Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute: Trump Must Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Scale Down US Ties to Qatar/كون كوغلين: ترامب يجب أن يصنّف الإخوان المسلمين كمنظمة إرهابية ويعيد النظر في العلاقات مع قطر
ترامب يجب أن يصنّف الإخوان المسلمين كمنظمة إرهابية ويعيد النظر في العلاقات مع قطر كون كوغلين/معهد جيتستون/ 3 شباط 2025 (ترجمة بحرية واختصار للتعليق بواسطة الياس بجاني)
Trump Must Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Scale Down US Ties to Qatar Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/February 02/2025
For Trump to make genuine progress in bringing peace and stability to the region in his second term, though, his administration must first focus on the root cause of much of the unrest blighting the region. In response to the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent ideology, a number of pro-Western Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have designated the organisation as a terrorist entity. The need for the world’s major Western democracies to take firm action against the Muslim Brotherhood has become even more urgent following the October 7 attacks, with militant groups inspired by the Brotherhood’s ideology said to be responsible for provoking anti-Jewish riots on American university campuses and staging weekly hate marches in many European capitals, such as London.
[Ed] Husain, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is among a number of Middle East experts arguing in favour of the incoming Trump administration designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. He argues that such a move would “force Europe to reconsider the financial, media and mosque networks used by Iran and the Brotherhood in their own countries to project power back into the Middle East.”
At the same time Trump should confront the Gulf state of Qatar over its blatant double standards in supporting terror groups such as Hamas, whose leaders have drawn heavily on the Muslim Brotherhood’s dogma, while at the same time pretending to be an ally of the West. [Qatar’s state-owned media] described the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history as a “heroic operation,” a “miracle” and a “historic turning point” that restored the honour of the Muslim nation, while placing the Palestinian cause back on the world’s agenda.
Qatar played a similar role during the Afghan conflict, when its willingness to provide Taliban negotiators with a base in Doha ultimately resulted in the Taliban regaining power in Kabul, re-establishing its uncompromising Islamist rule over the Afghan people. While the Qataris maintain that their mediation efforts on the Gaza conflict are aimed at ending the bloodshed, their real motive is to ensure that Hamas, the group whose terrorist infrastructure they have helped to finance, survives the conflict, enabling it to maintain its threatening presence on Israel’s southern border. This mission of Qatar’s is a goal about which President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and even President Trump himself, might not be aware. Given Qatar’s overt sympathy for the Hamas cause, at the very least the Trump administration should undertake a serious review of its dealings with Doha, and consider relocating the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base from Qatar to a more friendly location in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates. If US President Donald Trump is really serious about making a positive impact on the Middle East, a good place for him to start would be to designate the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement as a terrorist organisation and scale down Washington’s ties with the Gulf state of Qatar.
Since he won re-election, there has been much speculation that Trump, architect of the ground-breaking Abraham Accords, intends to use his second term in office to negotiate a wide-ranging peace deal aimed at bringing lasting stability to the Middle East. Before he had even taken office, Trump was credited with helping to finalise the Gaza ceasefire deal, after he threatened that “all hell will break out” if Hamas did not release the remaining Israeli hostages held in captivity. More recently, he has called on Egypt and Jordan to accommodate displaced Palestinians in Gaza in order to “clean out” the enclave after significant areas of the territory have been reduced to rubble following 15 months of intense fighting between Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists and Israel. For Trump to make genuine progress in bringing peace and stability to the region in his second term, though, his administration must first focus on the root cause of much of the unrest blighting the region. In this context, the US should target the Muslim Brotherhood, widely regarded as inspiring a range of Islamist terrorist groups from Hamas to al-Qaeda, and the Gulf state of Qatar, which has a long history of sponsoring Islamist causes.
Founded in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of supporting acts of violence to achieve its political objectives.
According to Sir John Jenkins, a retired British diplomat and respected expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Banna supported the political utility of violence, and the Brotherhood conducted attacks, including assassinations and attacks against Egyptian state targets and both Western and Jewish interests during his lifetime. More recently, the Muslim Brotherhood’s disastrous spell in power in Egypt during the Arab Spring is remembered for the mass attacks that were carried out against the country’s Coptic Christian community, as well as the close ties that Egypt, ruled by President Mohamed Morsi (a Muslim Brotherhood member) established with Iran. The organisation’s violent Islamist ideology has also played a role in the formation of numerous terrorist groups in the Middle East, such as the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist group responsible for carrying out the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel, in which around 1,200 Israelis were murdered and another 250 taken hostage.
In response to the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent ideology, a number of pro-Western Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have designated the organisation as a terrorist entity.
Now, as Trump commences his second term in the White House, he should follow suit and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a move that many believe could help to improve the prospects for peace in the Middle East.
The need for the major Western democracies to take firm action against the Muslim Brotherhood has become even more urgent following the October 7 attacks, with militant groups inspired by the Brotherhood’s ideology said to be responsible for provoking anti-Jewish riots on American university campuses and staging weekly hate marches in many European capitals, such as London. Ed Husain, a respected expert on the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent ideology, recently described the organisation as “a destabilising, anti-American, anti-Israeli poison” that was “polluting the air of the Middle East and the wider Muslim world”.
Husain, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is among a number of Middle East experts arguing in favour of the incoming Trump administration designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. He argues that such a move would “force Europe to reconsider the financial, media and mosque networks used by Iran and the Brotherhood in their own countries to project power back into the Middle East.”
Trump previously considered designating the organisation as a terrorist entity during his first term of office following talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a fierce critic of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Following his triumphant return to the White House, Trump should revisit the whole problematic issue of the Muslim Brotherhood, and subject it to the same classification and sanctions regime that has been imposed against other such organisations.
At the same time, Trump should confront the Gulf state of Qatar over its blatant double standards in supporting terror groups such as Hamas, whose leaders have drawn heavily on the Muslim Brotherhood’s dogma, while at the same time pretending to be an ally of the West. Qatar, whose funding of Hamas enabled the group to construct the terrorist infrastructure behind the October 7 attacks, has recently hosted negotiations aimed at ending hostilities in Gaza. Qatar played a similar role during the Afghanistan conflict, when its willingness to provide Taliban negotiators with a base in Doha ultimately resulted in the Taliban regaining power in Kabul, re-establishing its uncompromising Islamist rule over the Afghan people.
Apart from actively supporting terror groups such as Hamas and the Taliban, Qatar is also responsible for creating and funding the Al-Jazeera television network, which has been accused of acting as the propaganda mouthpiece for terrorist organisations such as Hamas.
While the Qataris maintain that their mediation efforts on the Gaza conflict are aimed at ending the bloodshed, their real motive is to ensure that Hamas, the group whose terrorist infrastructure they have helped to finance, survives the conflict, enabling it to maintain its threatening presence on Israel’s border. This goal of Qatar’s is something about which Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and even Trump himself, might not be aware. A telling insight into the Qataris’ thinking was provided on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks last year, when its state-owned media published a series of articles glorifying the Hamas atrocity.
The articles described the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history as a “heroic operation,” a “miracle” and a “historic turning point” that restored the honour of the Muslim nation, while placing the Palestinian cause back on the world’s agenda.
Given Qatar’s overt sympathy for the Hamas cause, at the very least the Trump administration should undertake a serious review of its dealings with Doha, and consider relocating the US military from Al Udeid Air Base from Qatar to a more friendly location in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates.
If Trump is really serious about bringing lasting peace to the Middle East during his second term, he must first neutralise the malign influence of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and their financial backers in Qatar.
ترامب يجب أن يصنّف الإخوان المسلمين كمنظمة إرهابية ويعيد النظر في العلاقات مع قطر كون كوغلين / معهد جيتستون / 3 شباط 2025 (ترجمة بحرية واختصار للتعليق بواسطة الياس بجاني)
