Trump Administration seeks to designate Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organization .The White House said on Tuesday that the administration of President Donald Trump was working to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, in coordination with leaders of some Arab countries, while the group expressed surprise that the administration’s formulation was subject to “repressive dictatorships” in the Middle East .White House media official , Sarah Sanders said , “The president has consulted with his national security team and regional leaders share his concerns, the classification takes its course through internal procedures.” The New York Times reported earlier that the Trump administration was pushing for the inclusion of a group of Muslim Brotherhood is on the list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” A senior US official confirmed what the newspaper said, and said that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had asked the classification from Trump during a special meeting during a visit to Washington on April 9. According to this official, the National Security Adviser In the White House John Bolton and Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo support the classification, but Pentagon officials and other sites oppose it and seek a more limited measure. The move would lead to impose sanctions on Egypt’s oldest Muslim political group.
For its part, the Muslim Brotherhood said it will continue to work in accordance with the peaceful middle thought to serve the communities in which they live. The group expressed in a statement its surprise that the formulation of the direction of the administration is subject to “oppressive dictatorships” in the Middle East. The statement added that the crimes committed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are not limited to members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but rather to all categories of the Egyptian people.
On Wednesday, Iran and Turkey responded to US efforts to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, while Ankara warned of the impact on anti-Islamism in the West, Tehran said Washington supported the region’s biggest terrorist organization. The Iranin foreign minister , Muhammed Jawad Zarif criticized these attempts and said ” the United States is not in a position to name others as terrorist organizations, rejecting any American attempt on this matter. He told reporters – on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Doha, Qatar – that the United States supports the largest terrorist in the region, Israel, adding that “all the United States has done so far is to destabilize the situation of the region, I do not remember even one incident that indicated to the contribution of the United States in the stability of our region.”
In Ankara, Omar Glick, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said the United States’ move to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization” would strengthen anti-Islamism in the West and around the world. He added ” A possible US decision would be a major blow to the democratic transition in the Middle East, and will provide full support to non-democratic elements, and this is also the biggest support that can be made to the propaganda of ISIS. He added “This will have results that promote anti-Islamism in Europe and America and strengthen the position of the extreme right around the world “, warning that the closure of democratic participation and the prohibition of democratic elements, a step that will help in the emergence of a number of terrorist organizations covertly “.oaattabr Gleick considered that” equality between the terrorist group tend to extremist violence such as ISIS and the group is moving in accordance with the law and democracy such as Muslims Brotherhood , will be one of the biggest history mistakes. ”
Observers believe that bringing the Muslim Brotherhood to the list of terrorist groups could complicate Washington’s relationship with Turkey, its ally in NATO ,where the Muslim Brotherhood is linked to the Turkish Justice and Development Party, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . Many members of the group fled to Turkey after being banned in Egypt.
According to political analysis, it sees in the American effort a correction to a historical error committed by the United Kingdom, which, in the view of some political analyzes, believes that it was behind the establishment or patronage of the organization in 1928. It considers the decision of the century, as Washington included the Muslim Brotherhood on the terrorist lists. From the perspective of those analyzes, the decision is of a security nature first and political second. From the start of his election campaign, US President Donald Trump has not hidden his disgust with those who have “hatred and evil” for America, the free world and human and civil values. He did not hesitate to mention them on more than one occasion before and after taking office. Trump’s position is supported by the vast majority in popular circles before the official, but the chronic conflict was to deal with this evil: both in the title of the Brotherhood or its broad statement called by mistake : “political Islam” or “moderates” or ” Moderate Muslim” the learner of literature and even the practices of professors and students of this organization , rather than the group , certainly knows , certainly knows that it is a military , fighting and political organization with all the available weapons. And he is fully aware that the difference or disagreement between these political shops or “military” barracks is only “pious” and “pragmatism” and “opportunism” exceeded the Machiavelli in everything.
These analyzes continue to support the decision to be made by saying that the public and hidden US debate about the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamists in general can not continue to ignore the historical mistakes of two of America’s most popular presidents: Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Barack Hussein Obama. The first received the students of Hassan al-Banna and Sayed Qutb – the author of the theory of “governance” and the expiation of the state and the exploitation of honors, lives and money of those who are not in the same faith “Millat” – received them in the White House and was a reason to enter the term “Mujahideen” into the English dictionary by referring to the Afghan fighters against ” The Soviet invasion . The second is that history will not forget his failed attempt to empower the Brotherhood over the necks of Arab peoples and capabilities.
Trump, which is still controversial in every decision taken largely by the outside or internally, will make in his decision a tsunami that I see more important than any decision so far on the purely security. To consider the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization not as a political party or charity, is a decisive decision where it take things to the confrontation undoubtedly which will lead to a security distinguishing process – Arab and European – and then the circles of influence come to include many sensitive things legally, politically, intellectually, culturally and media.
Political analysis continues to say that the resolution is a response to countries that have not hesitated for years, even decades, to take this courageous and dangerous step simultaneously, and also to wave a big stick to all snakes and saboteurs (chameleons) who will weep over the alleged moderation through the selective reference to the characters loved by people not because they are “brother Muslims.” The decision, in turn, bears the seed of a stick that is beating the nest of wasps if security experts did not surround and eliminate it well before the beating , results will be painful temporarily, but will inevitably lead to recovery and full recovery and urgent by God willing .
To classify any group or organization as a terrorist group, US law requires three conditions: “that the organization be non-American, be involved in activities and operations or possess the capabilities and intent to carry out terrorist activities, and that such terrorist activities threaten the national security of the United States and the safety of US citizens” The classification also requires that the US Secretary of State publish his decision in the Official Gazette, but he has the right, by law, not to publish the classification as “national security secrets.” The organization ,which is classified as a terrorist organization ,is entitled to object to this before the DC courts .And to pass the Legislation in the US Congress required a confirmation by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Congress that the group met the necessary criteria to be classified a terrorist group, and the US president can to issue an executive order by which he orders the State Department to classify the group a terrorist group.
There is no doubt that in the event of the American decision to consider the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, it will have great negative repercussions on the Muslim Brotherhood everywhere in the world, especially if the other countries followed the example of the United States or at worst refused to accept the Muslim Brotherhood in its territory or demanded that they leave to avoid problems with the United States and others: Among these consequences:
The first is to force the US administration through the Foreign Ministry to put the Brotherhood on the lists of international terrorism. This means imposing a ban on citizens and residents on American soil, and obliging companies not to deal with anyone connected with the Brotherhood, And not allow these (both the Brotherhood and those who deal with them) to enter the United States.
Second: Criminalizing any material support for the group and subjecting such support to criminal punishment.
Third: Enabling the US Treasury Department to require US financial institutions with any assets belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood to suspend all financial transactions related to them.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in March 1928 in the city of Ismailia by Sheikh Hassan al-Banna, four years after the fall of the Ottoman caliphate and son transferred to Cairo and other parts of Egypt and then to large areas of Arab and Islamic world . The Brotherhood is considered to be the most important Islamic movement in the modern era, the most widespread in the Arab world and the Islamic world, and among the Muslim communities in the West. It is also considered the largest opposition movement to the political regimes in Egypt and many Arab countries. Political parties emerged from the movement led and lead governments in Morocco, Turkey, Sudan and Tunisia, and participated in power and parliamentary assemblies in Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Libya and other countries. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Egypt’s first free presidential election in 2012. But the group is now banned and many of its members and many of its leaders are jailed.
The US effort is further complicated by the presence of members of the group in a number of Washington-allied countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey. However, the most significant impact will be the share of Muslim American activists. A close associate of the Muslim Brotherhood said , “The classification will hinder a lot of charitable work by organizations and individuals who are in the group inside and outside the US territories,”.
In this regard, he pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood and “many of its sympathizers have a wide influence in many mosques and Islamic centers in various US states, as in the center and mosque of Dar al-Hijra in northern Virginia, near Washington, DC” ” .One of Egyptian opposition , resident in Virginia , expressed his concern about the consequences of this decision once it is taken saying : Many Brotherhood members have fled Egypt and came to the United States, some of them made requests for political asylum based on the persecution of the authorities in Cairo as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and so may be considered members of a terrorist group in a way that impedes their quest to stay in the United States in legitimate ways. ”
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies