French Intelligence Targets Muslim Influencers’ Online Fundraising and Extremist Content

A category of influencers is receiving particular attention from the National Directorate of Territorial Intelligence (DNRT). Various reasons have prompted the territorial intelligence services to investigate them. They use social networks to raise funds. This "modus operandi is reminiscent of that of the televangelists across the Atlantic," conclude the police in a study note on those they call "Islamist separatist influencers", consulted by Le Parisien. These "influencers" launch nominative fundraisers, but also fundraisers intended "for the financing or expansion of places of worship or theological training centers," note the authors of the note.

The RT notably mentions an online fundraising site founded by an entrepreneur close to the Salafist circles and spotted in October 2020 during the creation of an account intended to come to the aid of Brahim Chnina, "this father of a family at the origin of the rumors against" the history-geography teacher Samuel Paty before his assassination. A fundraiser had also been launched on the same site to help the Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen targeted by an expulsion procedure. The funds raised on this occasion "have been frozen," the intelligence services nevertheless specify. The same note further specifies that a fund amounting to 458,000 euros was raised in just two months for the purchase of a new premises for the theological and linguistic training institute of a certain Nader C. who was only asking for "400,000 euros".

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In February, a preacher launched another similar fundraiser for the construction of a center in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin). Nearly half of the 300,000 euros needed has already been raised. These promoters "appeal to the collective and individual responsibility of believers and punctuate their remarks with religious references," sweeps the document from the Territorial Intelligence. In addition to online fundraisers, these influencers are also involved in the organization of pilgrimages to Mecca "which allows them both to generate income and to strengthen their status as a religious reference," explains the RT note.

Other sources of funding identified by the Intelligence Services: these influencers provide online courses or training, organize paid conferences with "4 times without fees" formulas or annual subscriptions with degressive prices.