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Within a week of President Donald Trump taking office, it was reported that the new administration was already engaged in talks about designating the Muslim Brotherhood as an official terror organization. On Monday, the Washington Times reported that the issue has now been put on the back burner, as the infighting within the administration was becoming too grandiose it was better to ignore it. The State Department reportedly argued that “there’s not one monolithic Muslim Brotherhood,” and therefore it’s too disorganized and broad to receive the designation.
The argument that the Brotherhood is too loosely organized to designate it a terror organization is invalid, as the group’s umbrella of influence is so widespread that the administration’s failure to come to a conclusion leaves the organization unattended to. Continuing to ignore the Muslim Brotherhood allows its leaders’ messages of hate against the West and their calls for violent jihad against non-believers to go on and breed a new generation of jihadists aimed at destroying American lives.
The Muslim Brotherhood was created in 1928 in Egypt as a religious, political, and social movement to continue the spread and influence of Islam. Since its inception, the group has been led by leaders known as Supreme Guides who call for jihad against Westerners and the “infidels” who don’t follow Sharia Law or follow the prophet Mohammed.
The Brotherhood sees both the United States and Israel as “the Muslim’s real enemies.” Muhamed Badie, the group’s current Supreme Guide, said that “waging jihad against both of these infidels is a commandment of Allah.”
The Brotherhood advocates for violent jihad, not only against Americans and Israelis, but all those who live the Western life. The Muslim Brotherhood, in a campaign to execute their grand plan of a Muslim-dominated globe, say domination can only be achieved through killing those who do not stay in line with the faith. Badie’s mission, much like the mission of other Islamic leaders, is to push the rule of Sharia Law and spread the idea of jihad to the next generation. The rhetoric and social movement that is pushed by the organization inspires and directs such radical Islamists to commit such atrocious attacks.
During a sermon in 2010, Supreme Guide Badie said the “change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life.”
Not only does the Brotherhood push for its followers to execute future attacks, it also praises and applauds those that have already done so. Some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, including Osama bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have come out of the Muslim Brotherhood. These animals are exalted by the Islamic organization as heroes to the faith.
The group’s previous Supreme Guide, Muhammed Mahdi Akef, praised bin Laden, saying that he was “in all certainty, a mujahid (heroic fighter), and I have no doubt in his sincerity in resisting the occupation close to Allah on high.”
Radical Islam is at war with America. To fail to identify the Muslim Brotherhood as the enemy and the refusal to equate them to the monsters that attacked us at home on September 11, 2001, is not only thoughtless, it’s dangerous.
Trump has a choice to make a strong pivot from the Obama administration and not be complicit in supporting the brotherhood. During the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, Obama stood idly by as religious leaders overthrew Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to seize power.
I implore the Trump administration to bring the issue of the Muslim Brotherhood to the front burner once again. As a leader, President Trump needs to take a stand against radical Islamic terror and the groups that support and advocate for it. Neglecting to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as an official foreign terrorist organization is irresponsible and will only allow radicals worldwide to continue on their grand jihad, killing and maiming Westerners and any freedom-loving individual that doesn’t believe in the virus that is Islamism.
Kris “Tanto” Paronto is a former Army Ranger from 2nd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment and private security contractor who has deployed throughout South America, Central America, the Middle East and North Africa. He also worked with the US Government’s Global Response Staff conducting low profile security in high threat environments throughout the world. Mr. Paronto was part of the CIA annex security team that responded to the terrorist attack on the US Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, September 11th, 2012, helping to save over 20 lives while fighting off terrorists from the CIA Annex for over 13 hours.
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