Hamas Ties at Georgetown: Unmasking Extremism in Academia
with Anna Stanley

Two Hamas-linked academics at Georgetown University have recently come under fire following explosive revelations of their ties to the terror group. Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, was arrested on March 19, 2025, and now faces deportation after a Middle East Forum report exposed his praise of Hamas and his marriage to Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, daughter of a senior Hamas official. Saleh, a graduate student at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, is implicated alongside Suri, whose social media activity promotes Hamas propaganda and virulent antisemitism. MEF research associate Anna Stanley, who broke the story, highlights how the Trump administration is cracking down on extremist sympathizers in academia, while Georgetown itself remains silent. With an upcoming MEF and Clarity Coalition report set to reveal even deeper ties between the university and extremist networks, this case raises urgent questions. How did Georgetown harbor such figures? What does this mean for academic integrity? And why did Georgetown rush to Suri’s defense?

Monday, March 24, 2025
1:00PM Eastern Time

Anna Stanley is a research associate at the Middle East Forum. She previously worked as an open-source intelligence analyst at the British Foreign Office and as an intelligence researcher and investigation practitioner for U.K. Police. She has delivered OSINT training internationally. Her writing has been featured on U.K. television, and in The Spectator, the Jewish Chronicle, JNS, Fathom, the Daily Telegraph and Ynet. She holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of London.

Israel Insider
with Ashley Perry

Will Israel’s renewed operations in Gaza bring Hamas back to the negotiating table? Which of Israel's war goals is currently taking precedence – the return of hostages or the destruction of Hamas?

Wednesday, March 26, 2025
3:00PM Eastern Time

Ashley Perry is an advisor to the Middle East Forum’s Israel office. He served as adviser to Israel's minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister in 2009-15, and has also worked with Israel's Ministers of Intelligence, Agriculture and Rural Development, Energy, Water and Infrastructure, Defense, Tourism, Internal Security, and Immigrant Absorption and as an advisor to The Negev Forum. Originally from the U.K., he moved to Israel in 2001. He holds a B.A. from University College London and an M.A. from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).

The Middle East Forum, an activist think tank, deals with the Middle East, Islamism, U.S. foreign policy, and related topics, urging bold measures to protect Americans and their allies. Pursuing its goals via intellectual and operational means, the Forum recurrently has policy ideas adopted by the U.S. government.