Eli Lake, Columnist

U.S. Shows Beginning of a Response to Muslim Brotherhood

The Trump administration is wisely designating affiliates as terrorists, but not the umbrella organization.

January 31, 2018 at 3:48 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

The U.S. isn't sure how to handle the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in Egypt.
Photographer: Khaled Kamel/AFP/Getty Images

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A year ago it looked like Donald Trump was going to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Some of his closest advisers pushed for it. U.S. allies like Egypt quietly made the case too. Many Republicans in Congress also believed the movement that created political Islam should be treated like al Qaeda.

It didn't happen. Trump administration officials tell me the initial proposal last year to designate the entire Muslim Brotherhood, which includes chapters and offshoots in countries all over the world, stalled out. By the time the White House approved its national security strategy in December, it didn't even mention the Muslim Brotherhood by name.