Dear Reader:
 
The Middle East Forum has never been more active, promoting American interests vis-à-vis Middle East and Islamist issues, from local school boards to the halls of Congress.

We will be taking our efforts to another level in January 2023 with the launch of MEF Action, a crowd-sourcing site where you will be able to participate in our advocacy campaigns. Look for our kickoff announcement in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, please review our 2022 successes:


Left: Forum president Daniel Pipes (center) headlines a Salzburg, Austria conference of Muslim reformers and anti-Islamists, asking politicians to take the “Salzburg Pledge.” Right: The Forum outed the fake anti-Muslim “hate crime” claimed by popular Islamist
YouTube preacher Uthman Ibn Farooq.

• Harvard/Hamtramck, MI –Amer Ghalib, Hamtramck’s new Islamist mayor, was dis-invited from a Harvard voting rights event after we exposed his racist and anti-Semitic comments,  and apparent voter fraud. In response, Ghalib called the Forum “opportunistic parasites” (see the video and the Facebook rant).
   
• The U.S. Southern Border – We created the Southern Border Project, that builds on a coalition of property owners and sheriffs to increase apprehensions of illegal migrants, and works with Texas officials to interview detainees, finding Islamists through our extreme vetting plan and preventing their release into the U.S.
   
• Washington, D.C. – We initiated a grassroots campaign to discourage support for the Combating International Islamophobia Act, which would require the Department of State to establish a Special Envoy for tracking and combating “Islamophobia” globally. Nearly 800 emails were sent to Congress, explaining how the Act would further Islamist goals at the expense of American allies. The bill has failed to attract support in Congress.
   
• Europe – We helped organize a coalition of reform Muslims, ex-Muslims, and non-Muslim allies in Salzburg, Austria to formulate a grand strategy to counter Islamism. MEF president Daniel Pipes urged attendees to focus on immigration issues. The coalition will ask politicians to sign a “Salzburg Pledge,” while combating efforts in the West to manipulate Muslims into extremism. The conference was positively covered by Riyadh-based Arab News.
   
• Israel – We reconstituted the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus with parties from across Israel’s political spectrum, calling for new policies and spirit to defeat Israel’s enemies. Maj. Gen. (ret.) Uzi Dayan, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, credited the Forum’s Israel Victory Project for “ripening in the Israeli public the idea that things can’t continue this way [i.e., endless rounds of war].”
   
• San Diego – We outed the fake anti-Muslim “hate crime” claimed by Uthman Ibn Farooq, a popular Islamist preacher on YouTube. He told the world he had been stabbed in downtown San Diego by a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs, sharing a video showing an angry exchange with an unidentified man, and showing bloody clothing, and claiming the assailant had been arrested, convicted and jailed. Our investigation debunked his claim: neither the San Diego Police Department nor the San Diego County District Attorney have any information about the attack, contradicting Farooq's claim that he filed a complaint with law enforcement officials. We even offered Farooq $5K for information corroborating his claim. He refused. He did have his followers rough-up one of our investigators who confronted Farooq, asking for the name of the person allegedly serving time in jail for attacking him.
   
• Ohio – Exclusive reporting by MEF investigative reporter Susannah Johnston about the ties of Oberlin College Professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati with the Islamic Republic of Iran prompted a congressional inquiry into “Mahallati’s current association with and open loyalty to the Iranian regime” (see the Fox News coverage).
   
• Florida – Governor Ron DeSantis removed CAIR as a partner in the state’s Faith and Community Service Initiative, after we alerted him to the Islamist group’s involvement. “CAIR does not reflect our shared values, and this will be corrected immediately,” said DeSantis’s press secretary. (DeSantis co-chaired the Forum’s Congressional Israel Victory Caucus when he served in Congress.)
   
• Washington, D.C. – We frustrated Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) efforts to pass her anti-India bill (H.Res. 1196) accusing India of religious persecution against Muslims and calling on the State Department to list India as a “Country of Particular Concern.” We organized a grassroots campaign that put constituents in touch with their Congress members, sending hundreds of emails. With only two co-sponsors, the bill languishes in committee.
   
• Palm Beach, FL – We convinced Palm Beach County School Board vice chair Karen Brill to return an award she received from the South Florida Muslim Federation, a jihadist-tied coalition of the region’s most radical mosques and Islamist groups, and “never” associate with the group again. She had received the award for giving Muslim students a day off during Ramadan.
   
• San Diego – We organized a grassroots campaign to convince the San Diego County Board of Supervisors not to fund the Islamist group CAIR’s banquets and fundraisers in California. Participants sent hundreds of letters opposing the spending, which were entered into the government’s records. We also spoke at a board hearing, describing CAIR's extremist history. District Supervisor Joel Anderson told us he would never allow CAIR to receive funding.
   
• Illinois – Three U.S. congressional candidates boycotted a candidate forum at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, IL after we educated them on its extensive ties to extremism and involvement in jihadist finance cases.

As the year comes to a close, we ask for your support if you have not already sent a tax-deductible contribution to the Forum, most easily by clicking here.

If you prefer to contribute by mail, please make a check payable to "Middle East Forum" and send it to:

Middle East Forum
1650 Market Street, Suite 3600
Philadelphia, PA 19103

We are grateful for your support and consideration of this new initiative.

Happy New Year!

Yours sincerely,



Gregg Roman
Director