Islamist Watch publishes extensive profiles of organizations, activists and clerics belonging to a number of different Islamist movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami, Deobandis, Salafis, as well as front groups for the Iranian and Turkish governments. Our research focuses on these movements’ long histories of links to extremism and terror, and examines each institutions’ place in broader Islamist networks. In addition, our detailed profiles of prominent Islamist clerics include audio and video evidence of their extremist sermons and lectures, which are radicalizing the next generation of Muslim youth. We publish these profiles not just to educate the public, but also to provide a powerful resource for politicians, journalists and law enforcement who wish to identify lawful Islamists active in their local communities.
The Islamist Money in Politics project (IMIP) maintains a list of the most prominent American Islamists, and tracks their campaign donations to American politicians. The underlying donation data comes from the Federal Election Commission as well as the campaign-finance databases of the separate states, and is painstakingly checked for accuracy. The data helps Islamist Watch hold politicians accountable for accepting the support of Islamists, and allows us to monitor the activity of Islamist groups as they try to influence the American political system. IMIP data has formed the backbone of dozens of high-impact articles and opinion pieces, by Islamist Watch authors as well as external reporters and columnists.
Islamist Watch occasionally publishes briefings on a variety of topics, such as Islamist conferences, financial activity, or links to foreign regimes and terror groups. These briefings examine different Islamist networks, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami, Deobandis, Salafis, as well as front groups for the Iranian and Turkish governments.
The Forum sees the region — with its profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, border disagreements, corruption, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction — as a major source of problems for the United States. Accordingly, we urge bold measures to protect Americans and their allies. In the Middle East, we focus on ways to defeat radical Islam; work for Palestinian acceptance of Israel; develop strategies to contain Iran; and deal with the great advances of anarchy. At home, the Forum emphasizes the danger of lawful Islamism; protects the freedoms of anti-Islamist authors, activists, and publishers; and works to improve Middle East studies.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | AymennJawad.org
Jonathan Spyer | The Jerusalem Post
Sunaina Maira | Middle East Quarterly
Khalid Ikram | Middle East Quarterly
Campus Watch demands academic integrity in North American Middle East studies (MES) programs. It reviews and critiques MES bias with the aim of improving education – keeping watch on scores of professors at hundreds of universities. Our campus networks, research specialists and advocates confront the anti-Western politicization of scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, and apologetics for Islamism. Campus Watch respects free speech for all – but insists upon reciprocity.
Impact: Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution – “Campus Watch sheds light on often volatile and intemperate proclamations.” New York Times – Campus Watch monitoring is responsible for “damaging open inquiry and expression.” Ruth Wisse, Harvard – “[MES] benefit[s] from the presence of Campus Watch.”
Noura Erakat | Washington Post
| The Algemeiner
Meghna Maharishi | Washington Square News (student newspaper of New York University)
David Palumbo-Liu | The Nation
Danielpipes.org is one of the most accessed sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Muslim history, with over 69 million page views. Daniel Pipes is founder and president of the Middle East Forum – he has served in five presidential administrations and authored sixteen books on the Middle East, Islamism and related topics. The site offers an archive of his writings, along with video and audio of his latest media appearances, and translations of his works in 38 languages.
Impact: Washington Post – Daniel Pipes is “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof – called Mr. Pipes a “smart conservative,” two days after Mr. Kristof endorsed the Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists Mr. Pipes as an “anti-Muslim extremist.”
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The Israel Victory Project steers U.S. policy toward backing an Israel victory over the Palestinians to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Decades of what insiders call “peace processing” have left matters worse than when they started. The time has come for a new approach, a complete re-thinking of the problem that draws on Israel’s earlier and successful strategy of deterrence. Stop pressuring Jerusalem to compromise and make “painful concessions.” Instead, support Israeli victory, convincing Palestinians and others that the Jewish state will endure.
Impact: Launched the bipartisan Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC) and the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC), with 32 and 26 members respectively; influenced President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and order the U.S. embassy moved there (according to The Guardian, Al-Monitor, and NPR).
Jihad Intel provides local law enforcement with tools to detect and prevent Islamist terrorism. At the behest of Islamists and leftists, references to Islam have been removed from law enforcement and national security training materials. Law enforcement needs to know what to look for while searching apartments, cars, computer hard-drives and personal effects of prisoners. Jihad Intel’s gratis database provides them with background, image identifiers and intelligence for over 150 Islamic terror groups, including 87 image identifiers for ISIS.
Impact: Jihad Intel research fellow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi – quoted 242 times in the media over the last year, including in the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post and the Los Angeles Times, and on CNN.
The Legal Project protects the public discussion of Islam and related topics – if Islamism can not be discussed, it can not be reformed. The project provides a lifeline to the growing number of individuals whose livelihood and freedom are threatened by predatory Islamist lawsuits and malign government policies. It maintains a legal defense fund and a database of pro-bono/reduced-rate attorneys; raises public awareness of the issue; and educates policy-makers on how they can protect this vital speech.
Impact: Djemila Benhabib, author – “From now on freedom of expression will be better off in our democratic society. In helping me, the Middle East Forum's Legal Project has played such an important part in that matter.”
The Washington Project works to translate the Forum’s ideas into U.S. policy. It identifies American interests toward the Middle East, Israel and Islamism, and influences policy-makers through intensive educational efforts in the capital. The project currently focuses on reforming UNRWA by re-defining a “Palestine refugee”; designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization; and finding support for an Israel victory over the Palestinians.
Impact: Held 157 separate meetings in the last year with members of Congress of their staff – impacting UNRWA’s policies, countering Muslim Brotherhood infiltration, and helping to prevent unilateral Palestinian statehood in Obama’s final days.
Islamist Watch staff and writers publish dozens of articles each year in a wide variety of publications, ranging from National Review and Canada’s National Post to Pakistan’s Dunya News.
January 28, 2016|Johanna MarkindThe Daily Caller
Your support helps further our mission of educating Americans about the Middle East and influencing U.S. policy towards that region.
Johanna Markind | The Daily Caller
Todd Bensman | PJ Media
Alex Kane and Lee Fang | Intercept
James Rothwell | Telegraph
Samantha Rose Mandeles
Sam Westrop