Transcript Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America Fast Facts About The Islamophobia Network The funding -More than $40 million flowed from.

Fear, Inc.
The Roots of the Islamophobia Network
in America
Fast Facts About The Islamophobia Network
The funding
-More than $40 million flowed from seven foundations over 10 years.
The misinformation experts
-Five key experts generate the false facts and materials used by political leaders, grassroots groups, and the media.
-These experts travel the country and work with or testify before state legislatures calling for a ban on the nonexisting threat of Sharia law in
America and proclaiming that the vast majority of mosques in our country harbor Islamist terrorists or sympathizers.
The reach
-The movement is moving nationwide in more than 23 states — made possible by a combination of new, single-minded Islamophobia groups,
exemplified by Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! for America, Pam Geller’s Stop Islamization of America, David Horowitz’s Freedom Center, and existing
groups such as the American Family Association and the Eagle Forum.
-Experts are broadcast around the country and the world, with their work cited by (among others) confessed Norway terrorist Anders Breivik.
-U.S. politicians such as Reps. Peter King (R-NY), Allen West (R-FL), and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) repeat these anti-Muslim attacks give
credence to incorrect facts.
The impact
-This small network is driving the national and global debates that have real consequences on the public dialogue and on American Muslims.
-In September 2010, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 49 percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of Islam, a significant
increase from 39 percent in October of 2002.
Why it matters
-These attacks go right to the heart of two critically important national issues: the fabric and strength of our democracy and our national
security. Our Constitution upholds freedom of religion for all Americans. Contending that some religions are not part of the promise of
American freedoms established by our founders directly challenges who we are as a nation.
-One of Al Qaeda’s greatest recruitment and propaganda tool is the assertion that the West is at war with Islam and Muslims—an argument
that is strengthened every day by those who suggest all Muslims are terrorists and all those practicing Islam are jeopardizing U.S. security.
Definition Of Islamophobia
For the report, “Islamophobia” is defined as an
exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward
Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by
negative stereotypes resulting in bias,
discrimination, and the marginalization and
exclusion of Muslims from America’s social,
political, and civic life.
Muslim Americans Report They Have
Become Targets
According to the Pew
Research Center, a quarter of
Muslim Americans report that
mosques or Islamic centers in
their communities have been
the target of controversy or
outright hostility.
While 14 percent report that
there has been opposition to
the building of a mosque or
Islamic center in their
community in the past few
years, 15 percent say that a
mosque or Islamic center in
their community has been
the target of vandalism or
other hostile acts in the past
12 months.
Fox News Viewers Have Incorrect Views
Of Islamophobia
According to a report from
the Brookings Institution
and PRRI, roughly twothirds of Republicans,
Americans who identify
with the Tea Party
movement, and Americans
who most trust Fox News
agree that the values of
Islam are at odds with
American values. A
majority of Democrats,
Independents, and those
who most trust CNN or
public television disagree.
Key People In The Islamophobia Network
The movement is moving nationwide in more than 23 states.
THE FUNDING
The Funders
The Amount
The Organizations
$20,768,600
Investigative Project on Terrorism
(IPT), Middle East Forum (MEF),
Clarion Fund (Clarion), David
Horowitz Freedom Center (Horowitz)
Richard Scaife foundations
$7,875,000
Counterterrorism & Security
Education and Research Foundation
(CTSERF), Center for Security Policy
(CSP), Horowitz
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
$5,370,000
MEF, CSP, Horowitz
Russell Berrie Foundation
$3,109,016
IPT, CTSERF, MEF
Anchorage Charitable Fund and
William Rosenwald Family Fund
$2,818,229
IPT,CTSERF, MEF, CSP, Clarion,
Horowitz
Fairbrook Foundation
$1,498,450
IPT, MEF, CSP, Jihad Watch, Horowitz,
American Congress for Truth
Newton and Rochelle Becker
foundations
$1,136,000
IPT, CTSERF, MEF, CSP, Clarion,
Horowitz, American Congress for
Truth
Total
$42,575,295
Donors Capital Fund
The Islamophobia Network Reacts To ‘Fear, Inc.’
•
Middle East Forum’s Daniel Pipes in The Washington Post: “I am not against the religion of Islam but am
very much against the political ideology of Islamism, which I see as the third great totalitarian
movement after fascism and communism. This lack of distinction points to the intellectually shoddy
premise of the report.”
•
Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer wrote on Human Events that the authors are assisting jihadists because
the report “ignores jihad activity altogether, portraying Muslims as victims and demonizing all who
stand in the way of the misogynistic and unjust agenda of the Islamic jihad, whether advanced by
violent or nonviolent means. It thus reveals itself to be just another tool of those same jihadists.”
•
Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney bizarrely, and inaccurately, describes the report as
CAP’s “…latest ‘copy and paste’ effort [duplicating] large sections of five nearly identical ‘investigations’
just this year, complaining that millions of concerned Americans are Islamophobes.”
•
Daniel Pipes’ PipeLineNews.org observed that the report “neatly falls into lockstep with the efforts
being exerted by Muslim Brotherhood front groups to incrementally Islamize the West.”
•
Blogger Pamela Geller calls the report “a predictable misfired missile by Islamic supremacists and leftist
useful idiots” and “a pile of dung masquerading as research” that “reads more like a Mein Kampf
treatise.” She encourages her readers to “watch [the authors] choke on their own vomit” and
concludes “they will never defeat me.”
•
Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling, inaccurately attributed an outlandishly anti-Semitic quote to the
report, saying, “I’m reading directly from this report: ‘The Obama-allied Center for American Progress
has released a report that blames Islamophobia in America on a small group of Jews and Israel
supporters in America, whose views are being backed by millions of dollars.’”
This “sharia-law business
is crap. . .and I’m tired of
dealing with the crazies!”
– Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie (The Nation, August 6, 2011)
Available at: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html