[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2230 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2230
To require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on the
designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist
organization, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 3, 2015
Mr. Cruz introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on the
designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist
organization, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist
Designation Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) Multiple countries have declared the Society of the
Muslim Brothers (commonly known as the ``Muslim Brotherhood'')
a terrorist organization or proscribed the group from operating
in their countries.
(2) In 1980, following a wave of assassinations targeting
government officials and the June 16, 1979, massacre of 83
military cadets in Aleppo, the Government of Syria--
(A) banned the Muslim Brotherhood from the country;
and
(B) made membership in the organization punishable
by death.
(3) In a February 14, 2003, court decision, the Russian
Supreme Court--
(A) described the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization; and
(B) banned the organization from operating in
Russia.
(4) In 2013--
(A) an Egyptian court banned the Muslim Brotherhood
from Egypt; and
(B) the Government of Egypt officially declared the
Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
(5) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia designated the Muslim
Brotherhood as a terrorist group on March 7, 2014.
(6) The Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates has published a
list of terrorist organizations, which includes the Muslim
Brotherhood and its local affiliates.
(7) On March 21, 2014, the Foreign Minister of Bahrain
backed the terrorist designations of the Muslim Brotherhood by
the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
(8) The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in
1928 by Hassan al-Banna, remains headquartered in Egypt but
operates throughout the world.
(9) The Muslim Brotherhood's long-standing motto includes
the following: ``Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our
leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the
way of Allah is our highest hope. [Allah is greater!]''.
(10) Hassan al-Banna, in a book entitled ``The Way of
Jihad'', taught--
(A) ``Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every
Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded. Allah has
ascribed great importance to jihad and has made the
reward of the martyrs and fighters in His way a
splendid one. Only those who have acted similarly and
who have modeled themselves upon the martyrs in their
performance of jihad can join them in this reward.'';
and
(B) ``Jihad [means] the fighting of the
unbelievers, and involves all possible efforts that are
necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of
Islam including beating them, plundering their wealth,
destroying their places of worship and smashing their
idols.''.
(11) Hassan al-Banna also taught that ``it is the nature of
Islam to dominate, not to be dominated'', and thus that the
mission of Islam, as interpreted and executed by the Muslim
Brotherhood, must be ``to impose [Islamic] law on nations and
to extend its power to the entire planet''. While al-Banna's
plan for accomplishing this mission was multifaceted, it
centrally incorporated training for and the execution of
violent jihad-terrorist operations.
(12) In Richard P. Mitchell's 1969 book on the history of
the Muslim Brotherhood, entitled ``The Society of Muslim
Brothers'', Professor Mitchell explained al-Banna's teachings
on violent jihad: The certainty that jihad had this physical
connotation is evidenced by the relationship always implied
between it and the possibility, even the necessity, of death
and martyrdom. Death, as an important end of jihad, was
extolled by al-Banna in a phrase which came to be a famous part
of his legacy: ``[T]he art of death''. ``Death is art''. The
Koran has commanded people to love death more than life. Unless
``the philosophy of the Koran on death'' replaces ``the love of
life'' which has consumed Muslims, then they will reach naught.
Victory can only come with the mastery of ``the art of death''.
The movement cannot succeed, al-Banna insists, without this
dedicated and unqualified kind of jihad.
(13) This philosophy pervaded the Muslim Brotherhood's
prioritization of training for combat. Professor Mitchell
observed that it was ``the tone of the training which gave [the
Muslim Brotherhood] its distinctive qualities'', adding: ``If
the Muslim Brothers were more effectively violent than other
groups on the Egyptian scene, it was because militancy and
martyrdom had been elevated to central virtues in the Society's
ethos.''. Its literature and speeches were permeated with
references identifying it and its purposes in military terms.
Al-Banna told members again and again that they were ``the army
of liberation, carrying on your shoulders the message of
liberation; you are the battalions of salvation for this nation
afflicted by calamity''.
(14) Al-Banna's blueprint for revolution anticipated a
final stage of ``execution'' at which point the battalions the
Muslim Brotherhood had trained would ``conquer . . . every
obstinate tyrant''. This violent ideology continued to be part
of the Brotherhood's indoctrination in standard membership
texts, such as Sayyid Qutb's ``Milestones'' and Fathi Yakan's
``To Be a Muslim''.
(15) In Muslim Brotherhood organizations and chapters
throughout the world, including in the United States, al-
Banna's originating philosophy continues to be taught.
(16) In its earliest days, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
established a terrorist wing, referred to as the ``secret
apparatus'', which conducted bombings and assassinations
targeting foreigners and government officials. The
assassinations by the Muslim Brotherhood of Judge Ahmed Al-
Khazinder Bey in 1947 and Prime Minister Mahmoud Al-Nuqrashi in
1948 prompted the first ban on the organization in Egypt.
(17) The United States has previously designated global
elements of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist
organizations, including--
(A) the terrorist group Hamas, which self-
identifies as ``one of the wings of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Palestine'', which was designated as a
foreign terrorist organization by President William J.
Clinton on January 23, 1995, by Executive Order 12947,
and by Secretary of State Madeline Albright on October
7, 1997, under section 219(a) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)); and
(B) the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood's Lajnat al-
Daawa al-Islamiya (``Islamic Call Committee''), which
was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by
President George W. Bush on September 23, 2001, by
Executive Order 13224 and by Secretary of State Colin
Powell on January 9, 2003, under such section 219(a).
(18) Lajnat al-Daawa al-Islamiya was designated as a
foreign terrorist organization for--
(A) being a financial conduit for Osama bin Laden
and Al-Qaeda;
(B) funding terrorist groups in Chechnya and Libya;
and
(C) including Al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi
Yousef as leaders with the organization.
(19) Militias of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood recently
joined forces with United States designated terrorist
organizations, particularly Ansar al-Sharia, as part of the
Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and Libya Dawn forces
fighting against the military forces of the internationally
recognized Libyan government.
(20) Individual Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been
designated by the United States as Specially Designated
Terrorists, as authorized under the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and initiated
under Executive Order 13224 (September 23, 2001), including
Shaykh Abd-al-Majid Al-Zindani, a leader of the Yemeni Muslim
Brotherhood's Al-Islah political party, who was designated by
the Secretary of the Treasury as a specially designated
terrorist on February 2, 2004. The designation states that al-
Zindani has a ``long history of working with Bin Laden, serving
as one of his spiritual leaders'', in addition to his
activities in support of Al-Qaeda, including recruiting and
procuring weapons. Al-Zindani was also identified in a Federal
lawsuit as a coordinator of the October 2000 suicide attack
targeting the USS COLE in Aden, Yemen, that killed 17 United
States Navy sailors, including personally selecting the 2
suicide bombers. In September 2012, al-Zindani reportedly
called for his supporters to kill United States Marines
stationed at the United States Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen.
(21) Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan
war, senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, and brother-in-law and
close confidant of Osama bin Laden was arrested in California
in December 1994 on charges related to the 1993 bombing of the
World Trade Center. Evidence was found at that time that linked
Khalifa to the planned al-Qaeda Operation Bojinka plot that
included the bombing of 11 airplanes between Asia and the
United States. He was deported to Jordan in May 1995. Prior to
that time he operated an Islamic charity in the Philippines
that was accused of funneling money to the Abu Sayyef terrorist
group and laundering money for Bin Laden. He was sought again
by United States authorities in 2007, and an Interpol bulletin
was issued to several United States intelligence agencies.
Khalifa was killed four days later in Madagascar.
(22) Sami Al-Hajj, an Al-Qaeda member and senior leader of
the Muslim Brotherhood's Shura Council, was imprisoned as a
detainee at the Department of Defense facility at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. He was captured by Pakistani forces near the
Afghanistan border in 2001 and transferred to United States
custody. He was detained for his work as a money and weapons
courier for Al-Qaeda. He reportedly worked directly with
Taliban commander Mullah Mohammad Omar to procure weapons, and
met with senior Afghan Muslim Brotherhood officials in mid-2001
to discuss the transfer of Stinger missiles from Afghanistan to
Chechnya.
(23) According to a May 1995 report by the United States
House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare, a series of conferences hosted by
Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood leader Hassan al-Turabi in
Khartoum, Sudan, during October 1994 and March to April 1995
featured representatives from virtually every Islamic terrorist
organization in the world. The conferences included
representatives from Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the
Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, and leaders from the
international Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood in the
Gulf Countries, Hamas (the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood), the
Islamic Action Front (Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood), and the
Ennahda Movement (the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood). Osama bin
Laden was present at the conferences. The parties agreed to
launch a terrorism offensive beginning in 1995, with targets
including United States interests and personnel in the Middle
East and attacks inside the United States homeland.
(24) In October 2003, Richard Clarke, former National
Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for Presidents
William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, testified before the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate
that terrorist organizations continued to operate inside the
United States and their connection to the Muslim Brotherhood
networks, stating ``Dating back to the 1980's, Islamist
terrorist networks have developed a sophisticated and
diversified financial infrastructure in the United States. In
the post September 11th environment, it is now widely known
that every major Islamist terrorist organization, from Hamas to
Islamic Jihad to al-Qaeda, has leveraged the financial
resources and institutions of the United States to build their
capabilities. We face a highly developed enemy in our mission
to stop terrorist financing. While the overseas operations of
Islamist terrorist organizations are generally segregated and
distinct, the opposite holds in the United States. The issue of
terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental
example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic
Jihad and al-Qaeda, all of which enjoy a significant degree of
cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common
link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood--all of these
organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of
the Muslim Brothers.''.
(25) One of the examples cited by Richard Clarke in his
testimony before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs of the Senate was the case of Soliman Biheiri, who ran
an investment firm specializing in Islamically permissible
investments, the Secaucus, New Jersey-based Baitul Mal,
Incorporated, which offered a range of financial services for
the Muslim community, and invested in businesses and real
estate. According to Federal prosecutors, the shareholders of
Baitul Mal included al-Qaeda financier Yassin al-Qadi and top
Hamas leader Mousa abu Marzook, both of whom are specially
designated global terrorists and operated separate businesses
out of the offices of Baitul Mal, Incorporated and also did
business with Baitul Mal, Incorporated. Other Baitul Mal,
Incorporated investors included Abdullah bin Laden, nephew of
Osama bin Laden, and Tarek Swaidan, a Kuwaiti Muslim
Brotherhood leader. In a September 2003 detention hearing,
Federal prosecutors described Biheiri as ``the United States
banker for the Muslim Brotherhood,'' and stating that ``the
defendant came here as the Muslim Brotherhood's financial
toehold in the United States.''. Biheiri was convicted on
Federal immigration charges on October 9, 2003.
(26) The fact that the international Muslim Brotherhood
engages in terrorism financing inside the United States was
attested to in February 2011 by FBI Director Robert Mueller,
who testified before the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence of the House of Representatives about the Muslim
Brotherhood's networks and agenda in the United States,
stating: ``I can say at the outset that elements of the Muslim
Brotherhood both here and overseas have supported terrorism. To
the extent that I can provide information, I would be happy to
do so in closed session. But it would be difficult to do in
open session.''.
(27) In the Holy Land Foundation prosecutions--the largest
terrorism financing trial in United States history--Department
of Justice officials successfully argued in court that the
international Muslim Brotherhood and its United States
affiliates had engaged in a widespread conspiracy to raise
money and materially support the terrorist group Hamas. HLF
officials charged in the case were found guilty on all counts
in November 2008, primarily related to millions of dollars that
had been transferred to Hamas. During the trial and in court
documents, Federal prosecutors implicated a number of prominent
United States-Islamic organizations in this conspiracy,
including the Islamic Society of North America, the North
American Islamic Trust, and the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. These groups and their leaders, among others, were
named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case. The Department
of Justice told the court that these United States-Muslim
Brotherhood affiliates acted at the direction of the
international Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorism in a July
2008 court filing: ``ISNA and NAIT, in fact, shared more with
HLF than just a parent organization. They were intimately
connected with the Holy Land Foundation and its assigned task
of providing financial support to HAMAS. Shortly after HAMAS
was founded in 1987, as an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood,
the International Muslim Brotherhood ordered the Muslim
Brotherhood chapters throughout the world to create Palestine
Committees, who supported HAMAS with `media, money and men'.
The U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood created the United States Palestine
Committee, which documents reflect was initially comprised of 3
organizations: the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic
Association for Palestine, and the United Association for
Studies and Research. CAIR was later added to these
organizations. The mandate of these organizations, per the
International Muslim Brotherhood, was to support HAMAS, and the
HLF's particular role was to raise money to support HAMAS'
organizations inside the Palestinian territories.''.
(28) In September 2010, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, delivered a weekly sermon mirroring
the ideological themes of Al-Qaeda's August 1996 declaration of
war against the United States. Calling on Arab and Muslim
regimes to confront not just Israel, but also the United
States, he declared that ``Resistance is the only solution
against the Zio-American arrogance and tyranny.''. This
``resistance'' can only come from fighting and understanding
``that the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation
seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by
raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the
enemies pursue life''. He also predicted the imminent downfall
of the United States, saying ``The United States is now
experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards
its demise.''.
(29) Since August 2013, Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt
have been killed in firefights during attacks on police and
military targets, and during the manufacture and placement of
explosives for acts of terrorism.
(30) The August 14, 2013, clearing of Muslim Brotherhood
protests in Egypt resulted in attacks by Muslim Brotherhood
supporters targeting the Coptic Christian community. Attacks
included 70 churches and more than 1,000 homes and businesses
of Coptic Christian families torched in the ensuing violence.
During the Muslim Brotherhood protests, there were repeated
reports of direct incitement towards the Copts from leading
Muslim Brotherhood figures, and since the protest dispersal
this targeting of the Christian community continues in official
statements on Muslim Brotherhood social media outlets and from
its leadership. As the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom has previously noted, this
terror campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood is not a new
development. Over the past decade violence by the Muslim
Brotherhood has been directed at the Coptic community. As the
USCIRF observed in its 2003 Annual Report: ``Coptic Christians
face ongoing violence from vigilante Muslim extremists,
including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, many of whom act
with impunity.''.
(31) On January 27, 2015, the Muslim Brotherhood published
on their official Ikhwanonline.com website an announcement that
the organization was entering a ``new phase'' and calling its
followers to prepare for a ``long, uncompromising jihad''
against the Egyptian government. The statement also positively
recalled the Muslim Brotherhood's terrorist past, including the
operations of the ``secret apparatus'' terror wing active in
the 1940s and 1950s, and the group's battalions organized by
Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna that fought against Israel
during its War of Independence in 1948.
(32) On May 27, 2015, a group of 159 Muslim Brotherhood-
associated scholars from 35 nations announced the publication
of a document endorsing violence in Egypt in response to a
``war against Islam's principles.''. Specifically, Article 4 of
the ``Call to Egypt'' calls for ``retribution punishment''
against government officials, judges, police, soldiers,
religious officials, and media personalities backing the
government. The document was affirmed by the Muslim Brotherhood
in an English-language statement published on their official
website.
(33) A July 1, 2015, statement published on the Muslim
Brotherhood's official English-language website called for
``rebellion'' against the Egyptian government after a group of
senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders were killed in a shootout
after opening fire on Egyptian anti-terror police who were
raiding the secret meeting in 6th of October City. Documents
reportedly recovered at the scene showed that the leadership
was planning acts of sabotage and attacks on police stations
during the second anniversary of the removal of Mohamed Morsi
on July 3rd.
(34) A senior Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Ashraf
Abdel Ghaffar, gave a July 3, 2015, interview in which he
defended the sabotage of power stations and high voltage pylons
targeting Egyptian citizens by the Muslim Brotherhood as
punishment for support of the Egyptian government.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for
designation as a foreign terrorist organization under section
219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189); and
(2) the Secretary of State, in consultation with the
Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, should
exercise the Secretary of State's statutory authority by
designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist
organization.
SEC. 3. REPORT ON DESIGNATION OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS A FOREIGN
TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
(B) the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;
(C) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate;
(D) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the
Senate;
(E) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
(F) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs of the Senate;
(G) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House
of Representatives;
(H) the Committee on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives;
(I) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House
of Representatives;
(J) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
of the House of Representatives;
(K) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives; and
(L) the Committee on Financial Services of the
House of Representatives.
(2) Intelligence community.--The term ``intelligence
community'' has the meaning given that term in section 3(4) of
the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)).
(b) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the
intelligence community, shall submit a detailed report to the
appropriate congressional committees that--
(1) indicates whether the Muslim Brotherhood meets the
criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization
under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1189); and
(2) if the Secretary of State determines that the Muslim
Brotherhood does not meet the criteria referred to in paragraph
(1), includes a detailed justification as to which criteria
have not been met.
(c) Form.--The report required under subsection (b) shall be
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex, if
appropriate.
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