Why Banning the Muslim Brotherhood in the West is not enough

Policy Brief

Executive Summary

Western designations of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organization target only the named entity, leaving its ideological core, political Islam’s advocacy for sharia-based governance, Islamic supremacy, and replacement of secular systems, untouched and adaptable. In contrast, Muslim-majority states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan suppress the ideology itself, banning groups that promote these principles regardless of rebranding. Recent Western actions, including U.S. designations of specific MB branches (Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 2025–2026 and state-level measures in Texas and Florida, demonstrate limited impact. Successor networks exploit religious freedoms to advance identical goals through advocacy, education, and influence operations. To protect democratic sovereignty, Western governments must reclassify political Islam’s governance ambitions as a regulable political ideology, akin to historical oversight of anti-democratic movements. This enables targeted restrictions on sharia supremacy promotion without infringing on personal religious practice.