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Walid Phares (Template:Lang-ar, IPA: [waˈliːd ˈfaːres]), an American scholar born in Beirut, is a professor and commentator on global terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.

Phares has testified before committees of the U.S. State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security Departments, the United States Congress, the European Parliament, the United Nations Security Council. He was Terrorism expert at NBC from 2003 to 2006 and has been Middle East and Terrorism expert and analyst at Fox News since 2007.

Phares is also a prominent adherent and promoter of the Sharia Law Conspiracy Theory, in which he believes Muslim Americans seek to subvert and overthrow the U.S. Government and Constitution with Islamic law.

Biography

Walid Phares was born in Lebanon, where he studied at the Lebanese and St. Joseph Universities. After earning degrees in law, political science and sociology, he practiced law in Beirut. He then earned a Masters degree in International Law from the Université de Lyon in France and a Ph.D. in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami. He emigrated to the United States in 1990.

As of 2008, Phares teaches Global Strategies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., and a Visiting Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. In 2008 he also became the Coordinator of the Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism.

Phares is an expert on Maronite history and affairs, and has served as the Secretary General of the World Maronite Union and also the Secretary General of the World Lebanese Cultural Union.

In March 2011, Phares was originally scheduled to testify before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee’s controversial hearing on the alleged radicalization of the Muslim American community. However, he was dropped from the hearing after his ties to the Lebanese Forces network were publicly revealed.

Controversy

Role in Lebanese War Crimes

Opponents to Mr. Phares cite that he is an associate to war crimes, due to the fact that he is a “former official with the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia.” This militia was implicated, by Israel's official Kahan inquiry and other sources, in the 1982 massacre of civilian men, women and children at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. Regarding the massacre, the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that, “Lebanese militias, notably the Lebanese Forces, went on a killing spree.”

In 1999, Phares’ World Lebanese Organization included among its “leading members” both “Col. Sharbel Baraket, former deputy commander of the , and Etienne Sakr, head of the radical Guardians of the Cedars group.”

Until its closure in 1999, the South Lebanese Army (SLA) controlled the notorious Khiam Prison. Human Rights Watch has stated, “It is indisputable that systematic torture occurred in Khiam.” The SLA also perpetrated atrocities such as the 1984 massacre in which its members “fired guns and hurled hand grenades at men rounded up for questioning.”

Similarly, Sakr’s group earned “a reputation for atrocities” during the Lebanese civil war. Responding to questions about his group’s role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, Sakr said, “We have the full right to deal with our enemies in Lebanon in the manner we find suitable.

When Phares was interviewed about the past atrocities attributed to Sakr, Phares replied, "Everybody did silly stuff, on both hands...but amazingly enough, the Guardians of the Cedars have been the most moral fighters."

Islamaphobia

According to Thomas Cincotta, author of Manufacturing the Muslim Menace, Walid Phares, argues that “jihadists within the West pose as civil rights advocates”and patiently recruit until “lmost all mosques, educational centers, and socioeconomic institutions fall into their hands. These “jihadists” put off militant action, Phares claims ominiously, “until the ‘holy moment’ comes.”

According to the report, Mr. Phares adheres to and promotes the conspiracy theory of a "sinister plan involves a steady decades-long infiltration of key institutions in the United States, including academia, the defense sector, and community organizations, in preparation for a future overthrow to impose Sharia law," and while he is often very cautious in his characterization of Muslims, on the whole, his narrative distorts the nature of Islam, misstates the role of the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans, and reinforces cultural stereotyping of Arabs and Islam.

Academic work

Phares taught at the Department of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University between 1993 and 2005. He has been a senior lecturer at the Lifelong Learning Society since 1994. His courses include Middle East Politics, Political History, Ethnic and Religious Conflict and International Terrorism. He has given lectures throughout North America and Europe.

Writing

Books

Journals

Phares' articles have appeared in Frontpage Magazine, Middle East Quarterly, Global Affairs, Journal of Middle East, South Asian Studies, The Journal of International Security Affairs and other journals.

His columns have appeared in many publications including The Jerusalem Post , Family Security Matters, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, World Defense Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Denver Post, The Indianapolis Star, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Oregon News, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, La Razon (Spain), Le Matin (Montreal), al Siyassa (Kuwait), and al Nahar (Lebanon),

References

2. Trans-Atlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Jihadi-Terrorism Secretariat General
3. World Maronite Union WMU Secretariat General
4. UNSCR 1559:Calling on Syria to Pull Out From Lebanon
5. Fox News Special Report With Brit Hume, March 10 2005
12. {Marlow, Lara. “Deal is short of full Syrian Troop Withdrawal,” The Irish Times, March 8, 2005
14. Ismail Royer, “iviews.com reveals ties between Lebanese terrorist and American Jewish organizations,”iviews.com, September 15, 1999.
15. Thomas Cincotta, "Manufacturing the Muslim Menace, Private Firms, Public Servants, and the Threat to Rights and Security," Political Research Associates, 2011
16. Thomas Cincotta, "Manufacturing the Muslim Menace, Private Firms, Public Servants, and the Threat to Rights and Security," Political Research Associates, 2011
17. FrontPageMag Columnist Dr. Walid Phares
18. JPost archives

External links

• Author's Website
• Future Jihad Website
• The War of Ideas Website
• The Coming Revolution Website

Template:Persondata

• American academics
• Counter-terrorism theorists
• Living people
• American people of Lebanese descent