What Would Follow a Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation?

"The decision comes at a moment when the Brotherhood's once carefully cultivated image as the respectable face of political Islam lies in tatters. Days before Trump's executive order, Texas Governor Greg Abbott made his state to label both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist entities, vowing to target what he called "radical extremists." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the move by Texas with his own similar executive order."

"To grasp the stakes, the story must begin in Ismailia, Egypt, in 1928, when schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna founded the Ikhwan al-Muslimin as a movement of Islamic revival and social reform. What started with Quranic lessons and charity work exploded into a mass organization of hundreds of thousands by the 1940s, complete with a secret paramilitary wing, the Special Apparatus, that carried out bombings and assassinations against British forces and Jewish targets."

Federal and state executive actions have moved to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and allied organizations as terrorist entities, with Texas and Florida issuing orders and federal momentum increasing the risk of broader cascading designations. The designations target groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and emphasize alleged links between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, citing Hamas's 1987 charter and network affiliations. The Muslim Brotherhood originated in Ismailia, Egypt in 1928 under Hassan al-Banna, expanding from Quranic lessons and charity into a mass organization with a clandestine paramilitary wing. Egypt banned the group in 1948, and the Brotherhood later renounced violence in the 1970s while building widespread social institutions.

Read at The Cipher Brief