Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a counter-terrorism expert and attorney living in Washington D.C.^[1] Born to non-practicing Jewish parents who followed a medley of religious teachings, he grew up in Ashland, Oregon. Impressed by the religious devotion of his Muslim friends, he converted to Islam in his early twenties while in college. He worked for the U.S. head of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Wahhabi charity that the US government now considers a Specially-Designated Global Terrorist Entity for their alleged material support of Al-Qaeda. Part of his job was to conduct prison outreach and to educate prisoners about what Al Haramain considered to be true Islam. Shortly before the September 11, 2001 attacks he converted to Christianity. After this, he assisted the FBI when they conducted their investigation of Al Haramain. According to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Al Haramain had a prison dawah program that was ideally structured for terrorist recruitment.^[2]^[3] He holds a law degree at New York University School of Law. In February 2007, he released his first book, My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir^[4] He testified before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.^[5]. He now serves as Vice President of Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.^[6]