Hamas Ties at Georgetown: Unmasking Extremism in Academia with Anna Stanley | MEF Podcast Ep. # 355

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 rushed to the defense of the academic in question. 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?

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.