Turkey criticises US bill labelling Brotherhood terrorist organisation

Ibrahim Kalın, a senior aide and spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticised on Friday the American bill that calls for the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organisation, Turkish media reported.

Answering a reporter’s question about the Turkish position towards US labelling the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, Kalin said that the group has not committed any terrorist act within the past 30-40 years and it was democratically elected to rule Egypt before the current regime.

Kalin also said that such American measures would only please “real terrorist organisations such as ISIL and Al-Qaeda.” The Turkish spokesman said his government will follow closely the development of this law as it passes through its various phases, noting that it will provide an opportunity for a rethinking by Arab and Islamic countries given that the West has failed woefully to prove that it supports democratic transition in the region.

On Wednesday, the US House Judiciary Committee passed a bill calling to designate the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Congressman John Conyers said that the measure was a reflection of a growing Islamophobia in the US, noting not enough research was made to blacklist the group.

He urged colleagues to oppose the that bill put forward before the House Judiciary Committee since it was done “without holding a single hearing and without considering the serious diplomatic and foreign policy ramifications of [our] actions.”