Cruz: Senate hearing told Muslim Brotherhood harbors 'hatred' of US, democracy

WASHINGTON – 6 August 2026: A US Senate Judiciary subcommittee has examined the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts to “seize influence” inside American institutions, with Sen. Ted Cruz warning of their “revolutionary objective to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.”

The hearing, titled "Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America," was chaired by Cruz, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.

“I held a hearing today in which experts established that the Muslim Brotherhood and DSA communists are united by a shared hatred of America, Israel, Western civilization, capitalism, and democracy, and a revolutionary objective to overthrow the U.S. Constitution,” Cruz said on X.

The hearing examined the Muslim Brotherhood's alleged efforts to gain influence within American nonprofits, political organizations, universities, courts, taxpayer-funded programs and other institutions.

Witnesses described such “network” as having links to additional organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

“The Brotherhood’s American network has spent decades building influence inside our nonprofits, political organizations, universities, courts, and taxpayer-funded programs,” Cruz said.

Opening the hearing, Cruz said the subcommittee would examine two central questions: "first, how the Muslim Brotherhood built its network in America, and second, what that network looks like today."

He argued that "history has taught Americans the danger of dismissing determined jihadist movements because their ambitions seem too extreme to be real."

Among the witnesses was Lara Burns, a senior fellow, who testified before the subcommittee on the Muslim Brotherhood's organizational structure and activities in the United States.

Her testimony “outlines how support infrastructure for Islamist terrorism has operated within the United States for decades,” according to Program on Extremism.

The hearing comes as the Trump administration steps up scrutiny of individuals and organizations it says are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas.