PROMOTING CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNANCE
Advancing awareness of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology and networks
A core focus of the Canada Act Now campaign is raising informed public awareness about the risks associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a decentralized Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928 with a global network of affiliates. The initiative does not target religion and recognizes that extremism exists across ideologies; rather, its focus reflects documented experience, long-term research, and direct engagement in comparable international contexts.
The Muslim Brotherhood does not represent Islam or Muslims as a whole. Its stated ideology promotes Islamism — the belief that religious law should govern public and political life — a framework that conflicts with Canada’s secular constitutional order, the rule of law, and democratic principles. Canada Act Now maintains that this form of transnational political Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Canadian values of equality, pluralism, and constitutional governance.
International Designations and Government Actions
The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated, in whole or in part, as a terrorist or extremist organization by several countries, reflecting differing national security assessments and legal frameworks.
- In January 2026, the U.S. Treasury Department announced measures targeting Muslim Brotherhood–linked chapters over concerns related to terrorism support, including affiliates in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon (Jamaa al-Islamiya).
- Austria banned Muslim Brotherhood–linked symbols, literature, and affiliated groups between 2019 and 2021, becoming the first EU country to do so under anti-extremism laws.
- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (2013–2014), and Jordan (2025) have formally designated the group as a terrorist entity.
Researching Political Islam and Extremist Pathways
Fahmy’s counter-radicalization work and public education on political Islam are grounded in direct, frontline exposure to Islamist extremist movements across multiple regions. As part of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Protection team in 2007, he conducted confidential human rights interviews inside Lebanese prisons, engaging directly with detainees linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda–aligned network. This rare, unescorted access provided firsthand insight into extremist ideology, recruitment tactics, and disengagement challenges.
Photo captured from a video aired by LBCI recorded by prisoners using a smuggled cellphone inside Roumieh Central Prison in Lebanon
As legal pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood increases in parts of the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, Canada Act Now warns that affiliated networks may seek to expand operations in more permissive environments. The initiative highlights the potential risks to democratic values, social cohesion, and national resilience, emphasizing the need for evidence-based policy, prevention, and public awareness.
Fahmy’s prolonged detention within Egypt’s prison system for 438 days after being sentenced in 2014 while covering the political turmoil in Egypt deepened his understanding of political Islam and the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Much of his time was spent in the terrorism-wings of the Scorpion Prison inside Tora Prison Complex. There, Fahmy lived, and shared meals, and directly observed and engaged in sustained conversations with imprisoned members of extremist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates and senior figures of the Muslim Brotherhood—among them Mohamed Badie, the organization’s eighth Supreme Guide, who currently faces a death sentence in Egypt for terrorism and inciting violence. These experiences provided rare insight into extremist ideological frameworks, recruitment narratives, and methods of influence.
"Sacrifice Our Blood" (July 2013): Following the military removal of the now deceased Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, Badie made a defiant appearance at a pro-Morsi rally in Cairo, where he declared:
"We will sacrifice ourselves, our souls and our blood, for President Morsi" and pledged to remain in public squares until he was restored to power
In addition to his humanitarian work and personal experiences, Fahmy has spent decades reporting from the Middle East for major international media organizations. He began his work in Iraq with the Los Angeles Times on the first day of the U.S.-led invasion and later reported for CNN on the Arab Spring across Egypt, Libya, and Syria.
Throughout his career, Fahmy has conducted in-depth interviews with members of al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, an extremist group with historical ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Among his most significant interviews for CNN, Mohamed Fahmy secured rare access to the now deceased Mohamed al-Zawahiri, the younger brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the late leader of al-Qaeda—reflecting Fahmy’s long-standing experience reporting on extremist movements from within their own environments.
In a separate and equally notable interview conducted with his CNN team, Fahmy spoke with Aboud el-Zomor shortly after his release from an Egyptian prison, where he had spent nearly three decades incarcerated for his role in planning the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on October 6, 1981. The attack was widely understood as being motivated by opposition to Sadat’s signing of the Camp David Accords. During the interview, el-Zomor—an unrepentant senior figure in al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, a militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that sought to ignite an Islamic revolution in Egypt during the 1980s—openly articulated the ideological rationale behind the assassination. He told Fahmy and his team:
“The idea was to bring about change and provide an alternative leader who could save Egypt from the political deadlock we were living through at the time. I intended complete change, not merely the assassination of Sadat.”
El-Zomor further claimed that his direct involvement in the plot was limited to “providing the ammunition.”
Fahmy highlights these statements to illustrate how violent actors frame political assassination as a means of systemic transformation—offering rare insight into the mindset, motivations, and justifications used by extremist movements to rationalize violence.
Core Goals of the Canada Act Now Initiative
- Inform public policy and discussion through evidence-based analysis
- Support prevention and disengagement from extremist ideologies
- Strengthen democratic resilience and social cohesion
- Promote human right, constitutional governance and civic inclusion
Grounded in lived experience, humanitarian practice, and rigorous research, Canada Act Now contributes to evidence-based, Charter-compliant policy analysis intended to assist Members of Parliament in strengthening legislative and oversight frameworks addressing radicalization and politically motivated violence, while upholding democratic rights and freedoms.
The Muslim Brotherhood promotes ideological narratives that challenge secular governance and constitutional democracy:
- The use of community-based and civil society structures to advance political objectives without transparency
- The potential for ideological influence that contributes to social polarization and identity-based grievance
- The blurring of boundaries between non-violent political activism and networks historically linked to violent extremism