The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation Wednesday calling on the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
“The Muslim Brotherhood’s embrace of terrorism and the very real threat it poses to American lives and the national security of the United States make it long overdue for designation,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said in a statement.
“The bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee today calls the State Department to do the right thing and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.” he added, noting that the designation will help to keep members of the group out of the United States.
The bill was approved on a 17-10 vote.
According to the committee, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015 (H.R. 3892), sponsored by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), the terrorist designation would require the administration prevent foreign-nationals with ties to the group from coming to the U.S. It would also meant that the Muslim Brotherhood would be subject to federal criminal prosecution and would freeze the group’s assets.
“The Muslim Brotherhood continues to pose a global threat,” Diaz-Balart said. “The jihadist movement actively supports and finances terrorist networks around the world, including al-Qaeda and Hamas. The United States must recognize and sanction the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization as part of our national security strategy.”
The Obama administration has been hesitant to call the Muslim Brotherhood a terror group, even as its allies have determined the group to be a threat.
As the committee highlights, the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal “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 and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
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