Trump signs executive order targeting Muslim Brotherhood chapters as terrorist groups

Executive order cites group's attacks on Israel following October 7, 2023 assault

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to begin designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

The order, invoking the Immigration and Nationality Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, cites the group’s involvement in violence across the Middle East, including rocket attacks on Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, assault.

The move begins a 30-day review led by the State and Treasury Departments to identify Brotherhood chapters in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon for possible designation, which could freeze assets, restrict travel, and criminalize material support for affiliated entities.

"The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond," Trump’s executive order reads. "Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.

Muslim Brotherhood Supporters

"For example, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the military wing of the Lebanese chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions to launch multiple rocket attacks against both civilian and military targets within Israel," the order continues. "A senior leader of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 7, 2023, called for violent attacks against United States partners and interests, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to the militant wing of Hamas.

"Such activities threaten the security of American civilians in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the safety and stability of our regional partners," the order noted.

Trump signaled over the weekend that he was planning to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization after several groups stepped up warnings in recent months that the Islamic group was gaining a foothold in the U.S.

"It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms," Trump told Just the News over the weekend. "Final documents are being drawn."

The president’s comment came shortly after Texas declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and just days after the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), a prominent global research center, released a comprehensive 200-page study warning of the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence in the U.S.

The Islamist organization founded in Egypt, has gained access to government agencies, been involved in advising American civil rights policy, infiltrated educational institutions, and created a vast social media footprint, the report states, while outlining the belief that the group has allegedly targeted U.S. government agencies for infiltration, including the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice, through career appointments and advisory roles.

"We welcome President Trump’s statements and the growing recognition that the Muslim Brotherhood, its ideology and network pose a serious challenge to the United States and democratic societies," Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, said in a press release after Trump’s interview with Just the News.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-targeting-certain-muslim-brotherhood-chapters-terrorist-groups

The Muslim Brotherhood was behind most of the Islamist groups in America. In Cold War terms think of the Brotherhood as the Communist Party. Designating the MB can potentially be used to nuke the entire infrastructure of the ‘green’ part of the Red-Green line especially when you consider the legal impact of the FTO designation.

This is what some in the FBI and DOJ appeared to be working toward with the post 9/11 raids before the Bush administration at the behest of the usual ‘Gulfie’ players and the domestic MB groups shut it all down.

American history would have been incredibly different if instead of chasing Jihadis around Afghanistan, we had reacted to 9/11 by shutting down, deporting and denaturalizing the Brotherhood in America.

Despite the usual complaints, the justification for the designation is straightforward. The MB is the nexus for Jihadi groups including Al Qaeda and Hamas. Hamas is literally the Brotherhood in Gaza which is why it’s been supported by CAIR and other Islamist groups. And Al Qaeda was really spawned by an Egyptian MB spinoff group. MB groups formed some of the most vicious militias in Syria (even as domestic MB groups lobbied for them).

https://www.frontpagemag.com/president-trump-to-designate-muslim-brotherhood-a-terrorist-organization/

Trump's plans are a stark departure from the policy practiced by at least one former US administration. The Obama administration supported the Muslim Brotherhood.

Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood met with a number of US officials, including staffers from former President Barack Obama's White House, back in 2012 after Egypt's revolution.

Back during the Obama era, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told Politico that 'Following Egypt's revolution' the US 'broadened ... engagement to include new and emerging political parties and actors.'

U.S. President Barack Obama

Pro-Hamas demonstration called by the Islamic Labor Front Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan)

Several Middle Eastern governments have already moved against the group. Egypt and Jordan have banned the Muslim Brotherhood outright, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have formally classified it as a terrorist organization.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already certified both the MB and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations in the Lone Star State.

Abbott noted that the goals of the groups were 'to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,' and that the designation meant they were no longer 'welcome' in the state and were 'prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15319227/Islamic-extremists-welcomed-Obama-formally-named-terror-group-Trumps-crackdown.html

1928: Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood Hassan Al-Banna

The group's founder accepted the utility of political violence^[43] and members of Brotherhood conducted assassinations and attempted assassinations on Egyptian state figures during his lifetime, including Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud El Nokrashi in 1948.

The Brotherhood promotes the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society

In recent times, the primary state backers of the Muslim Brotherhood have been Qatar and Turkey. It is considered a terrorist organization by the governments of Bahrain,^[Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Brotherhood grew rapidly, going from 800 members in 1936, to 200,000 by 1938 and over 2 million by 1948.

The Brotherhood uses aggressive anti-Jewish rhetoric. In the years preceding World War II the Muslim Brothers developed connections with Nazi Germany. Germany funded the Brotherhood as early as 1934. Al-Banna and other members of the Brotherhood voiced admiration for Nazi ideology.