Banning the Muslim Brotherhood: A good start, but only a first step - opinion

The panelists included Yisrael Ne’eman, a lecturer and author on Middle East nationalism and terrorism; and Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian-Palestinian politician who heads the Jordanian Opposition Coalition. The discussion illuminated the MB’s origins, its enduring and corrupting influence, contemporary threats, and strategies for its eradication.

The catalyst for the conversation was the November US executive order designating MB “chapters” illegal but asking the question “Why not ban all its elements?”

During the week of the webinar the US made it official, branding MB branches in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon as terrorist entities.

This is a critical development but only a first step.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, amid the crumbling Ottoman Caliphate and rising Western colonialism.

As Ne’eman explained, its core ideology is encapsulated in its motto: “Allah is our objective, the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, Jihad is our way, and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

This theological framework, Ne’eman emphasized, positions the MB not only as a political entity but as a “theology” whose mission is not merely internal to Islam but focused on world conquest, distinguishing it from secular Arab nationalism.

Zahran elaborated further, noting that the MB’s rigid structure is akin to a “secret society.” Recruits swear loyalty on the Quran with a loaded pistol to their head, enforcing Al-Samaa wa Al-Taa (“obedience and loyalty”).

Defection from the Brotherhood is as rare and perilous as the brainwashing is all-encompassing. Zahran likened it to leaving the Mafia.

This centralized command ensures unwavering discipline, even among high-profile members like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, according to Zahran, visited Amman shortly after his election to pay homage and make clear what his ideology is centered upon.

The MB’s early years were marked by anti-colonial fervor, but it quickly evolved into a vehicle for pan-Islamic supremacy.

By the 1930s, it had allied with Nazi Germany, influencing figures like Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who stoked antisemitic riots and massacres in Israel and broadcast antisemitic propaganda from Berlin.

This foundation laid the groundwork for the organization’s historical role in fostering extremism.

The MB’s influence permeates a century of conflict. Ne’eman traced its fingerprints on groups like Hamas, which he described as the “Palestine chapter” of the organization.

Founded in 1987, Hamas has a charter that echoes MB doctrines, blending antisemitism with calls for Islamic world conquest and Palestinian Arab nationalism.

Zahran highlighted Jordan’s pivotal role, dubbing it the “point of gravity” in the Middle East.

He recounted how Jordan’s King Hussein allied with the Muslim Brotherhood in 1970 during Black September, when Jordan sided against PLO fedayeen (military groups willing to sacrifice themselves), labeling their killings – along with thousands of Palestinian Arabs – as religiously sanctioned “jihad.”

This “Catholic marriage” between the Hashemites and MB persists, with Zahran citing Hussein’s 1996 admission that the organization was the regime’s “own political party.”

Globally, the MB birthed al-Qaeda and inspired ISIS.

Ne’eman referenced Abdullah Azzam, a Jordanian-Palestinian MB scholar and Osama bin Laden’s mentor, whose fatwas justified alliances with the West (e.g., against Soviets in Afghanistan), only to turn against them later.

Because Azzam was so important, and jihadist Islamic leaders would make regular pilgrimages to see him, Zahran talked about Azzam’s impromptu encounter with bin Laden as one of the revering pilgrims.

The MB’s infiltration has also extended to the West. Post-9/11, US administrations unwittingly bolstered the group; Zahran noted WikiLeaks cables revealing Bush-era directives to engage Jordan’s MB.

Ne’eman linked this to the “red-green axis”– Marxist-Islamist alliances exploiting Western freedoms for subversion.

Today, the MB poses existential risks through infiltration of Western nations and the developing world, massive parallel funding networks that exist in the shadows, and alliances made with others that ultimately serve their long-term objectives.

The Trump administration’s January 2026 designations targeted MB branches in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon specifically for aiding Hamas post-Oct. 7, 2023.

Zahran expanded on this, noting that the MB in Jordan smuggled arms and managed aid drops at the behest of Hamas, while the MB in Egypt facilitated smuggling from Sinai, enabling its massive arms buildup over two decades, and ensuring Hamas’s two-year ammunition supply after the war began.

The MB in Lebanon supplied ISIS fighters to Syria.

Ne’eman warned of broader threats: Qatar and Turkey as state agents of the Muslim Brotherhood. He noted that Qatar’s trillions fund US campuses and media like Al Jazeera, radicalizing youth, adding that Al Jazeera and its patron government both need to be branded terrorist entities.

Turkey, under Erdogan (an MB affiliate), ranks as the world’s eighth-largest military power, shielding jihadists. Both evade sanctions due to US bases and NATO ties, despite Trump’s “friendships.”

Zahran introduced what he called “the C word”– China – as a shadowy enabler. According to him, Beijing props up MB allies like Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, and Iran, and it views Israel and the West as obstacles.

While Israel is typically in the crosshairs of the MB and all its chapters, the conversation turned to its domestic MB affiliates.

It is noteworthy that the Ra’am Party, headed by Mansour Abbas – one of three Arab parties that sit in the Knesset – joined the previous Israeli governing coalition, the first Arab Islamist party to do so.

However, in what was interpreted as a way of avoiding being branded a terrorist MB entity, following the Trump 2025 Executive Order the MB-linked Ra’am Party publicly severed formal ties with the organization.

Ra’am also announced that membership would be open to Israeli Jews. Zahran dismissed this as a façade, noting that once you’re in, you don’t leave.

In the West, threats manifest in dawah (“proselytization”). Doron Keidar, an IDF veteran who fought in Gaza, joined the conversation to bring concluding remarks. As he spoke, he displayed a Hamas flag bearing the MB emblem, found amid thousands of similar flags in Gaza.

He cited US libraries stocking propagandistic books like We Are Palestinian, twisting and perverting history to indoctrinate children. 
Ne’eman stressed the MB’s massive sources of criminal funding, again bringing in Mafia-like comparisons, with major income from drugs and oil smuggling via Turkey.

Its victims? Mostly Muslims, he said, noting that 98% of jihadist killings target co-religionists deemed “apostates.”

Eradication of the MB demands multifaceted and sustained global action. Ne’eman advocated an “iron fist,” outlawing the MB globally, seizing assets, and prosecuting advocates the way Nazis were prosecuted.

Awareness is key, and the West must educate on the Brotherhood and its dangerous theology and ideology.

Targeting funding from Qatar and Turkey is also critical, despite Trump’s embrace of their leaders as friends. Ne’eman criticized Trump’s “warning shots” as insufficient without hitting these “snakes’ heads.”

Zahran proposed practical US steps, such as revoking visas and green cards for people with jihadi affiliations, even retroactively.

As a former US Embassy staffer, he urged the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] to enforce “good behavior” clauses, deporting inciters. This “litmus test,” he explained, would deter radicals, as most Muslims aren’t jihadists but fear troublemakers.

Keidar emphasized legal ingenuity: Use Western laws against dawah groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In Israel, ban funding for radical camps that brainwash Arab-Israelis in Turkey.

The panelists agreed that it is critical to expand terrorist designations worldwide. Zahran noted Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on domestic Wahhabism as a model, despite public radicalism.

Ne’eman urged targeting the red-green axis, including China’s role.

The year 2028 marks the Muslim Brotherhood’s centennial. However, if it becomes a litmus test in the presidential campaign, and if the candidates heed the warnings, it could mark the group’s end.

Eradication isn’t optional; it represents survival for the West and moderate Muslims alike. If the Muslim Brotherhood is not eradicated swiftly, the West will be in peril of its own eradication.