Does anyone profit from spreading anti-Muslim fear? Some do
BY BOB SMIETANA (the Tennessean)
Steven Emerson has 3.39 million reasons to fear Muslims.
That’s how many dollars Emerson’s for-profit company – Washington-based SAE Productions – collected in 2008 for researching alleged ties between American Muslims and overseas terrorism. The payment came from the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation, a nonprofit charity Emerson also founded, which solicits money by telling donors they’re in imminent danger from Muslims.
Emerson is a leading member of a multimillion-dollar industry of self-proclaimed experts who spread hate toward Muslims in books and movies, on websites and through speaking appearances.
Leaders of the so-called “anti-jihad” movement portray themselves as patriots, defending America against radical Islam. And they’ve found an eager audience in ultra-conservative Christians and mosque opponents in Tennessee. One national consultant testified in an ongoing lawsuit aimed at stopping a new Murfreesboro mosque.
But beyond the rhetoric, Emerson’s organization’s tax-exempt status is facing questions at the same time he’s accusing Muslim groups of tax improprieties.
“Basically, you have a nonprofit acting as a front organization, and all that money going to a for-profit,” said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog group. “It’s wrong. This is off the charts.”
But a spokesman for Emerson’s company said the actions were legal and designed to protect workers there from death threats.
“It’s all done for security reasons,” said Ray Locker, a spokesman for SAE Productions.
Emerson made his name in the mid-1990s with a documentary film, “Jihad in America,” which aired on PBS. Produced after the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the film uncovered terrorists raising money in the United States.
He followed up with the books “Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.” and “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”
He claims that extremists control 80 percent of mosques in the United States. In August, he claimed to have uncovered 13 hours of audiotapes proving that Feisal Rauf, the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, is a radical extremist.
Emerson formed a Tennessee connection last summer, when his organization uncovered pictures on a Murfreesboro mosque board member’s MySpace page. His company said the pictures are proof of a connection to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization. But mosque leaders said they checked with the Department of Homeland Security and found the concerns were groundless.
Special Agent Keith Moses, who heads the FBI’s Nashville office, told The Tennessean last month that the bureau doesn’t discuss specific allegations.
Others cash in@
While large organizations like Emerson’s aren’t the norm, other local and national entrepreneurs cash in on spreading hate and fear about Islam.
Former Tennessee State University physics professor Bill French runs the Nashville-based, for-profit Center for the Study of Political Islam. He spoke recently to a group of opponents of the Murfreesboro mosque gathered at a house in Murfreesboro.
With an American flag as a backdrop, French paced back and forth like the Church of Christ ministers he heard growing up. His message: Creeping Shariah law is undermining the very fabric of American life.
“This offends Allah,” said French, pointing to the flag on the wall. “You offend Allah.”
French, who has no formal religious education, believes Islam is not a religion. Instead, he sees Islam and its doctrine and rules – known as Shariah law – as a totalitarian ideology.
In his 45-minute speech, he outlined a kind of 10 commandments of evil – no music, no art, no rights for women – taken from his book “Sharia Law for Non-Muslims.” The speech was free, but his books, penned under the name “Bill Warner,” were for sale in the back and ranged from about $9 to $20.
When he was done, the 80 or so mosque opponents gave him a standing ovation and then began buying French’s books to hand out to their friends.
Frank Gaffney, head of the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Security Policy, earned a $288,300 salary from his charity in 2008. Gaffney was a key witness in recent hearings in the Rutherford County lawsuit filed by mosque opponents. He said he paid his own way.
On the stand, the Reagan-era deputy assistant defense secretary accused local mosque leaders of having ties to terrorism, using ties to Middle Eastern universities and politics as evidence. His main source of information was his own report on Shariah law as a threat to America, one he wrote with other self-proclaimed experts.
But, under oath, he admitted he is not an expert in Shariah law.
The list of people on the anti-Islam circuit goes on. IRS filings from 2008 show that Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihadwatch.org blog, earned $132,537 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative nonprofit.
Brigitte Tudor, who runs the anti-Islam groups ACT! For America and the American Congress for Truth, earned $152,810, while her colleague Guy Rogers collected $154,900.
Unusual arrangement@
Emerson’s older organization collects several times that in an average year.
Emerson incorporated his for-profit company, SAE Productions, in Delaware in 1995. He launched the nonprofit Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation in Washington in 2006.
But he doesn’t make that distinction on his website, www.investigativeproject.org, which describes the Investigative Project on Terrorism as “a non-profit research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995.” And today, the two groups share the same Washington street address, which is published on Emerson’s personal website.
In 2002 and 2003, despite lacking nonprofit status, Emerson received a total of $600,000 in grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation, a conservative public-policy shaper based in Connecticut. The foundation declined to comment on the grants but said it gives money only to tax-exempt charitable groups.
Giving money to a for-profit is extremely rare for foundations, said Peter Bird, president of the Nashville-based Frist Foundation. It can happen only when the foundation keeps meticulous records on how the money was spent by the group that received it.
“It almost never happens,” he said.
Locker, a former USA TODAY national security editor now working for SAE Productions, said his organization does not discuss funding.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation’s application for tax-exempt status stated that all the money raised by the charity would go to a nonprofit subcontractor with no ties to Emerson or any board members. The application also said the charity would buy no services from board members. Emerson ended up being the only board member.
In a letter dated Dec. 8, 2006, the IRS asked if there would be any ties between the subcontractor and the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation. On Dec. 29, 2006, Emerson wrote back: “There are and will be no financial/business transactions between officers, board members or relatives of the aforementioned and applicant organization.”
In 2008, however, the charity paid $3,390,000 to SAE Productions for “management services.” Emerson is SAE’s sole officer.
Because of its unusual arrangement with Emerson’s company, the Investigative Project’s tax returns show no details, such as salaries of staff.
Locker said the approach was vetted by the group’s lawyers and is legal. He said that Emerson takes no profits from SAE Productions and therefore the Investigative Project is a nonprofit.
That doesn’t fly, said Charity Navigator’s Berger. Berger said tax-exempt nonprofits must be transparent and disclose how they spend money and how much they pay their staff. Emerson’s group appears to be trying to skirt these rules, he said.
“It really undermines the trust in nonprofits,” he said. “This is really off the grid.”
The Frist Foundation’s Bird said the discrepancy between the Investigative Project’s application to the IRS and its practices is troubling.
“It looks like they told the government one thing and did another,” he said.
October 24th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
An Open Letter to Attorney Joe Brandon:
(from Eric Allen Bell)
Hey Joe -
Since you seem to be a rock star in the legal world of Rutherford County these days, I was wondering if you’d be willing to be a gun-for-hire in a lawsuit a few of us were thinking about filing. We were talking about it and you would be absolutely perfect, I mean I just know you will be able to expose these people for who they are and get our message out for all the news cameras to see. And in addition to paying for all of your legal fees I’d even be willing to buy you a brand new stripped suit with a matching bow tie and a pair of Gucci sunglasses.
So here is the idea: We would like to sue the Republican Party of Rutherford County. This of course would be a stepping stone, just like your anti-mosque suit, to getting this thing all the way up to the Supreme Court. We want your help in suing the Republican Party of Rutherford County on the basis that they are not really a political party but more of a religion. After all, a great deal of their literature does point to a religious orientation. We would then take aim at their inappropriate activities, as a religion, in trying to influence elections. Because, and I’m sure you will agree, the law makes it pretty clear that anything theologically-driven should not be trying to meddle with politics.
I know at first this might seem like a crazy idea to you, maybe a little impulsive, risky perhaps. In fact, the basis for it is not even entirely true. But today when you are laying down under those heat lamps at the tanning salon, I want you to really think about this and take it in. We are talking about going up against the biggest hate group in America! (Not really, but you could totally make it look that way, right?)
Have you ever noticed that all of their leaders believe the same theology (more or less)? Look this “Sharia Law” scare is going to die out. It doesn’t have legs. Eventually people are going to find out the truth. The idea that all or most Muslims think they have a religious duty to kill all non-believers for instance or, like you said, that they all believe in having sex with children… I mean, come on? People have gotten a little dumbed-down in this country, but they aren’t that stupid. This “Islam is not a religion” thing you’re doing has a shelf life before people figure it out for the hoax it is. And then what? Market it all you want but Islamophobia will never become the next Red Scare.
However, going up against the Republican Party? Their violent Jihad against the innocent people of Iraq has killed over a million civilians under the great warlord George W. Bush. That same radical cleric, during the 8 years that he, his disciples and his religious leader Sheikh Karl Rove occupied the Oval Office – they started off government meetings with a prayer to their deity! The Religious Right makes or breaks Presidents and they hide behind the safety of the Republican Party. It’s all there. Right?
And what about their Supreme Leader from the 1980’s, Sheikh Ronald Reagan? He actually said that his deity talked to him and gave him instructions on how to run the country. Maybe that is where he got the idea to empty out all of the mental hospitals and allow schizophrenics to die cold and hungry on the streets. And this so-called political party has made a saint out of him.
They use a theology to come up with many of the laws they want to pass concerning marriage equality, stem cell research, foreign policy in the Middle East and the list goes on and they do it under the banner of the Republican Party. Maybe you could call for their more radical and often white supremacist faction, “The Tea Party” to be investigated. I mean if anyone is harboring radicals it’s them. And just like you are doing with the Muslims, we don’t even have to involve law enforcement. You can find “concerned citizens” (that was a brilliant move by the way) to do their own investigations using Google.
These are the same people who tried to stop the civil rights movement back in the day. If you recall, many of the segregationists made it clear that they believed that their “God” did not intend for the races to mix and the Republican Party totally backed them and fought civil rights legislation like… well like it was a holy war.
I could dig up more examples, but that’s kinda your job. I mean, this is a little half-baked so you’re going to have to use a little smoke and mirrors, but you totally rock at that. The thing is, don’t bring any actual Republicans in to testify because that would kill this thing. Just like you had the good sense not to bring in any real Muslims to testify on this current lawsuit, bringing in real Republicans might expose the reality that in fact they do not all think the same way and they are not all bad. So stay clear of that.
Go after the big stuff. Look at the past few decades, figure out the body count, the loss of jobs, the foreclosures, the Wall Street crimes, the loss of worker rights, and the shift of wealth upward and I’m sure you’ll come up with a compelling argument. You could even find opinions in blogs and have an expert witness web guy present them as facts.
I know, it’s a kind of baseless argument actually, but if anyone can put a spin on that – you can. And just like that last press conference you did, using a glass encased Holy Bible out on government property as your podium, you can do that again but this time it will really help to sell our point. Just go back, rewrite that same speech crossing out the word “DOJ” and substitute it with “GOP” and we would have some killer sound bytes for the evening news.
You say your fees were paid to you through Laurie Cardoza-Moore’s group, “Proclaiming Justice to the Nations”. Clearly Laurie used Howard and Sally Wall for their political connections and ties to the community so they she could hustle little church ladies like Millie into paying your fees. I can do that. Hell, I could hire Laurie to do that. If you will take on this lawsuit, I will come up with your fee. No joke. This is for real.
Get back to me.
Eric Allen Bell
http://www.Facebook.com/EricAllenBell
October 24th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Emerson is abusing his tax exempt status by collecting more than he should make for a non-profit organization. His expenses should be looked into. Is he a security expert? If so, does he have proof for his allegations? If not, then he should he be sue Mosques who’s reputations were ruined by him. Perhaps their board of directors should call their lawyers. Is he using the money from non-profit and using it for personal expenses, and for profit i.e. book tours, etc.? He should seriously be audited and exempt status taken away plus be fined at least. Freedom of speech is one thing but this is hate speech which is inciting violence such as vandalism against the Tennessee Mosque.
October 24th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
correction: He should be sued by mosques who’s reputations have been tarnished no thanks to Emerson.
October 24th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I$LAMOPHOBIA
October 24th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
“We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it’s all ancient history. And then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly it threatens to start all over again.
villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged.”
October 24th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Scaring white people for fun and profit!
October 24th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
CAIR-LA Welcomes LA Sheriff’s Dept Probe into Officer Misconduct
((CAIR-LA) today thanked the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for launching an investigation into allegedly manipulative tactics employed by detectives to pressure a local Muslim to become an informant)
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today thanked the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for launching an investigation into allegedly manipulative tactics employed by detectives to pressure a local Muslim to become an informant.
In the past year, several sheriff’s deputies raided the home and the business of the Riverside Muslim of Palestinian heritage several times.
According to a complaint letter sent to the sheriff’s department by CAIR-LA Staff Attorney and Deputy Executive Director Ameena Qazi last month, the man was arrested and asked whether he considered himself “a good or bad Muslim, the number of times he prays a day, what mosque he goes to, and who the imam of the mosque is.”
After being jailed, the man was questioned by agents from “Homeland Security” about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and President Obama.
During another raid on the Cerritos home of the man’s mother, deputies entered with guns drawn and handcuffed family members, the youngest of whom was 15 years old. Deputies asked questions “about the number of times they pray each day and the mosque they attend,” the complaint stated.
When the man’s mother was handcuffed, his brother objected and was allegedly kicked to the side by an officer. The man was again arrested and was questioned about “sleeper cells” and his acquaintances, and told if he provided detectives with information, they would make his problems with law enforcement “go away.”
In yet another raid on the man’s Riverside home, his wife was handcuffed and threatened with arrest, and she was placed in a police vehicle while her two toddlers were left inside the home with the officers. She too was also asked about her religious practices, and when she explained that she delayed in opening the door for the officers in order to cover herself with her hijab, or Islamic headscarf, she was told “we come before your religion.”
October 24th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
So it is legal to solicit through your non-profit organization and funnel the money to your for-profit business! That can’t be right. Emerson should have shared the booty with his loon-mates Spencer, Geller et. al.
October 25th, 2010 at 2:17 am
A must read for all US muslims
CAIR KNOW YOUR RIGHTS..
http://www.cair.com/CivilRights/KnowYourRights.aspx
October 25th, 2010 at 5:33 am
This must be an American thing! You put this guy on a pedastall as some kind of authority. You then ask him to spew islamophobia. You then say we will pay you for your research( used very loosely).
No wonder he has no respect for facts!
He gets paid either way. It’s a scandal!
October 25th, 2010 at 7:37 am
Emerson’s accountant must be very creative to keep that tax exempt status.
October 25th, 2010 at 8:40 am
So Steve-o scandalizes the same way he accuses (without proof) American Muslim organizations? What a goon!
October 25th, 2010 at 11:32 am
3+ million? Man, that’s a lot of lettuce. The hate movement has always been a good cash cow so I have to believe your estimates on Geller and Spencer are low.
October 25th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Then we have the Frist Foundation saying Emerson is dirty. Frist is the same crew that got bagged for a multi million Medicare fraud judgment and lost a bundle to Bernie Madoff.
October 25th, 2010 at 11:42 am
In his 45-minute speech, he outlined a kind of 10 commandments of evil – no music….
—————————–
I’ve got two gigs of Arabic music on my iPod. I love Umm Kulthum.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Robert Spencer has responded to the smear piece against Emerson posted on various rags across the internet:
Rachel Slajda:
I am working on an article about how Leftist “journalists” carry water for Islamic supremacists, and so given the perspective you’ve displayed in the article below and the others (Campbell’s Soup, the stealth jihad threat) that you have written about this topic, I wonder if you’d be so kind as to answer a few questions:
1. Where exactly did Steve Emerson proclaim himself an “expert on Sharia law”? [The IPT website says, accurately, that Emerson is "an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and national security." It doesn't say anything about Sharia.]
2. What investigations are you conducting into the funding sources and salaries of the leading figures of groups with links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, such as CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, and NAIT?
3. On what basis have you determined that Steve Emerson’s work amounts to “alarmism” and not to amassing information about a genuine threat, of which Americans should be aware?
Many thanks for your time and attention to this.
Kindest regards
Robert Spencer
Let’s hope she responds!
October 25th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Yup. It’s definitely Spencer: conspiracy theories, quotation marks over places they don’t belong, general looniness…
October 25th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
I have my own questions:
What are Emerson’s qualifications? What proof do we have that he is a Security expert?
Who is funding him and when will he be audited?
Does he have proof to alarm us Americans?
October 26th, 2010 at 12:53 am
<HERE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF HIS "EXPERTISE" ON TERRORISM" AND THE REASON WHY HE HAS BEEN ON CAIR FOR OVER 10 YEARS NOW TRYING TO COME UP WITH ANYTHING ON THEM TO DISCREDIT THEM ITS ALL ABOUT HIS EGO REVENGE"
==============================================
Steven Emerson was one of the so-called “terrorism experts” who initially blamed Muslims for the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. He told CBS News the bombing was a reflection of “a Middle Eastern trait.” (4/19/95) [One American Muslim, Ibrahim Ahmad, was even arrested following the bombing and held for two days before being released without charge. Emerson is viewed by many as one of the nation's leading Islamophobes who has made a career out of promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.] That and similar unsubstantiated rhetorical links sparked a wave of anti-Muslim hysteria that resulted in almost 250 incidents of harassment, discrimination and actual violence against American Muslims or those perceived to be Middle Eastern. ….Other incidents ranged from a suspected arson attack on a mosque, to drive-by shootings at Islamic centers and assaults on Muslim students. Many Muslim institutions around America also reported phoned bomb threats, and in one case, a fake bomb was thrown at a Muslim day care facility.
October 26th, 2010 at 1:18 am
@JihadBob
“1. Where exactly did Steve Emerson proclaim himself an “expert on Sharia law”? [The IPT website says, accurately, that Emerson is "an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and national security." It doesn't say anything about Sharia.]”
Apparently Spencer does not read his friend’s blog where he talks about shari’ah as if he is an expert.
“2. What investigations are you conducting into the funding sources and salaries of the leading figures of groups with links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, such as CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, and NAIT?”
And apparently Spencer doesn’t realize that with the current Islamophobic climate in the US since 9/11, the lack of any designation of these organizations as terrorist organizations highlights that any contrary claim is his own fantasy. Why can no one making these claims provide proof of links to Hamas or the MA. What does that say of American Intelligence if these groups do have a link to terrorism? Fiction, JihadBob, fiction, i say!
Allahu A’lam
October 26th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Hmmm, so rather than tackle the main points, i.e. that some guy has made 3m from spreading hate, Spenser simply skirts around them and nitpicks…. how typical. Strawman arguments anyone?
October 26th, 2010 at 7:49 am
If the Muslims do not want to be under suspicion for terrorism,the best solution is that they should leave the West and go back to the Muslim lands.These poisonous snakes are no comfort to have them around .Islam has filled their brains with venom against non-Muslims.Islam is an incurable mental disease.
October 26th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Strange Halal Pork that you mention incurable mental disease.
Have you stopped taking the pills again
October 26th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Porky, why don’t you go hide in a hole and wait for us to leave mmkay?
October 27th, 2010 at 4:21 am
Evidently he has Sir David but at least Eternal is still in the mental asylum I asked him to go to… his grammar hasn’t improved either. How was the ‘picnic’? I got lots of ‘ants’ in my ‘egg sandwiches’ but none in my ‘jam sandwiches’, I hope you did too.
October 27th, 2010 at 7:39 am
LOL @ Jack
October 30th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@kosher pork
Actually, I think it would be a better idea if you went back to your mom’s basement and continue to try to save ‘Judeo-Christian/ Western Civilization’ through your recycled nonsense and poorly typed chain letters (with half the letters being capitalised.
Its just more entertaining than anything us Moooslims are abl to do
If you get lucky, LW might even do a piece on you…:D