PHILADELPHIA — The Middle East Forum (MEF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel Doron, Mark Durie, Cynthia Farahat, Raymond Ibrahim, Hilal Khashan, Gary Gambill, Nidra Poller, and Marilyn Stern as associate fellows. All of them have worked with the Forum in various capacities, in particular as contributors to the Middle East Quarterly.
Daniel Doron is founder and director of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress (ICSEP), a pro-market public policy think tank that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “indispensable to the success” of Israel’s economic reforms in recent years. The late Milton Friedman called him “consistently . . . farsighted in his evaluation of the Israeli economy.” Also a man of letters, Doron has also ventured into literature, film, and journalism. He has published in the Wall Street Journal, New Republic, Weekly Standard, National Review, and elsewhere.
Rev. Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist and pastor of an Anglican church. He has published on the language and culture of the Acehnese (a Muslim people of Indonesia), Christian-Muslim relations, and religious freedom. Rev. Durie holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Australian National University and is a graduate of the Australian College of Theology. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Leiden, MIT, UCLA and Stanford, was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1992, and awarded an Australian Centennial Medal in 2001 for contributions to linguistics. He has spoken for the Middle East Forum.
Cynthia Farahat is an Egyptian political activist, writer and researcher. Co-founder of the Misr El-Umm (2003-06) and the Liberal Egyptian (2006-08) parties, which stood for peace with Israel, secularism, and anti-Islamism, she was under long-term surveillance by the State Security Intelligence Service before seeking political asylum in the United States in 2011. Ms Farahat worked with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Cairo, and the Center for Security Policy and Coptic Solidarity. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and received an award from the Endowment for Middle East Truth. She is co-author of two books in Arabic and, among other journals, has published in the Middle East Quarterly, National Review Online, and The Washington Times.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist and Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Author of The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he previously served as associate director of the Middle East Forum (2009-11) and worked as a reference assistant at the Near East Section of the Library of Congress (2003-08). Mr. Ibrahim appears on television, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress. Mr. Ibrahim’s writings, translations, and observations have appeared in the Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard. He has contributed articles to scholarly journals, including the Middle East Quarterly the Almanac of Islamism, and Middle East Review of International Affairs.
Hilal Khashan is a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut. He is the author of five books and more than 70 articles, in such publications as the Middle East Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Orbis, and Third World Quarterly. He is presently completing a book on Hezbollah’s political leadership.
Gary C. Gambill, formerly editor of Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (1999-2004) and Mideast Monitor (2006-09), is a political analyst specializing in the Arab world, particularly Syria and Lebanon. He has a BS in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. He is a frequent contributor to Foreign Policy and The National Interest.
Nidra Poller is a Paris-based American writer, translator, and journalist. She has published short stories, essays, and books for children. A collection of her short stories, Karimi Hotel & autres nouvelles d’Africa, was published in May 2011. Ms Poller previously worked as a French-English translator. Her writings have appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Wall Street Journal, New York Sun, and National Review Online.
Marilyn Stern is a Philadelphia-based researcher and writer with a special focus on Middle Eastern security affairs. A graduate of Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art, she earned an M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and completed an Executive Certificate program at the Interdisciplinary Center’s Institute for Counterterrorism. A board member of the Middle East Forum and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Ms Stern has published articles for the Small Wars Journal and the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
“We are very fortunate to have this excellent and diverse group of individuals as associate fellows,” said Forum president Daniel Pipes. “Each brings a body of expertise critical to addressing important topics.”
The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank, is dedicated to defining American interests in the Middle East and protecting America from Islamist threats. It achieves its goals through intellectual, activist, and philanthropic efforts.
For more information, contact Judy Goodrobb at:
215-546-5406, ex. 19
MEQ@MEForum.org
