Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz is set to introduce a Senate bill on Tuesday that would formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025, which follows repeated attempts to name the group a terrorist organization, differs from previous versions as it calls for a “bottom-up” approach, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
According to a fact sheet provided by Cruz’s office, the previous attempts failed because “not all Muslim Brotherhood branches are currently violent and wouldn’t therefore meet the criteria for designation.” Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates already designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
The bill urges 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.”
That approach mirrors President Donald Trump’s 2017 effort to sanction Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an effort that designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist group.
Cruz’s effort is openly supported by GOP senators from Arkansas (John Boozman and Tom Cotton), Florida (Ashley Moody and Rick Scott), and Pennsylvania (Dave McCormick).
“Arab allies also appear ready to back the initiative, with one official telling the Free Beacon in June that ‘any of the countries in the Middle East that have already designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization would welcome the United States doing the same,’” the Free Beacon noted.
Cruz’s bill would use three ways to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization: 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).
“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 Free Beacon stated. “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.”
In April, Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood from the country. According to their charter, the terrorist group Hamas is a “wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.” The Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 for making peace with Israel.
“The Muslim Brotherhood’s goal is to turn the world into a theocratic empire,” Stand With Us has noted. “The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, is a revolutionary fundamentalist movement to restore the caliphate and strict shariah (Islamist) law in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world. Today, it has chapters in 80 countries. … The Brotherhood wants America to fall. In 2010 their Supreme Guide told their followers to be ‘patient’ because America ‘is heading towards its demise.’”