Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has introduced new legislation aimed at officially classifying the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a step that could have serious financial consequences for the international Islamist movement.
Dubbed the “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025,” the bill adopts a novel “bottom-up” strategy, shifting away from prior methods that failed to gain traction. This new tactic emphasizes targeting the organization’s most violent offshoots across the globe, according to reporting by the Washington Free Beacon.
Scheduled for introduction on Tuesday, the bill instructs the Secretary of State to “catalog Muslim Brotherhood branches that are designated as terrorist groups and designate additional ones that meet relevant criteria – and mandates the designation of the global Muslim Brotherhood for its support to those terrorist groups.” This approach mirrors how the Trump administration successfully labeled Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2017.
Previous initiatives to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group fell short, largely because many of its affiliates did not meet the necessary threshold of violent activity. The new proposal seeks to bypass that obstacle by initially targeting confirmed violent factions, thereby paving the way to designate the broader movement under U.S. law.
The Free Beacon notes that the bill has attracted backing from prominent Republican lawmakers such as Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott (R-FL). It also has the endorsement of influential pro-Israel and national security advocacy groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Christians United for Israel (CUFI), and FDD Action.
An individual close to Senator Cruz said the legislation was “deliberately and extensively workshopped so that it could become law.” The source emphasized that the intention behind the bill is to see it “passed and implemented.”
With the bill’s official filing expected imminently, supporters anticipate it will receive strong bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have already taken the step of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
That designation followed a period in which the Brotherhood gained political power in Egypt—where it originated—before being ousted by the country’s military leadership.
{Matzav.com}