How to Finish off the Muslim Brotherhood

Excerpt

Washington has argued for years about how to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood. President Donald Trump just upended a decade of debate by choosing precision to surgically target the Brotherhood branches that meet the terrorism threshold under US law.

To most people, the Muslim Brotherhood is an abstract idea. It is a patchwork of national branches that share an ideological lineage but often diverge in practice. Some branches are political parties, some have become armed movements, and others have stuck to charity work.

The evolving nature of the different branches has made it difficult for the United States to designate the entirety of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood lacks a single headquarters, a unified command, or an organizational structure that demonstrates control over multiple branches.

When it was founded in 1928 by Egyptian teacher Hassan al-Banna, it had a centralized authority with a supreme guide and maintained close relations with branches across the Middle East. Over time, that structure fragmented. National branches and affiliates continued to share the original branch’s ideology but operated independently, adapting to their own political environments.

Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs and the Levant. Previously, Sharawi worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he focused mainly on Hezbollah. Ahmad previously worked at the International Finance Corporation and S&P Global. He holds a BA in international relations from King’s College London and an MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.