Who Funds All the Muslim Baiting?

[junaids]

A whole new industry has sprung up around the tragedy of 9/11. Many people have gained a lot by peddling hate against Muslims/Islam. This article sheds a little light on the backers of these hate mongers.


MJ Rosenberg

Senior Foreign Policy Fellow, Media Matters Action Network


Who Funds All the Muslim Baiting?


It has been just about a decade since Islamophobia exploded in this country. That was the moment that the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hit by al Qaeda terrorists. It existed prior to 9/11, but the losses that day and the general terror it inflicted upon this country made many, many Americans much more wary of Arabs and, fairly quickly, fearful of the religion the terrorists professed.

The first sign that 9/11 would be exploited to advance various agendas came from Binyamin Netanyahu, who was quoted in the New York Timesas saying the attacks would be good for Israel:

Asked tonight [September 11, 2001] what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror."

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Netanyahu subsequently reiterated his views about 9/11, quoted here in Haaretz.

And, of course, ever since 9/11 the "pro-Israel" lobby has successfully used it to build support for right-wing Israeli policies in the United States.
But the lobby isn't alone.

It is just one of the components of an orchestrated and well-financed effort to make Americans fear and hate Muslims and Arabs.
I have to admit, however, that until I read a report published today by the Center for American Progress (CAP), I had no idea just how orchestrated and well-financed this movement was.

The report, "Fear Inc: The Roots of The Islamophobia Network in America," demonstrates that a small group of self-proclaimed experts (Frank Gaffney, David Yerushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Steve Emerson) backed by a host of foundations and donors (many of which also fund the lobby) have put Islamophobia on the map.

To put it simply, without these "experts," their donors, and Fox News (their media mouthpiece) you would never have heard that a Muslim community center (the "Ground Zero Mosque") was being constructed in New York City. And the center certainly would not have become a major news story. Nor would Republican (and even a few Democratic) candidates for president, Congress, and even village councils be called upon to condemn Islam and "Sharia Law" or face being labeled a supporter of terrorism. Nor would Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum make hatred of American Muslims such an integral part of their campaigns.
It all starts with the money. According to CAP:

A small group of foundations and wealthy donors are the lifeblood of the Islamophobia network in America, providing critical funding to a clutch of right-wing think tanks that peddle hate and fear of Muslims and Islam-in the form of books, reports, websites, blogs, and carefully crafted talking points that anti-Islam grassroots organizations and some right-wing religious groups use as propaganda for their constituency.
Some of these foundations and wealthy donors also provide direct funding to anti-Islam grassroots groups. According to our extensive analysis, here are the top seven contributors to promoting Islamophobia in our country:

• Donors Capital Fund
• Richard Mellon Scaife foundations
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust
• Russell Berrie Foundation
• Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund
• Fairbrook Foundation

Most of these are new to me, although when I worked at AIPAC it was hard to miss the fact that some of them supported both AIPAC and its think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The amazing thing about the CAP report is that it exposes people who try very hard to cover their tracks. It is one thing to be known for supporting AIPAC, but it is quite another to be identified with the likes of Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes -- and the truly unhinged Pam Geller, who appears in the CAP report as only a second-tier hater but whose anti-Muslim vehemence is nothing short of disgusting. (She rationalized the killing of the kids in Norway by pointing out that the camp they attended was associated with Norway's Labor Party, which she claims is anti-Israel!)

The hate funders are particularly determined to lay low since the Oslo slaughter by a self-described Christian conservative named Anders Breivik, who said that he was influenced by Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, and David Horowitz (another prominent propagandist against Muslims and beneficiary of the various anti-Islam foundations).

But CAP followed the money, went behind the innocent-sounding foundation names, and cross-referenced them. And now we have it: the hate network exposed.
It's pretty ugly. Jews whose main concern is Israel align themselves with Christian rightists who don't like Jews. There are even a few Muslims who are dispatched by the network to tell audiences at churches and synagogues just how bad their people are. It's weird.

But it's also very dangerous, as the Norway slaughter attests.

The strangest thing about the killings is that it happened in Norway. Reading this report, you have to wonder why it hasn't happened here. Yet.


Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjayrosenberg








http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/who-funds-all-the-muslim-_b_937979.html

 

[junaids]

Report Reveals Underpinnings of Islamophobia in the U.S.
[h=3]A new report from the Center for American Progress exposes the key players and funding in a tightly knit Islamophobia network.[/h][h=4]By Dilshad D. Ali, August 25, 2011[/h]Islamophobia in the United States has grown in reach and vitriol in the past two years, as evidenced by citation of the writings of several prominent Islamophobes by Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik in his political manifesto, the introduction of anti-Sharia bills in 23 states, and anti-Muslim statements put forth by recent presidential candidates. A seminal report (pdf) released today by the Center for American Progress traces the rise and path of Islamophobia, exposing a small but widely influential group of funders of this network and revealing the underpinnings of how the anti-Muslim movement works.
The 130-page report, "Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America," desribes a vast and methodical flourishing of Islamophobia, defined as "exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims" that results in "bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from America's social, political, and civic life." The report pinpoints a money trail that funds the "experts" and "scholars" who guide grassroots activists, who in turn pepper the public landscape with media amplifiers, which shapes politicians who embrace the rhetoric and support anti-Muslim causes.
"We expose the funding that helps empower these small and powerfully interconnected groups and players who have contaminated and dominated the public discourse," says Wajahat Ali, lead researcher and author of the report. (Disclosure: Ali is a Patheos contributor.) "No one has exposed the Islamophobia network in such depth. We've named all the names; we've connected all the dots. We show the genesis of it."
The report reveals a $42 million-dollar industry that has been financed from seven conservative foundations over the past year, including Donors Capital Fund, the Anchorage Foundation, and the Fairbrook Foundation, to fund a small group of experts who move anti-Muslim rhetoric into public discourse. The key five Islamophobes, according to the report, are Steve Emerson (Investigative Project on Terrorism), Daniel Pipes (Middle East Forum), Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy), David Yerushalmi (Society of Americans for National Existence), and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch, Stop Islamization of America). The second tier includes Brigitte Gabriel, David Horowitz, and Pamela Geller.
Eli Clifton, a national security reporter at CAP who spent nearly a year researching the Islamophobia network in the U.S., said one of the most interesting findings is that the report disproves the notion that there is a vast right-wing conspiracy out to get Muslims.
"The takeaway from the money trail is that it's not that big, the sum of money or the number of donors. But the reach of the players in the Islamophobia network is big. What it is, is a small group of very concentrated and very focused institutions and donors who have explicitly funded so-called experts on a yearly basis."
It's a very linear approach, Ali said. "This stuff requires money. Not a ton of money it turns out, but money. And how you get from people like Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney to someone who becomes a talking point on CNN whose words are accepted as truth is what Americans need to see."
Clifton and Ali said the fingerprints of the five main players are on every aspect of the anti-Muslim industry. They are the brains behind grassroots and religious right groups like Act for America, the Eagle Forum, and the Tea Party. These groups, using new media and specific talking points, then latch onto the "media megaphone" to spread anti-Muslim messages.
"The media has been very influential in promoting these networks," Ali said, citing FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, World Net Daily, and Front Page as some of the key instigators of the Islamophobia message.
The main players also influence several Congressmen and political candidates: "Allen West [Republican candidate for Congress from Florida] is mentored by Frank Gaffney," Ali said. "Peter King [representative from New York who led a hearing on Muslim radicalization last May] is consulted by Brigitte Gabriel, founder of Act for America.
"Brigitte Gabriel once said, 'A practicing Muslim cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America,'" Ali said, adding, "Doesn't that sound like Herman Cain?"
Islamophobia is a lucrative industry, Ali said, and a very interconnected one. "Islamophobia works because [Islamophobes] exploit and pray upon existing fears, and under the guise of allegedly fighting radicalism, they promote a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda. The Tennessean reported that Steve Emerson admitted he gets money from donors by actively exploiting the fears against Muslims.
"Muslims are a good bogeyman, Islamophobia a good cash cow," Ali said.
Another good example of how the tight-knit network knows is to look at one of the key players—Gaffney. Said Ali, "Frank Gaffney says, 'I don't know much about Sharia, but I can talk about it.' Gaffney's think tank is the one behind the original memo that Sharia is a threat to America. Then David Yerushalmi takes Gaffney's words and drafts legislation. Act for America's Chris Slick (director of online communications) said to us that his organization relies on Gaffney for his expertise on Sharia. And Act for America then gives elected officials and those running for government their talking points that Sharia is a threat."
The motivation behind this anti-Muslim agenda, however, is not explored in the report. "We've been able to trace the path and uncover all the connections," Clifton said, "but we can't comment on what the motivation behind it all is."
Faiz Shakir, the vice president at the Center for American Progress, said that each key foundation identifed in the report was asked for comment, and all declined.
Clifton and Ali believe that the report can elicit change and a reduction in the spread of Islamophobia in America. Muslims are not the first groups in the U.S. to experience such a phenomenon, Clifton said. "I'm actually very optimistic. This is similar to the Red Scare, and it won't go on forever. Years from now, when people look back at it, they'll say, 'That was silly, because we didn't know the facts. We didn't know the motivation.'
"And we are shedding some light on how [Islamophobia] works, who the players are, and highlighting who funds this. I don't know if any of the funders will change their minds. But even if they double down and decide to still commit to this, it's laid out for the public to know," Clifton said.
Ali said he thinks real change can come from the report. "My hope is that those people on the fence will say, 'Oh wow, those people who claim to be experts, I had no idea that the real agenda is it.'
"We do not and should not divide each other on religious lines," Ali said. "Our hope is that some of the Republican Party will vomit out these elements. I hope the media will realize that these people who we invite as scholars and experts, that they have an agenda. And I hope this report inoculates Americans with information so that the next time they are confronted with hate mongering; they will know what is being pedaled as misinformation. I'm confident that the names we mention in this report, they will be the villains of our children's history books. I know that's a bold statement to make, but the report backs it up."

Dilshad D. Ali is managing editor of the Muslim Portal at Patheos. An experienced journalist, she has covered Islam and Muslims in America for more than ten years for a variety of print and online media outlets, including Beliefnet and Illume, Islamica, and Azizah Magazines.

http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Ad...ophobia-in-the-US-Dilshad-Ali-08-26-2011.html