US inches closer to designating Muslim Brotherhood as terror group: Report

Washington, Aug 3 The US is once again edging closer to officially designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, marking a significant step not just for American national security but for global efforts to confront the ideological infrastructure of political Islamism, according to a report.

The US' plan to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group comes after a bipartisan bill was introduced by Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart and Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz in mid-July. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently confirmed the development.

"This rare cross-party consensus highlights a growing recognition within US political circles: that the Brotherhood, despite its carefully crafted image as a political movement, operates as the ideological mothership for a wide network of violent Islamist actors, from Hamas to Al-Qaeda offshoots," Washington-based The Capitol Institute said in a report.

In addition, influential policy institutions like the Heritage Foundation, the Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN), and the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy (AMCD) have expressed support for the bill, it added.

These organisations have consistently highlighted the dual strategy of the Brotherhood, which includes showcasing a modern face in public while funding, supporting, and inspiring extremist violence through proxies.

The report also mentioned US Senator Ted Cruz as a strong supporter of legislation targeting the Brotherhood, having introduced similar bills since 2015. He argues that the Brotherhood serves as an "ideological incubator for terrorism", and designating it as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) is "not just symbolic -- it is a strategic necessity."

It further adds that the Muslim Brotherhood is not only a political group with grievances but a "global project rooted in the radical vision of Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, aiming to create an Islamic order through infiltration, indoctrination, and ultimately, imposition."

The Muslim Brotherhood's threat to liberal democracies started in Egypt's Capital city, Cairo, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. A Sufi preacher from Egypt, Hassan al-Banna, in 1928, founded Jamia Hasafia al-Khairiyyah with the aim of restoring the Islamic Caliphate.

While the traditional Islamic theology focuses on the concept of Tawheed (monotheism), al-Banna shifted the purpose of Muslim existence towards the creation of a political Caliphate, even if it involved rebellion against existing governments. Later, after facing limited appeal among Shiites and Salafis for his movement, al-Banna rebranded the group as Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen -- the Muslim Brotherhood.

After the killing of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, the leadership of the group was passed to Sayyid Qutb, an ideologue whose writings would shape the blueprint for modern jihadist movements. Qutb gathered attention from radicals like Abul Ala Maududi and Nawab Safavi, creating a revolutionary Islamist doctrine that ultimately inspired the 1979 Iranian Revolution and later groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, according to the report.

"Osama bin Laden's mother, Hamida al-Attas, confirmed that her son's radicalisation began under the influence of Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian Brotherhood member who recruited him at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of Al-Qaeda, also began his journey with the Brotherhood," the report stated.

Brotherhood's inner circle not only considers Murshid as a religious guide but also as God's vicegerent on earth.

The Brotherhood's rise from Cairo to Tripoli, from Ankara to Gaza, was followed by chaos, bloodshed, and institutional collapse.

"In recent decades, some of the most pivotal blows to the ideological foundations of the Muslim Brotherhood have come not from Western think tanks, but from within the Islamic scholarly world itself," the report mentioned.

Prominent Saudi Islamic scholar Shaykh Rabee bin Hadee al-Madkhali, Yemenese Sunni scholar Shaykh Muqbil bin Hadee al-Wadee, Indian Islamic scholar Shaykh Mohammed Rahmani, and several others have issued stern warnings against Hamas and its agenda.

The report also mentioned that several Middle Eastern nations, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan, have officially imposed bans on the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated groups, citing national security concerns, radicalisation and the group acting like a "subversive political force" as reasons.

Additionally, Russia and European nations like Austria and Germany have also taken actions against the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The US has taken steps to designate Hamas as a terrorist organisation. But it has stopped short of targeting its ideological fountainhead—the Muslim Brotherhood -- which continues to operate under the radar in America through soft-power institutions, advocacy groups, and educational fronts," The Capitol Institute's report has stated.

The only way to ensure that the Islamic group is not effective is to eliminate the root cause, and not just its violent offshoots.

"Ignoring this root system while attacking only its violent offshoots is like trimming weeds while allowing the roots to spread underground," the report said.

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