Washington, DC – The United States has designated Muslim Brotherhood organisations in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan as “terrorist” groups, as Washington intensifies its crackdown on Israel’s rivals across the world.
The decision on Tuesday came weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing his administration to start the process of blacklisting the groups.
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The US Department of the Treasury labelled the groups in Jordan and Egypt as “specially designated global terrorists”, and the State Department blacklisted the Lebanese organisation with a more serious designation – “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO).
The Trump administration cited alleged support for the Palestinian group Hamas and “activities against Israeli interests in the Middle East” as the reason behind targeting the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organisations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas,” the US Treasury said in a statement.
Salah Abdel Haq, acting general guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, said the group “categorically rejects this designation and will pursue all legal avenues to challenge this decision which harms millions of Muslims worldwide”.
Abdel Haq suggested on Tuesday that pressure from Israel and the United Arab Emirates in Washington drove the Trump administration’s decision.
“We deny all allegations that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has directed, funded, provided material support for or engaged in terrorism,” he told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“This designation is unsupported by credible evidence and reflects external foreign pressure by the UAE and Israel rather than an objective assessment of US interests or facts on the ground.”
Washington’s designations make it illegal to provide material support to the groups. They also impose economic sanctions to choke the groups’ revenue streams. The FTO label carries the added penalty of banning the groups’ members from entering the US.
The Muslim Brotherhood
Established in 1928 by Egyptian Muslim scholar Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood has offshoots and branches across the Middle East, including political parties and social organisations.
The group and its affiliates say they are committed to peaceful political participation.
The Muslim Brotherhood chapter in Lebanon, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, is represented in the Lebanese Parliament.
In Jordan, the group won 31 House of Representatives seats in the 2024 elections through its political arm, the Islamic Action Front.
But Amman banned the organisation last year, accusing it of links to what the Jordanian government called a sabotage plot.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood won the country’s only democratically held presidential election in 2012. But President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown a year later in a military coup and died in jail in 2019.
Cairo has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and launched a sweeping crackdown against the group’s leaders and members since 2013, driving the organisation underground and into exile.
On Tuesday, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the US designation of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as global “terrorists” and called it a “pivotal step”.
The ministry in a statement that Washington’s decision “reflects the danger of this group and its extremist ideology and the direct threat it poses to regional and international security and stability”.
Muslim Brotherhood organisations have been vocal critics of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza within their countries.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya backed Hezbollah in its “support front” in solidarity with Gaza against Israel, which culminated in an all-out war in September 2024.
After Trump’s decree in November, Lebanese Parliament member Imad al-Hout stressed that al-Jamaa al-Islamiya is a licensed political organisation in Lebanon with no affiliation with foreign forces.
“The evaluation of any Lebanese political force is exclusively governed by the Lebanese constitution and laws, and not by external political classifications related to contexts linked to American interests and policies that support the Israeli enemy and are unrelated to the Lebanese reality,” al-Hout said in a statement.
Effects in US
In the US and other countries in the West, right-wing activists have for years tried to demonise Muslim immigrant communities and Israel’s critics with accusations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Some of Trump’s hawkish allies in Congress have been calling for blacklisting the group for years.
After Trump issued his decree to designate the Muslim Brotherhood’s branches in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan as “terrorist” organisations, the Republican governors of Texas and Florida moved to crack down on the leading Muslim civil rights group in the US.
Both states designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) along with the Muslim Brotherhood as “terrorist” groups.
CAIR, which denies links to the Muslim Brotherhood, has sued them in response.