The Evolving Islamist Threat: From American Campuses to Middle East Flashpoints in 2025
Date: 11/20/2025
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Private Event? Yes
Kosher Options? Yes
Offers Hotel Code? No
Cost Is Donation? Yes
Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, will deliver a forward-looking analysis of the Middle East and Islamism landscape as it stands in late 2025, beginning with developments in the domestic United States. He will examine how federal funds have flowed to organizations aligned with Hamas and designated terror entities, and address the evolution of Western Islamist threats beyond the declining Muslim Brotherhood to more dangerous South Asian movements like Jamaat-e-Islami, Tablighi Jamaat, and Deobandi networks that dominate radicalization across North America.
Roman will then shift to critical Middle East regional flashpoints including strategies to defeat Yemen’s Houthis, Iran’s regime vulnerabilities following Israeli military operations and potential paths for exploiting Iranian reformism, the future of the Israel-Azerbaijan partnership, and Qatar’s destabilizing role as both arsonist and firefighter—particularly its harboring of Hamas leadership. The discussion will address Washington developments including Qatar’s institutional capture of elite American universities such as Northwestern employing Hamas-linked faculty, and conclude with European challenges: France’s La France Insoumise party forming electoral alliances with radical Islamists, Germany’s security crisis from jihadist attacks by unvetted migrants, and the UK government’s efforts to criminalize criticism of Islamism through “Islamophobia” definitions, with actionable policy recommendations for the coming months.
Roman will then shift to critical Middle East regional flashpoints including strategies to defeat Yemen’s Houthis, Iran’s regime vulnerabilities following Israeli military operations and potential paths for exploiting Iranian reformism, the future of the Israel-Azerbaijan partnership, and Qatar’s destabilizing role as both arsonist and firefighter—particularly its harboring of Hamas leadership. The discussion will address Washington developments including Qatar’s institutional capture of elite American universities such as Northwestern employing Hamas-linked faculty, and conclude with European challenges: France’s La France Insoumise party forming electoral alliances with radical Islamists, Germany’s security crisis from jihadist attacks by unvetted migrants, and the UK government’s efforts to criminalize criticism of Islamism through “Islamophobia” definitions, with actionable policy recommendations for the coming months.
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