US Sen. Cruz advances bill to designate radical Muslim Brotherhood as a terror organization

For the fifth time in a decade, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is trying to designate the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organization, introducing the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025 on Wednesday.

Cruz has long fought to designate the group, which he said is “a terrorist organization, and it provides support to MB branches that are terrorist organizations. One of those branches is Hamas.”

“They are committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests. American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously,” he stated.

On the latest iteration of his podcast, Cruz explained that the new bill included a “bottom-up” approach of first identifying the branches that support terrorism, and using this to designate the “trunk,” meaning the larger organization.

“The challenge and some of the pushback we got is that not every one of the Brotherhood branches is currently violent, and so each of the branches doesn’t necessarily meet the criteria for designation,” Cruz said. 

“We start by identifying all the branches that the Muslim Brotherhood supports that are terrorist groups or that commit terrorism, and then we designate the entire Brotherhood for that support.”

“In other words, we build up with what is explicitly and indisputably terrorist, and then we designate the Brotherhood as a whole for supporting those terrorist groups.”

Other critics have noted that some affiliates of MB branches hold legislative seats in countries friendly to the U.S., like Kuwait, which could lead to diplomatic complications.

Despite the importance of the bill, Cruz himself indicated that Democrats would not support it, and said that an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump could be a more likely path forward.

“I think it would make very good sense for us to vote on it on the Senate floor – for John Thune to bring it up and make senators vote.”

“Most of the Democrats would be a ‘no,’” he added. “I think it’d be valuable to get them on record, force them to vote.”

Cruz’s bill has the support of several prominent senators, including Tom Cotton, Dave McCormick, Ashley Moody, and Rick Scott.

The MB is a network with ties “to extremist organizations like Hamas and the states that support them, like Qatar and Turkey,” Sen. Scott said.

“We know that these terror groups share an evil goal to destroy democracy, threaten our allies, and undermine America’s national security.”

Sen. Moody called the bill “commonsense legislation that will declare the Muslim Brotherhood, a group known to seek widespread hate against Christians, Jews, and other religious groups, a foreign terrorist organization.”

“Today we can join our allies across Europe and the Middle East in this designation, and I urge its swift passage,” he added.

The MB is persecuted or banned in several states in the Middle East, including Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The bill also gained support from the Foundation for Freedom of Democracies, Christians United for Israel Action Fund, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Republican Jewish Coalition.