The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Bill

The United States government has joined Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Russia, and Syria in designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The Senate bill (S.68), sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and House bill (H.R. 377), sponsored by Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida), both achieved this change.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization.

However, Rex Tillerson’s ousting as Secretary of State might be explained by this designation debate. In 2017, as reported by aljazeera.com, Tillerson stated in a House Committee on Foreign Relations that classifying the entire Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group is “problematic” because there are more than five million members, “some of whom occupy positions in governments across the region – on a ‘terror list’.”

To Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorists

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“This bill recognizes the simple fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamic terrorist group,” Cruz said in Sunshine State News in November 2015. Moreover, the legislation presented by Cruz and Diaz-Balart seeks the State Department to weigh the factors. This means determining if the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria of section 219 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, as amended.

The US State Department criteria considers the following factors when assigning the designation:

Must be a foreign organization.

Engages in, or retains the capability and intent to, engage in terrorist activity or terrorism, as defined by Section 212 of the INA.

The organization’s activity threatens the security of US nationals or present a national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) threat.

Currently 70 some organizations share the designation including: the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) (4/15/19), HAMAS (10/8/1997), Al-Qaeda (10/8/1999), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (formerly Al-Qaeda in Iraq).

It is time to call this enemy by its name and speak with clarity and moral authority: https://t.co/4Z5TaSaMP7 — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 13, 2017 Archive.is

Designate It!

The Muslim Brotherhood IS a Terrorist group and should be treated as such.



🚨TAKE ACTION HERE 🚨 https://t.co/LSjtQ9CzpI pic.twitter.com/i6k3oJ2lmE — ACT for America (@ACTforAmerica) May 2, 2019 Archive.is

Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization provides a critical tool in our fight against terrorism. Moreover, providing this tool means curtailing financial and popular support for terrorist activities. In addition, it places pressure on groups through this allocation, to get the Muslim Brotherhood out of the terrorism business.

The US Secretary of State and Congress members must not be afraid to name as terrorists any organization that threatens the nation. It should not be due to the concern that there are many in positions of power. Further, organizations wishing to or actually inflicting harm upon the US or its people must be designated a terrorist organization. In short, for the US to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, is a good first step.