Political Islam

The executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump[1] designating the Muslim Brotherhood-including its Lebanese branch-as a terrorist organization represents a pivotal moment in Washington’s approach to political Islam in the Middle East. The decision goes beyond immediate security considerations, reflecting a broader shift in the United States’ assessment of the role of Islamist movements in fragile environments, their connections…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a statement announcing that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities pursuant to counterterrorism authority under Executive Order 13224. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of State designated al-Gama’a al-Islamiya as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section…

Introduction In the third decade of the twenty-first century, the world is undergoing a profound transitional moment that extends well beyond familiar geopolitical shifts. Alongside the rise of Asian powers, the erosion of Western centrality, and the intensification of transnational crises, there has emerged a broad wave of identity redefinition, the politicization of cultural belonging, and a renewed prominence of…

It is not in the interest of the nation to begin, politically or in the media, discussing radical political or constitutional measures in response to the executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump, which paves the way for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. Our primary concern here is the Jordanian context…

Resolution 2803 represents a decisive moment in the trajectory of the war on Gaza-not merely as a framework for a ceasefire, but as an international mechanism aimed at politically and security-wise re-engineering the Strip. It does so through the creation of the Peace Council as a transitional body and the authorization of an international stabilization force endowed with broad powers,…

Abstract This paper posits that the Islamic Action Front Party (IAF) in Jordan may be included among the entities subjected to U.S. security assessment, on the basis that it represents one of the organizational arms linked-according to the American perspective-to the Muslim Brotherhood. The assessment may also encompass certain charitable associations operating in Jordan, as well as senior figures who…

The assassination of Haitham Ali al-Tabtabaei, one of Hezbollah’s most prominent military commanders, in Beirut’s southern suburb did not occur as an isolated security incident that can be treated as yet another Israeli operation within the ongoing shadow war between the two sides. Rather, the strike-unfolding at a regional moment in which Israeli military signals intersect with heightened political and…

This study examines how the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) shifted from the model of a centralized caliphate-previously directed from Iraq and Syria-to a decentralized structure built on relatively autonomous local franchises across Africa. This transformation followed the collapse of the organization’s central command in the Levant and the emergence of a highly unstable African environment marked by state fragility. Multiple…

On 24 November 2025, United States President Donald Trump issued an executive order that took a half-step that three decades of precedent suggested was based on inaccurate information and analysis.  The order claimed that it “sets in motion  a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”…

On November 24, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Departments of State and Treasury to initiate a process for assessing the designation of “certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood” as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and “Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).”The order states that these branches “fuel terrorism, commit, facilitate, or support violence and destabilization campaigns…