Phares has asserted that the
Barack Obama administration supported the
Muslim Brotherhood.
[33][16][34] In October 2016, he asserted that "the triangle Clintonmachine-Iranregime-MuslimBrotherhood has unleashed a coordinated propaganda offensive" against Donald Trump.
[35]
In March 2017 Phares attracted attention in the UK when he implied in a tweet that London had "shut down" in the wake of the
terrorist attack in Westminster, despite most roads and
tube stations (with the exception of the adjacent
Westminster station) remaining open as normal, and the fact that only the immediate crime scene was cordoned off: many Londoners replied to Phares to refute his claim.
[36][37]
According to
The New York Times, Phares "regularly warns that Muslims aim to take over American institutions and impose
Sharia, a legal code based mainly on the
Quran that can involve punishments like cutting off the hands of a thief."
[38] He has been described as an early advocate of
Bat Ye'or's
dhimmitude concept.
[39] Phares has also asserted that jihadists are posing as civil rights advocates.
[40]
Phares has been described as being part of "the
Islamophobia industry, a network of researchers who have warned for many years of the dangers of Islam and were thrilled by Mr. Trump’s election."
[27] According to Lawrence Pintak of the
Atlantic Council and a member of the advisory board for The Media Majlis at
Northwestern University in Qatar,
[41] Phares is a "card-carrying Islamophobe".
[42] Although Phares is often described as a scholar on terrorism,
Stanford University terrorism expert
Martha Crenshaw stated that Phares was "not in the mainstream as an academic".
[23] Duke sociologist Christopher A. Bail describes Phares as an influential figure in the anti-Islam movement.
[43] Phares has served on the board of advisors of anti-Muslim groups
ACT for America and the
Clarion Project,
[44] and has been described as part of the
counter-jihad movement by
Hope not Hate.
[45]
According to
The New York Times, Phares "is regularly accused by Muslim civil rights groups of being Islamophobic and of fear-mongering about the spread of Sharia law."
[46]
He worked for the Republican presidential campaigns of
Mitt Romney in 2012 and
Donald Trump in 2016. He has also served as a commentator on terrorism and the Middle East for
Fox News since 2007,
[3] and for
NBC from 2003 to 2006.
[4]