Trump Says He Plans to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization
The report noted that Trump has been weighing this possibility since his first term in office. Just the News quoted him on Sunday, saying, “It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” adding that “Final documents are being drawn.”
His remarks come amid longstanding discussions in Washington about whether a foreign terrorist designation could be applied to parts of the Muslim Brotherhood—an effort that did not move forward during Trump’s previous term and was not taken up under President Joe Biden.
Several Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pushed for such a designation. Members of Congress introduced legislation in July urging action against the group, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in August that a designation for certain branches was “in the works.”
Analysts note that a broad US designation has been complicated by the organisation’s diffuse structure and its presence in multiple countries.
Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood is considered one of the most influential Islamic political movements. The group maintains that it is committed to peaceful political participation, though numerous governments in West Asia and North Africa view it as destabilising.
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A number of states—including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and Russia—already list the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
Jordan also banned the movement in April after arresting individuals allegedly linked to the group and accused of planning attacks involving rockets and drones.
The latest developments coincide with Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision last week to label the Muslim Brotherhood—alongside the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a major US Muslim civil rights organization—as “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.”
Abbott’s proclamation has triggered significant backlash. Muslim groups in the United States filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, seeking to block what they describe as an “unconstitutional and defamatory proclamation” targeting CAIR’s Texas chapter.
The lawsuit states that “This attempt to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law.”
Abbott has also ordered investigations into alleged “sharia courts,” claiming unnamed bodies in North Texas are “masquerading” as legal courts and issuing rulings outside US law.
Lena Masri, CAIR’s litigation director, said the organization has “successfully sued and defeated Greg Abbott the last three times he tried to violate the First Amendment by punishing critics of the Israeli government.”
CAIR-Texas added that it will not be “intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians.”
Source: Agencies
