Sam Westrop

Director, Islamist Watch

Sam Westrop has headed Islamist Watch since March 2017. He is also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Previously, he ran Stand for Peace, a London-based counter-extremism organization.

TexAM director Syed Bilal published poetry expressing his love for the late Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh
Articles by Islamist Watch
TexAM’s Radical Leaders Betray the Institution’s Underpinning Agenda
Texas Muslim American University Leader Publishes Terror Poetry, Partners with Foreign Extremists and Faced Stalking Accusations
May 15, 2026
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Sam Westrop
An aid worker's jacket, emblazoned with the logos of the Latter-day Saint Charities and the terror-aligned Michigan charity Rahma Worldwide, which embraced and signed contracts with senior Hamas terror officials in Gaza
FWI Research
Church of Latter-day Saints Partnered with Hamas Ministry and Financed Hamas Contractor
A New Investigation Reveals LDS Church Funding for Terror-Aligned Extremists is Far More Extensive Than Previously Thought
March 23, 2026
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Sam Westrop
FWI Research
Hamas Officials’ Family and Affiliates Established and Staffed Top Dallas Private School
The Brighter Horizons Academy in North Texas Was Established and Run by Figures Involved with Convicted Hamas Operatives and Designated Terror Organizations; Uses Curricula Developed In-House that Teaches Children to Hate
March 6, 2026
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Sam Westrop
Reports
A Guide to Islamism in Texas
February 11, 2026
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Sam Westrop
A ceremony at Darul Uloom Texas, a Deobandi madrassa in Texas reportedly eligible for a new state subsidy program
FWI Research
The Islamist Schools Industry in Texas
Texas Schools Eligible for Public Funding Include Institutions Tied to Hostile Foreign Regimes and Designated Extremists, and Teachers Who Promote Terrorist Groups and Spread Overt Antisemitism
January 23, 2026
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Sam Westrop
Anwar Khan, CEO of Islamic Relief USA, with Jean B. Bingham of the LDS Church Relief Society
FWI Research
Mormon Charities Among Top Contributors to Terror-Aligned Islamist Charities
Globus Relief, Lifting Hands, and the LDS Church Itself Have Handed Millions to Charitable Fronts for Dangerous Islamist Movements
January 21, 2026
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Sam Westrop
Officials from the International Republican Institute, a key thinktank of the U.S. Republican Party, meet in Dhaka with leaders of terror-tied Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.
Articles by Islamist Watch
The U.S. Government Embraces an Islamist Bangladesh
U.S. Embassy Officials and a Republican Party Think Tank Pursue a Working Relationship with Terror-Tied Mass-Murderers
December 10, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Children at the Islamic Education Center in Houston, which has received almost half a million dollars from the Texas state government, perform a song pledging allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader
FWI Research
Texas Faces a Far Broader Islamist Threat Than Just the Muslim Brotherhood
Gov. Abbott’s Designation of CAIR Is Welcome, but There’s More to Be Done
November 20, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Anwar Ibrahim, prime minister of Malaysia and a top official of a Virginia Islamist network, meets and embrace the late terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2024, just months after Haniyeh and his terror group planned, conducted and broadcast the murder from house to house of over a thousand Israelis, including children, during the October 7 attacks. Fellow Hamas terror leader Khaled Mashal was also present.
FWI Research
U.S. Government Provides Millions to Malaysia’s Muslim Brotherhood
Hamas’s Top Allies in the Far-East Receive Defense and State Department Contracts and Grants
November 12, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Middle East Forum Observer
Has the Federal Government Dismantled Hamas’s U.S. Networks? No
The Last Prosecutions of Hamas Entities in the United States Occurred with the Incoming Obama Administration in 2008
October 7, 2025
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Sam Westrop
FWI Opinion & Interview
Homegrown Islamism: The Inconsequence of the Muslim Brotherhood
There Are Real and Present Islamist Threats Across America, but the “International Muslim Brotherhood” Is No Longer One of Them
September 8, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Human Appeal staff member Bilal Shehadeh, killed in an Israeli strike in June 2025, welcomed Hamas's October 7 attacks
FWI Research
Terror-Aligned Charity ‘Human Appeal’ Should Be Prosecuted, Not Publicly Funded
U.K.-Headquartered Charity Finances Hamas Terror Proxies
August 26, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Iranian intelligence has launched a full court blitz against Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.
Reports
Beachhead: Georgetown U.
How Foreign and Domestic Radical Actors Captured a U.S. University
July 7, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Children at the Islamic Education Center in Houston, which has received almost half a million dollars from the Texas state government, perform a song pledging allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader
FWI Government Funding of Islamism
Texas State Government Gives $13 Million to Islamist Mosques and Community Groups
Officials of the Grantee Organizations Include Open Advocates of Hamas and the Iranian Regime
June 10, 2025
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Sam Westrop
FWI Government Funding of Islamism
Plano, Texas, Hands $1.2 Million to Radical Terror-Aligned Charities, Including Controversial EPIC City
In one sermon, the imam of a city-funded mosque cautions that men may beat their wives, but not “to the extent that they die.”
June 5, 2025
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Sam Westrop
FWI Research
Did New Gaza Aid Effort Utilize U.S. Hamas-Aligned Islamist Charities?
Michigan-Based Rahma Worldwide Is a Former Partner of the Hamas Terror Regime, While Staff of the Illinois-Based Heroic Hearts Openly Support Terror
May 27, 2025
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Sam Westrop
Ahnaf Kalam
FWI Government Funding of Islamism
Terror Subsidizers to Receive Billions of Surviving USAID Dollars
April 23, 2025
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Sam Westrop
FWI Government Funding of Islamism
Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID
MEF research finds that the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations involved with designated terrorist organizations.
February 1, 2025
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Sam Westrop
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) grants taxpayer dollars through charitable institutions.
Middle East Forum Observer
Trump’s Foreign Aid Suspension: A Good First Step to Disrupt USAID’s Terror Finance
The U.S. Must Ensure That Taxpayers’ Money Never Goes to an Organization Whose Staff Expresses Support for Designated Terrorist Groups
January 22, 2025
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Sam Westrop
President Trump with Samraa Luqman, co-chair of the Islamist-aligned Abandon Biden campaign
FWI News
Michigan Islamists Applaud Trump’s Pressure on Israel, Meet With FBI Director Nominee
The same day the ceasefire was announced, figures behind the CAIR-backed Abandon Biden campaign met with Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI Director.
January 17, 2025
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Sam Westrop
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