WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States has designated Muslim Brotherhood organizations in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan as “terrorist” groups as Washington, D.C. intensifies its crackdown on Israel’s rivals around the world.
Tuesday’s decision came weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing his administration to begin the process of blacklisting the group.
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The US Treasury has designated organizations in Jordan and Egypt as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” and the State Department has blacklisted organizations in Lebanon as a more serious “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO).
The Trump administration cited its alleged support for the Palestinian organization Hamas and “activities contrary to Israel’s interests in the Middle East” as reasons for targeting the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Although affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood present themselves as legitimate civil society organizations, behind the scenes they openly and enthusiastically support terrorist organizations like Hamas,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
Salah Abdel-Haq, acting general leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, said the group “categorically rejects this designation and will pursue all legal avenues to challenge this decision, which harms millions of Muslims around the world.”
Abdel-Haq suggested on Tuesday that pressure in Washington from Israel and the United Arab Emirates drove the Trump administration’s decision.
“We deny all allegations that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood directed, financed, provided material support for, or was involved in terrorism,” he told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“This designation is not supported by reliable evidence and reflects external pressure from the UAE and Israel rather than U.S. interests or an objective assessment of the facts on the ground.”
Washington’s designation makes it illegal to provide material support to these groups. It has also imposed economic sanctions to cut off the group’s sources of income. The FTO label carries the additional penalty of barring members of the group from entering the United States.
muslim brotherhood
Founded in 1928 by Egyptian Islamic scholar Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood has branches and branches throughout the Middle East, including political parties and social organizations.
The group and its affiliates say they are committed to peaceful political participation.
Lebanon’s Muslim Brotherhood branch, known as al-Jamaa al-Islam, has a seat in the Lebanese parliament.
In Jordan, the group won 31 lower house seats in the 2024 elections through its political wing, the Islamic Action Front.
But Amman banned the organization last year, accusing it of links to what the Jordanian government called a sabotage plot.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood won the country’s only democratic presidential election in 2012. However, President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown in a military coup a year later and died in prison in 2019.
Cairo outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and began a sweeping crackdown on its leaders and members in 2013, driving them underground and into exile.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday welcomed the United States’ designation of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a global “terrorist” group, calling it a “very important step.”
The ministry said in a statement that Washington’s decision “reflects the danger of this group and its extremist ideology and the direct threat it poses to regional and international security and stability.”
The Muslim Brotherhood-inspired organization in the Middle East has been a vocal critic of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza at home.
Al-Jamaa al-Islam supported Hezbollah in a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza against Israel, which culminated in all-out war in September 2024.
The group stressed on Thursday that it is a recognized Lebanese political and social movement that has been operating openly under the law for decades.
“This move is a political and administrative decision of the United States, not based on any Lebanese or international judicial decision, has no legal effect within Lebanon, and the sole authority rests with the Lebanese Constitution, applicable laws and Lebanese state institutions,” al-Jamaa al-Islam said in a statement.
He added that the U.S. designation “serves the interests of the Israeli occupation, which continues its aggression against our country and its people.”
Impact in the US
Right-wing activists in the United States and other Western countries have long sought to demonize Muslim immigrant communities and critics of Israel, accusing them of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Some of Mr. Trump’s hawkish allies in Congress have long called for the group to be blacklisted.
After President Trump issued an executive order designating Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan as “terrorist” organizations, Republican governors in Texas and Florida moved to crack down on major American Muslim civil rights groups.
Both countries have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a “terrorist” group, along with the Muslim Brotherhood.
CAIR denies any association with the Muslim Brotherhood and has filed charges against the Brotherhood in response.
