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Our correspondent in Austria had the opportunity to meet Abdulrazzaq Hashem Al-Azazi and ask him about his experiences and work.

Q: Did you encounter the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring?

During Yemen’s Arab Spring, I was a student at the College of Media, Department of Journalism at Sana’a University. While at university, I published an unofficial student newspaper that adopted a liberal approach to discussing issues. This led to frequent clashes with the student wing of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform — the Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Yemen — although there were no physical confrontations until mid-2010.

The situation escalated when I released my graduation project: a printed newspaper that included a feature titled “Sex in Yemen.” This led to a physical assault against me, death threats, and accusations that I was proselytizing for Christianity and spreading immorality. These accusations resulted in an official charge from the University’s Student Affairs Prosecution and a one-year suspension from my studies. The campaign against me was led by the head of the student union, who was organizationally affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

My suspension was condemned by numerous human-rights organizations, media outlets, and leftist student groups, including the Popular Unionist Nasserite Organization and the Yemeni Socialist Party. Later, several students faced arbitrary expulsions, and the atmosphere became conducive to coordinated protest actions inside the college to defend student journalists. We organized student marches around Sana’a University, which gradually moved from the campus into the streets — not only to demand redress of our grievances but also to call for regime change.
Because of death threats, I avoided participating in demonstrations outside the university. However, I was among the first to be present in what later became known as Change Square in Sana’a. The first press bulletin circulated among media outlets, human-rights organizations, and activists announcing the establishment of the square (though it was not yet called that) is attributed to me. This occurred on 20 February 2011. At that time, the Muslim Brotherhood had not yet taken control of the square; it was mainly liberal-left youth aspiring to build a civil, institutional state.

Once the Muslim Brotherhood joined the protests, the movement evolved into a broader political crisis. Those advocating liberal values, including myself, faced attacks — either through smear campaigns accusing us of being regime collaborators or through physical harassment. I was personally accused of supporting the regime because I documented violations carried out by the security committees affiliated with the revolution’s organizing committee, which the Brotherhood controlled.

The situation became particularly challenging after we formed a Media Council for the Revolution, encompassing all media centers operating in the squares opposed to the regime. We issued bulletins detailing dates and locations of marches beyond the square, but the organizing committee countered our efforts through its own channels. Ultimately, their voice prevailed due to greater financial resources, broader audiences, and wider influence.

Q: Was your first direct confrontation with them only in 2024?

After being forcibly displaced from Yemen, I moved to Sudan — a country where many Muslim Brotherhood leaders have sought refuge. I emigrated there because my fiancée is Sudanese, and our wedding was imminent. However, following Operation Decisive Storm, the Sudanese embassy delayed assisting its nationals; I later traveled to complete the wedding ceremony.

In Sudan, I led an initiative called “We Want to Live”, advocating for peace and an end to war. Through this initiative, we received the Builders of Peace award from my platform 30-Yemen, a project affiliated with RNW Media. The award was presented in partnership with UNESCO and supported by the United Nations for peacebuilding.

In coordination with colleagues worldwide, we planned a global event titled The Yemeni Gathering for Peace. However, the initiative was not well received, and a campaign was incited against me. This incitement came primarily from the Yemeni embassy, though Brotherhood figures exploited it to smear me as a “Houthi.” Ironically, the gathering was scheduled for 21 September 2015 — the International Day of Peace — which coincided with the fall of Sana’a to the Houthis.

Q: How did you discover the Brotherhood was behind the campaign against you?

The campaign was led by Qiyam, an extremist platform claiming to preserve family and social values. It is run by a religious sheikh, Ibrahim Ahmed Ali Al-Ebi, who studied in Sudan. He is the brother of prominent Yemeni cleric Abdullah Ahmed Ali Al-Adaini, a parliamentarian for the Yemeni Congregation for Reform and one of the party’s founders.

Al-Adaini amplified accusations against me by sharing posts from Qiyam on his personal account and by resharing posts from his brother’s account, which has approximately 148,000 followers.

The platform published two posts about me regarding the award and one earlier post, while its director published four additional posts targeting me.
sdewa

Classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

The Muslim Brotherhood is not merely an international political organization or a religious group, but an ideology and doctrine that does not recognize the other, does not adopt any of the basic human rights within its principles, and does not recognize international laws and legislation, or the democratic system and political pluralism.

Furthermore, it embraces extremist thought, and terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas have emerged from its organizational cloak and have committed crimes against humanity. The intellectual foundation that links the Brotherhood to the more violent organizations consistently proves that it is the carrier of the extremist thought that spawned organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS).

Many leaders of this group are currently in Europe, moving freely. They even describe the societies that welcome them as infidel societies, and they wait for an opportunity to pounce on the civil values upon which these societies were founded. This is unfortunate and dangerous.

The European society’s complacency with this group has produced many problems, but the most prominent is that the organization operates freely in EU member states under the guise of civil or charitable work, exploiting the liberal values guaranteed in laws and legislation—values that protect human rights and dignity. However, the Muslim Brotherhood uses them as a starting point to finance and organize its harmful activities.

What can be done?
There is a civil movement demanding that the European Union classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. This is an important movement, as an official European decision would provide a unified legislative and judicial cover that unleashes decisive international measures aimed at freezing the assets of the group and its financial networks in the European continent used to finance extremism.
Moreover, this will prevent the group’s leaders and members from free travel and movement within the European space, ensuring the legal accountability of all perpetrators or instigators of crimes, especially hate crimes.

Another thing this classification will contribute to is protecting European societies from the systematic infiltration and extremist rhetoric promoted by the group under the guise of civil work. Consequently, the classification decision is not political; it is a purely humanitarian and security decision.

The demand to classify the group as a terrorist organization is not just a passing activity, but an urgent and direct cry calling for the necessity of immediate action and bringing the voice of victims and those demanding security directly to decision-makers. Any delay in classification is considered a dereliction of duty in protecting global security.