Australia’s Family First party has urged the federal government to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and to have security agencies investigate organizations it says may be linked to the movement.
Lyle Shelton, the party’s national director and a candidate for the New South Wales Legislative Council, made the call in a media release on 18 September. Shelton said Family First was backing a proposal put forward by British historian Andrew Roberts, Lord Roberts of Belgravia, at the Centre for Independent Studies’ annual gala dinner in Sydney.
He urged the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and other agencies to assess the Brotherhood and organizations linked to it against Australian legal thresholds, citing the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the attack at Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed and more than 40 wounded, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
According to the Family First release, Roberts urged the Australian government to ban the Brotherhood together with what he described as its network of companies, charities, nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.
The release said Roberts described the Brotherhood as the largest jihadist organization in the world.
Roberts also called for decisive action against extremist propaganda, greater scrutiny of overseas influence and funding, tougher responses to incitement to violence, support for moderate Muslim voices, and inspection of Islamic-school curricula, the release said.
Family First did not name any Australian organization as a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.
The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has published a report that names Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Muslim Brotherhood as examples of Islamic fundamentalist sources of antisemitism that it says demand “naming and extensive investigation”.
The Muslim Brotherhood does not appear on the Australian government’s list of terrorist organizations. Hamas, which the US State Department says described itself in its 1988 charter as a wing of the Brotherhood in Palestine, has been listed in Australia since 4 March 2022.
Parliament passed legislation in January, after the Bondi attack, that created a separate mechanism for listing organizations as prohibited hate groups, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said at a press conference on 15 May.
Burke said a listing can only be initiated by ASIO. A ministerial decision then follows, with the approval of the Attorney-General and consultation with the opposition, he said.
Burke said no minister can initiate the process and that, to his knowledge, no other organizations were in play.
Burke said the threshold for ASIO includes whether an organization has engaged in behavior that would increase the risk of violence, while the ministerial threshold includes whether it has advocated or engaged in hate crimes.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was the first organization listed under the new powers, the ABC reported in March. The National Socialist Network, also known as the European Australian Movement and White Australia, became the second on 15 May.
Supporting, funding, training, recruiting, joining or directing a listed group is a criminal offense with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, Burke said.
The calls in Australia come amid separate US measures targeting Muslim Brotherhood branches and associated individuals. The United States has not designated the Brotherhood as a single global organization.
In January 2026, the State Department designated the Lebanese branch as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The Treasury Department designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, saying they had provided material support to Hamas.
The State Department also designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in March 2026.
The department named the Sudanese Islamic Movement and the al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, which it accused of contributing fighters to Sudan’s war and using violence against civilians.
Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in 2013 and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates followed in 2014, Ahram Online reported.
