Trump's escalation against the Muslim Brotherhood... Will it reach civil organizations?

Arab Sea Newspaper - Independent Arabia:

Amid renewed debate over counter-terrorism policies in the United States, the issue of the "Muslim Brotherhood" has returned to the forefront of political discussion in Washington, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order about a week ago calling for consideration of designating some branches of the group as foreign terrorist organizations. This decision is still reverberating in the countries concerned, specifically Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, especially amid questions about whether its impact will include only the branches concerned with the group or will include those dealing with it, from civil and non-governmental institutions. Matthew Levitt, director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says that Trump's recent decision has been on the table since his first term, but he had difficulty finding evidence proving the existence of a unified leadership for all branches of the "Muslim Brotherhood" working in a coordinated manner, and at the time preferred to suffice with designating two Egyptian branches emanating from the group that had actually participated in carrying out terrorist attacks. He added that now in the second term, this issue has returned to the forefront, especially after an attack occurred in Colorado last June, carried out by an Egyptian citizen who burned a peaceful Jewish protest site in an anti-Semitic manner while they were demanding the release of hostages held by the "Hamas" movement, which led to renewed calls to designate the Brotherhood again, after it became clear that the perpetrator was linked to it. He added, "Again, the administration found that trying to designate a single entity that does not have a unified central leadership as a foreign terrorist organization is a complex matter, so much so that Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented in the media, saying that people must be patient." In context, Levitt revealed that at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, they published a memorandum on November 18 in which they said, "If the administration wants to move forward with designating the Brotherhood, there is a smarter way to do it. And this is really what the administration ended up doing. Our suggestion, which was adopted, is to look at the branches that have actually engaged in violence, and consider designating those branches as foreign terrorist organizations." He added, "We also suggested looking at some of the Brotherhood's entities that pretend to be non-governmental organizations, and the US Treasury Department has described some of these entities as sham associations, and consideration has been given to designating them as specially designated global terrorist entities. There is greater evidence of this, because a number of these organizations have become more daring and explicit in funding "Hamas" in particular since the October 7, 2023 attack. He concluded, "This reflects a real concern about the Muslim Brotherhood and its branches that have engaged in violence, and about the entities affiliated with them that have supported violence... This measure may help combat extremism by targeting those branches and organizations affiliated with the Brotherhood that have actually engaged in, supported, or funded terrorism, without targeting the group as a whole."