US State Department: Working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed in an interview on Tuesday that the United States is putting forth efforts into the process of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization.
Rubio shared in an interview with Sid Rosenberg of “Sid and Friends in the Morning,” that his country is “in the process” of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization, noting that its “in the works.” He continued, saying that the designation process is “time-consuming and complex, however, the work is underway.”
He noted that “There are clearly different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so we’d have to designate each of them.”
He explained, “We are constantly reviewing for groups to designate for what they are: supporters of terrorists, maybe terrorists themselves, whatever it may be. We haven’t done this in a long time, so it’s – we’ve got a lot of catch-up to do.”
According to Rubio, the process “includes a careful review of each branch of the group individually, with documentation of evidence to ensure the decision withstands legal challenges.”
He explained that the Muslim Brotherhood is “of grace concern.”
Last month, Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill to Congress to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization.
Cruz considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be a “Terrorist Organization” that “provides support to terrorist affiliates such as Hamas.”
According to Cruz, the Brotherhood “poses a serious threat to US national security interests.”
The “Washington Free Beacon” reported that Cruz’s bill, titled the “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025,” adopts what Cruz’s team described as a “new modernized strategy” focused on targeting the group’s affiliates rather than focusing on its undefined global structure.
According to a document distributed by Cruz’s office to senators, the bill grants the State Department new powers to designate affiliates linked to the Brotherhood as terrorist groups. It also requires the department to prepare a comprehensive list of such entities within (90 days) of the bill’s passage.
The proposed legislation includes three paths to designating the Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization: Congressional action under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 (ATA), a State Department designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), and finally, designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
Under these designations, US citizens would be prohibited from conducting any financial transactions or providing services to the group, and its assets would be frozen.