Latest in Muslim Brotherhood
According to the New York Times, members of the Trump administration—including the president himself—are once again pushing to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, an idea that has been circulating among some of the president’s policy advisers for years.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
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Editor’s Note: The Muslim Brotherhood is a troubling organization for policymakers. Many terrorists passed through its ranks, and the Trump administration, spurred on by some in Congress and several U.S. allies, is even considering designating it a terrorist group.
In his inaugural address, President Donald Trump called to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.” Members of Congress and Trump's cabinet appointees have made clear that one of the ways they intend to approach this is by expanding the number of groups designated as terrorist organizations.
The other day, Benjamin Wittes and Will McCants questioned whether the Trump administration could lawfully designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (“FTO”). In the days since they wrote that post, there has been some talk that the administration may go a different direction: Treasury Department targeted financial sanctions.
Certain segments of the American Right have long been spoiling to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization under the material support statute. And now that Donald Trump is president, talk of designating the Brotherhood is heating up. Sen.
The Washington Post recently ran a interview arguing that what’s fundamentally lacking in this election is more “empathy” for Trump supporters, including the most racist, misogynist, and xenophobic among them.
Editor’s Note: An increasingly important segment of Israel's Arab citizenry is tied to the Islamic Movement, a branch of which Israel banned in November. The decision was controversial: not only did it elicit protests among Israeli Arabs, but security officials also criticized it as a mistake. Lawrence Rubin of the Georgia Institute of Technology dissects this decision, describing the Islamic Movement in Israel and explaining the politics of the ban.
Why Israel’s Islamic Movement was Outlawed