Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates already consider the Hamas-affiliated organization to be a terrorist group
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is set to introduce legislation that would formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, financially crippling the global Islamist group and sanctioning its violent offshoots worldwide, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025 adopts “a new modernized strategy” for designating the organization, which preaches terrorism against Israel, the United States, and Western governments, a fact sheet the Cruz team has distributed to Senate offices states.
While past legislative efforts focused on the organization’s nebulous global operation, the new bill employs a “bottom-up” approach that systematically sanctions the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent branches around the world. The bill centers on active terrorist organizations, creating a legal framework to designate the Muslim Brotherhood writ large as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Previous efforts failed, the Cruz fact sheet reads, “because not all Muslim Brotherhood branches are currently violent and would therefore meet the criteria for designation.” The new bill, set to be introduced on Tuesday, instructs the secretary of state 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.”
This approach, congressional sources told the Free Beacon, draws from President Donald Trump’s successful 2017 bid to sanction Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which employs tactics similar to those used by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Trump administration created the legal justification to designate the IRGC as an FTO by targeting the group’s violent affiliates.
The governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates have already designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. White House and congressional officials during Trump’s first term began laying the groundwork to sanction the Muslim Brotherhood’s global affiliates, but a formal designation never materialized. Momentum has built over the past few months for Congress to revisit the issue with Trump back in office, as the Free Beacon first reported in June.
Cruz’s legislation has early support from several GOP senators, including John Boozman (Ark.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Dave McCormick (Pa.), Ashley Moody (Fla.), and Rick Scott (Fla.). The bill also has endorsements from groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Christians United for Israel (CUFI), and the Foundation for Defense of Democracy’s advocacy arm, FDD Action.
AIPAC said in a statement that it supports the bill, noting that the Muslim Brotherhood “has backed Hamas and other groups that use terrorism to attack U.S. allies and interests across the Middle East,” while FDD Action director of government relations Alexandria Paolozzi told the Free Beacon that “as the U.S. works to foster a new era of cooperation in the Middle East, it must stand with its partners in the region to hold accountable those who promote terror and extremist ideologies.”
Sandra Hagee Parker, chairwoman of the CUFI Action Fund, said that “the Muslim Brotherhood’s unique network requires a modern approach to law enforcement and this bill enables exactly that.”
Once Cruz formally files the legislation, broad GOP majorities will likely rally behind it in the House and Senate. 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.”
One source familiar with Cruz’s thinking on the bill said the senator “deliberately and extensively workshopped [the bill] so that it could become law.”
“Cruz got it to a place where it was both in line with President Trump’s priorities while still being bipartisan,” the source explained. “The goal is to get it passed and implemented.”
Cruz’s legislation outlines three primarily vehicles to designate the Muslim Brotherhood’s global operation, as well as those of its violent offshoots. These include congressional action under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 (ATA), a State Department designation as an FTO, and another designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
The bill effectively “does all three,” according to the fact sheet and legislative text.
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 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.
The legislation’s third pillar allows for sanctioning of the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots for “conducting terrorism” under both the FTO and SDGT designations.
The United States has already designated multiple Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as terror groups, including Hamas, which bills itself as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Others include the Hasm Movement and Liwa al-Thawra, which the State Department says are “associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.”
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