Charles Jacobs Launches International Freedom Coalition
The new non-partisan group seeks to unite Jewish communities with persecuted minorities, including Druze, Christians, and Yazidis, who face shared threats from jihadist movements.
By Ricardo Alvarez ·
Dr. Charles Jacobs co-founded the International Freedom Coalition earlier this year to address the common threats faced by Jewish communities and other religious minorities targeted by radical jihadist groups. The non-partisan organization focuses on confronting jihadist violence, exposing Islamist influence, and defending vulnerable populations. Jacobs stated that while one persecuted group is easily ignored, many voices raised together are not.
The coalition includes members from anti-Taliban and anti-Houthi movements as well as organizations from Somaliland. Jacobs said the group supports Muslim victims of jihadist violence as strongly as any other community. He argued that accusations of Islamophobia often shield movements affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, noting that critics frequently remain silent when Muslims are killed by those same groups.
Jacobs has a long history of advocacy in this space. He co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Group in 1994, which worked to end chattel slavery in Sudan and build support for South Sudan’s independence. In his early twenties, he traveled illegally into Sudan with a rabbi to free enslaved people before Passover. He also founded the David Project in 2002 and currently leads Americans for Peace and Tolerance.
In a recent campaign, the IFC hired a truck to drive through Detroit displaying a message for incoming Michigan Democratic Sen. Abdul El-Sayed. The sign urged El-Sayed to end his silence on the murder and enslavement of black Africans in Nigeria and Sudan. Jacobs said El-Sayed should speak out because Americans would want to help if they were aware of the issues, but political correctness often blocks that awareness.
The Detroit campaign resulted in physical confrontation. Jacobs said the truck driver was dragged from the vehicle, beaten, and robbed of his phone. Police reportedly forced the driver to turn off the signs, an incident Jacobs described as a troubling attack on free speech. He vowed to send more trucks, noting that IFC members from Sudan, Nigeria, Darfur, and Biafra wanted black American citizens to see their plight.
Jacobs attributed the alignment between Western leftists and Islamist groups to white guilt and a shared hostility toward Western liberalism. He cited the 1979 Iranian Revolution, where leftists and Islamists joined to overthrow the shah, as a warning. He noted that the mass killing of protesters in Iran in January demonstrates the risks of challenging such regimes. At the IFC’s inaugural conference in Washington in July, fifteen groups participated, including Sudanese, Iranian, Coptic, and Darfuri representatives.
The organization aims to clarify that the primary enemy is jihadism rather than Islam or Muslims. Jacobs said the urgency lies in seeing the enemy without its religious garb. The group seeks to turn awareness into policy changes, sanctions, and local initiatives to ensure no persecuted community has to fight alone.
