Brotherhood Provides Spiritual Grounding for Jihadist Terror

The Muslim Brotherhood is an organization dedicated to the overthrow of the United States and its values.

Since its inception, the organization’s foundational objective has been to re-establish a caliphate, which it defines as a geographic territory ruled by a caliph and governed by sharia law. More importantly, the Muslim Brotherhood has consistently embraced violent jihad as a core part of its strategy for success.

Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood has been an inspiration and has provided spiritual grounding for the ideology and violence of many radical jihadist groups, including Hamas, al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose core values pose a dire threat to U.S. national security, should be formally identified as the terrorist group it so clearly is.

With the recent horrific attacks in London, Manchester and Kabul, and with violence spreading to the Philippines and Indonesia, it is imperative to highlight the global threat posed by radical Islamic jihadists. The recent attacks have come on top of the slaughter of Muslims, Christians and others in regions such as the Middle East, Northern and Central Africa, and Europe.

The United States needs to recognize and identify those who seek the demise of our country and must take every legal step to confront, contain and ultimately defeat the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Designating a group a terrorist organization is a hard and laborious process for the State Department. However, a thorough analysis must be done. Undoubtedly, the examiners would declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

The evidence is overwhelming.

From stealth tactics to violent jihad, the Brotherhood has used various strategies to advance its goal of establishing a caliphate. And the group embraces the concept of taqiya, in which deception is permitted as a means of advancing one’s mission.

More directly, the International Islamic Relief Organization provided funding to al-Qaida. The CIA linked the organization to Osama bin Laden and Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. The United Arab Emirates identifies it as part of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Union of Good, designed to support Hamas and sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008, is another international terrorist network connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Its board once included a Yemini Muslim Brotherhood cleric named Sheikh al-Zindani, who was designated a terrorist in 2004 for his work as an al-Qaida recruiter.

Further, the UAE, understanding the Brotherhood’s capabilities and intentions, has designated the group a terrorist organization.

Those who oppose the U.S. making that designation claim the Muslim Brotherhood renounces violence. Yet in recent years, the citizens of Egypt and Libya have suffered tremendously under Brotherhood-affiliated regimes.

The Muslim Brotherhood has done an exceptional job burying its violent ideology through its use of taqiya, front organizations and other subterfuge to hide and conceal its true intentions.

It is the responsibility of the State Department to work with U.S. allies and the intelligence community to gather the information necessary to make this indispensable designation.

After almost 90 years of the group spreading a lethal and evil ideology, it is time to step up to the plate, to identify the threat and separate the notion of good versus evil. It is time to finally designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

A former chairman of the U.S. House intelligence committee, Pete Hoekstra is a senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism.