The Muslim Brotherhood Still Isn’t a Terrorist Organization

The push to get the United States to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is a bad idea with a long history dating back to at least 9/11. It has been repeatedly pushed by right-wing groups in the United States and by anti-brotherhood allies in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Israel. And it has been repeatedly rejected. As former President George W. Bush among others understood, this designation would not only be inaccurate, it would undermine human rights and democracy across the Middle East.

On Nov. 24, the Trump administration issued an executive order beginning the process of designating certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. The executive order offered scant evidence or rationale for the designation. Taken together, the basis amounted to some incendiary rhetoric by Jordanian and Egyptian Brotherhood leaders after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the minor role allegedly played by Lebanon’s Brotherhood branch in missile attacks at the same time. As the administration’s paltry presentation suggests, there simply isn’t any good, new evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization.

On Nov. 24, the Trump administration issued an executive order beginning the process of designating certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. The executive order offered scant evidence or rationale for the designation. Taken together, the basis amounted to some incendiary rhetoric by Jordanian and Egyptian Brotherhood leaders after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the minor role allegedly played by Lebanon’s Brotherhood branch in missile attacks at the same time. As the administration’s paltry presentation suggests, there simply isn’t any good, new evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization.

The push to get the United States to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is a bad idea with a long history dating back to at least 9/11. It has been repeatedly pushed by right-wing groups in the United States and by anti-brotherhood allies in the Middle East, including the Uni