President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Nov. 24 to begin the process of designating Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as terrorist groups. “The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond,” Trump explained. He then singled out its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt for special focus. Bizarrely, however, he ignored Turkey and Qatar.
This makes about as much sense as banning Italian food without including pasta or pizza, or focusing all the state’s resources on prosecuting purveyors of osso buco.
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO BEGIN TERRORIST DESIGNATION PROCESS FOR SOME MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CHAPTERS
Since Tamim bin Hamad al Thani overthrew his father in 2013 to become Emir, Qatar has used its multitrillion-dollar gas wealth to fund a project of state capture every bit as malign as China attempted two decades ago. However, Tamim has also added an ideological element to his political ambitions. Trump may embrace him as a partner, but Tamim’s mother, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, calls the ideological shots. She is as committed to the Muslim Brotherhood project of global Islamist rule as was Osama bin Laden. Indeed, the chief difference between them is that Osama was willing to live in a cave to fulfill his vision, while Sheikha Moza prefers palaces and paying others to do the cave-squatting.
If Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood mafia boss that likes to maintain an image of respectability through patronage and glad-handing presidents, foreign ministers, and senators, then Turkey is its consigliere. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does Qatar’s dirty work. While Qatar boasts that its Hamas residents are negotiators, Erdoğan helps the group’s terrorist cells plot attacks in Israel from Istanbul. Turkey has become the chief mechanism for terrorism support from Mali to Malaysia, and from Norway to Nigeria. European leaders fear Turkey not because they respect Erdoğan, but because they know he will make them an offer they cannot refuse by activating the Islamist terrorist cells among the Turkish diaspora in Germany. Most of the Muslim umbrella groups in Germany are Muslim Brotherhood-controlled, a legacy of Islamists fleeing secular dictatorships in Syria, Egypt, and Turkey throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Trump’s decision to focus on the Muslim Brotherhood in Lebanon is wise, but he elides a step. It is true that while many in the West focus on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Sunni Islamist groups pose a greater threat in the northern port city of Tripoli and the impoverished Akkar region to its north. Still, to ignore Turkey’s role in the rise of Lebanon’s Muslim Brotherhood presence is akin to ignoring Iran’s role in Hezbollah’s original rise in Lebanon.
The final omissions are in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Yemen team works with Islah, the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, a legacy of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s policies. Yet, Islah works hand-in-glove with both Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and, increasingly, the Houthis. Again, enter Turkey, which has been supporting the group in the key strategic Marib province, whose oil Turkey hopes to divert to Muslim Brotherhood coffers. Amjad Khaled, an Islah member and former director of Yemen’s Transport Brigade, used his position to direct multiple assassinations and bombings, including an attack on Aden’s international airport. He now acknowledges working for the Houthis. The National Democratic Institute, meanwhile, bizarrely worked to empower Islah across South Yemen, the country’s only stable region.
The Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in the UAE is also deadly. More than a decade ago, the Emirati government tried nearly 100 members for attempting to overthrow its government and promoting violence to spring seven core members from prison. Abu Dhabi warned early about the lethality of the Muslim Brotherhood; that the Obama administration ignored them was a gratuitous insult that Trump should not continue.
Trump’s designation is overdue and welcome, but ignoring the Muslim Brotherhood’s sponsors and most lethal groups suggests confusion in the White House and State Department.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.