Canada is dangerously unprepared for the growing threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a national security analyst. The expert is demanding Ottawa launch its own probe into groups tied to the Islamist ideology, warning that the danger to Western society is being ignored as the U.S. moves to label some Middle Eastern Brotherhood entities as terrorist organizations.
Joe Adam George, a national security analyst with the MacDonald Laurier Institute and research lead on Islamist threats at the Middle East Forum, told True North that Canada must ban organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and ensure those groups’ members cannot rebrand.
George said Canada should start its own process of listing Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups as terrorist entities. U.S. President Donald Trump has signalled the start of a “comprehensive U.S. campaign” against the “global Brotherhood network” through an executive order, but Canada’s laws differ from those of the U.S.
“You can’t have a blanket ban on an organization like the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “Recognize that the Muslim Brotherhood is more of an ideology than an organization. It’s a disparate group of entities. You’re not a card-carrying member of the Muslim Brotherhood. You merely need to be aligned with its ideology.”
George said Muslim Brotherhood ideology believes in conducting “covert” or “stealth” jihad with the goal of fulfilling “Allah’s wish” to make the world “Islamic.”
“These are people who are extremely strongly, ideologically bound to this statute, and they hold it dear,” he said. “Because this isn’t an ideology about guns and bombs…the people we’re talking about, a lot of them are white collar people. They could be your school teachers, lawyers, nonprofit professionals working in the nonprofit sector and so on, people of influence.”
He said the Muslim Brotherhood engages in “institutional capture.” Its groups are not involved in “carrying bombs and guns” but in creating a “permissive environment” and running propaganda campaigns, which ultimately radicalize young individuals to act on Islamist rhetoric.
He warned the Muslim Brotherhood idealogy is a “gateway to terrorism.” Its adherents will continue to promote propaganda that pits Canada, the U.S., and the Western world as the enemy of Islam and the Muslim world until someone is triggered into committing extremist acts of violence.
George noted the U.S. administration is “wisely pursuing low-hanging fruit” with Brotherhood groups in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, which meet the “high evidentiary thresholds” required for Foreign Terrorist designations.
He argued that starting with easily proven targets will allow the Treasury and State departments to build the legal foundation needed to pursue larger and better-resourced Brotherhood networks, including those in North America.
He said after initial designations, investigators could trace the designated groups to organizations operating in Canada, meaning Canadian organizations could come under “scrutiny” and eventually “fall under the reach of American authorities.”
George said the “world is waking up” to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Canada’s allies are concerned about where Canada stands.
While in Washington, D.C., last week, an unnamed “senior individual” in the Trump administration told George that Americans are “extremely worried” about Islamist extremism in Canada and “have been for many years.” He said the administration has become increasingly worried that Islamist extremism has ramped up in Canada since the deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
“He was telling me that they now see Canada as a semi-domestic issue,” he said. “They see that now these problems that are there in Canada are eventually going to cross over to their borders, and they have every reason to be concerned about it. Whether it’s fentanyl or terror finance, money laundering or Islamist extremism, the terrorism threat.”
He warned that any organizations previously flagged by the Canada Revenue Agency, CSIS, or the RCMP in their audits as being part of any group the U.S. ends up designating in the administration’s campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood could face “repercussions” to Canadian entities.
He said Canada is unlikely to follow the U.S. lead in these initial designations for “electoral reasons” but is “behind the curve” in dealing with the threat.
“It’s one thing to outlaw the group, it’s totally another to make sure that they don’t go about recreating or morphing themselves into a different entity,” George said. “for the ban to be effective, you also need to blacklist target the individuals involved, because these are ideologues, and if they were involved, they need to be charged appropriately, according to our anti terrorism laws.”
He noted that Canada listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity last year. However, no arrests have been made, Samidoun still holds charitable status in Canada, and its leader, Charlotte Kates, is still “walking about.”
“We have to see how the Canadian government is going to act this time with the Muslim Brotherhood,” George said. “I’m not going to hold my breath.”