The “Explanatory Memorandum” is a 1991 internal planning document written by Mohamed Akram, a Muslim Brotherhood leader in the U.S., addressed to the Brotherhood’s Shura Council. It laid out a strategic vision for the Brotherhood’s work in North America — describing it as a long-term “civilizational” effort carried out through patient institution-building, coalition-building, and gaining influence within American Muslim organizations, rather than through violence or open confrontation. It named a number of U.S. Islamic organizations that were part of this effort.

It became publicly significant in 2004, when FBI agents seized a copy during a search of a house in Annandale, Virginia, belonging to a Muslim Brotherhood figure. Prosecutors then entered it as evidence in the 2007–2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial, where it was used to argue that the organizations it named were part of a coordinated, long-running network rather than unrelated charities and civic groups.

Its importance comes from two things: it’s treated as rare direct evidence of the Brotherhood’s own internal strategic thinking about the U.S. (rather than outside speculation about its intentions), and because it’s a piece of physical trial evidence, it’s been cited repeatedly in the years since — including in the recent Senate hearing — whenever someone wants to argue that a present-day organization traces back to that original 1990s network. Critics, including some of the organizations named, argue the document is nearly 35 years old, was never a public policy statement, and shouldn’t be used to characterize their current activities.