Shiraz Maher is a director at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) and a member of the War Studies department at Kings College London. Maher, who grew up in the United Kingdom, was galvanized into radical Islam after the events of 9/11. He joined Hizbut Tahrir, an international Islamist organization, and by 2005, he began to have doubts about the group. He ultimately decided to leave the movement after the London bombings later that same year. He has since dedicated his life to countering the spread of radical Islam. He was embedded with the Pakistani military to report on jihadist movements in Central Asia in 2010 and has interviewed al-Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia for the BBC. He is also a regular contributor to the Spectator UK and the New Statesman, frequently writing on the Islamic State and the broader Middle East, and an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.