PHILADELPHIA – March 19, 2025 – Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, has been arrested and faces deportation proceedings. This follows an article published by the Middle East Forum (MEF) exposing Suri’s repeated praise of Hamas terror and relation by marriage to a senior figure in the designated terrorist organization.
In a sealed petition filed at the U.S. District Court in Virginia, Suri is challenging the legality of his detention.
Last month, MEF research associate Anna Stanley revealed, in an article published originally at JNS, that Suri “actively spreads the [Hamas] terror group’s propaganda and promotes virulent antisemitism on social media.” Stanley also noted that Suri is married to Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, the daughter of longtime Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef.
Suri previously travelled through Syria and Iran as part of the “Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan,” an activist initiative organized in December 2010 intended to support Gaza during a period when it was under the control of Hamas.
The arrest and deportation proceedings against Suri appear as part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration aimed at identifying and removing foreign nationals accused of propagating extremism. In recent weeks, multiple students and faculty responsible for antisemitic and pro-terror activities have faced removal.
“Unlike Georgetown University, which offered no acknowledgment or response to evidence of Suri’s Hamas links, the Trump administration took decisive action in preventing the United States from becoming a haven for extremists hiding behind academic credentials,” Stanley said. “The American people deserve universities free from terrorist sympathizers, and this deportation sends a strong message: those who support terror will find no sanctuary in our institutions.”
An upcoming report by MEF and the Clarity Coalition, due to be published next month, exposes additional connections between Georgetown University staff and departments and multiple hostile foreign governments, domestic radicals, and designated terror groups.
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization, promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western civilization from Islamism. It does so through a combination of original ideas and focused activism.
For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
