A new bill that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is set to be introduced on Tuesday.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) plans to introduce the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025, which would urge Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “catalog Muslim Brotherhood branches that are designated as terrorist groups and designate additional ones that meet relevant criteria—and mandates the designation of the global Muslim Brotherhood for its support to those terrorist groups.”
The idea of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group has been tried before, but the current bill is different since it relies on a “bottom-up” approach, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Previous bills had centered on the Brotherhood’s worldwide operation, which is not very clear, but this one would systematically sanction the group’s violent branches worldwide, focusing on active terror groups and creating a legal framework to set the stage for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Since “not all Muslim Brotherhood branches are currently violent and wouldn't therefore meet the criteria for designation,” previous legislative attempts did not succeed, explains a fact sheet from Cruz.
The Muslim Brotherhood is already considered a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
President Trump used a similar approach in 2017 to sanction Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which ultimately designated them as a foreign terrorist group.
Numerous GOP senators support Cruz’s bill, such as Sens. John Boozman (R-AR), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ashley Moody (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Dave McCormick, (R-PA).
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI) also support the bill.
Congressional action under the 1987 Anti-Terrorism Act, the State Department recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, and specific designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) will be the ways that Cruz’s bill will result in the Muslim Brotherhood being designated as a terrorist group.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio has 90 days after the bill passes to submit a report to Congress cataloguing ‘all Muslim Brotherhood branches’ around the globe. The legislation instructs him to designate any identified group that meets the criteria. The bill then authorizes a formal designation for the Muslim Brotherhood’s global operation under the 1987 ATA, creating a ‘primary embargo’ under which Americans are banned from engaging in financial transactions with the group and rendering it services,” The Free Beacon said.