It’s never happened before, and now it’s happening again — the New York Times reported on the Trump administration’s plans to add the «Muslim Brotherhood» to the American list of terrorist organizations (long banned in Russia, of course). As White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reported, they are already working on it. But seriously, this is no sensation. Trump promised to ban the Brotherhood during his pre-election campaign, along with other promises from his Islamophobic package. However, unlike the previous two decisions, which only affected foreign policy issues, a hypothetical ban on the Brotherhood, which many Republicans have been pushing for for almost two decades, would be much more difficult to implement. After all, it would violate the constitutional rights of US citizens, and that is no laughing matter.
A large part of the Democratic Party, which holds the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, opposes banning the Brotherhood. In the realities of a constitutional state, which this country still is, many lawyers consider this a very problematic matter. It should be understood that such a ban could theoretically take two forms — nominal or maximum.
In the first case, it could affect only organizations that officially position themselves as branches of this global movement. Since there are few such organizations in the U.S., it wouldn’t have much effect and would be more of a shot in the dark. However, if attempts were made to interpret and apply the ban more broadly, it could create very serious problems not only on the international stage, but also domestically. In this case, the leadership of Turkey and Qatar could theoretically be included in the Brotherhood, and within the U.S. it could affect major Islamic organizations as well as leading Muslim intellectuals, preachers and activists.
The imposition and implementation of an extended ban is today sought by the US administration not so much from the Zionist lobby in America, but from Trump’s partners in the Muslim world: the authorities of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, above all, the regime of President Sisi in Egypt.
In addition to further easing restrictions in dealing with domestic opposition, the latter can apparently be used to force Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, to accept a new plan for «resolving» the Israeli-Palestinian issue that the White House promised to announce after Ramadan. It is believed that Hamas will be offered to remain in de facto power in Gaza on the condition that it be incorporated into Egypt in one way or another. If it refuses, a ban on the Brotherhood would result in not just a partial, as is now the case, but a complete blockade, including a ban on financial aid from Qatar, to which Israel currently turns a blind eye.
However, Trump’s plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a separate and problematic issue. Considering that this movement has long surpassed the boundaries of individual countries and regions, it would be a major oversight to consider the Brotherhood issue only as part of it. Therefore, one can expect either the failure of the efforts expressed by Huckabee or the implementation of these plans in a very limited form. This would also have a negative impact on American-Muslim relations within the country and beyond.