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🇶🇦🇭🇷 The €10 million Islamic Center in Rijeka, Croatia, was almost fully funded by Qatar. The Islamic Center in Rijeka, which opened in 2013, includes the first mosque built along the Adriatic coast since the Ottoman withdrawal from the area roughly 500 years earlier. Qatar’s Minister of Islamic Affairs, Ahmad Abdullah S. G. Al-Marri, was present to lay the cornerstone for the structure alongside Croatia’s then-president, Stjepan Mesić. While Islamists are welcomed in Europe and fund their projects with great success, Christians are banned from building churches in Qatar, and preaching Christianity is a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Like most Islamist-controlled compounds funded by Qatar, the one in Rijeka is not just a place for Muslims to pray. It includes a multipurpose hall, classrooms, a library/reading room, a kindergarten, a restaurant, offices for the Islamic community, guest apartments, and an underground garage. This is all designed to create isolated communities detached from European society, making integration virtually impossible for Europe’s growing Muslim population. Qatar has become the biggest state funder of the Muslim Brotherhood’s network in Europe, often partnering with the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), which numerous European governments have described as the Brotherhood’s main umbrella organization. After Egypt’s military ousted Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and cracked down on the group, Qatar provided refuge to senior Brotherhood figures. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, regarded as the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, was given a role in shaping the Qatari education system and hosted a weekly program on Al Jazeera, where he promoted the ideology of political Islam to roughly 60 million viewers across the Arab world. Considering their close connection to Qatar, it’s no surprise that many Muslim Brotherhood-aligned mosques in Europe have been financed by this tiny but incredibly rich Gulf state.