, women, and homosexuals and which justifies holy war (jihad).
The premises of IESH in France were searched by the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF) in 2024 due to suspected non-declaration of foreign funding, particularly Qatari funding.
According to the decree, IESH educational materials encourage amputation for thieves, and flogging, stoning, and even execution for repeated offenses. For example, a second-year course titled Islamic Culture: “The Islamic legal system is total and obligatory...” states, “The reward for corruption on Earth is death, crucifixion, amputation…”
Course materials also say it is “lawful to beat women at the first sign of disobedience,” and one book named Islamic Verdicts authorizes beating wives, marriage of nine-year-old girls, and marital rape, stating a wife must submit to her husband “whenever he desires.”
IESH also refers to Jews as “apes and pigs” and speaks of their “infamy and ugliness.”
Outside of the course materials themselves, IESH’s social media was also deemed to be problematic. According to the ministers, “Mr. D,” head of IESH’s Qur’an Department, posted a video on November 1, 2023, praising Hamas and promoting jihad as a religious obligation, and he also shared a speech by a Muslim Brotherhood leader glorifying the October 7 attacks.
The decree stated that several former students of IESG became terrorists, for example, “Mr. F,” who was convicted in 2019 for complicity in murder and terrorism-related conspiracy; “Mr. K,” who joined Daesh in Syria; and “Ms. L,” who joined the Syrian-Iraqi conflict zone in 2015.
Additionally, several directors or teachers held leadership roles in NGOs accused of financing Hamas.
Given the above, the ministers deemed IESH hereby dissolved.
Retailleau took to X/Twitter to praise the “vital battle to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from advancing their Islamist agenda.”
European Member of Parliament Marion Marechal said, “It will not reopen! This is the biggest defeat in the history of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in France.”
The Musulmans de France (MF) organization, however, released a statement condemning the dissolution and praising IESH as a beacon of “social cohesion and living together in harmony.”
MF claimed that the void left by IESH’s dissolution will “open the door to an unregulated online religious offer, where radical and extremist narratives flourish.”
It concluded, “To label such an institution as a tool of radicalization represents a serious deviation. This decision infringes upon the freedom of education and freedom of religion, both of which are protected by the Constitution and international conventions. It also sends a negative signal to thousands of Muslim families who are committed to passing on an enlightened and peaceful faith.”