Trump is right to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood

Donald Trump has begun the process of banning the Muslim Brotherhood. The US President asked his officials last week to investigate whether certain chapters of the group should be classed as foreign terrorist organisations, which would result in economic and travel sanctions.

Some are portrayed this as a reckless lurch into Islamophobia. In fact, it is overdue by at least a decade. The Muslim Brotherhood is not a benign religious association. It is a disciplined ideological movement with a century-long record of exploiting political systems.Its explicit objective is to work towards the establishment of a global caliphate – only by gradualist means, rather than the reckless confrontation and brutality favoured by its distant offshoot, Isis.

Its approach varies by setting, not by moral pri