As Trump moves to designate Muslim Brotherhood as terror group, here’s what you must know about it and its Al Jazeera links

Inflicting a massive blow to Islamic terrorism, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 24^th November, directing his administration to initiate the process of designating specific chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

The executive order states that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shall submit a joint report to the President concerning the designation of any Muslim Brotherhood chapters or other subdivisions, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as FTO and SDGTs.

This marks the fulfilment of Trump’s first-term ambitions, where he ordered a similar review against the Islamic terror outfit; however, due to bureaucratic resistance, the process could not be completed at that time.

What built momentum for Trump ordering a review of the Muslim Brotherhood are bipartisan congressional efforts, including the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025, the Republican advocacy in general against what they called “transnational Islamist organisation.

While the White House has stated there will not be a blanket label on the entire Muslim Brotherhood, Trump’s move marks a seismic shift. The timing of this is also crucial, given Trump’s efforts to restore peace in Gaza. It must not be forgotten that, contrary to the popular understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict as a long-standing territorial dispute, it is, in fact, a religious dispute to its core, with territorial claims by both sides being the casus belli.

OpIndia earlier reported about the Palestinian Islamic terror group Hamas claiming the country of Israel as a ‘Waqf’ property in its 1988 Covenant or Charter and vowing to continue Jihad against Jews until the last one of them is killed. Hamas enjoys the support of the Muslim Brotherhood and joined the Palestinian terror group in carrying out airstrikes against Israeli civilians and military after the October 7 2023, massacre.

In its 2017 document, Hamas tried to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood, apparently, to better its relations with Egypt. Hamas also softened its stance on fighting the Jews by distinguishing between Zionists and Jews. The Islamic terror group’s actions since then have exposed their duplicity. The indiscriminate killing of Jews on 7^th October 2023 laid bare Hamas’s hypocrisy and hatred for Jews.

It is essential to note that formally designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group has always been difficult for the US government. The organisation is decentralised, with different branches operating in multiple countries, many of which function independently. Because of this structure, legal experts and intelligence officials in Washington have often found it challenging to apply a blanket terrorist label to the entire movement.

Apparently, due to this reason, the executive order signed by Trump mentions that only specific chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated FTO or SDGTs if required.

Muslim Brotherhood: From socio-political movement to global Islamist network

Founded in 1928 in Ismailia, Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood or Ikhwan al-Muslimin, remains one of the most influential Islamic political movements in the world. It was founded by Hassan al-Banna, a teacher and Islamic scholar, on the premise of anti-Western colonialism and the supposed erosion of Islamic values in the post-Ottoman world. Al-Banna launched the Muslim Brotherhood as a pan-Islamist movement which focused on charity and Islamist advocacy.

In its early years, the Muslim Brotherhood filled gaps left by weak and nonchalant governments by building schools, hospitals and mosques for the poor and illiterate people in Egypt while also preaching Islam and ‘Tawhid’ (Allah’s oneness and supremacy) as some antidote to secularism and imperialism. The motto of the Muslim Brotherhood makes abundantly clear that it may not have initially been linked to violence, ‘Jihad’ has always been its way.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s motto says, “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.”

MB ballooned into hundreds of thousands of members by the 1930s and resisted British rule. In 1936, the Islamist outfit entered politics, opposing the secular Wafd Party and organising protests during the Second World War. However, MB’s paramilitary wings, the “Secret Apparatus” also known as the Special Apparatus or al-Nizam al-Khas, engaged in violence, political assassinations, and subversive activities. In 1948, the Secret Apparatus members assassinated Prime Minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha for banning the Islamist outfit. In 1949, al-Banna was murdered by the Egyptian Secret Police in retaliation for Pasha’s murder.

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Secret Apparatus used to undergo heavy physical and military training. They were trained to use firearms and carry out underground operations. Emphasising deception and secrecy (Taqqiya), the Jihadists belonging to the Apparatus infiltrate and subvert political parties, armies, intelligence, media, educational institutions and even NGOs.

Under the leadership of Sayyid Qutb, who was executed in 1966, the Muslim Brotherhood became radicalised further. Through his writings, especially Milestones (Ma’alim fi al-Tariq), Qutb promoted concepts like Takfir (declaring Muslims as apostates) and argued that modern nation-states are ‘un-Islamic’. Qutb went on to propagate that the Muslim world had reverted to pre-Islamic ‘ignorance’ due to the failure of leaders and governments to fully implement the Islamic Sharia law.

Qutb’s radical, or rather more pure, Islamic viewpoints resonated with jihadists widely and inspired many Takfiri groups who used Takfir as a justification for killing Muslims they deemed apostates or not Muslim enough. Be it Egyptian Islamic Jihad or later the Al-Qaeda, all drew inspiration from Qutb’s doctrines of Jahiliyyah (ignorance), takfir, and Jihad to justify violence against non-Muslims and Muslims they deemed infidels.

What turbocharged the Muslim Brotherhood’s ambitions was the Arab Spring. In 2012, MB won the elections and picked Mohamed Morsi as President. However, in 2013, a military coup led by then-General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted Morsi. The Islamist outfit was banned and was declared a terrorist organisation.

Although the Muslim Brotherhood claims to have abandoned violence and embraced a democratic path to pursue their agenda, high-ranking defectors and independent expert analysis show that Secret Apparatus remains operational through clandestine committees.

The Muslim Brotherhood continues to be seen as a threat to political stability by many authoritarian governments in the Middle East and North Africa. Recently,  Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, would be considered “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organisations.”

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Russia have already designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. Jordan banned the group in April after arresting people linked to the movement who were accused of plotting attacks using rockets and drones. In January this year, the UAE blacklisted 8 United Kingdom-based organisations for their ties to the Islamic terror outfit ‘Muslim Brotherhood.’

The disorganised outer structure of the Muslim Brotherhood allows it to maintain existence and operations while making it difficult for countries against Islamic terrorism and extremism to take concrete action against it. In short, the Muslim Brotherhood’s key to survival is coalescing ‘social welfare’, politics and terrorism as per their convenience.

Trump’s renewed efforts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood are not without challenges. Egypt’s ban on the MB in 2013, though it granted an immediate relief, ended up contributing to a massive surge in violent and extremist groups. Salafi-jihadist groups emerged in the Sinai Peninsula, including the ISIS affiliates.

Muslim Brotherhood and the Al-Jazeera connection

While Doha-based Al Jazeera is not a declared arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, it is a known megaphone of the Islamist organisation. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt had a diplomatic fallout with Qatar over the latter’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Saudi Arabia had also demanded the closure of Al-Jazeera and its affiliates, as it accused Qatar of using Al-Jazeera to incite Islamist extremism and support jihadist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Back then, Al Jazeera had broadcast messages by exiled Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Al-Jazeera’s biased and propaganda-riddled reporting during the Arab Spring must also not be forgotten.

In January 2024, a Yemeni-British journalist named Adnan Al-Ameri revealed how Al Jazeera carries out the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood at the behest of the Qatari government.

Al-Ameri told Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post that he worked for the youth channel of Al Jazeera, named JeemTV, in Doha.

While he was initially unaware of the sinister agenda of the Qatari mouthpiece, the realisation dawned on him in the mid-2010s. At that time, Al-Ameri’s home country of Yemen, captured by Houthis, was being bombed by a coalition of Gulf States led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The two nations were also behind the excommunication of Qatar by other Gulf States. When the civil war broke out in Yemen, the southern part of the country was sympathetic to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni-British journalist pointed out how one needs to parrot the propaganda of the Muslim Brotherhood to work at Al Jazeera. “When you work for their news channel, they need you to promote their Muslim Brotherhood agendas, and if you’re not there ideologically, they’ll make sure to buy you off,” Adnan Al-Ameri remarked, adding that Al-Jazeera backs Hamas as well.

Al-Jazeera’s persistent anti-India propaganda

The Qatar-based Islamist propaganda outlet has been peddling biased narratives against India and Hindus. Be it the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots, the Citizenship Amendment Act, or the Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue, Al-Jazeera has continuously been pushing a Muslim victimhood narrative and villainising the Hindu majority of India.

Al-Jazeera has a knack for concocting fake Muslim victimhood narratives while downplaying the real incidents of Islamic terrorism and extremism. OpIndia has reported earlier how Al-Jazeera downplayed the 2002 Godhra massacre and tried to peddle the Muslim victimhood bogey, even though in reality,  a total of 31 Islamists were found guilty of setting the Sabarmati Express on fire, which claimed the lives of 59 Hindus (mostly women and children).

Even during the Islamist onslaught against Hindus in Bangladesh in 2024, Al Jazeera tried to pass off the incidents of Muslim mobs killing and raping Hindus, looting Hindu houses and desecrating Hindu temples as acts of ‘political retribution’. The Islamist propaganda outlet even claimed that Indian media houses reporting the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh are Islamophobic.

Al-Jazeera also echoes the anti-India position on the Kashmir issue and even downplays the horrors endured by the Kashmiri Pandits.

Al-Jazeera has also been peddling falsehoods and propaganda against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially concerning the 2002 Gujarat Riots when he was the state’s Chief Minister. This continues even as the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Modi long back.

The Qatari propaganda outlet has also been platforming individuals inherently hateful towards India and Hindus. Al-Jazeera has a specific page on Kashmir where they try to show India as a villain and oppressor, and also ridiculous equivalence with the situation in war-torn Palestine.

In more recent months, Al-Jazeera reported about the ‘I Love Muhammad’ row in India by maliciously concealing facts and portraying Muslims as victims of persecution.

In April this year, when Muslim mobs protesting against the Waqf Amendment Bill attacked Hindus in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, Al-Jazeera downplayed the Islamist atrocities and even attempted to contextualise Islamist violence as ‘protest’ against the Waqf law.

Moreover, during Operation Sindoor in May this year, when India attacked Islamic terror establishments inside Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, Al-Jazeera peddled pro-Pakistan narrative. It even published fake news that Pakistani forces had captured an Indian Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Shivani Singh. A claim both the Pakistani and Indian sides denied, and months later, Singh’s picture with President Droupadi Murmu surfaced on social media, further exposing the Qatari Islamist propaganda outlet’s lies.

Shadow of the Muslim Brotherhood in India

While the Muslim Brotherhood does not essentially have a direct presence in India, its ideology has a profound impact on Islamist outfits in India. Not to forget, the Muslim Brotherhood inspired Maulana Abul Ala Maududi’s Jamaat-e-Islami in the 1940s. Banned Islamic terror outfits like the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Popular Front of India (PFI), both of which have been involved in Jihadist attacks against Hindus and are working on plans to turn India into an Islamic nation, draw inspiration from Muslim Brotherhood tactics. Both relied on radicalising youth, pushing an anti-secular agenda, and framing the majority community and mainstream government as ‘oppressors of Muslims’ who must be fought against.

Many Kashmiri Islamic terror outfits are also reported to be influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has historically backed separatist movements and advocated an anti-India narrative. Besides providing intellectual scaffolding, the Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups are also reported to be involved in providing financial and propaganda support to anti-India Jihadist elements.

Back in 2021, the Muslim Brotherhood had launched a #BoycottIndianProducts campaign against India, targeting India’s economic interests. The #BoycottIndianProducts campaign on social media was started after the eviction drive against encroachers in Assam, which had turned violent after some encroachers had attacked the police. Holding the government responsible for the incident, people mostly from Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries,, including Turkey, Egypt and Iraq, had launched the campaign to boycott products made in India.

Unsurprisingly, ‘news articles’ were also published that promoted this anti-India trend by several media houses connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, including Al-Jazeera.

In 2023, the Muslim Brotherhood conspired to paint a bad picture of India under the guise of defending the honour of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Back then, the Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (DFRAC) reported that the Muslim Brotherhood also runs a smear campaign against the Hindus who work in the Gulf countries.

Donald Trump’s hypocrisy in dealing with Islamic terrorism is evident. He mollycoddles designated terrorist-turned-politician Sharaa of Syria and the Islamic terror-sponsoring army regime in Pakistan while acting against the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Trump’s action against the Muslim Brotherhood after the ordered review might help India in its fight against Islamic terrorism and foreign networks backing it.