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On the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, the Egyptian Brotherhood’s acting general guide openly praised Hamas’s attack and called for more like it.
By United with Israel Staff
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he intends to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, confirming the decision in an interview with Just the News.
“It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” he said, adding that final documents are already being prepared. According to the outlet, the decision follows months of concern within the administration about the Brotherhood’s activities inside the United States, and reflects a policy Trump has been considering since the start of his second term.
The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, is widely regarded as the ideological wellspring of modern political Islam. From its earliest days, Banna fused religious revival with political agitation, insisting that Islam is inseparable from governance and national identity.
The organization’s motto — “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope” — embodies the movement’s absolutist worldview and has inspired affiliates across the Middle East, including Hamas, which explicitly defines itself as the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood.
Throughout its history, the group has been linked to violence and subversion: it dispatched volunteers to fight in the first Arab-Israeli war, its members carried out political assassinations in Egypt, and it has long been accused of fueling extremism throughout the region.
That radical legacy continues today. On the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, the Egyptian Brotherhood’s acting general guide openly praised Hamas’s attack and called for more like it, declaring that the assault “awakened the cinder of jihad within the nation” and “inspired those who are highly motivated and committed to the mission to understand how to act for liberation.”
He also urged the world to provide Gaza “with all forms of political, economic, and military support,” underscoring the ideological and operational link between the Brotherhood and Hamas.
The organization has been banned or designated a terrorist group by multiple Middle Eastern governments, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, while Egypt and Jordan have outlawed it entirely.
In the United States, efforts to designate the Brotherhood date back years. During his 2017 confirmation hearing, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson grouped the organization with Al-Qaeda as part of the global structure of radical Islam, a view shared by numerous national security officials at the time.
Trump’s announcement also follows a move last week by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who designated both the Muslim Brotherhood and its U.S.-based offshoot, CAIR, as terrorist and transnational criminal organizations, barring them from acquiring property in the state. Abbott accused the groups of supporting terrorism abroad and subverting American law through “violence, intimidation, and harassment.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the renewed American initiative, praising Trump’s decision as an important step toward confronting a movement he warned has destabilized the Middle East for decades. “Israel has already outlawed parts of the organization,” Netanyahu said, “and we are working to complete that process soon.”
With Washington, Jerusalem, and several Arab capitals aligned in their assessment, momentum is building toward formally recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Supporters of the move argue that it would strengthen global efforts to curb a network whose ideology has repeatedly contributed to radicalization, violence, and the empowerment of groups like Hamas.
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