Key points
- ISGAP (New York) published in 2025 a comprehensive study devoted to the Muslim Brotherhood's strategy of entrenchment in the United States: 265 pages, 583 reference notes and 46 pages of annexes reproducing the “Explanatory Memorandum” in Arabic and in its English court translation, as well as the Arabic facsimile of “The Project”.
- The study takes as its reading key the doctrine of tamkeen (entrenchment, institutional rooting) and traces its evolution across four phases: the gradualism of Hassan al-Banna, the revolutionary break of Sayyid Qutb, the institutional adaptation of Youssef al-Qaradawi and the political-military synthesis of Ali al-Sallabi.
- It treats two internal documents as plans: “The Project” (1982), seized in 2001 by the Swiss police, and the “Explanatory Memorandum” (1991), authenticated as an exhibit at the Holy Land Foundation trial - the only judicial authentication of the two. The latter describes the Brotherhood's work in America as a “kind of grand jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying Western civilisation from within” (CERIF translation).
- Implementation is described across four domains: access to public decision-making, the instrumentalisation of the law, institutional infiltration (mosques, schools, campuses, civil society) and control of the narrative (media, textbooks, academic publishing).
- The study concludes that this is a form of “non-violent extremism” that Western counter-terrorism tools are unable to grasp, and formulates ten recommendations, including the designation of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. Presented in Washington on 19 November 2025, it preceded by five days a presidential decree opening that procedure.
CERIF foreword
One must first commend the institution behind this publication. ISGAP, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, was founded in 2004 by Charles Asher Small in the wake of the first United Nations conference devoted to antisemitism, and chaired in its early days by Elie Wiesel. As early as 2006, at Yale, it created the first North American interdisciplinary university centre for the study of antisemitism, then launched its summer institute in 2015 - first at Oxford, then at Cambridge - through which more than six hundred researchers from forty-eight countries and over one hundred and ninety institutions have passed.
This patient work sheds light on the nature of the document analysed here: it comes from a research apparatus built over more than twenty years, which has made the critical study of contemporary antisemitism a discipline in its own right. That this apparatus now turns to the Muslim Brotherhood's strategy of entrenchment follows from a claim the institute has made since its origins: that part of contemporary antisemitism is anchored in Islamist ideology. (Elements gathered by CERIF, external to the report; sources: isgap.org and public statements by its founder, August 2026.)
Context: from an institute's report to a state decision (November 2025 - March 2026)
The report analysed here has had a rapid public trajectory. It was presented on 19 November 2025 in Washington, at an event bringing together members of Congress, diplomats and researchers.
On 24 November 2025, the President of the United States signed Executive Order 14362, Designation of Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, tasking the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury with initiating the procedure to identify the Brotherhood's branches liable to be designated. On 13 January 2026, a first set of measures targeted the Lebanese branch, as well as the Egyptian and Jordanian branches (for material support to Hamas). In March 2026, the Sudanese branch was the subject of a comparable measure.
A gap to watch
No organisation established on American soil has, at this stage, been targeted by these designations - even though that is precisely the field the study covers.
The sequence does not by itself establish a causal link between the publication and the decision, but it situates the document's reach: a piece of research designed for public action, which has entered a debate of American domestic and foreign policy. (Context elements gathered by CERIF, external to the report.)
1. Presentation of the document and its publisher
Nature. A 265-page monographic study published in New York in 2025 under ISGAP's institutional imprint alone, with no author named on the title page - which one may regret (ISBN 978-1-940186-32-0 for the print edition).
Two documents, two scopes. The study is accompanied by a separate 20-page analytical briefing that condenses its findings. The report's title confines the object to the United States, although its text also generalises to the West, to Europe and to Australia; the briefing makes this generalisation explicit from its title, and its file properties attribute it to Haras Rafiq, vice-president of ISGAP.
Object. To establish that the activities of the networks linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States constitute the methodical implementation of a long-term strategy set down in writing, and not a sum of spontaneous associative initiatives or the defensive reactions of a religious minority.
Structure. An introductory note (“Islamism and Islam”), a summary, an executive summary, a glossary, a list of acronyms, six chapters, then the annexes. The chapters follow a deductive order: doctrine, written plans, implementation, moments of acceleration, evaluation and recommendations.
Annexes. 46 pages reproduce the Arabic original of the “Explanatory Memorandum” and its English translation entered into the court file (Bates numbers ISE-SW 1B10/0000419 and following), as well as the only Arabic facsimile of “The Project”, dated 1 December 1982 and bearing exhibit number 4100400027.
2. Methodology
Stated approach. Four complementary methods: the close examination of verified planning documents; the systematic mapping of organisational networks; the identification of historical regularities attesting to a tactical constancy from one country to another; and the assessment of strategic execution by comparing declared objectives with observed actions.
Sources. The two internal documents reproduced in the annex; the doctrinal writings of the Brotherhood's ideologues (al-Banna, Qutb, al-Qaradawi, al-Sallabi); the exhibits from the Holy Land Foundation trial (2008); a body of reference academic literature (Mitchell, Lia, Wickham, Zollner; Vidino and Tibi for non-violent Islamism); and American survey data (American Mosque Survey 2020, Pew Research Center).
Critical apparatus. 583 fully referenced footnotes. Citation density does not prejudge probative force: the report combines academic works, judicial exhibits, general-interest press, publications by engaged think tanks and militant watch sites, whose status differs appreciably.
Authenticity of the documents. The study devotes two distinct sections to establishing the authenticity and representativeness of the two documents. It sets out the opposing objection - that the “Memorandum” reflects only one author's view - before answering it with a body of indications. The analytical briefing restates this claim more cautiously, flagging two reservations: American courts admitted the documents as evidence without ruling on whether they constituted a doctrine officially adopted by the organisation, and the claimed grounding in a 1987 strategy is corroborated by no external source.
| Term | Translation used | Use in the study |
|---|---|---|
| Tamkeen | Entrenchment, rooting, empowerment | A Qur'anic notion (root makkana) reinterpreted as a step-by-step political process aimed at building Islamic governance in a non-Muslim society. The organising concept of the whole study. |
| Tadarruj | Gradualism | Transformation proceeds through successive phases and not through revolutionary rupture; formulated by al-Banna, reaffirmed by al-Qaradawi. |
| Marhaliyya | Sequencing, step-by-step adaptation | A temporary adaptation strategy meant to protect the movement until institutional rooting is achieved. |
| Al-ghalaba | Prevalence, gaining the upper hand | The stage at which the movement has sufficient power to prevail; with al-Sallabi, explicitly associated with jihad. |
| Jahiliyya | Pre-Islamic ignorance | A classical category extended by Qutb to contemporary secular societies, including Muslim-majority ones, which delegitimises the governments in place. |
| Da'wa | Call, preaching | Missionary activity; the matrix of the associative, educational and charitable activities serving as a support for entrenchment. |
| Fiqh al-aqalliyyat | Jurisprudence of minorities | A body of law elaborated by al-Qaradawi to govern the conduct of Muslims living as a minority in Western societies. |
| Wasatiyya | The middle way | A discourse of strategic moderation meant to broaden the audience while preserving conservative doctrinal positions. |
| Civilisational jihad | Civilisational struggle | An expression from the “Explanatory Memorandum”, interpreted as a mainly non-military societal struggle, waged from within and within the limits of the law. |
3. Central thesis
The study argues that what is ordinarily filed either under conspiracy theory, or under legitimate religious advocacy, or under defensive community organising, in reality corresponds to a coherent programme of civilisational transformation, set down in writing, applied over several generations and deployed simultaneously in the political, legal, institutional and cultural fields.
The central proposition rests on a distinction: Western democracies built their instruments of defence against threats that operate outside the law, whereas the strategy described operates entirely within the law. It does not breach democratic freedoms, it mobilises them: freedom of association to build a network, freedom of expression to establish a narrative, non-discrimination law to escape critical scrutiny, democratic procedure to gain access to decision-making.
The second strand of the thesis concerns antisemitism: the centrality given to the Palestinian cause would stem from a three-stage doctrinal operation - al-Banna erecting Palestine into a pan-Islamic religious obligation, Qutb integrating it into a civilisational struggle against the West, the contemporary Brotherhood making it an instrument of mobilisation - whose effect is to turn a territorial conflict into a religious duty.
4. Argumentative architecture
The demonstration proceeds deductively: it first establishes a doctrine, then shows that it was set down in writing as a plan, then that the plan was executed, then that execution accelerated at three identifiable moments, before drawing an evaluation and recommendations (chapters 1 to 6).
Demonstration 1 - A doctrine of step-by-step entrenchment (chapter 2)
Tamkeen forms a cumulative doctrine. Al-Banna formulates a first version in seven stages, from strengthening individual faith to attaining Islamic governance - “train the men, they will build the State”. Qutb breaks with this gradualism by extending jahiliyya to secular societies and entrusting the transformation to a purified vanguard. Al-Qaradawi produces the synthesis adapted to the West (jurisprudence of minorities, wasatiyya, instrumental participation in democratic procedures). Al-Sallabi, finally, tightens the framework around a four-stage model that explicitly reintroduces jihad and makes the seizure of political power the third stage.
| Phase | Author | Central notion | Contribution described by the study |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930-1940 | Hassan al-Banna | Tadarruj (gradualism) | Seven stages, from individual spiritual reform to the Islamic social order. Institutionalisation of long-term planning and of tactical alliances. |
| 1950-1960 | Sayyid Qutb | Jahiliyya, tali'a (vanguard) | Extension of jahiliyya to secular societies. Rejection of gradualism. Ideological purification prior to action. Reading of Zionism as an outgrowth of Western imperialism. |
| 1990-2000 | Youssef al-Qaradawi | Marhaliyya (sequencing) | Fiqh al-awlawiyyat, wasatiyya, fiqh al-aqalliyyat. Instrumental participation in democratic procedures without adherence to liberal premises. Palestine as a unifying force. |
| 2000-2010 | Ali al-Sallabi | Al-ghalaba (prevalence) | A four-stage model: recruitment of an elite; preparation; seizure of political power through jihad “in all its forms”; establishment and then extension of Islamic governance. |
Demonstration 2 - Two internal documents, one of them authenticated in court (chapter 3)
“The Project” (1982) sets out a global framework that the report groups into twelve “starting points” (knowledge of the terrain and scientific planning methodology; serious commitment of resources; reconciling international action with local flexibility; permanence of educational and institutional work; establishing an Islamic State through progressive control; loyal cooperation with the other Islamic groups; temporary cooperation with nationalist movements; mastery of the art of the possible; a permanent force for da'wa and support for jihadist movements; information-gathering systems; adoption of the Palestinian cause as the keystone; and permanent self-criticism). The “Explanatory Memorandum” (1991) constitutes its North American adaptation in seven stages, opening with the definition of the Brotherhood's work in America as “a kind of grand jihad aimed at eliminating and destroying Western civilisation from within”. It comes with an annex listing twenty-nine organisations, including ISNA, the MSA, NAIT, the IIIT and the IAP.
Each of these two documents is the subject of a dedicated infographic on the CERIF website
“The Project” (1982) and the “Explanatory Memorandum” (1991) are analysed separately in our infographics, with their genesis, their judicial status and their full text.
| “The Project” (1982) | “Explanatory Memorandum” (1991) | |
|---|---|---|
| Date and object | 1 December 1982. “Towards a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy”. A global framework applicable to all Western societies. | 1991. “Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America”. A regional adaptation. |
| Discovery | A search by the Swiss police in 2001 among the papers of Youssef Nada (the al-Taqwa financial network). Chain of custody ensured by the Swiss authorities. | A search by the FBI in 2004 at the home of Ismail Elbarasse, in Virginia, financial officer of the Brotherhood's activities in the United States. |
| Judicial status | An investigation exhibit; first publication of its French translation by Sylvain Besson in 2005. | Exhibit GX003-0085 entered at the Holy Land Foundation trial (2008): origin and admissibility established. The court did not rule on the doctrinal representativeness of the content. |
| Structure | Twelve “starting points” (munṭalaqāt), together with elements and procedural prescriptions. | Seven stages of entrenchment, plus an organisational annex of twenty-nine structures. |
| Main objection | An unsigned document, whose official character is not established by any internal source. | Held to reflect the position of a single author, an objection the report dismisses; the briefing adds that the grounding in the 1987 strategy is corroborated by no external source. |
Demonstration 3 - The plan carried out across four domains (chapter 4)
For the author, none of these four domains is decisive in isolation; it is their articulation that produces the effect. Access to decision-making protects the infrastructure; the infrastructure feeds the narrative; the narrative makes criticism costly; the law sanctions those who persist in it. Hence the notion of “institutional completeness”: a set of services that reduces dependence on common institutions and ensures the generational reproduction of orientations.
| Domain | Mechanisms described | Factual elements cited |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Public decision-making | Consultation with federal agencies; advisory posts; the career civil service; a “red-green alliance” with the progressive wing; electoral mobilisation. | Letter from 57 organisations to the White House (2012) and the subsequent purging of training materials; appointments under the Obama administration; the break in contacts between the Biden administration and CAIR after 7 October 2023. |
| 2. Law | Gag procedures; targeting of reformist voices; extension of the notion of “Islamophobia”; a dedicated legal infrastructure; parallel norms for dispute resolution. | Specialised organisations (Muslim Advocates, CAIR Legal Defense Fund, Muslim Legal Fund of America); individuals targeted (Zuhdi Jasser, Asra Nomani, Qanta Ahmed, Irshad Manji). |
| 3. Institutions | A network of mosques and centres; a faith-based school system and accreditation; entrenchment on campuses; financial and real-estate circuits. | 2,769 mosques in 2020 (+31% since 2010); NAIT holding title to more than 300 centres in 42 States; MSA on more than 600 campuses; SJP on more than 200. |
| 4. Narrative | Positioning as expert sources; transnational media; textbooks and school curricula; academic publishing and evaluation. | A role attributed to a Qatari satellite channel and its weekly doctrinal programme; the “Education on Palestine” programme (ISLA, 2024-2025); the majority refusal to condemn Hamas by name after 7 October 2023. |
Demonstration 4 - Three accelerating moments (chapter 5)
After 11 September 2001, the existential threat was turned into an opportunity for legitimation: positioning as necessary intermediaries between the State and communities, shifting the debate towards preventing anti-Muslim reprisals. Between 2007 and 2017, the BDS campaign provided an ideal vehicle for the campus strategy: targeting universities, coalitions with progressive organisations, the training of militant cadres. After 7 October 2023, the speed of mobilisation and the uniformity of slogans across distant campuses revealed, according to the study, a prior state of preparation - an indication, for the author, of centralised coordination.
Demonstration 5 - A structural vulnerability (chapter 6)
Four failures are identified: conceptual (analytical frameworks, centred on violent extremism, have no category for a legal movement); legal (no definition of non-violent extremism, misuse of non-discrimination provisions); institutional (unsuitable vetting procedures); and of coordination (compartmentalisation between agencies, between research and public decision-making). The recommended response consists not in restricting freedoms but in removing the exploitable vulnerabilities, by making democratic societies “more democratic rather than less”.
5. The author's conclusion and recommendations
For ISGAP, the Brotherhood's operations in the West concretely translate long-term strategic objectives set out in authenticated planning documents. The most lasting effect lies not in isolated victories but in the transformation of the interpretive framework: dissociation of Islam from extremism, predominance of the category of “Islamophobia”, sacralisation of the Palestinian cause - frameworks that survive political cycles. The author concludes that two trajectories remain open: the development of effective safeguards, or the continued compromising of institutions.
| No. | Recommendation | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation | A domestic qualification, then international designation as a foreign terrorist organisation. Presented as the precondition of all the others. |
| 2 | Define non-violent extremism | Identification criteria based on ideological objectives and not on tactical methods, distinct from counter-terrorism strategies. |
| 3 | Develop counter-influence strategies | Assessment of vulnerabilities, defensive mechanisms, early-warning systems respectful of public freedoms. |
| 4 | Reform non-discrimination law | Distinguish criticism of a political ideology from discrimination against a religious community; protect academic and policy analysis. |
| 5 | Strengthen institutional resilience | Vetting procedures, review of advisory positions, partnership criteria, staff training. |
| 6 | Restore capacities for ideological analysis | Reinstatement of removed training content, specialised units, protection of analysis from political pressure. |
| 7 | Coordinate government action | Interagency mechanisms, unified definitions, coordinated strategic communication. |
| 8 | Reform the law against the instrumentalisation of protections | Transparency for religious or charitable-status organisations engaged in political activity; strengthening of foreign-agent registration. |
| 9 | Support reformist Muslim voices | Alternative platforms, contesting claims to exclusive representation, promotion of plurality. |
| 10 | Establish stronger international cooperation | Intelligence-sharing, joint responses among allies, coordinated assessment of transnational organisations. |
| 11 | Develop cultural-resilience programmes | Civic education, media literacy, authentic dialogue, social cohesion. |
6. Directory of the actors and structures cited
The study proceeds by network mapping. The links it establishes with the Brotherhood are of very unequal nature and strength - explicit mention in an internal document, an alleged personal trajectory, a documented financial relationship, an occasional partnership, or a mere convergence of discourse. This directory does not amount to a CERIF judgment on the organisations mentioned: the characterisations rendered are those of the report.
- ISNA - Islamic Society of North America. A religious and community structure appearing in the annex of the “Memorandum”; originator of the schools' accreditation agency.
- MSA - Muslim Students Association. A student network created in 1963, cited in the “Memorandum”; more than 600 campus chapters.
- NAIT - North American Islamic Trust. A real-estate holding structure; title to more than 300 centres in 42 States.
- IIIT - International Institute of Islamic Thought. A research institute providing, according to the study, the network's intellectual credibility.
- CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations. An advocacy organisation created after 1991, therefore absent from the annex of the “Memorandum”; named by the prosecution among the unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case - a characterisation that does not amount to a conviction.
- CISNA - Council of Islamic Schools in North America. An accreditation agency for Islamic schools, arising from an ISNA symposium (1989).
- ISLA - Islamic Schools League of America. Curriculum development; author of the “Education on Palestine” programme (2024-2025).
- SJP - Students for Justice in Palestine. A militant network present on more than 200 campuses; described as a political action arm.
- IAP - Islamic Association for Palestine. A structure cited in the annex of the “Memorandum”, identified at trial as a propaganda relay.
Ideologues studied: Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949), founder; Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), author of Ma'alim fi al-Tariq; Youssef al-Qaradawi (1926-2022), theorist of the jurisprudence of minorities; Ali al-Sallabi, secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars after al-Qaradawi. Scholars drawn upon: Mitchell, Lia, Wickham, Zollner (history of the Brotherhood); Lorenzo Vidino (non-violent extremism); Bassam Tibi (political Islam as totalitarianism); Sylvain Besson (publication of “The Project”).
CERIF commentary
Contribution. This study fills a real gap. The analysis of Brotherhood entrenchment in North America remained scattered, and few publications, to CERIF's knowledge, brought together the doctrinal genealogy, the written exhibits and the mapping of structures in a single referenced volume. The choice to reproduce in the annex the Arabic facsimile of “The Project” together with the “Memorandum” in its original and in its numbered court translation is particularly welcome: it restores the object of the discussion, where public debate had settled into the commentary of commentaries. The doctrinal reconstruction of chapter 2 instructs a point that French literature neglects: the doctrine of tamkeen was elaborated, debated and published by the Brotherhood's own theorists, in works available in Arabic.
Why read it. Because one finds gathered here the texts that are so often cited without having been read. Because the American figures - 2,769 mosques, more than 300 centres held by a single holding structure, more than 600 student chapters - offer a point of comparison with recent French estimates. And because this report was followed, five days after its presentation in Washington, by a presidential decree opening a designation procedure: it therefore poses a question that European research will have to confront in turn, that of the passage from documentation work to a legal qualification. The gap between the study's recommendations, which target the movement as a whole, and the measures actually taken, which have so far targeted only Middle Eastern branches, deserves to be followed closely.