WASHINGTON — The White House has rejected a petition requesting that the government declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

The petition had been first created in July on the White House website, and obtained over 213,000 signatures in just a month. The Obama administration has stated that it will respond to any petition that reaches at least 100,000 signatures in a 30-day period.

“[The] Muslim Brotherhood has a long history of violent killings & terrorizing opponents. Also, MB has direct ties with most terrorist groups like Hamas,” it read. “A book by one of their prominent figures, Sayyid Qutb, called Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq, is the bible for many terrorist groups.”

“The Muslim Brotherhood has shown in the past few days that it is willing to engage in violence and killing of innocent civilians in order to invoke fear in the hearts of its opponents. This is terrorism,” the petition continued. “We ask the US government to declare MB as a terrorist group for a safer future for all of us.”

But in response to the petition, the White House replied recently that although it opposes violence in the name of religion, it does not view the Muslim Brotherhood as being a terrorist organization.

“We have not seen credible evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment to non-violence,” it wrote in its brief reply.

“The United States does not condone political violence of any kind and we continue to press actors of all viewpoints to peacefully engage in the political process,” the Obama administration continued. “The United States is committed to thwarting terrorist groups that pose a threat to U.S. interests and those of our partners.”

As previously reported, in 2012, the leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood organization denounced efforts to halt fighting in Gaza, stating that Palestinians should wage Jihad on the Holy Land.

Mohammed Badei urged Muslims to “back your brothers in Palestine. Supply them with what they need, seek victory for them in all international arenas.”

“The enemy knows nothing but the language of force,” he said. “Be aware of the game of grand deception with which they depict peace accords.”

That same year, the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly launched a widespread terror campaign to intimidate Egyptian Christians into avoiding participation in the final round of the presidential elections. Terrorists hit various regions of the country, targeting Christians in their homes, shops, farms and places of work, and strictly threatening them to refrain from participating in the presidential elections or voting for independent candidate Ahmad Shafik. Threats ranged from kidnapping, to burning of their homes, shops and possessions, to murder.

Then-presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi promised that his “Islamic institution, [referring to the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood] will trample with their shoes on the necks on anyone who should stand against us or our beliefs, because anyone who does must know they stand against Allah.”

Morsi was overthrown a year later, and United States Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham met with the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo to discuss ways to move the country forward following civil unrest.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928, and carries the motto, “God is our objective; the Qur’an is the Constitution; the prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for the sake of God is our wish.”

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