Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designation
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The Muslim Brotherhood terrorist designation is a decision John Kiriakou has questioned on the ground that nothing about the organisation has changed to justify it.

The designation

Kiriakou noticed the subject rising on Fox News and elsewhere in right-wing print media, and believed that the State Department had just declared the Muslim Brotherhood, or elements of it, a terrorist organisation. He is explicit that he is not certain of the fact, "I think, I'm not positive."

The objection

His argument is from the record. The organisation is 105 years old; it has never carried out an anti-American terrorist operation; and it has never been called a terrorist organisation by any American administration.

He separates the group's character from the label: "It's fundamentalist. It doesn't like us, but that doesn't mean it's a terrorist organization."

What he presses on is the purpose. If it is now a terrorist organisation, "does that mean we attack it?", what is the reason for making the declaration at all?

Kiriakou raises the case immediately alongside "narco terrorist" and Islamofascism, as another instance of a label arriving before any conduct that would warrant it.

See also

- Islamofascism
- Economic roots of terrorism
- FBI manufactured terrorism cases
- Trump cartel terrorist designation
