Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, daughter of a senior Hamas official, is a graduate student at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, according to Georgetown’s website and recent reports. The story doesn’t stop there.
The Middle East Forum think tank has uncovered that Saleh, the daughter of longtime Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef, is married to Georgetown post-doctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri. Even more troubling, Suri—who holds a position at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Christian and Muslim Understanding, funded by Saudi tycoon Alwaleed bin Talal—has repeatedly endorsed Hamas terror and actively spreads its propaganda while claiming to specialize in “peace processes in the Middle East.”
Suri actively spreads the terror group’s propaganda and promotes virulent antisemitism on social media.
Ahmed Yousef was a senior Hamas figure in Gaza and an adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. He also founded the United Association for Studies and Research, which had ties to officials at Georgetown and its Alwaleed Center where his son-in-law, Suri, now works. The United Association for Studies and Research was a Hamas-affiliated think tank that operated in the United States from 1989 to 2004. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, it was established by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and served as a front for Hamas activities in the United States, including propaganda and fundraising.
Suri isn’t just connected to Hamas by family. He actively spreads the terror group’s propaganda and promotes virulent antisemitism on social media. In a blatant act of revisionism, he denied well-documented reports of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, posting on Facebook: “Three lies by Israeli occupation, no proof whatsoever of babies beheaded, rapes or mass killings at carnival.”
In another post, he stated that Palestine’s elected government must sustain its resistance, legitimizing Hamas’s violent actions. Years ago, he expressed support for Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, posting a video saying, “This is what Hamas argues. Sheikh Yaseen giving the reasons why his group is fighting for their land which was stolen,” legitimizing Hamas’s violent actions.
Perhaps most disturbingly, Suri posted a video showing Hamas terrorists holding Israeli child hostages and wrote, “This is how Hamas men dealt with kids on Oct. 7.” Rather than condemn the horrifying abduction of Israeli children, Suri appeared to defend and even praise how Hamas militants “dealt” with the children.
The fact that a man with such sympathies is employed by one of America’s most prestigious universities should ignite calls for immediate action. How can Georgetown continue to employ someone who not only has familial ties to Hamas but also openly spreads its propaganda and defends its barbaric attacks?
How can Georgetown continue to employ someone who not only has familial ties to Hamas but also openly spreads its propaganda and defends its barbaric attacks?
This is not just about one individual’s reprehensible views. It speaks to a systemic issue within Georgetown where extremist ideologies find an increasingly welcoming home. The school’s continued employment of someone so openly sympathetic to terrorism raises serious questions about its commitment to academic integrity and moral leadership. As Georgetown prepares future diplomats and policymakers, we must ask: What values are truly being instilled? Is this the intellectual environment we want to shape America’s next generation of leaders?
The Middle East Forum—in collaboration with the Clarity Coalition, a network of Muslim and ex-Muslim reformers—will release a damning report this spring that will expose even deeper links between the university and extremism. It will uncover connections at Georgetown to hostile foreign states and a powerful domestic extremist network that has gained influence over one of the nation’s top universities.
Georgetown now faces a defining moment. Will its leaders take a stand against terrorism and sever ties with those who promote extremism, or will they continue to harbor people who spread dangerous propaganda?
America is watching.
Published originally under the title “It’s All in the Family.” Text differs slightly from original.
