Views on Islam
According to
the New York Times, Phares "regularly warns that Muslims aim to take over American institutions and impose Shariah, a legal code based mainly on the Koran that can involve punishments like cutting off the hands of a thief."
[37] Phares has also asserted that jihadists are posing as civil rights advocates.
[38]
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."
[26] According to Lawrence Pintak of the Atlantic Council and a member of the advisory board for The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar,
[39] Phares is a "card-carrying Islamophobe".
[40] 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".
[22] Duke sociologist Christopher A. Bail describes Phares as an influential figure in the anti-Islam movement.
[41]
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."
[42]