Dexter Van Zile

Managing Editor, Focus on Western Islamism

Dexter Van Zile is managing editor of the Middle East Forum publication Focus on Western Islamism. Prior to his current position, Van Zile worked at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis for 16 years, where he played a major role in countering misinformation broadcast into Christian churches by Palestinian Christians and refuting antisemitic propaganda broadcast by white nationalists and their allies in the U.S. His articles have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, the Boston Globe, Jewish Political Studies Review, the Algemeiner and the Jewish News Syndicate. He has authored numerous academic studies and book chapters about Christian anti-Zionism.

Articles by this Author
A Comprehensive Plan to Restore American Leadership, Counter Iranian Aggression, and Secure Stability in the Middle East
Al Maghrib Institute in Houston Takes Public Relations Hit for Response
An Islamist who promotes an ideology similar to the teachings of the Islamic State—the organization that murdered and raped its way across vast sections of the Middle East and beyond— has set up shop in El Paso, Texas.
The Muslim Justice League Took a Page Out of the KKK’s Playbook and Deployed Masked Thugs to Harass a Reporter at Its Rally in Downtown Boston
Progressives Have Done a Better Job Advocating for Hamas than Many Islamist Organizations in the United States
Kian M. Kianfar, judging from his Facebook and Instagram pages, revels in his status as the eastern Massachusetts mascot for the oppressive mullahs in Iran.

As long as elites blame Jews for problems in the societies they lead, they will remain unable to confront the source of the threats to their well-being.
I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.
Working through the Pakistani Consulate in Washington, D.C., the Iranian government recruited dozens of activists to operate more than 30 voting stations at hotels, mosques, churches, a California film studio—and even a car dealership in Maryland—as part of an election to choose the replacement for Iranian President Ephraim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.