Nexus of Islamphobia
Posted on 14. Sep, 2011 by Dr Mahboob A Khawaja in Hot Topics
Report Identifies Organizational Nexus Of Islamophobia
By Jim Lobe,
A small group of inter-connected foundations, think tanks, pundits, and bloggers is behind the 10-year-old campaign to promote fear of Islam and Muslims in the U.S., according to a major investigative report released here Friday by the Center for American Progress (CAP).
The 130-page report, "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America," identifies seven foundations that have quietly provided a total of more than 42 million dollars to key individuals and organizations that have spearheaded the nationwide effort between 2001 and 2009.
They include funders that have long been associated with the extreme right in the U.S., as well as several Jewish family foundations that have supported right-wing and settler groups in Israel.
The network also includes what the report calls "misinformation experts" – including Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), Daniel Pipes of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum (MEF), Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, David Yerushalmi of the Society of Americans for National Existence, and Robert Spencer of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) – who are often tapped by television news networks and right-wing radio talk shows to comment on Islam and the threat it allegedly poses to U.S. national security.
"Together, this core group of deeply intertwined individuals and organizations manufacture and exaggerate threats of ‘creeping Sharia’, Islamic domination of the West, and purported obligatory calls to violence against all non-Muslims by the Quran," according to the report whose main author, Wajahat Ali, described the group as "the central nervous system of the Islamophobia network."
"This small band of radical ideologues has fought to define Sharia as a ‘totalitarian ideology’ and legal-political-military doctrine committed to destroying Western civilization," the report said. "But a scholar of Islam and Muslim tradition would not recognize their definition of Sharia, let alone a lay practicing Muslim."
Nonetheless, the group’s messages receive wide dissemination by what the report calls an "Islamophobia echo chamber" consisting of leaders of the Christian Right, such as Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson, and some Republican politicians, such as presidential candidates Representative Michele Bachmann and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.
Other key disseminators include media figures, especially prominent hosts on the Fox News Channel and columnists in the Washington Times the National Review; as well as grassroots groups, such as ACT! For America, local "Tea Party" movements, and the American Family Association, which are behind current efforts by Republican-dominated state legislatures to ban Sharia in their jurisdictions.
The report also cited the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI), a press-monitoring agency created here in 1998 by former officers in the Israel Defense Force that translates selected items from Middle Eastern print and broadcast media, as a key part of the broader network, providing it with material to bolster its claims regarding the threat posed by Islam. MEMRI, which has just been awarded a State Department contract to monitor anti-Semitism in the Arab media, has often been accused of selectively spotlighting media voices that show anti-western bias and promote extremism.
Judging by recent polls, the network has proved remarkably successful, according to the report which cited a 2010 Washington Post poll that showed that 49 percent of U.S. citizens held an unfavorable view of Islam, an increase of ten percent from 2002.
The same network also succeeded in inciting a national controversy around the proposed construction of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan – the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" – which, according to Gaffney and others, was intended celebrate the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and "to be a permanent, in-our-face beachhead for Sharia, a platform for inspiring the triumphalist ambitions of the faithful."
"It’s remarkable what a small number of people have achieved with a small group of committed and generous donors," said Eli Clifton, a co-author of the report and a national-security reporter at CAP, a think tank which is close to the administration of President Barack Obama, who has himself been a prime target of the Islamophobic network.
The report, which was funded by the financier George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI), comes at a particularly sensitive moment – just two weeks before the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and less than a month after the murders of 76 people in Norway by Anders Breivik whose Internet manifesto not only echoed themes propagated by the key U.S. Islamophobic ideologues, but also quoted directly from their writings in dozens of passages.
Indeed, Spencer’s blog, Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, another group identified by the report as part of the Islamophobic network, was cited 162 times, while Pipes and the MEF receive 16 mentions, and Gaffney’s CSP another eight.
According to the report, Jihad Watch has been supported via the Horowitz Center primarily by the Fairbrook Foundation, which is run by Aubry and Joyce Chernik. Between 2004 and 2009, Fairbrook provided nearly 1.5 million dollars to Islamophobic groups, including Act! For America, CSP, the Investigative Project, and MEF.
The Cherniks also supported the far-right Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Aish Hatorah, a far-right Israeli group behind the U.S.-based Clarion Fund, which produced the video, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West that was, in turn, heavily promoted by the Islamophobic groups featured in the report. Breivik praised it in his manifesto.
Some 28 million DVD copies of the Obsession film were distributed to households in key swing states on the eve of the 2008 presidential elections in an apparent effort to sway voters against Obama. Some 17 million dollars in funding for their distribution was provided by a Chicago industrialist, Barry Seid, according to a Salon.com report published last year, and was channeled through Virginia-based Donors Capital Fund, which includes several prominent right-wing and neoconservative figures on its board.
Donors to the Fund have also contributed 400,000 dollars to the Investigative Project and 2.3 million dollars to the MEF between 2001 and 2009, according to the report.
Other major donors to Islamophobic groups include several foundations controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife; including 2.9 million dollars to CSP and 3.4 million dollars to Horowitz’ Freedom Center. The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which has often coordinated its political philanthropy with Scaife’s foundations, provided some 300,000 dollars to MEF, 815,000 dollars to CSP and 3.4 million dollars to the Freedom Center. In addition to more traditional charitable activities, both Scaife and Bradley have long been major supporters of far-right and neoconservative causes.
Other major donors included the Newton D. and Rochelle F. Becker foundations, the Russell Berrie Foundation, and the Anchorage Charitable Foundation and William Rosenwald Family Fund, according to the report.
In its mission statement, the Russell Berrie Foundation cited as one of its principal goals "fostering the spirit of religious understanding and pluralism".
"The intellectual nexus of the network is well understood," said Faiz Shakir, CAP’s vice president. "We know it’s driven primarily by hatred against Muslims; what we don’t know is what are the motivations of the funders. We don’t know to what extent they are aware of what is being funded," he said.
Horowitz denounced the report in a statement issued on its website, calling it a "typical fascistic attempt to silence critics and scare donors from supporting their efforts to inform the American public about the threats we face from the Islamic jihad."
Efforts to obtain comments from MEF and CSP were not successful.
Courtesy Of Inter Press Service through "Anti-War"
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Dr Mahboob Khawaja
Amit-Atlanta-USA
14. Sep, 2011
On the contrary, there is a concerted, ongoing covert effort by stupid liberals/Islamic Sympathizers/Radicals to sugarcoat Islam for the consumption of naive/gullible Americans.
Some of these people include CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Imam Rauf, Rashad Hassan, Ethan Casey, Dean Obeidallah, Brain Cloughley and extreme left leaning organizations like the Center for American progress, and ofcourse every single Islamic organization, plus scores of Islamic chairs in leading institutions funded by the Saudis and other ME states (e.g. the London School of Economics headed by ant-American. anti-semite Fawaz Gerges) .
I have made 100′s of comments on several fora exposing this lie. Here’s one such I posted on CNN a few days ago.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-671618?hpt=hp_bn1
This statement about “ALLEGED Muslims’ who took the life of 3,000 Americans…..reminds me of what CNN’s own Mr. Fareed Zakaria said in his story titled “Reflections on 9/11 and its Aftermath” CNN-GPS Sept 9th. After initially expressing “Horror & Anger” at watching the WTC strikes, Mr. Zakaria started researching what caused those Islamic terrorists to act the way they did, and what made them (incl. Al-Qaeda!) hate us.
Indeed just as every other pious Muslim Mr. Zakaria never found it necessary to look into the terrorists’ hateful ideology, and its sources, but found ready answers in America’s policies as the driving force!
Then he goes about writing a spate of articles on Newsweek, CNN etc. including “Why they hate us”, “How America overreacted to 9-11”, “Living with Radical Islam”, “How Moderate Muslims fought the battle against Extremists & WON!” , “The Post-American World” etc.etc. going about his well entrenched Anti-American, Pro-Islamic agenda, “ALBEIT” camouflaged in such SUGARCOATED PATRIOTIC LANGUAGE that many naïve & gullible Americans can’t see through, and taking innocent Americans on a GUILT TRIP!
While all such COVERT efforts may help the Muslim community in hoodwinking gullible Americans in the short run, it will only make harmonious inter-faith relations (Islam Vs. all others) a near impossibility in the longer term!
Aurangzeb Hindu Kush
15. Sep, 2011
Interesting nonsense from a Hindu above justifying the failing Zionist fanned Islamophobia. The poor Hindus are still reeling from 1000 years of rule by Muslims who gave India everything including the Taj Mahal. It is funny how the inferiority complex ridden Indian Hindus jump at every opportunity to attack Muslims to please their white and now Zionist masters. Islamophobia is so passe now as there are already over 2 BILLION Muslims and growing in every corner of the world. SO GET OVER IT.
Rabbit
15. Sep, 2011
Ha, I never read enough of his drivel to realise it was a Hindu. Those craven fools are always beholden to someone as you say, and yes it is the Zionist scourge now.
They go and commit terrorism against themselves, like Zionists and like the Zionists they blame Muslims, yet Islam has no need to force it's way forward, we just sit back and grow in numbers and let God do his thing.
Rabbit
15. Sep, 2011
This article is correct and the first poster is indeed one of the members of this Nexus.
Actually you vile little Islamophobe, the bad news for you is that increasingly people like me, in the West who can see through the lies and filth of your muddy minds, end up looking more honestly and closely at Islam…and converting.
Suck it up loser, your days are nuymbered.
Cj
15. Sep, 2011
Rabbit. I read these articles and then wade through the responses and find it all very interesting. I understand how, in your quest to find answers and personal fulfillment, that you did your own search with regards to religion. My question however is simply this: Why religion at all? As a former Catholic in search of my own answers I found that none had adequate substance. For example, I don't need a holy book, or the threat of eternal damnation, to know that if I want to live in the world peacefully then I had better not dump on people. Granted, there are those that go to a church once a week and still do this, but I believe that applies to all "beliefs" equally. And since this is the case then it seems pretty obvious that the belief system each espouse isn't working.
I personally don't care what religion you (or anyone) are, just so long as you don't push it down my throat or treat me different because I believe differently. I try daily to treat all people that I come into contact with with the respect they deserve until they prove it unwarranted. Why is it important that I believe in this god or that? Why is it important that I believe your religion? We are all human aren't we?
Maybe when we all grow up and mature a little more this will be understood.
MIKE MURPHY
15. Sep, 2011
@ the "Amit" Islamophobic weasel writing usual hatefilled drivel. The fact is that your Zionist masters are brainwashing the smelly cowardly Indians into doing their Muslim hate campaign for them. The Zionists have already got the US bogged down in two LOST WARS and bankrupted out economy and turned AmeriKKKa into a paranoid POLICE STATE, all thanks to Zionist Jews and their plundering of US. You IGNORANT curry smells should be careful before the Jews even eat your rats and cows and leave India in even a worst cesspool that it already is. STICK TO YOUR CALL CENTERS AND PATHETICALLY FAKE "AMERICAN ACCENTS" and STAY OFF ZIONIST SPONSORED ISLAMOPHOBIA. Even us Americans are tiring of the economic ruin and paranoia peddled by ZIONIST SCUM in their sheer malice for Islam, one of the world's great religions with BILLIONS of followers and growing even in the US. ISLAMOPHOBES ARE PEDDLING A LOST CAUSE AS ISLAM IS HERE TO STAY AND PROSPER.
1776
16. Sep, 2011
No doubt it's z10n1st controlled stooges on (owned by AIPAC) & "judeo"-Christians who're the main perpetrators of leveraging muslims as patsies. 9/11 was a false flag op from the word go & the mossad probably had a hand in it.
babur
16. Sep, 2011
Number don't matter if you are divided and confused in your convictions. Nothing helps. Trust me Moslims your women are not with you and wait when they run away with freedom and cattles are left only to screw each other. In the western world every muslim women mostly Pakistani like muscular white men and when they leave them poor women have no alternative but to go act virgin to lead life with duplicity.
Majority of Muslim women will convert to any other religion if exist to chance to stay alive which will be provided with western forces. Is it Zionist or Christian or Hindu only time will tell
Keep vomiting poison you cobras till your taime of reckoning comes.
God be with you.
Joe Jussac, Jr. (Yusuf bin Jussac)
20. Sep, 2011
Shalom/Salaam/Peace to all! Who benefits of all those Anti-Islam, Anti-Sharia, Anti-Allah, Anti-Muhammad onslaughts?
Kindly take a peek at my Page at http://www.scribd.com/tjoaginsing
And it was/is recorded in the Holy Al-Qur'an (the Koran) that Prophet Ibrahim Peace be Upon him/pbuh/Abraham vis-a-vis those who hated.hate Islam: "Die u all with ur hatred against Islam!" (the translation of the meaning by, among other good great preachers, Yusuf Ali)….
Shalom/Salaam (derived, as is the case with the word Islam, from THREE IDENTICAL CONSONANTS the SLM of Hebrew and Arab origin, and/or Aramaic spoken by Prophet Moses/Musa pbuh, stand for PEACE)
Learn FIRST, next talk about Islam etc.
KIndly visit as well http://www.answering-christianity.com and http://www.harunyahya.com an net.
George in Bulgaria
20. Sep, 2011
"But a scholar of Islam and Muslim tradition would not recognize their definition of Sharia, let alone a lay practicing Muslim." What absolute rubbish. Please do some honest research before allowing Taqqiyah to colour your world. 17,759 murderous and barbaric attcks on people around the world BY MUSLIMS since 9/11 – and you have the unmitigated gall to cry about people who are not buying the lie of "a religion of peace". Please do some research before you write such Soros-funded lying.
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