“It is not a coincidence that US President Donald Trump initiated the procedure to include some branches of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ organization in the list of foreign terrorist organizations and global terrorists and signed an executive order for this purpose.” Political analyst Khagani Jafarli said this in an interview with Medianews.az.
According to him, for a long time, influential political figures in the US have been trying to declare the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ a terrorist organization: “The most influential political figure insisting on this, without a doubt, is the US Secretary of State and the President’s National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio. Rubio has been trying to have the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ recognized as a terrorist organization since he was a senator. Prominent representatives of the Republican Party such as Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, and the Governor of Texas Greg Abbott are trying to have the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ recognized as a terrorist organization.
Alongside the Republicans, there are also prominent senators and congressmen among the Democrats who consider the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ a terrorist organization. The Governor of Texas Greg Abbott also seeks the designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a non-governmental organization known for its closeness to the ‘Muslim Brotherhood,’ as a terrorist organization.
All of this was expected. In recent years, the activities of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood,’ the strongest network of political Islam, have been the subject of serious research in the think tanks of the US, Europe, and Great Britain. Those familiar with these studies as well as those who know how Western political thought systems and legislations have been formed saw in which direction the process is going.”
Jafarli noted that during the period of the USSR, that is, during the Cold War years, political Islam was the main ideological weapon of the West to prevent Moscow from exporting communism to Muslim countries: “However, after the Cold War, political Islam itself became problematic for the West compared to communism. Currently, the strongest network of political Islam is considered to be the ‘Muslim Brotherhood.’ Experts evaluate the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ as an ideological source for Sunni jihadist groups such as ‘al-Qaeda.’
Another important factor determining that the recognition of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ as a terrorist organization will inevitably come to the agenda is this organization’s recognition as a terrorist group by several countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. These countries even cut diplomatic ties in 2017, accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism (‘Muslim Brotherhood’).
The strongest reason why the US has not recognized the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ as a terrorist organization until now is the hesitation to face a choice related to two important allies - Turkey and Qatar. Because the West is certain that Qatar is the biggest financial sponsor of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood,’ while Turkey is the strongest political supporter. Declaring the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ a terrorist organization does not mean that prohibitions will be immediately applied to countries with close relations to this institution, but sooner or later this will happen.
For now, Trump is trying to preserve relations with Turkey and Qatar by adopting the course of recognizing not the entire ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ organization, but some of its branches, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as foreign terrorist organizations. However, it can be said that the process will not be satisfied with just this.
The bills introduced in the US House of Representatives and Senate regarding the recognition of the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ as a terrorist organization propose that the entire network be recognized as a terrorist organization.”
The political analyst emphasized that all of these will have a very serious impact on the process of redesigning the political geography of the Middle East.
Toğrul Ali,
Medianews.az
