Ben Baird, Direct of MEF Action, researches Islamist activity in Washington DC and state capitals across the country, organizes to counter these efforts, and educates the public, the media, and politicians on the threat posed by Islamist involvement in politics. He is a decorated U.S. Army infantry veteran and frequent contributor to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, The Daily Caller, and other prominent media outlets.
Ryan Mauro is an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center with a focus on extremist groups and foreign influence operations. He is a counter-extremism and international security analyst with a history of involvement in intelligence, counterterrorism, human rights, academia, activism, law enforcement training and engagement with policymakers. He has made over 2,000 media appearances in outlets from the left, right and center. Mauro is the creator and former Director of the Clarion Intelligence Network, a group that tracks extremist activity throughout the world. His previous work at CIN and ongoing intelligence-gathering focuses on Islamist extremists, Alt-Left extremists like anarchists, and Alt-Right extremists like white supremacists. Mauro is an adjunct professor at Regent University teaching courses on the Middle East and counterterrorism on the graduate and undergraduate levels. He was also an adjunct professor at Liberty University for over a decade. From 2021-2023, he assembled and led the Afghan Liberty Project, a volunteer group that provided hundreds of Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces, human rights activists and persecuted Christians with humanitarian assistance. The group also collaborated with other organizations to help evacuate Afghans who faced a particularly significant threat from the return of the Taliban. He has a Bachelorās Degree in Intelligence Studies, a Masterās degree in Political Science, and a Graduate Certificate in Middle East Studies, all from American Military University.
Sam Westrop, Director of the Forumās Islamist Watch, has headed IW since March 2017, when MEF absorbed the counter-extremism unit of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), where he was the research director. Before that, he ran Stand for Peace, a London-based counter-extremism organization monitoring Islamists throughout the UK.Ā
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 theĀ Jerusalem Post, theĀ 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.Ā
