Who is Ryan Mauro?
Mauro is a former member of the Clarion Project and an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist. He was a writer for FrontPage Magazine, a conservative blog operated by the David Horowitz Freedom Center that frequently attacks Muslims.
According to Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, “Mauro regularly makes anti-Muslim accusations and unfounded claims on Fox News programs and during trainings for law enforcement officials. He is a proponent of policies that criminalize Muslims and Muslim communities.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Mauro as a “anti-Muslim national security ‘expert’” and notes that Mauro is, “known for peddling anti-Muslim conspiracy theories about secret Islamist training camps in the United States.”
Anti-Muslim Activities
While in high school, Mauro created the website WorldThreats.com and was described as “the youngest national security expert” by anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America. Today, Mauro’s personal website states he remains available for law enforcement trainings, media events and other public speaking. The last post on that site appears to have been in May 2021.
Among the many anti-Muslim conspiracy theories that have been floated is one alleging that Muslims are taking over parts of western cities and declaring them no-go zones for people who are not of the Islamic faith. The fact checking site Snopes declared such allegations false in 2015.
In 2015, Right Wing Watch reported that Mauro was advancing the idea of no-go zones, reporting that Mauro thought “European ‘no-go zones’ would provide ‘precedent’ for such ‘Muslim enclaves’ in the U.S.” Mauro also told then Fox News host Megyn Kelly that there are growing Muslim enclaves in the U.S. where gangs of Islamic extremists are “patrolling” neighborhoods and enforcing the tenants (sic) of Shariah law.”
Following news that several men planned an attack on the Black Muslim-majority town of Islamberg in New York Religion News Service reported, “As a Fox News contributor, Mauro has been able to ‘mainstream his claims,’ explained Mobashra Tazamal, senior research fellow at The Bridge Initiative, a Georgetown University-based research project focused on Islamophobia. “These baseless accusations and lies are able to spread with the help of the internet and the media, but they don’t just remain in the online sphere. … Such conspiracy theories can have violent consequences.”
Right Wing Watch also reports that “Ryan Mauro says Trump’s failure to criticize Islam in his 9/11 remarks marked the ‘birth of the Barack W. Trump administration.’”
Influence
Mauro remains active on X, formerly known as Twitter. He currently has more than 41,000 followers on his account, as of August 2023.
Mauro served as a ‘national Security analyst’ for the Clarion Project. Numerous actors associated with the Islamophobia network have served on the Clarion Project’s advisory board, including Frank Gaffney, Clare Lopez, Daniel Pipes, Walid Phares, and Zuhdi Jasser.
Mauro frequently collaborated with the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America, once speaking at a national conference hosted by the organization in 2015.
Once a frequent writer for FrontPage Magazine, his last article on that web site appears to have been published in 2014. He has also contributed to Center for Security Policy’s blog and Breitbart News.
At the time of writing this profile, his YouTube page “The Ryan Mauro Show” was last updated 10 months ago.
