Trump signals plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization

President Donald Trumphas signaled that he is planning to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization after several groups have stepped up warnings in recent months that the Islamist group is gaining a foothold in the U.S.

“It will be done in the strongest and most powerful terms,” Trump told Just the Newsover the weekend.“Final documents are being drawn.”

Trump’s comment comes shortly after Texas declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and just days after the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), a prominent global research center, released a comprehensive 200-page studywarning of the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence in the U.S.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization founded in Egypt, has gained access to government agencies, been involved in advising American civil rights policy, infiltrated educational institutions, and created a vast socialmediafootprint, the report states, while outlining the belief that the group has allegedly targeted U.S.government agencies for infiltration, including the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice, through career appointments and advisory roles.

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President Donald Trump signs a letter in the White House.(Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We welcome President Trump’s statements and the growing recognition that the Muslim Brotherhood, its ideology and network pose a serious challenge to the United States and democratic societies,” Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, said in a press release after Trump’s interview with Just the News.

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“A formal U.S.designation would represent an important first step to confront the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.This will require sustained, evidence-based policy, serious scrutiny of its affiliated structures and funding streams, and long-term investment in democratic resilience.”

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Supporters of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood take part in a protest in the village of Sweimeh, near the Jordanian border.(Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images)

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The ISGAP report dives deep into alleged terrorist ties within the group along with various funding sources from places like Qatar, while making the case that both al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood “share the strategic aim” of establishing an Islamic state government by sharia law and differing only in tactics where the Brotherhood’s “gradualism allows it to maintain ideological continuity with militant jihad while avoiding direct confrontation.”

In addition to declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, ISGAP says it has been working to gather scholars and experts on the subject in an effort to nudge Congress into acting on the specifics of the report.

ISGAP is calling on the U.S.to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.(J.David Ake/Getty Images;Mauhmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

com/category/politics/executive/white-house" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White Housefor comment but did not hear back by press time.

“The Brotherhood is the progenitor of all modern Jihadist terror groups, from al-Qaeda to HAMAS,” Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka posted on Xover the weekend.“The time has come.”

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