Sen. Cruz reintroduces act to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group

"Since the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Brotherhood-affiliated groups have consistently preached and incited hatred against Christians, Jews and other Muslims" – Sen. Jim Inhofe.

By EVE YOUNG, REUTERS
Senator Ted Cruz: Boycotts and other attacks on the livelihood of Jews have been part of antisemitism for centuries. (photo credit: KAMIL KRACZYNSKI/ REUTERS)
Senator Ted Cruz: Boycotts and other attacks on the livelihood of Jews have been part of antisemitism for centuries.
(photo credit: KAMIL KRACZYNSKI/ REUTERS)
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) reintroduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act this week, his office announced on Wednesday. The act urges the US State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
“I am proud to reintroduce this bill and to advance America’s fight against radical Islamic terrorism,” said Cruz. “I commend the current administration’s work calling terrorism by its name and combating the spread of this potent threat, and I look forward to receiving the additional information this new bill requests from the Department of State.
“Many of our closest allies in the Arab world have long ago concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group that seeks to sow chaos across the Middle East,” he said.
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) co-sponsored the bill, saying that, “since the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Brotherhood-affiliated groups have consistently preached and incited hatred against Christians, Jews, and other Muslims while supporting designated radical terrorists.
“I am proud that under the Trump administration, we continue to call out and combat radical terrorism, and I am glad to join my colleagues today in reintroducing this legislation,” he said. “We must continue to condemn foreign terrorist organizations and hold them accountable for the evil they perpetrate.”
The Trump administration worked to designate the Brotherhood as an FTO in April. Former White House national security advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported the designation but officials at the Pentagon and elsewhere have been opposed and have been seeking more limited action.
Some conservative and anti-Muslim activists have argued for years that the Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 and sought to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate by peaceful means, has been a breeding ground for terrorists.
Designating the Brotherhood as an FTO could complicate Washington’s relationship with NATO ally Turkey. The organization has close ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and many of its members fled to Turkey after the group’s activities were banned in Egypt.
According to Shimrit Meir, a commentator on Arab affairs, the designation is not appropriate and Trump was pushed to declare the designation by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
“The truth is that the Muslim Brotherhood is not meeting the parameters. If the move doesn’t fail in the Congress, it will in the Senate, and then reach court,” Meir said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post's sister paper, Maariv. “Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is pushing Trump because he is still threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is still a very strong phenomenon in Egypt – and the Saudis are also very threatened by this.”

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Cruz, a member of the senate Foreign Relations Committee, first introduced the act in 2015 and reintroduced it for the first time in 2017.
The 2017 reintroduction of the bill sparked warnings by critics of the Trump administration that such a move will be the first step in a crackdown on Muslim-American civil society groups. Birzeit University political scientist Samir Awad warned then that designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization would signal regimes that they are free to intensify human rights abuses against their opponents.
“They’re not anything like Daesh or Nusra, which are terrorist groups,” Awad said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “If a person can’t see the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Daesh, then his eyesight is blurred.”
The Brotherhood, which estimates its membership at up to a million people, came to power in Egypt’s first modern free election in 2012, a year after long-serving autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising during the Arab Spring. But the movement is now banned, and thousands of its supporters and much of its leadership have been jailed.
Maariv Online and Ben Lynfield contributed to this report.


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