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."[1] 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]