Trump tackles the Muslim Brotherhood wisely — – Latest News
President Donald Trump just isn’t identified for its restraint, however with the govt order he issued Monday his administration is taking a measured method in its offensive towards the Muslim Brotherhood — and that’s absolutely the wisest course.
The Brotherhood, now a international motion, embraces three core ideas that embrace: “The Quran is our constitution. Jihad is our path. Martyrdom is our aspiration.”
Its branches embrace Hamas, and its most distinguished alumni embrace the late al Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
For over a decade, Republicans on Capitol Hill have pushed to formally designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, placing it in the crosshairs of law enforcement — and even setting the stage for navy motion.
These advocates have primarily favored a single pronouncement that might deal with each arm of the motion, on each continent, as half of one unified group — as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott not too long ago did in his state.
Trump has firmly rejected that method.
Instead, his new govt order duties the State and Treasury departments with evaluating the Brotherhood chapter by chapter and figuring out which parts deserve the terrorist label.
This method is more likely to have a far higher and more lasting impression — as a result of it matches the decentralized, even haphazard, group of the Brotherhood itself.
The Brotherhood has no paramount chief and no central council or governing physique.
As the founding department, the Egyptian Brotherhood enjoys a particular status, and its chief carries the title of Supreme Guide — however has no means of exerting control.
National branches go their own means, adapting to native circumstances to maximise their growth and affect.
These info matter as a result of a terror designation might be challenged in court docket.
It’s uncommon, as a result of the departments of State and Treasury historically construct their circumstances cautiously and comprehensively.
But if the White House insisted on designating a group with no chief, no headquarters and no clear control over its constituent elements, the consequence can be a legal debacle.
To keep away from that, the president has instructed the secretaries of State and Treasury to ship a report within 30 days addressing whether or not any “Muslim Brotherhood chapters or subdivisions” meet the legal standards for designation as terrorist teams, with a ultimate choice to observe within 45 days.
The order particularly requires analysis of the motion’s branches in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Last month, in a report assessing the deserves of designating varied Brotherhood branches, my colleagues and I discovered that motion is more than warranted on the Lebanese and Jordanian fronts.
In Lebanon, the Brotherhood operates as the Islamic Group, which lavished reward on Hamas for the atrocities of Oct. 7 — then directed its militia to affix Hezbollah in rocket assaults on northern Israel, relieving some of the stress on Hamas in Gaza.
In Jordan, the place the Brotherhood spent many years reassuring authorities that it rejected violence, the state intelligence service this 12 months discovered that the group’s members have been manufacturing rockets and drones for a deliberate assault on “sensitive sites” in the kingdom.
The Brotherhood insisted that these arrested have been performing independently, however Amman rejected that rationale and launched a crackdown.
It’s a totally different scenario in Egypt, the place the navy dictatorship of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has spent a decade crushing the Brotherhood, jailing its leaders and dismantling its political arm.
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Still, the Egyptian Brotherhood has generated a pair of violent splinter teams that the first Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations.
What’s clear is that the Egyptian Brotherhood has not modified its ideological orientation.
On Oct. 7 this 12 months, its chief celebrated Hamas for how it had “awakened the cinder of jihad” in 2023, and referred to as for these exterior Gaza to offer the enclave with “military support.”
One crucial query left open by Trump’s govt order is how to stop overseas governments, like these of Qatar and Turkey, from supporting Brotherhood chapters that cross the line into terrorism.
Both Ankara and Doha have remained firm supporters of Hamas even after Oct. 7, and their broadcasting arms, particularly Qatar’s Al Jazeera, promote pro-Hamas and pro-Brotherhood narratives.
In idea, Washington might designate both Turkey or Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism for this boosting — but that label is reserved traditionally for the worst of the worst, and the two nations are, technically not less than, US allies.
The first step might merely be for Trump to put an finish to public reward for Ankara and Doha, whereas turning up the heat in personal.
If that isn’t enough, the Treasury Department can hit particular person officers with sanctions.
They are more likely to need a wake-up call — very like the one the White House simply directed at the Muslim Brotherhood.
David Adesnik is the vice president of analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
