Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2014 - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the Muslim Brotherhood has met the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization, and (2) the Secretary of State should so designate it.
Requires the Secretary to report to Congress the reasons why if he does not designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization within 60 days.
Directs the President to subject to sanctions any person in the United States or subject to U.S. jurisdiction who knowingly provides material support or resources to the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups, or agents.
Prohibits the Secretary from issuing any visa to, and directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to deny U.S. entry to, any member or representative of the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups, or agents.
Requires any U.S. financial institution that knowingly has possession of or control over funds in which the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups, or agents have an interest to: (1) retain possession of or control over the funds, and (2) report the funds to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5194 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5194
To impose sanctions against persons who knowingly provide material
support or resources to the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates,
associated groups, or agents, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 24, 2014
Mrs. Bachmann (for herself, Mr. Roskam, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mrs.
Lummis, Mr. Brady of Texas, Mr. Southerland, Mr. Gohmert, and Mr.
LaMalfa) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on
Foreign Affairs and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To impose sanctions against persons who knowingly provide material
support or resources to the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates,
associated groups, or agents, 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 2014''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON DESIGNATION OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS A
FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) The Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, was
founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The organization
remains headquartered in Egypt but operates throughout the
world. The Muslim Brotherhood's motto remains to this day what
it has been for decades: ``Allah is our objective. The Prophet
is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in
the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu-Akbar! [Allah is
greater!]''.
(2) Hassan al-Banna, in a book he called ``Jihad'',
instructed members: ``Jihad is an obligation from Allah on
every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor [sic] 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.''.
(3) Hassan al-Banna added that ``fighting the unbelievers
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''.
(4) 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 its [i.e., Islam's] 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.
(5) In the seminal 1969 book on the history of the Muslim
Brotherhood, ``The Society of Muslim Brothers'', University of
Michigan Professor Richard P. 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.
(6) 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
Society [i.e., 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''.
(7) 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''.
(8) In Muslim Brotherhood organizations and chapters
throughout the world, including in the United States, al-
Banna's originating philosophy continues to be taught.
(9) In its earliest days, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
established a terrorist wing (the ``secret apparatus'') that
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.
(10) The United States has previously designated global
elements of the Muslim Brotherhood. The terrorist group Hamas,
which self-identifies as ``one of the wings of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Palestine,'' was designated as a foreign
terrorist organization by President William J. Clinton on
January 23, 1995, by Executive Order 12947, and later under
section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1189(a)) by Secretary of State Madeline Albright on October 7,
1997.
(11) The Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood's Lajnat al-Daawa al-
Islamiya (``Islamic Call Committee'') was designated as a
foreign terrorist organization by President George W. Bush on
September 23, 2001, by Executive Order 13224 and later under
section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1189(a)) by Secretary of State Colin Powell on January 9, 2003.
Reasons cited for the designation included Lajnat al-Daawa al-
Islamiya being used as a financial conduit for Osama bin Laden
and Al-Qaeda, and its funding of terrorist groups in Chechnya
and Libya. Both Al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef held
positions with the organization.
(12) Individual Muslim Brotherhood leaders have also been
designated on the list of Specially Designated Global
Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and initiated
under Executive Order 13224 (September 23, 2001), by the United
States. On February 2, 2004, the Department of the Treasury
designated Shaykh Abd-al-Majid Al-Zindani, a leader of the
Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood's Al-Islah political party. 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 U.S.S. Cole in
Aden, Yemen, that killed 17 United States Navy sailors,
including personally selecting the two 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.
(13) 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.
(14) 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.
(15) 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, the Algerian
AIS and GIA, as well as 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 Ennahdha (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.
(16) In December 2002 a multiple vehicle borne improvised
explosive device (VBIED) suicide attack targeting a four-story
building in Grozny killed 57 people. Russian counterterrorism
officials claimed the attack was ordered and coordinated by
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and Abu Walid, an official with
the Muslim Brotherhood. They further claimed that days before
the bombing the pair met near Grozny to plan this and other
attacks. Russian officials also identified the international
Muslim Brotherhood network as financing the Chechen rebels. In
2003, the Russian Supreme Court banned the Muslim Brotherhood,
describing it as a terrorist organization.
(17) Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs of the Senate in October 2003, Richard Clarke, former
National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for
Presidents William J. Clinton and George W. Bush, testified to
the extent that terrorist organizations continued to operate
inside the United States and the connection to the Muslim
Brotherhood networks: ``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 Qida, 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 Qida, 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.''.
(18) 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 BMI Incorporated.
BMI Incorporated offered a range of financial services for the
Muslim community, and invested in businesses and real estate.
According to Federal prosecutors, among the shareholders of BMI
Incorporated were Al-Qaeda financier Yassin Al-Qadi and top
Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook--two Specially Designated Global
Terrorists. Both Qadi and Marzook operated separate businesses
out of the offices of BMI Incorporated that also did business
with BMI Incorporated. Other BMI 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 U.S. banker for the Muslim Brotherhood,'' and
stating that ``the defendant came here as the Muslim
Brotherhood's financial toehold in the U.S.''. Biheiri was
convicted on Federal immigration charges on October 9, 2003.
(19) The fact that the international Muslim Brotherhood
engages in terrorism financing inside the United States was
attested to by then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, who testified
before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the
House of Representatives in February 2011, and responded to a
question about the Muslim Brotherhood's networks and agenda in
the United States: ``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.''.
(20) In the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) 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 wide-spread 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 (ISNA), the
North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), and the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). 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 HLF and its assigned
task of providing financial support to HAMAS. Shortly after
HAMAS was founded in 1987, as an outgrowth of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Govt. Exh. 21-61, the International Muslim
Brotherhood ordered the Muslim Brotherhood chapters throughout
the world to create Palestine Committees, whose job it was to
support HAMAS with `media, money and men'. Govt. Exh. 3-15. The
U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood created the U.S. Palestine Committee,
which document reflect was initially comprised of three
organizations: the OLF (HLF), the IAP, and the UASR. CAIR was
later added to these organizations. Govt. Exh. 3-78 (listing
IAP, HLF, UASR and CAIR as part of the Palestine Committee, and
stating that there is `[n]o doubt America is the ideal location
to train the necessary resources to support the Movement
worldwide...'). 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. Govt. Exh. 3-
17 (objective of the Palestine Committee is to support
HAMAS).''.
(21) 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 U.S. is now experiencing the
beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise.''.
(22) 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 (USCIRF) 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.''.
(b) Criteria.--Section 219(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)(1)) provides the 3 criteria for the designation
of an organization as a Foreign Terrorist Organization:
(1) The organization must be a foreign organization.
(2) The organization must engage in terrorist activity, as
defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)), or terrorism, as
defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C.
2656f(d)(2)), or retain the capability and intent to engage in
terrorist activity or terrorism.
(3) The organization's terrorist activity or terrorism must
threaten the security of United States nationals or the
national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the
economic interests) of the United States.
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) The Muslim Brotherhood has met the criteria for
designation as a foreign terrorist organization under section
219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as described in
subsection (b)); 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 and
designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist
organization.
(d) Report.--If the Secretary of State does not designate the
Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization under section
219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act within 60 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit
to Congress a report that contains the reasons therefor.
SEC. 3. SANCTIONS AGAINST PERSONS WHO KNOWINGLY PROVIDE MATERIAL
SUPPORT OR RESOURCES TO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OR ITS
AFFILIATES, ASSOCIATED GROUPS, OR AGENTS.
(a) Sanctions.--
(1) In general.--The President shall subject to all
available sanctions any person in the United States or subject
to the jurisdiction of the United States who knowingly provides
material support or resources to the Muslim Brotherhood or its
affiliates, associated groups, or agents.
(2) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term ``material
support or resources'' has the meaning given such term in
section 2339A(b)(1) of title 18, United States Code.
(b) Inadmissibility and Removal.--
(1) Inadmissability.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, the Secretary of State may not issue any visa to, and
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall deny entry to the
United States of, any member or representative of the Muslim
Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups, or agents.
(2) Removal.--Any alien who is a member or representative
of the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups,
or agents may be removed from the United States in the same
manner as an alien who is inadmissible under sections
212(a)(3)(B)(i)(IV) or (V).
(c) Funds.--Any United States financial institution (as defined
under section 5312 of title 31, United States Code) that knowingly has
possession of or control over funds in which the Muslim Brotherhood or
its affiliates, associated groups, or agents have an interest shall
retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to
the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.
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