This week, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a bill directing the Secretary of State to formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Until now, the United States has failed to adequately address the danger of this organization with its long and bloody global history. That must change immediately before more tragedy occurs on our soil at the hands of terror supporters.
The suspect charged with torching peaceful pedestrians in Boulder, Colorado, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is an Egyptian national who had a social media history praising the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 in Egypt. This transnational Sunni Islamist movement seeks to implement Islamic law under a global caliphate, and its motto is, “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
According to publicly available, open source intelligence, Soliman followed and liked dozens of radical social media accounts and posts, including ones that openly declared in Arabic, “I love the Muslim Brotherhood,” and “No peacefulness after today.”
He shockingly posted a video of himself saying “Jihad for Allah’s sake” is more beloved to him than his family, which includes five children and a wife.
This isn’t just an isolated incident, a lone wolf, or a case of radicalization in a vacuum. The Muslim Brotherhood has a decades-long record of producing and inspiring extremist violence, and its ideological progeny wreak havoc across the Middle East and now, increasingly, in Western democracies.
In the 1960’s, the Brotherhood established the Islamic Center of Geneva, and in the years since, according to a leaked French Interior Ministry report, the group has expanded across Europe. In France alone, there are hundreds of MB-affiliated organizations, associations, mosques, schools, programs, and youth centers.
The report also highlights the army of social media influencers trained in Muslin Brotherhood programs. They prey on young people, like the ones we’ve seen on college campuses, stoking imagined grievances, spreading conspiracy theories, and fueling antisemitism. Often, they pose as virtuous progressives fighting “Islamophobia,” “colonialism,” and “genocide.”
But the Muslim Brotherhood is not just online, and it is not just a political movement. It is the parent organization of terrorist groups like Hamas, founded in 1987 with the approval of the Brotherhood’s international leadership. The two share foundational antisemitism, the rejection of Israel’s existence, and the promotion of jihad. They also share key sources of funding, operational networks, and leadership infrastructure, much of which is based in Qatar.
Hamas and other Brotherhood offshoots have been implicated in terrorism, sectarian attacks, and campaigns against not just Israel but also moderate governments across the Arab world. Countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Syria have all formally designated the MB as a terrorist organization.
The United States should follow suit. We must act now, and in a bipartisan manner, to either designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) or place it on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list.
This is not a partisan issue but rather a national security imperative.
In 2021, Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) reintroduced legislation to designate the MB as a terrorist organization. Senator Cruz has rightly called this a decade-long fight. Now he seeks to revive the effort and, with Rep. Mace’s legislation, there is more momentum than ever.
Demonstrating bipartisan alignment on this critical matter, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) wrote a letter to President Trump urging the potential designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO, saying, “it must be noted that such ideological influence not only fosters division but also encourages radicalization against the United States, our allies and the foundational principles that define our society.” Across the aisle, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) has echoed those calls.
Designating the MB would send a powerful message to its ideological and financial enablers abroad and provide law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the tools they need to disrupt threats here at home.
In its comprehensive report, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy
(ISGAP) explained that the Brotherhood operates globally, uses Western legal systems to protect its networks, and continues to incubate extremist ideologies that metastasize into violence, concluding, “the MB and their offshoots, including Hamas, are the antithesis of the values which Western countries have ceaselessly fought to uphold.”
The assassination of two Israeli embassy staffers in D.C. and the flamethrower attack in Boulder must be a wake-up call. Washington now has a rare opportunity to act with clarity and unity.
The United States must join its Middle Eastern allies in recognizing that the Muslim Brotherhood is not just a political group with unpopular opinions. It’s a transnational movement that inspires, funds, and coordinates acts of terror. It must be treated accordingly.
Liora Rez is the Founder and Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, a grassroots watchdog organization. Follow them on X @StopAntisemites.
