The International Freedom Coalition (IFC), launched yesterday at a Capitol Hill briefing, is the first global coalition uniting victims of jihadist violence, with a mission to connect resistance efforts across the affected communities. It is led by Dr. Charles Jacobs and Dr. Walid Phares.
Jihadist movements, including Boko Haram in Nigeria and Hamas in Gaza, have carried out killings, kidnappings, torture, sexual violence, and enslavement against civilian populations around the world.
Each affected community has historically viewed its experience as an isolated struggle, when in fact each has confronted a branch of the same global network: jihadism. This is not a struggle against Islam, as Muslims who stand in the way of the jihadist movement are also targeted and killed.
The International Freedom Coalition (IFC) is the first global coalition uniting victims of jihadist violence, with a mission to connect resistance efforts across the affected communities. It is led by Dr. Charles Jacobs and Dr. Walid Phares.
Dr. Walid Phares defines jihadism as a comprehensive ideological and historical strategy to conquer, dominate and rule over non-jihadist communities around the world, with the ultimate goal being global conquest.
The IFC raises awareness about how jihadists work to seize Arab and Islamic countries in order to assert jihadist rule and eliminate minorities. The methodology of this is expanded abroad, including in the free world, where they create enclaves and demand separate and special treatment, with the goal of eliminating the host nations’ traditions, culture and laws.
Jihadism includes preliminary non-violent infiltration and settlement phases, along with the planned deception of Western populations, obscuring true intentions through the use of Western human rights language: tolerance, interfaith dialogue, and anti-racism. Once these groups gain enough traction, they launch urban conflict within the free world, as is now visible throughout Europe.
Survivors and advocates representing communities victimized by jihadist violence across multiple continents gathered on Capitol Hill on July 23, 2026, for a Congressional briefing describing their shared experience to members of Congress, Congressional staff, and the press.
The briefing marked the public launch of the International Freedom Coalition (IFC), a newly formed alliance uniting Africans, Christians, Jews, Alawites, Kurds, Druze, Iranians, Afghans, Arabs, and other communities that say they have been targeted by jihadist movements.
Current IFC members include representatives of the following communities:
● Alawites — Sarah Abbas
● Assyrians — Juliana Taimoorazy
● Druze — Rania Dean
● Nigerians — Stephen Enada
● Biafrans — Dr. Bryson Okeoma, Dr. Chioma Okeoma, and Obinna Michael Ikegbunam
● South Sudanese — Francis Buk and Simon Deng
● Kurds — Mahmoud Abbas
● Lebanese — Tom Harb and John Hajar
● Iranians — Gazelle Sharmahd
Future members will include representatives of Copts, Afghans, Hindus, Arab reformers, Kabyles-Amazighs, Yemenis, Somalilanders, Mauritanians, and communities across Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.
“The gathering in Washington of representatives of tens if not millions of such victims creates the first serious international response, and the first sign of an international resistance to what has become a global jihad, said Dr. Charles Jacobs, co-founder of the IFC and former head of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which helped free thousands of jihad slaves during Sudan's civil war.
“This coalition brings together civil society leaders, scholars, and activists from around the world to confront the growing threat of jihadism. It stands with persecuted communities across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, while supporting reformers in the Arab and Muslim world and those in the free world defending liberty, human rights, and security against extremist threats.” said Dr. Walid Phares, the IFC's other co-founder, a scholar and author of nearly a dozen books on terrorism and the Middle East, who served as a foreign policy advisor to President Trump's 2016 campaign. Go to https://www.internationalfreedomcoalition.org/ to learn more.
