Walid Phares

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<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="Walid Phares featured on Pat Robertson's the Christian Broadcasting Network">888lWMFaVCA</youtube> Walid Phares is an Lebanese-American right-wing "terrorism expert"[1] who is closely allied with various neoconservative individuals and institutions which regularly cite Phares's comments as evidence for their claims. Phares has also been interviewed as an "expert" on TV news shows. When it was still in operation, Phares was represented by Benador Associates, a public relations firm that also represented many of the neoconservatives that pushed for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, including Richard Perle and Meyrav Wurmser.[1]

Descriptions of Phares

An article in David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine calls him

a former PLO terrorist who now lectures on behalf of Israel. He, too, converted to Christianity and became a devoted Zionist in the process. Providing firsthand experience of the hatred and anti-Semitism that is instilled in Palestinians from the time of their youth, Shoebat’s testimony is a powerful indictment against Islamist intolerance.[2]

His biography on Lebanonwire states:

Dr Walid Phares is a Professor of Middle East Studies, Ethnic and Religious Conflict, and an expert on Political Islam, Jihad and the Clash of Civilizations.
Born and raised in Lebanon, Walid Phares was educated at the Jesuit and Lebanese Universities of Beirut where he obtained degrees in Law and Political Science as well as certificates in Sociology. He obtained a Masters in International Law from the Universite de Lyons in France and a Ph.D. in International Relations and Strategic Studies from the University of Miami.[3]

Another biography describes his expertise as follows:

Phares' expertise covers Islamic Fundamentalism, the Jihadic Movements and strategies worldwide, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Human Rights under Islamic Regimes, ethnic minorities, women, and democratic processes within the Muslim world, Terrorism, as well as the Clash of Civilization. He has served as an analyst of the ongoing conflict since September 11 with regards to Bin Laden ideology, strategy, al-Qaida, Taliban, regional and local Jihadic groups, as well as Militant Islamists within the West. Phares analyses the surge and development of those movements in the Muslim world as well as within the West and South Asia.[4]

Prof. As'ad AbuKhalil comments about Phares:

"Terrorism Expert" (former commander of the Lebanese Forces militia, although that is stricken [sic.] out of his c.v.)[5]

Views on Islam

In 2008 Phares was featured on Christian televangelist Pat Robertson's the Christian Broadcasting Network (where he has been interviewed and quoted several times) as an expert on terrorism and Islam. During the interview Phares reiterated claims he makes in his book The Confrontation which the CBN advertised throughout the interview.

On the notion of Jihad as War

Phares argues that Jihad in Islam should not be interpreted as anything other than a call to violence and war even though leading scholars have refuted this idea repeatedly.[6] Phares also states that the West has not done enough in supporting the "weak" and "moderate" Muslims who defy his interpretation of Jihad:

Unfortunately in the Muslim world the forces that contend that basically oppose this are weak and unfortunately we haven't been successful in supporting those moderates.[7]

On "Academic Elite" in the US

Phares restates a common neoconservative idea[8] that the institutions and individuals that dispute their claims about Islam and the Middle East do so because they are funded by Saudi Wahabists:

This is not the problem of governments only, our academic elite in this country which was funded for many, many years by Wahabi funds has been the one that did us a bad advice in the 80s and 90s by telling us that Jihad is just Yoga, so don't worry about it.[7]

Support for 'Moderate Muslims'

In the introduction to a 2006 NPR interview[9] with Mark Dubowitz, Phares (who is described as a "Lebanese-American terrorism expert") is being advised by Dubowitz on how to use dissidents from Muslim countries to combat groups and individuals that the US has labelled as terror threats:

Let's put out backgrounders, productize this, identify the names of these dissidents whether they be in Europe, North America or the Middle East, give them the key talking points...

Contact

Website: http://www.walidphares.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/walidphares

Affiliations

Contributed US$1,000 to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004. [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Benador Associates, "Walid Phares Bio", Benador Associates (web archive), accessed on 11 November 2010
  2. ↑ Cinnamon Stillwell, Moderate Muslims and Arabs Emerge from the Shadows, Frontpage Magazine, accessed 28 May 2009
  3. ↑ Internet Archive, Professor Walid A. Phares, Terrorism Expert, Washington DC, Lebanonwire, accessed via Internet Archive 28 May 2009
  4. ↑ "Poverty and Terrorism, October 1, 2004: Biographies", US-India Institute, accessed 2 June 2009
  5. ↑ As'ad,"Terrorism Expert" (former commander of the Lebanese Forces militia, although that is stricken out of his c.v.) Walid Phares, The Angry Arab News Service, 08 December 2005
  6. ↑ Tariq Ramadan, "The call to jihad", Tariq Ramadan website, 28 September 2004
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Walid Phares, "CBN-700-Club-April-24-2008-Walid-Phares", Google Video, 24 April 2008, accessed on 11 November 2010
  8. ↑ Frank Gaffney, "Saudi Friends and Foes", Townhall, 3 November 2010, accessed on 11 November 2010
  9. ↑ Libby Lewis, "Hear More of Dubowitz's Story", NPR, 8 September 2006, accessed on 20 October 2010
  10. ↑ American Congress for Truth, "Links and Resources, American Congress for Truth website, accessed on 11 November 2010
  11. ↑ ACPR, "Authors and Associates, Ariel Center for Policy Research website, accessed on 11 November 2010
  12. ↑ Campus Watch, "Terrorism 101: Professor Walid Phares educates FAU and the world", Campus Watch website, 18 March 2004, accessed on 11 November 2010
  13. ↑ CLHRF, "Phares", Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation website, accessed on 11 November 2010
  14. ↑ Walid Phares, First Jihadi Cell of 2009 Busted In the United States — What Does It Mean?, Counterterrorismblog, accessed 1 June 2009
  15. ↑ Walid Phares,Campaign Contribution Search, newsmeat, Accessed 01-June-2009
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