Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

President Donald Trump and his cabinet are pondering an executive order to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the United States’ Foreign Terrorist Organization list. Yet such a designation would appear to have one critical flaw: it is hard to explain what the term “Muslim Brotherhood” precisely means.

In Egypt, for decades before 2011, the term “Muslim Brotherhood” was used to describe a religious and political group that had a specific structure, specific goals, and a specific role in Egyptian society.