Background and writings on Islam

Bostom, who is Jewish, although "not particularly religious", grew up in New York City, lived in Queens most of his life and went to medical school in Brooklyn.^[1] He became an associate professor of medicine at Brown University Medical School,^[1] and was an internal medicine specialist from 1997 to 2021.^[3] His attention to Islam was started with the September 11 attacks in 2001, after which he read "everything" ever written by Bat Ye'or.^[1] He met Ye'or after a correspondence with Daniel Pipes, and thereafter brought her to Brown to give a guest lecture, following which she became a "very close" mentor to Bostom.^[1] He began writing short essays within a year of 9/11, and wrote his first book with the encouragement of Ibn Warraq.^[1]

Bostom authored The Legacy of Jihad in 2005, a work which provides an analysis of jihad based on an exegesis of translations of Islamic primary sources done by other writers on the topic,^[4] and was the editor of the 2008 anthology of primary sources and secondary studies on the theme of Muslim antisemitism, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism.^[5] In 2012, Bostom published his third compendium Sharia versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism. He has also published articles in the New York Post, Washington Times, New York Daily News, National Review Online, American Thinker, Pajamas Media, and FrontPage Magazine.^[6]

Alyssa A. Lappen in the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism found Bostom's first book "groundbreaking", and the second a "landmark book" that was both "extensive" and "scientific".^[7] Bostom's view that Islam and Islamism are "synonymous" has been criticized by professor Bassam Tibi who states that most Muslims in the world are not Islamists.^[8] Christopher van der Krogt has described Bostom as a polemicist.^[9] Matt Carr writing in Race & Class, described Bostom as a "protégé" of Bat Ye’or, and described Bostom's perspective of Islam as reducing to the acronym "‘MPED’ – massacre, pillage, enslavement and deportation".^[10] Bostom participated in the 2007 and 2008 international counter-jihad conferences,^[11][12] and is regarded as part of the counter-jihad movement.^[13][14]

On COVID-19

Bostom has supported and signed the controversial Great Barrington Declaration, which opposed government COVID-19 mitigation measures such as mask wearing and lockdowns, in favor of shielding those considered to be at risk, while those not at risk could resume normal activities.^[15] Bostom has opposed COVID-19 vaccinations and mitigation measures for children and young adults, arguing that low mortality rates from infections, and the risks of myocarditis made them unnecessary, and has praised Sweden's response to the pandemic. He has also expressed skepticism of Long COVID in mild cases, particularly in children.^[16]

Bostom was permanently suspended from Twitter after receiving five strikes for "misinformation", but, according to the Twitter Files, after his attorney contacted Twitter, Twitter's internal audit found that only one of his five violations had been valid.^[2]