Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part column. "Banning the Muslim Brotherhood: A Good Start, Part 2" will be published on January 11, 2026.
In November 2025, the White House issued an executive order appearing to be part of a broader trend with global impact, banning elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and designating certain Muslim Brotherhood entities as foreign terrorist organizations. This is a good start, but to have the necessary impact, it must be widened and expanded.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna of Egypt, an extremist Muslim teacher, in response to the growing secularization and modernization of his country and other Arab and Muslim countries following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. His slogan then, which is still the guiding principle of the Muslim Brotherhood today, leaves no doubt about its extremist and dangerous views. "Allah is our objective; the Koran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
Al-Banna was such an extremist and threat that he was assassinated by Egyptian security services in the late 1940s, after two decades of organized and widespread chaos orchestrated by him and Muslim Brotherhood factions across Egypt. Their agenda and actions were clear: create economic, social, and political chaos through mass protest and disruption to dismantle the system and replace it with Sharia law and governance – in so, returning Egypt to an Islamist State.
In addition to the U.S. banning the Muslim Brotherhood and labeling it and its affiliates as terrorist organizations, it is banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Jordan, along with Muslim Kazakhstan, Russia, Austria, Paraguay, and Kenya, and in Europe, Central America, and Africa. With all these Arab countries taking action themselves, not wanting the cancerous ideology that is bad for Muslims, Arabs, and the world at large in their own countries, the West needs to pay attention and act as well. It is the only way to ensure Brotherhood infiltration into Western democratic countries will not take effect. As their leaders have said for years, the West will fall without them firing a shot, simply by population explosion and indoctrination of the youth to turn on their own countries.
To truly eviscerate the Muslim Brotherhood and its extremist ideology, the U.S., Western nations, and the Arab and Muslim world must be proactive and systematic in its elimination. Doing so must become a litmus test of policies and platforms for the U.S. 2028 elections, with the opportunity to bury the Brotherhood for good, a century after its establishment. Elimination of the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood is a domestic American issue as much as it is an international issue.
It's essential to counteract the deep threats the Muslim Brotherhood has already made throughout the world. Americans must not equivocate under the fear of being branded "Islamophobic" or embarrassed to rein in the very liberal values and laws that the Brotherhood itself has manipulated to infiltrate America and the West. There is a difference between a Muslim and an Islamist. One follows a religion, the other is a political ideology that believes that fundamental Islam and all its elements should rule the world and all others should bow to it, whether through taxes, conversion, expulsion, or death.
The Brotherhood came into existence in response to, and filling the void from, the end of the last Islamic caliphate. Today, banning the Brotherhood is an essential start, but there must be an international effort, including Arab and Muslim countries, to replace the evil ideology with a better ideology. The ban must widen beyond the satellite organizations and operatives of the Brotherhood to include Muslim Brotherhood-infused countries and refuges such as Qatar and Turkey. It's up to Muslims around the world to embrace and run with this, to have a reformation that Islam has never had, or be forever branded as extremists.
In the 21st century alone, the Muslim Brotherhood has had its evil fingerprints seen all over the world, corrupting and endangering on such a widespread basis that it's truly shocking.
In 2011, it played a major role in fomenting Egypt's Tahrir Square protests to bring down former president Hosni Mubarak, followed by its own candidate, Mohamed Morsi, narrowly winning Egypt's subsequent presidential election. Morsi issued a controversial constitutional decree granting himself sweeping powers, alienating liberals, Christians, and the judiciary. These, along with an economic crisis (not a stranger to extremist Islamic societies, which focus more on imposing their ideology rather than proper governance and management) and mass protests, culminated in the coup led by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2013.
Following a crackdown on its leaders, many fled to Turkey, Qatar, and London-stan.
The Muslim Brotherhood remains one of the most influential Islamist movements historically and today, with ideological affiliates and outposts within, and even leading, Arab and Islamic countries. Many of these groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by various governments. Some of those in the news most recently include:
- Hamas: A Palestinian Arab terror group founded in 1987, which took control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody 2007 coup against the PLO, and which conceived and birthed the October 7, 2023, attack and massacre in Israel. Hamas also has active and strong cells throughout the Palestinian Authority and seeks the destruction of Israel.
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): Another group often in competition with Hamas among Palestinian Arabs, with its own leadership and terrorist network, but sharing the same goal to eradicate Israel.
- Al-Nusra Front (part of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS ): This is a Syrian branch of the Brotherhood that played an active destabilizing role during the Syrian civil war, and which was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and UN until its recent rebranding. Notably, the current Syrian president is a former HTS leader, raising questions as to whether he is truly reformed and if another country has fallen to the ideology.
In addition to the terrorist groups themselves, there are many political entities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, using some form of a legal electoral process to perpetuate increased Islamization. Drawing a distinction between the "military wings" of the terrorists, these parties play within and use the legal framework wherever they are, to whitewash their ideologies and penetrate their host societies with the goal of dominating them and instituting Islamic Sharia law.
While seeking to establish complete control of new countries, there are already entire nations whose leaders are affiliated with, embrace, and espouse the Brotherhood's corrosive and dangerous ideology. Most notable among these today are Qatar, Turkey, and Iran, which not only espouse the ideology but also serve as a refuge for leaders of other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups.
If done thoroughly, America's Muslim Brotherhood ban could cripple the global Islamist networks. In order to do so, however, the ban needs to be much broader. Qatar, Turkey, and Iran must be included in the ban, and the U.S. must find a way to navigate doing so, balancing other interests that cannot be overlooked, but with no less resolve. It's necessary to take away all the oxygen from all those who embrace and promulgate the Muslim Brotherhood ideology and goals.
The Genesis 123 Foundation will host a webinar, "Banning the Muslim Brotherhood & the Future of the Middle East," with noted experts Yisrael Ne'eman and Mudar Zahran, on Thursday, January 15, at 8:00 PM Israel time, 1:00 PM ET U.S. Advance registration is required and is free.
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