US designates Muslim Brotherhood chapters ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations’

The Trump administration on Tuesday formally designated the Lebanese, Egyptian and Jordanian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.  

The designation marks a significant and intended escalation in the administration’s posture toward Islamist political movements operating in the Middle East and the U.S. 

The declaration completes a review process which was started by an executive order by President Donald Trump in November to examine the activities, affiliations and operations of the three Brotherhood branches. 

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States will eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters that threaten U.S. citizens and our national security,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an X post Tuesday. 

The action triggers sweeping financial and legal restrictions, including asset freezes under U.S. jurisdiction, criminal penalties for material support and expanded authorization for sanctions enforcement. 

Declarations from the U.S. Treasury Department essentially ban all U.S. citizens, or others transiting the U.S., from making any financial or material contributions to the chapters.   

“The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired, nurtured, and funded terrorist groups like Hamas, that are direct threats to the safety and security of the American people and our allies,” said John Hurley, the Treasury’s terrorism and financial intelligence chief. “Despite their peaceful public façade, both the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood branches have conspired to support Hamas’s terrorism and undermine the sovereignty of their own national governments.” 

Treasury said the action is intended to disrupt funding pipelines and prevent U.S. persons and institutions from inadvertently enabling extremist causes. 

The White House said the Brotherhood chapters “facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests.”  

The designations apply only to the specified national chapters and do not constitute a blanket classification of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide. 

A U.S. State Department notice confirmed the designations were made under existing counterterrorism laws pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.   

The department also said the move aligns U.S. policy with longstanding concerns about Islamist organizations blending political participation with support for violent extremism.  

Reuters reported the action reverberated across the Middle East, where the Muslim Brotherhood “explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas.” 

Egypt’s foreign ministry said the move is a “crucial step that reflects the gravity of the group and its extremist ideology and what it represents as a direct threat of regional and international security and stability,” according to Reuters.  

In Egypt, the Brotherhood has been outlawed for years. 

The group was designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government following the 2013 military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, who took power in 2012 as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in disputed elections. 

Jordan banned Brotherhood-linked groups in May, while Lebanese authorities have waffled on the issue. 

An analysis by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) released in October characterized the Muslim Brotherhood as a global Islamist movement whose roots have produced some of the most violent jihadist organizations in the world, including Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS.  

FDD says the Brotherhood’s ideological influence and institutional links to violence have been obscured by policymakers’ mistaken assumption that Brotherhood branches are moderate. Its analysis shows, however, the Brotherhood’s core beliefs and networks have repeatedly generated or supported extremist conduct. 

According to the Treasury’s statement, multiple Muslim Brotherhood branches provided material support to Hamas during its war against Israel. 

Additionally, the U.S. found Muslim Brotherhood-linked elements have been involved in terrorism cases in Jordan tied to the manufacture of rockets, explosives, drones, as well as recruitment activities and illicit fundraising conducted abroad. 

“These designations reflect the first actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood violence and destabilization wherever it occurs, including through additional terrorist designations,” said Treasury. “The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.” 

The Treasury characterized the designations as “first actions,” suggesting additional actions to come. 

In June, Trump reinstated a travel ban, targeting mostly Muslim countries, in an effort to improve immigration, visa and national security.  

“We will restore the travel ban, some people call it the Trump travel ban, and keep the radical Islamic terrorists out of our country that was upheld by the Supreme Court,” said Trump of the executive order authorizing the ban. 

Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Venezuela and Cuba were listed in the original proclamation as countries that presented a terrorism threat to the U.S. 

Since then, Burkina Fa