President Donald Trump on Sunday announced his intention to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, citing the Islamist group’s radicalism and expanding influence in Western countries.
“It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” Trump told Just the News. “Final documents are being drawn.”
According to the New York Post, the move follows advocacy from lawmakers and think tanks urging stricter action against the organization.
Recently, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations at the state level.
The federal designation aims to cut off financing and other support to the group. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been linked to multiple terrorist organizations. Hamas, for instance, identified itself in its charter as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.”
Momentum within the Trump administration to make the designation had been building for months.
A recent report from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) warned that the Muslim Brotherhood is “halfway through its 100-year plan to entrench themselves into key institutions in the United States and other Western societies to undermine and destroy our democracy.”
“This is not simply a political movement but a transnational ideological project that adapts itself to Western systems while working to undermine them,” ISGAP director Dr. Charles Asher Small said.
The organization has historically promoted strict Sharia law and the establishment of a caliphate, a government in which women’s rights are heavily restricted and extreme punishments are enforced.
According to a report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Muslim Brotherhood “is a gateway to terrorism, infusing members with the religious doctrines and hatred that justify violence,” with some members eventually joining terrorist organizations.
Trump’s first administration had previously considered the designation, but the Muslim Brotherhood pushed back, describing itself as advocating for “moderate and peaceful thinking” and cooperation with communities.
The group’s motto states, “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.”
Several Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, have already classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, while Egypt and Jordan have banned the group.
In August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that a federal designation was “in the works,” noting that multiple branches of the Muslim Brotherhood would need to be designated individually.
