Banning the Muslim Brotherhood: A good start

In November 2025, the White House issued an executive order appearing to be part of a broader trend with global impact banning elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, and designating certain Muslim Brotherhood entities as foreign terrorist organizations. This is a good start, but to have the necessary impact, it must be widened and expanded.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an extremist Muslim teacher, in response to a growing secularization and modernization of countries like his, Egypt, and other Arab and Muslim countries following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. His slogan then, which is still the guiding principle of the Muslim Brotherhood today, leaves no doubt about its extremist and dangerous views. “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

Al-Banna was such an extremist and threat that he was assassinated by Egyptian security services in the late 1940s, after two decades of organized and widespread chaos orchestrated by him and Muslim Brotherhood factions across Egypt. Their agenda and actions were clear; create economic, social, and political chaos through mass protest, and disruption to dismantle the system and replace it with Sharia law and governance – in so, returning Egypt to an Islamist State. 

In addition to the US banning the Muslim Brotherhood and labeling it and its affiliates as terrorist organizations, officially it is banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Jordan along with Muslim Kazakhstan, and Russia, Austria, Paraguay and Kenya in Europe, Central America, and Africa.  With all these Arab countries taking action themselves, not wanting the cancerous ideology that is bad for Muslims, Arabs, and the world at large in their own countries, the West needs to pay attention and act as well. It is the only way to ensure Brotherhood infiltration into Western, democratic countries will not take effect. As their leaders have said for years, the West will fall without them firing a shot, simply by population explosion and indoctrination of the youth to turn on their own countries. 

To truly eviscerate the Muslim Brotherhood and its extremist ideology, the US, Western nations and the Arab and Muslim world must be proactive and systematic in its elimination. Doing so must become a litmus test of policies and platforms for the US 2028 elections, with the opportunity to bury the Brotherhood for good, a century after its establishment. Elimination of the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood is a domestic American issue as much as it is an international issue. 

It’s essential to counteract the deep threats the Muslim Brotherhood has already made throughout the world. Americans must not equivocate under the fear of being branded “Islamophobic,” or embarrassed to reign in the very liberal values and laws that the Brotherhood itself has manipulated to infiltrate America and the West. There is a difference between a Muslim and an Islamist. One follows a religion, the other is a political ideology that believes that fundamental Islam and all its elements should rule the world and all others should bow to it, whether through taxes, conversion, expulsion, or death. 

The Brotherhood came into existence in response to, and filling the void from, the end of the last Islamic caliphate. Today, banning the Brotherhood is an essential start, but there must be an international effort including Arab and Muslim countries to replace the evil ideology with a better ideology. The ban must widen beyond the satellite organizations and operatives of the Brotherhood to include Muslim Brotherhood-infused countries and refuges such as Qatar and Turkey. It’s up to Muslims around the world to embrace and run with this, to have a reformation that Islam has never had, or be forever branded as extremists. 

In the 21st century alone, the Muslim Brotherhood has had its evil fingerprints seen all over the world, corrupting and endangering on such widespread basis that’s truly shocking. 

In 2011 it played a major role in fomenting Egypt’s Tahrir Square protests to bring down former president Hosni Mubarak, followed by its own candidate, Mohamed Morsi, narrowly winning Egypt’s subsequent presidential election. Morsi issued a controversial constitutional decree granting himself sweeping powers, alienating liberals, Christians, and the judiciary. These along with an economic crisis (not a stranger to extremist Islamic societies which focus more on imposing its ideology rather than proper governance and management) and mass protests culminated in the coup led by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2013.

Following a crackdown on its leaders, many fled to Turkey, Qatar, and London-stan. 

The Muslim Brotherhood remains one of the most influential Islamist movements historically and today, with ideological affiliates and outposts within, and even leading, Arab and Islamic countries. Many of these groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by various governments. Some of those in the news most recently include:

• Hamas: A Palestinian Arab terror group founded in 1987 which took control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody 2007 coup against the PLO, and which conceived and birthed the October 7, 2023 attack and massacre in Israel. Hamas also has active and strong cells throughout the Palestinian Authority, and seeks the destruction of Israel.  

• Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): Another group often in competition with Hamas among Palestinian Arabs with its own leadership and terrorist network, but sharing the same goal to eradicate Israel. 

• Al-Nusra Front (part of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS ): This is a Syrian branch of the Brotherhood that played an active destabilizing role during the Syrian civil war, and which was designated a terrorist group by the US and UN until its recent rebranding. Notably, the current Syrian president is a former HTS leader, raising questions as to whether he is truly reformed, or another country has fallen to the ideology. 

In addition to the terrorist groups themselves, there are many political entities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, using some form of a legal electoral process to perpetuate increased Islamization. Drawing a distinction between the “military wings” of the terrorists, these parties play within and use the legal framework wherever they are, to whitewash their ideologies and penetrate their host societies with the goal to dominate them and institute Islamic Sharia law. 

While seeking to establish complete control of new counties, there are already entire countries whose leaders are affiliated with, embrace, and espouse the Brotherhood’s corrosive and dangerous ideology. Most notable among these today are Qatar, Turkey, and Iran which not only espouse the ideology, but serve as refuge for leaders of other Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups. 

If done thoroughly, America’s Muslim Brotherhood ban could cripple the global Islamist networks. In order to do so, however, the ban needs to be much more broad. Qatar, Turkey, and Iran must be included in the ban, and the US must find a way to navigate doing so balancing other interests that cannot be overlooked, but with no less resolve.  It’s necessary to take away all the oxygen from all those that embrace and promulgate Muslim Brotherhood ideology and goals. 

But there are many questions. What does the designation mean? What impact will it have? And what could be the possible roadblocks ahead? Why has the Muslim Brotherhood not yet been outlawed more broadly and what needs to be done to do so?

It’s also critical to expose the avenues which the Muslim Brotherhood has exploited to breach the West. They have been surprisingly successful identifying weaknesses in the freedoms (which the West celebrates as its strengths) of the West to use against these very countries. This includes infiltration of the highest levels of government and policy makers, the legal system, academia, and the media. 

In addition to this, the Brotherhood has a scary and surprisingly vast economic influence which is also global. A trusted source and expert shared that the Brotherhood is a global network of 300K+ scholars and a global network with “legitimate front companies that have created their own alternative economy. They then work together to control markets and industries. It is not only college campuses and academia, or the political sphere. They are experts in obtaining soft power and forcing society into the mold they desire.

Leaders and institutions on the left and the right are both at least guilty of ignorance, but some are complicit and have their own fingerprints on the Brotherhood’s wide expansion. 

Two additional Muslim Brotherhood “strengths” have allowed them to invade the West.  One is the shape shifting that it does, distracting those who ought to care by appearing to change or rebranding in name, but not ideology. The other is the Islamic principle of “taqiyya” which proscribes lying to infidels, anyone who is not a Muslim. Between lying, rebranding and pervasive ignorance, if leaders do not pay attention, the very people and entities meant to be targeted can escape the bans. 

In Israel, the threat is external, but also domestic. For anyone who thinks Israel is an apartheid state, this one fact debunks that notion completely. There is an Israeli Arab political party, Ra’am, which is the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated party in the Israeli parliament. Under the previous Israeli government, Ra’am was even part of the governing coalition. Following Trump’s executive order they claim to have broken ties with the Islamic movement. They have ostensibly opened their party to Jewish members as well. But is this all just a lie, a big fake out, to prevent them from getting banned while following the same ideology?  

A clear US example is C.A.I.R., the controversial Council on American Islamic Relations, a thinly veiled Muslim Brotherhood outpost in the United States with growing influence. Brandishing people as “Islamophobic” is one of their tools, their superpower, to shut down opposition and criticism to their nefarious goals. Americans cower at the thought of being branded as such. But to beat the ban, all C.A.I.R. needs to do is rebrand, change its name, and magically, they could be immune. 

These are examples of why it’s critical to ban the ideology, not just the “chapters” by name. And to apply that ban broadly, even if it means upsetting so called “allies” like Qatar and Turkey. 

As the Brotherhood is banned, it’s important that Arab and Islamic countries and institutions that also support the ban step up and fill the void with a moderate ideological alternative.  Islam has never had a reformation.  Now is the time. If indeed “only” 10 percent of two billion Muslims in the world are extremist, this is the time for the 90 percent to take the reins. If they are not motivated to do so because the Muslim Brotherhood is bad to the core, then this must happen because of the threats they pose to the rest of the Arab and Islamic world. Failure to do so will see a void gleefully filled by other bad actors that claim to have no Brotherhood affiliation but have the same ideology and goals. 

Trump’s executive order says that within 30 days, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury shall “submit a joint report to the president, through the assistant to the president for national security affairs, concerning the designation of any Muslim Brotherhood chapters or other subdivisions, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as foreign terrorist organizations consistent with 8 U.S.C. 1189, and specially designated global terrorists consistent with 50 U.S.C. 1702 and Executive Order 13224.” That date has come and gone.  This is too urgent a domestic and global issue to let any more time pass. Anyone who cares must encourage their leaders to instill the sharpest and biggest teeth into this ban, as broadly as possible, including Qatar and Turkey, to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood once and for all. 

There are widespread investigations taking place to identify and expose the Brotherhood and its influence, virtually assuring that the issue will not die, and the sooner the Brotherhood does die, the better off we all are. Organizations like the VALOP Group are doing exceptionally hard work at mapping the Muslim Brotherhood networks that exist around the world, and revealing how they hijack economic, social, and political narratives and ecosystems to twist into a new modern form of Sharia-based Islamic rule.

The Genesis 123 Foundation will host a webinar “Banning the Muslim Brotherhood & the Future of the Middle East” with noted experts Yisrael Ne’eman and Mudar Zahran, Thursday, January 15 at 8:00PM Israel time, 1:00PM Eastern US. Advance registration is required and is free.