"The Irrelevance of the Muslim Brotherhood" with Sam Westrop

Description

In this Middle East Forum podcast, Sam Westrop, head of MEF’s Islamist Watch project, challenges the widespread belief that the Muslim Brotherhood remains the driving force behind global Islamism.

Westrop argues that the Brotherhood has largely collapsed as an organized movement and that today’s Islamist threat is far more fragmented , and increasingly dominated by South Asian networks such as Deobandi, Barelvi, and Jamaat-e-Islami movements, many of which are gaining influence in the United States and the West.

The discussion examines why Hamas relied on far-left activists after October 7, how legacy Brotherhood-linked groups in America have evolved into new ideological forms, and why designations mean little without enforcing existing terror-finance and material-support laws.

Moderated by Lauri Regan, the episode concludes with a live Q&A on campus protests, Qatar, and the future of counter-Islamism policy.