‘Destroying Western Civilization Within’

The Muslim Brotherhood is a worldwide Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The Brotherhood seeks to establish a worldwide caliphate and implement Sharia (Islamic)-based governance globally. The Brotherhood:

• Is an Islamist political and terrorist organization
• States that its “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western Civilization from within”
• Spawned almost every Islamist terror group of note, including al-Qaeda and Hamas
• Operates according to a doctrine of “gradualism,” a pragmatic strategy of incremental change, using Western freedoms and preying on weak periods in history

Hamas was formed in 1987 during the First Intifada as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Following the creation of Hamas, the governing body of the International Muslim Brotherhood decided to focus its mission on the Palestinian issue and sent out a directive that Palestine Committees be formed in countries throughout the world.

U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee served as the original Hamas infrastructure in the United States. It initially consisted of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the fundraising arm of the Palestine Committee); Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the propaganda & media arm; and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), a think tank designed to promote a fundamentalist view of the Palestinian issue.

In 2008, HLF leaders were convicted of funneling over $12 million to Hamas, the largest terrorism financing operation in American history to date.

'Civilization-Jihad': Strategy for America

In May 1991, the Muslim Brotherhood released an “Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.”

The memorandum outlined a “Civilization-Jihadist Process,” stating that Muslims “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands … so that … God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.”

The memorandum outlined a strategy for making Islam a dominant force in the U.S. through gradual "settlement," enabling the movement to become "a part of the homeland,” “stable,” “rooted” in people's minds and supported by established organizations.

In America, the most prominent of those organizations are the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

CAIR has been called a “successor organization” to the IAP and HLF. FBI agents uncovered CAIR’s connection to Hamas while investigating the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. An FBI document places CAIR among the Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee" branches.

CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial. On July 1, 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis upheld CAIR’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator because of “ample evidence” linking it to Hamas.

CAIR was co-founded in 1994 by Nihad Awad, Omar Ahmad and Rafeeq Jaber — all of whom had close ties to IAP. Awad served as IAP’s public relations director between 1993-94.

Awad, who is still CAIR’s executive director, publicly declared in 1994,

“I used to support the PLO, and I used to be the President of the General Union of Palestine Students, which is part of the PLO here in the United States, but after I researched the situation inside Palestine and outside, I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.”

On November 24, 2023, at an AMP conference, just weeks after the October 7, 2023 massacre in which Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more, Awad said that he was "happy to see" Hamas attack the Jewish state and applauded Hamas terrorists for "breaking the siege."

Awad added, “The people of Gaza have the right to self-defense.”

In September 2025, at a CAIR conference in Washington, D.C., anti-Israel activist and political operative Linda Sarsour revealed that CAIR was behind the funding of newly elected NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)

AMP grew out of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the original propaganda & media arm of the Palestine Committee. Founded in 2005 by Hatem Bazian, AMP was established after plaintiffs in a lawsuit successfully won a $156 million settlement in the U.S. against IAP, HLF and the American Muslim Society (AMS) for funding Hamas.

The lawsuit charged that those funds were used for terror, including the killing of American teenager David Boim, who was shot in the head by Hamas terrorists while waiting for a bus outside an Israeli city in the West Bank.

Instead of paying the settlement, which was ordered in 2004, IAP folded. Less than a year later, AMP opened with much of the same leadership and staff as IAP and AMS. In 2017, Boim’s parents filed a new lawsuit under the “alter-ego doctrine,” charging that AMP was simply the reconstitution of IAP and AMS.

The suit further argued that AMP itself had provided material support for Hamas (terror financing) through a series of intermediary organizations. To date, the case is still ongoing.

In 2010, AMP co-founded the National Students for Justice in Palestine as an umbrella organization to coordinate campus SJP chapters across North America. (AMP’s founder Bazian, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, established the first SJP chapter at the university in 2001).

SJP has been the major force pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on U.S. college campuses. SJP activists have proposed dozens of BDS resolutions to student governments and urged scheduling meetings and referendum votes on or around Jewish holidays when Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP chapters have endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and promoted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.

Designation as a Terrorist Organization

Beginning in 1980, following a wave of assassinations targeting government officials, Syria banned the Muslim Brotherhood. Russia followed in 2003 after its Supreme Court described it as a terrorist organization.

In 2013, Egypt banned the Brotherhood after Mohammed Morsi, president of Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood party, began instituting authoritarian control over the country and was ousted.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain followed in 2014.

Efforts to Ban the Brotherhood in America

Federal Level

In 2015, efforts began in the U.S. Congress to designate the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization with the introduction of the "Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015" (S.2230) in the Senate. The bill urged the secretary of state to review and apply the designation under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.​

Congressional pushes intensified in 2017–2018 through hearings like "The Muslim Brotherhood's Global Threat" and related bills, highlighting the group's affiliates' terrorism links and calling for broader designation beyond specific branches like Hamas.​

In April 2019, U.S. President Trump directed officials to explore sanctions and a terrorist designation for the organization after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

On November 24, 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the secretaries of state and treasury to evaluate and potentially designate specific overseas Brotherhood chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The order explicitly mentions Brotherhood chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan due to their support of violence against U.S. interests and allies.

State Level

Texas

On November 18, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations” under Texas law.​

The proclamation invokes provisions of the Texas Penal Code and Property Code, defining a “foreign terrorist organization” as an organization operating at least partly outside the U.S. that engages in criminal activity and threatens the security of Texas or its residents.​

The proclamation subjects both organizations to enhanced criminal penalties, authorizes asset‑forfeiture actions and prohibits both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas under state property law.​

It also allows civil actions under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code and directs state authorities to investigate affiliated entities. Abbott Characterizing both groups as attempting to support terrorism and impose their ideology.​

Florida

On December 8, 2025, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order also designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as “foreign terrorist organizations” for state purposes. The order frames the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology as incompatible with American constitutional principles and asserts that CAIR was founded by individuals linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and tied rhetorically to Hamas.​

Florida’s order directs state agencies to take “all lawful measures” to prevent what it describes as unlawful activities by these groups, including denying contracts, employment, funding, or other public benefits or privileges to them and to persons providing them with “material support.”​

It also directs state law enforcement and highway patrol to implement measures against the groups and creates or uses a domestic security council structure to review state authorities and recommend additional actions.​

Under federal law, only the U.S. Secretary of State can make an official Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation. Thus, these designations by Texas and Florida only trigger applicable state laws (and not federal criminal and immigration consequences that follow from an FTO designation).