Islamophobes run with the theory that John Brennan is unfit-for-duty because he’s a “secret Muslim.” The real reason Brennan is unfit for duty is because of his track record in support of torture and drone warfare.

Right-wing runs with “John Brennan-is-a-Muslim” theory

by Jillian Rayfield (Salon.com)

A disgraced former FBI agent and anti-Islam activist claims that John Brennan, President Obama’s pick to head the CIA, is “unfit for duty” because he just might be a secret Muslim.

As Salon reported, John Guandolo claimed last weekend that “Brennan did convert to Islam when he served in an official capacity on behalf of the United States when he served in Saudi Arabia” and it “was the culmination of a counterintelligence operation against him to recruit him” by foreign operatives.

The theory, which was picked up by conspiracy-theorist central World Net Daily, has an eager audience on the right. Here’s a rundown:

Original article by Jai Singh

I have recently come across some major information regarding a pivotal member of Robert Spencer & Pamela Geller’s inner circle, specifically David Yerushalmi. The main cross-published article below is from the Center for American Progress think-tank, although I’ve also included URL links for extensive further information about Yerushalmi at the end of this article. It certainly explains a lot. It is also very revealing indeed about the core anti-Muslim propagandists’ endgame.

Along with being Pamela Geller’s laywer, David Yerushalmi is a senior member of Spencer & Geller’s Stop Islamization of Nations/”SION” organisation. Yerushalmi was even one of the main speakers at Spencer & Geller’s anti-Muslim conference in New York in September 2012 (Geller enthusiastically provided video footage on her Atlas Shrugs website here).

David Yerushalmi is also General Counsel for Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy organisation, which has had a considerable influence on certain senior Republican politicians, particularly their wild claims about “extremist Muslim infiltration” in the Obama Administration. According to the New York Times, Gaffney is “Yerushalmi’s primary link to a network of former and current government officials, security analysts and grass-roots political organizations” and is also able to tap “a network of Tea Party and Christian groups as well as ACT! for America, which has 170,000 members”.

There is, however, much more. As the main article below (and the subsequent URL links) discusses, David Yerushalmi has tried to conceal a huge amount of self-incriminating information from the public. Not only are his racial and religious views self-evident, but it also raises several further questions:

1. Exactly why is Pamela Geller allying herself so closely with someone who believes that American women should not have the right to vote ?

2. Yerushalmi heads an organisation (Society of Americans for National Existence/”SANE”) whose charter explicitly states that it is “dedicated to the rejection of democracy” in the United States. It is worth noting that such actions are defined as sedition, a major offence under multiple Federal laws: See here, here, here, and here. Why is Yerushalmi not being prosecuted for sedition ?

3. Exactly who are the members of Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy “Society of Americans for National Existence” organisation, and to what extent have they penetrated the United States’ educational, legal, and political systems, government, intelligence, the media, and US military ?

4. Considering the fact that Yerushalmi heads an organisation explicitly dedicated to the rejection of democracy in the United States, why have the relevant authorities not stripped Yerushalmi of his license to practice law ?

5. To what extent are Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and David Horowitz involved in furthering Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy agenda ?

6. Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are also closely allied to John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN; Bolton was Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s senior foreign policy advisor during his campaign. As publicised by Geller, Bolton was even originally scheduled to be one of the main speakers alongside Yerushalmi at the SION conference in New York in September 2012. Bolton has also appeared on Frank Gaffney’s radio show in order to defend the aforementioned claims that extremist Muslims have “infiltrated” the US Government. To what extent is John Bolton involved in furthering Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy agenda ?

7. Following on from #6, is John Bolton himself a member of Yerushalmi’s “Society of Americans for National Existence” organisation ?

8. Following on from #6 and #7, to what extent is Mitt Romney aware of all this ?

9. The other main guests & speakers alongside Yerushalmi at the SION conference in New York in September 2012 included New York State Senator David Storobin, English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka “Tommy Robinson”, also see here, here, here, and here), English Defence League co-founder/British Freedom Party deputy leader Kevin Carroll, and British Freedom Party leader Paul Weston. To what extent are they aware of Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy agenda ?

10. To what extent are Frank Gaffney (also see here) and his Center for Security Policy organisation involved in furthering Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy agenda ? (Note: The CSP link includes extensive details of the organisation’s main financiers, board members, military committee members, and academic council members. The information about the level of involvement of extremely senior [and well-connected] former military officers and major weapons manufacturers is particularly startling).

11. To what extent are Newt Gingrich (also see here and here), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Peter King (R-NY) (also see here), Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Thomas Rooney (R-FL), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and other anti-Muslim members of Congress aware of Yerushalmi’s anti-democracy agenda ?

12. Peter King, previously known for his active support of the terrorist IRA, is currently Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and is also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He has appeared on Frank Gaffney’s radio show, where he made a series of demonstrably false statements about American Muslims. More recently, Peter King has received an award from Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy organisation. Why is the Chairman of Homeland Security accepting an award from an organisation whose General Counsel is dedicated to the rejection of democracy in the United States ?

13. To what extent are Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and American intelligence agencies aware of the fact that several of the senior politicians listed in #11 have demanded action based on dubious material from an organisation whose General Counsel is dedicated to the rejection of democracy in the United States ?

14. To what extent are Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and American intelligence agencies aware of the fact that a disproportionate number of the senior politicians listed in #11 have direct links to the same fundamentalist Christian organisation dedicated to influencing American politicians ? Further to the recent US presidential election, updated details of some of these politicians and their activities are available here, here, and here.

15. To what extent are Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and American intelligence agencies aware of the fact that several recent Republican presidential candidates, including one of the senior politicians listed in #11 (who is also a member of the House Intelligence Committee), have extensive links to “Dominionism” ? (Note: Dominionism is an extreme interpretation of Christian fundamentalism deriving from “Christian Reconstructionism”, which involves the belief that rule by non-Christians anywhere in the world is sacrilege, explicitly approves of the historical slavery of African-Americans, and openly advocates the replacement of American law with Old Testament injunctions including the death penalty for apostasy and homosexuality; Dominionism also claims that its adherents have a God-given mandate to infiltrate the highest echelons of power and subsequently impose their beliefs on the entire world).

16. Yerushalmi has also proposed a range of measures targeting Muslims in the United States (see ThinkProgress article below). If Yerushalmi and his main allies were given free rein to implement these measures, exactly what criteria would they use in order to identify someone as a “suspected Muslim” or a “known Muslim” ?

17. Following on from #16, exactly what measures would Yerushalmi propose in order to conclusively prove that someone is (or is not) a Muslim ?

18. Exactly what actions would Yerushalmi describe as “knowingly acting in furtherance of, or supporting the, adherence to Islam” ?

19. Considering the fact that Yerushalmi, Geller and Spencer publicly claim to be such staunch supporters of the concept of “freedom of speech” and refer to this concept when justifying their own actions, why do they keep threatening to sue people who exercise their own freedom of speech against them ?

The original ThinkProgress article is cross-published in full below:

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

Neocon ‘Team B’ Author Yerushalmi: ‘Islam Was Born In Violence; It Will Die That Way’

I wrote last week that the new “Team B” report from neoconservative activist Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy on the threat of Islamic sharia law is notable for, among other things, the fact that its authors consulted with no actual Muslims or Islamic scholars in writing it.

A key “expert” behind the report’s interpretation of Islamic law is a man named David Yerushalmi. In addition to running a DC law practice, Yerushalmi serves as General Counsel of the Center for Security Policy. Yerushalmi is also a contributor to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Peace. On his law office website, Yerushalmi claims to be “considered an expert on Islamic law.”

The release of the sharia report was hailed last week by three leading Congressional conservatives — Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) — so it’s worth looking into what one the report’s key contributors actually believes about Muslims and Islam.

Here’s what Yerushalmi wrote in the American Thinker in 2006:

”Islam was born in violence; it will die that way. Any wish to the contrary is sheer Pollyannaism. The same way the post World War II German youth were taught by their German teachers and political leaders to despise the fascism of their fathers, with strict laws extant still today restricting even speech that casts doubt on the Holocaust, so too must the Muslim youth be taught from the cradle to reject the religion of their forebears.”

Yerushalmi also wrote in 2006 that the Muslim Brotherhood “has succeeded in penetrating our educational, legal, and political systems, as well as top levels of government, intelligence, the media, and U.S. military, virtually paralyzing our ability to respond effectively.” He criticized President Bush for his “fatal, but well-intentioned ideological whim to build democracies among a ruthless people who believe in a murderous creed falsely labeled a ‘religion of peace.‘”

Yerushalmi heads an organization called Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), whose charter — now hidden behind a paywall but shared here by Talk to Action’s Brian Wilson — states:

“America is a unique people bound together through a commitment to America’s Judeo-Christian moral foundation and to an enduring faith and trust in G-d and in His Providence… America was the handiwork of faithful Christians, mostly men, and almost entirely white, who ventured from Europe to create a nation in their image of a country existing as free men under G-d. The founding fathers understood that party-led parliaments and democracy were the worse form of government and sought to resist the movement that was soon to find fertile ground in France with the French Revolution…

…at its core, SANE is dedicated to the rejection of democracy and party rule and a return to a constitutional republic…

…Any world view, ideology, or -ism that promotes directly or indirectly the elimination of national existence and the establishment of a world state is our foe. So you can know at the start that liberalism (and this includes libertarianism) and Islam are in our sights.”

Yerushalmi’s group suggests the following measures for dealing with America’s Muslim problem:

“- It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.
- The Congress of the United States of America shall declare the US at war with the Muslim Nation or Umma.
- The President of the United States of America shall immediately declare that all non-US citizen Muslims are Alien Enemies under Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the US Code and shall be subject to immediate deportation.
- No Muslim shall be granted an entry visa into the United States of America.”

Unsurprisingly, Yerushalmi’s antipathies extend beyond Muslims. In a 2006 article, “On Race: A Tentative Discussion” [Note: Despite Yerushalmi's efforts to destroy the online evidence, his full article in PDF form can still be accessed directly here] — tentative because, as Yerushalmi laments in the article, one cannot engage in “a discussion of Islam as an evil religion, or of blacks as the most murderous of peoples (at least in New York City), or of illegal immigrants as deserving of no rights” without being labeled a racist — Yerushalmi writes that the American founders were on to something when they limited the vote to white men:

“There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote. You might not agree or like the idea but this country’s founders, otherwise held in the highest esteem for their understanding of human nature and its affect on political society, certainly took it seriously. Why is that? Were they so flawed in their political reckonings that they manhandled the most important aspect of a free society – the vote? If the vote counts for so much in a free and liberal democracy as we ‘know’ it today, why did they limit the vote so dramatically.”

So Yerushalmi isn’t crazy about Muslims, African-Americans, immigrants, or women. But wait, he also strongly dislikes liberal Jews:

“Jews of the modern age are the most radical, aggressive and effective of the liberal Elite. Their goal is the goal of all “progressives:” a determined use of liberal principles to deconstruct the Western nation state in a “historical” march to the World State……one must admit readily that the radical liberal Jew is a fact of the West and a destructive one.”

I contacted Mr. Yerushalmi to give him an opportunity to explain these writings. He declined.

**********************************************************************************************************************************

[Note 1: This is just the tip of the iceberg. Extensive further information on David Yerushalmi's real views & agenda here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here]

[Note 2: As discussed by Richard Silverstein here, Yerushalmi is also on record as making the following anti-democracy statements: “Our constitutional republic was specifically designed to insulate our national leaders from the masses, democracy has seeped up through the cracks and corroded everything we once deemed sacred about our political order.”]

[Note 3: As discussed here, other articles on Yerushalmi’s website included openly racist statements such as the following: “Race matters and affects your intelligence. Jews are the smartest white people around. Orientals smarter than Whites. Latinos next. Then Blacks.”]

[Note 4: As discussed here, Yerushalmi has also written articles claiming that "most of the fundamental differences between the races is genetic." In the aforementioned article “On Race: A Tentative Discussion”, Yerushalmi described African-Americans as a "relatively murderous race killing itself” and stated: "If evolution and the biologists who espouse the theory are correct, then the idea that racial differences included innate differences in character and intelligence would[,] it seem[,] be more likely than not.”]

[Note 5: Yerushalmi tried to silence Richard Silverstein by threatening to sue him for defamation when he referred to Yerushalmi as a “white supremacist”. However, Yerushalmi withdrew the threat after Silverstein publicly presented the mass of information supporting his allegation and refused to back down.]

[Note 6: As discussed here, Yerushalmi is also on record as making the following Robert Spencer/Julius Streicher-style statement in his own defence: “I have never written anything that calls for discrimination against…Muslims qua Muslims.”]

[Note 7: Yerushalmi, Spencer, Geller, Gaffney and Horowitz are part of the core anti-Muslim propaganda network. Extensive further information on the main US-based individuals, organisations and financiers involved in this network is available here, here, here and here.]

The Islamophobic characterizations rampant amongst the anti-Muslim movements are steeped in conspiracy theories.

by Garibaldi

Do we live in a conspiracy theory based culture?

Yes, and it is not just the United States but the globe which is affected by bad ideas/theories that gain significant or widespread social traction. This is not to say that one should be dismissive of all so-called “conspiracy theories,” there are some conspiracies that are well founded, buoyed by facts and proven to be true later.

Nicoli Nattrass notes in The Lancet that,

“Anthropologists and social psychologists typically interpret conspiracy theories as responses to powerlessness—as ways of making sense of the bewildering social, economic, and political context of modern life. But not all conspiracy believers are powerless.” (emphasis mine)

How does this explain Islamophobic conspiracy theories? In general I have observed that Islamophobic conspiracy theories are not responses to a real sense of “powerlessness,” but rather a false sense of powerlessness coupled with a pervasive victim mentality. Many of those involved in forwarding Islamophobic conspiracies are in fact part of an elite political and financial class or receive support from such quarters (see Fear, Inc.).

Take Rep. Louie Gohmert, one of many US Congressmen who regularly engage in strange ideas about Muslims and Islam. Gohmert recently spilled his guts to Frank Gaffney regarding his belief that the Obama administration is receiving advice from the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood has become a catch-all phrase which is used to fear-monger, as though the organization was some omnipresent worldwide machine capable of manipulating heads of state, and yes such conspiracies are a part of a political program by the Right to retake the government, and yes such conspiracies do provide a narrative for their base to swallow and make sense of a fast changing world.

It will be intriguing to see the foreign policy debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Will we see an appearance of the pervasive omnipresent-Muslim-Brotherhood-cobra-conspiracy-theory, with its venomous fangs biting into the USA?

(h/t: CriticalDragon)

Gohmert: Obama Administration is ‘Getting Advice’ from ‘People who are in the Muslim Brotherhood’

by Brian Tashman (RightWingWatch)

Frank Gaffney

I think you will find that there are Jewish, Gay and feminist anti-Muslims, but I guess it is a good sign that Gaffney is whining that there aren’t enough. (h/t: CriticalDragon)

Gaffney upset Jews, Gays, Feminists aren’t anti-muslim

by Brian Tashman (RightWingWatch)

Yesterday on Secure Freedom Radio, Frank Gaffney hosted the vociferously anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-Obama Rabbi Aryeh Spero to discuss his new book, “Push Back: Reclaiming the American Judeo-Christian Spirit.” Gaffney asked Spero why women’s rights and gay rights advocates, along with “the Jews who make up many of the most visible members of the international or at least domestic left,” are “making common cause” with Islamists.

In Gaffney’s view, any opposition to efforts by him and other anti-Muslim activists to undermine the religious freedom and civil rights of Muslim-Americans is tantamount to the promotion of Sharia law and Islamism. Spero replied to Gaffney’s ridiculous question by claiming that the left has “partnered up with Islam” and have become “tools of Islam” in order to bring about “the destruction of Judeo-Christian ethos” and “the destruction of the historic American civilization.” Spero also falsely claimed that feminists and gay rights supporters are silent on abuses in Muslim-majority countries, which is of course not thecase.

Gaffney: We’re often struck by the seeming commitment of those you’ve properly characterized as leftists seeking a transformation of the United States, to the Islamists who are seeking their own transformation of the United States and indeed the entire world. To what do you attribute the fact that despite when you’ve used the terms misogyny, the hatred of women, that the Islamists routinely engage in as they promote Sharia with a community of people who are all about feminism; the antipathy of the Islamists to homosexuality yet being supported by people who prize homosexual rights and have many of them in their ranks; the artists; the Jews who make up many of the most visible members of the international or at least domestic left. How can they possibly be making common cause against the culture, the Judeo-Christian culture of America with people who so clearly oppose them on all of those fronts?

Spero: Now this is actually what I consider the most important question of the day: how is it that those on the left who are always championing certain rights are now partnered up with Islam who is the very antithesis of the rights that the left is always championing. I think it forces us to see the left in a light that we’ve never saw before. I don’t think that the left is concerned is concerned so much with civil rights. If they were the feminists would be the first ones condemning what is happening to women all throughout the Muslim world and they are quiet and the people on the left and the homosexual lobby would be condemning Islam for what they’re doing in curtailing freedoms and killing homosexuals. I think what we now see, what the left has always wanted or what the left wants today is the destruction of Judeo-Christian ethos and I think that they want the destruction of the historic American civilization.

…

Spero: The left, who wish to control, they think that they are going to live with this blissful partnership with Islam becomes stronger in the country; they’re going to share all this power with Islam. Fools that they are, they are being used by Islam, they are tools of Islam, but it is wewho will be the victim.

At the end of the interview, Spero said that Obama is a Marxist who identifies with “Muslim Brotherhood Islam,” which Gaffney agreed with.

Spero: This election’s very important because the General, the poster child behind the economic Marxism and transnationalism and the acceptance of Muslim Brotherhood-type Islam is Barack Obama. How this happened to America is a very unfortunate and alarming condition that we are faced with that we elected a man that basically did not believe in Americanism, he’s an economic Marxist and he identifies with Islam but actually it’s the Muslim Brotherhood Islam that he identifies with.

Gaffney: You’re absolutely right.

Frank Gaffney

This is what happens when you call out Islamophobes on their anti-Muslim hate, you get labeled an “Anti-Semite.”

Frank Gaffney Accuses the SPLC of Endorsing ‘Anti-Semitism and Hatemongering’

by Brian Tarshman (RightWingWatch)

Anti-Muslim activist and conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy is joining other conservatives in blasting the Southern Poverty Law Center, and last week on Secure Freedom Radio told CSP’s Fred Grandy that the group is “in the service of people who are really the perpetrators of the worst of the anti-Semitism and hatemongering” by opposing anti-gay and anti-Muslim hate groups. Grandy even said that the group is a “decidedly an anti-Semitic organization” because it calls out the extremist views of Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz.

Listen:

Grandy: The Southern Poverty Law Center, which at least generations ago had a very pristine reputation when we were still fighting the civil rights battle, but now they’ve sunk to a new low and of course one of their partners in this effort right now is the Muslim Public Affairs Council with whom they have conspired to create what is not just I think a coalition of hate crimes centered on organizations like the Family Research Center [sic] because of their support of traditional marriage but this has now become decidedly an anti-Semitic organization as well, tearing into Daniel Pipes at the Middle Eastern Forum or David Horowitz at his Freedom Center and of course we’re part of that mix as well. Interestingly enough Frank, when they were having this conversation on the phone, this conference call about hate crimes the night after the shooting at the Family Research Center [sic] no mention of that hate crime was even brought up.

Gaffney: This is a really extraordinary thing, as you say the Southern Poverty Law Center has fallen dramatically from its past and is now in the service of people who are really the perpetrators of the worst of the anti-Semitism and hatemongering and so on.

Today in the Washington Times, Gaffney said that “the SPLC is hanging out with today’s counterpart to the KKK and the pre-eminent threat to civil rights” and aiding the advancement of Sharia law. “If you lawfully object to, say, the erosion of traditional marriage or open borders, you stand to be condemned by the SPLC as a hater,” Gaffney said. “It seems that if you are militantly in favor of the radical homosexual agenda or racist groups such as La Raza, however, you get a pass from that organization.”

Last week’s near-massacre at the Family Research Council (FRC) put into sharp relief a curious fact: The people most aggressively denouncing others for their “hatemongering” sure are engaging in a lot of it themselves, with dangerous and potentially lethal repercussions.

Take, for example, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Back in the heyday of the civil rights movement, the SPLC helped counter the Ku Klux Klan and other racists and anti-Semites. At the moment, though, the SPLC is hanging out with today’s counterpart to the KKK and the pre-eminent threat to civil rights — especially those of women — in America: Islamists bent on insinuating here their anti-constitutional, misogynistic and supremacist doctrine known as Shariah.

A case in point occurred Wednesday night, just hours after a gunman named Floyd Lee Corkins entered the headquarters of the FRC. Mr. Corkins apparently was bent on killing as many of the center’s employees as possible, perhaps because of the social conservative group’s listing (along with this columnist and a number of others) earlier this year by the SPLC as among the worst hate groups and bigots in America.

It turns out that, as with the Family Research Council, what seems to qualify one for smearing by the Southern Poverty Law Center is disagreement with its political agenda. If you lawfully object to, say, the erosion of traditional marriage or open borders, you stand to be condemned by the SPLC as a hater. It seems that if you are militantly in favor of the radical homosexual agenda or racist groups such as La Raza, however, you get a pass from that organization.

Will Bachmann continue to ignore the criticism and denunciations streaming into her office? Will she condemn and repudiate her foray in the world of Islamophobia? Don’t hold your breath (via. Islamophobia-Watch):

Michele Bachmann’s Muslim Brotherhood claims condemned by Catholic Bishops, 41 other groups

Forty-two religious and secular organizations united on Thursday in condemning conservative lawmakers’ allegations that Muslim-American individuals connected to the U.S. government may be trying to spread the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

They directed their criticisms at Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), who recently wrote to various government agencies and asked them to investigate the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In their letters, the lawmakers targeted top State Department official Huma Abedin and several advisers to the Department of Homeland Security.

“[W]e write to raise our voices in protest of your recent letters regarding prominent American Muslim individuals and organizations,” the 42 organizations wrote in a letter to the lawmakers on Thursday. “These letters question the loyalty of faithful Americans based on nothing more than their religious affiliations and what is at best tenuous evidence of their associations. As such, your actions have serious implications for religious freedom and the health of our democracy.”

The signatories include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which often sides with Republicans on social issues, along with the Interfaith Alliance, American Civil Liberties Union, American Baptist Churches USA, NAACP and United Church of Christ.

Huffington Post, 26 July 2012

Walid Shoebat

Walid Shoebat weighs in with his own conspiracy theories about Huma Abedin:

Huma Abedin Conspiracies Get Weirder

The conspiracy theories about Huma Abedin’s marriage to former congressman Anthony Weiner keep getting weirder. Walid Shoebat, who according to the Center for American Progress [pdf] is a “former purported Islamic terrorist turned apocalyptic Christian,” recently told David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag that Abedin’s marriage to Weiner, who is Jewish, is either part of her Muslim Brotherhood espionage or shows that Weiner converted to Islam, or both:

It is extremely rare to have Muslim women marry non-Muslims, much less to have conservative Muslims look the other way, unless Huma has a “higher calling” and a unique exception was made for her, since she is an ear into top U.S. sensitive information, or Anthony Weiner has converted to Islam or even both.

On Monday, Shoebat told the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios that the rise of Muslim Brotherhood is all part of biblical prophecy and we are witnessing the birth pangs of the End Times:

He also claimed that Obama is assisting the Muslim Brotherhood and is “in bed with terrorists,” and that Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert, two of the five Republican congressmen who have accused Abedin of cooperating with the Muslim Brotherhood, are acting like modern day John the Baptist fighting today’s Herod:

 Rios: Did you have any idea, even ten years ago or right after 9/11 that things would come to this dangerous state where we do have, and we’re going to talk about this, this incredible infiltration at the highest levels and no one would listen? Did you ever foresee this?

Shoebat: Yes, yes, of course I expected this. Americans had a test when the elections happened and the results were Obama. We’ve seen anybody, you know, who looks at Obama’s record, he was in bed with terrorists. People need to confront this issue once and for all, President Obama doesn’t have a clean record.

…

Rios: Should we be worried about Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert and all these letters? Should we defend them, what’s the point?

Shoebat: Well, I mean, if you look at the story of John the Baptist, John the Baptist was doing what? He was a symbol of the church. He was fighting against Herod, Herod was a symbol of the Antichrist, a symbol of the evil one. So what happened? He exposed Herod and he got his head chopped off. So there is a danger in fighting this but the church’s position is to expose and to fight for what is right.

Frank Gaffney’ is getting a lot of mileage out of the “Muslim Brotherhood infiltration” conspiracy (via. Islamophobi-Watch):

The Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy comes to Edmond, Oklahoma

EDMOND, Okla. — There is a controversy in Edmond involving the expansion of a local mosque. The small mosque, which has been in Edmond for 20 years, sits across from the University of Central Oklahoma. Officials have requested permits to expand the building to five times the size it is now.

When neighbors were notified about the expansion plan, letters of complaint began coming in. In a hand-written note the writer asked planning commissioners to look at recent events in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and “what our grandchildren are going to face.” In one letter the sender called the mosque near UCO, “a headquarters for terrorist affiliate organizations.”

KOCO, 24 July 2012 

The letter describing the proposed mosque as a terrorist threat was accompanied by a flier circulated by an organisation called Oklahomans for Responsible Government (“This has nothing to do with the First Amendment. This is about treason and sedition”). As you can see from their website, the campaign draws its inspiration from Frank Gaffney’s paranoid Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theories.

(h/t: Frank)

Well Paid Islamophobe Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy’s Crusade Against American Muslims

by Jacob Hausner

Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy were in the news recently due to the widely condemned slanders that he fed to politicians such as Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann about so-called “Muslim Brotherhood infiltration” into our government.

The “Muslim Brotherhood infiltration conspiracy theory” is an old talking point amongst the most prominent agitators within the Islamophobia Industry. Islamophobia-Today has in the past chronicled the development of this conspiracy theory, as well as its occasional usage by politicians associated with the lunatic fringe of the Right-Wing. So, it was not surprising to me when Rep. Michele Bachmann made a very public endorsement of Gaffney’s slanderous claims about Hilary Clinton’s deputy chief-of-staff Huma Abedin, going so far as to call for an “investigation” into this phantom “threat.”

Bachmann’s attempt at appealing to popular anti-Muslim sentiment amongst her base of support backfired. First it was Rep. Keith Ellison who eloquently and forcefully challenged Bachmann to provide “evidence” for her claims, while also simultaneously condemning her disgraceful, populist approach. A chorus of varying voices in the mainstream media condemned Bachmann and the spurious “sources” (Gaffney) she used to claim MB infiltration into our government. Furthermore, senior Republican leaders condemned Bachmann, epitomized by Sen. John McCain’s disavowal of Bachmann‘s attack on Huma Abedin, American Muslims and Constitutional values. A rare instance in which Republicans were so taken aback by the brazen bigotry of their lunatic fringe that they disciplined and condemned one of their own.

Better Late than Never

What is surprising is that after years of gaining a foothold in the imagination of a significant percentage of the GOP, it was only after the recent public attack on Huma Abedin that such slanders were censured. Before this recent foray into the abyss of Islamophobia, Gaffney and his Center for Security Policy have for years been smearing not just individuals such as Huma Abedin but also many other prominent Muslims and American Muslim organizations.

Gaffney no longer has access to mainstream media outlets and is relegated to writing or appearing in the laughable venues of the far-Right, such as the Washington Times. In one of the articles written by Gaffney in the Times during the Bachmann-Abedin debacle, Gaffney took specific aim at not just Huma Abedin but also Imam Mohamed Magid, ISNA and CAIR.

These organizations are one of the biggest bugaboos of Islamophobes, they regularly attempt to tarnish them, claiming they are fronts for either Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood. If this were the case surely it would be easy to provide documentation instead of tendentious guilt-by-association smears?

Indeed, there have been several Congressional hearings at the urging of Islamophobes into supposed “Muslim Brotherhood infiltration,” where much time was spent on the question of whether ISNA or CAIR were affiliated with terrorists. In fact, Rep. Peter King‘s widely condemned witch-hunt hearings on “American Muslim radicalization” focused largely on CAIR. The result of all these hearings has been to prove exactly squat, because these groups and individuals are not “Muslim Brotherhood” front groups, nor are they linked to terrorists.

The tarnishing of individual Muslims such as Huma Abedin or Imam Mohamed Magid and organizations such as ISNA and CAIR serve not only to obfuscate the truth and further marginalize American Muslims but also covers up the tremendous work and contribution these individuals and groups have, and are, making to our nation.

Imam Magid has been commended by government officials and advised senior officials, even Gaffney recognizes this, though only after dubbing (without any evidence) Imam Magid as a “senior Muslim Brotherhood operative,”

Imam Mohamed Magid…has been an adviser to President Obama, feted at the White House and the State and Treasury departments, embraced by the Justice Department and used…by the Pentagon.

In Gaffney’s mind these are reasons for censure, when in fact it speaks highly of the esteem in which Imam Magid is held, and the clear and extensive background check he would have to undergo to “advise President Obama, the White House, the State and Treasury departments.”

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Sheila Musaji puts together an important backgrounder on Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy. Who is Frank Gaffney? What is the Center for Security Policy? What do they do? Who funds them?

Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy

by Sheila Musaji (TAM)

There are numerous articles on The American Muslim (TAM) discussing Gaffney and the CSP.  This article will become the “backgrounder” providing the information in an abbreviated format with links to references for more detailed discussions of particular issues.

Frank Gaffney provides “valuable information” to government officials and leaders regularly:

— He is advising Rep. Bachmann on foreign policy. — When Sen. Greg Ball (R-NY), chairman of the Veterans, Homeland Security & Military Affairs Committee held a hearing titled “Reviewing our Preparedness: An Examination of New York’s Public Protection Ten Years After September 11”  on April 8th, 2011, Frank Gaffney was called to testify (along with Rep. Peter King, Frank and Nonie Darwish).  Eleven democratic senators sent a letter to Senator Ball objecting to the inclusion of such individuals.  ** — During the Murfreesboro Mosque controversy in Tennessee, at one court hearing, Frank Gaffney was called to testify.  The local paper reported: Plaintiffs called former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, Frank Gaffney, to the stand and asked the court to enter him as an expert on Sharia Law. “I don’t hold myself out as an expert on Sharia Law,” Gaffney told the court on the witness stand. “But I have talked a lot about that as a threat.” — Frank Gaffney and one of his Center for Security Policy “reports” was the primary source, and Steven Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism a secondary source for Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s witch hunt against American Muslims in government positions.  See Michele Bachmann Ups the Ante in the GOP War on American Muslims and Is Congressional Christian Brotherhood Group Behind GOP Islamophobia? for a full discussion.

It is amazing that he, or the other Islamophobes he works with, are given this sort of credence, since their real agenda is well known.  Gaffney has been mentioned in just about every legitimate report about Islamophobia and the anti-Sharia movement:

— Gaffney is included in the SPLC Jihad Against Islam report and described as one of a “coterie of core activists”, — and in the SPLC backgrounder on Gaffney, where he is identified as “the anti-Muslim movement’s most paranoid propagandist.” — And in the SPLC report The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle.  — Gaffney features prominently in the Center for American Progress“Fear, Inc.” report as one of 5 key “misinformation experts”. — He is also prominently featured in the People for the American Way “Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism”  which called Gaffney “one of the most vociferous anti-Muslim ideologues” and said that he “cited phony statistic to defend his campaign to prevent the construction of mosques in America”. — He is mentioned in the NYCLU report Religious Freedom Under Attack: The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State.  — The ADL report on the anti-Sharia movement says about Gaffney “Yerushalmi is General Counsel to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, founded by Frank J. Gaffney. Gaffney has been active in opposing mosque construction and has made several statements about Islam that raise concerns. For example, in a 2009 article in the Washington Times, Gaffney claimed that “there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself.” In 2010, the Center for Security Policy published the book Shari’ah: The Threat To America, An Exercise in Competitive Analysis, Report of Team ‘B’ II, co-authored by Yerushalmi. The book repeated Yerushalmi’s theories about a vast Shari’a threat to America.”

Not only Gaffney, but the other Islamophobes that he regularly works with are all mentioned in these reports.— The ADL (A Jewish anti-defamation group) has said that  Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’s Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA),  Brigitte Gabriel’s Act for America, and David Yerushalmi’s Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE) are “groups that promote an extreme anti-Muslim agenda”.   — The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated SIOA as a hate group.  — Many of them are featured in the Political Research Associates report Manufacturing the Muslim menace: Private firms, public servants, and the threat to rights and security.  —  The ADL says of David Yerushalmi One of the driving forces behind Shari’a-related conspiracy theories and growing efforts to ban or restrict the use of Shari’a law in American courts is David Yerushalmi, an Arizona attorney with a record of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black bigotry. — Gaffney and all of those he works with are featured in TAM’s Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry, with backgrounders on each of them.

As the SPLC report Jihad Against Islam says “One doesn’t have to probe very deeply to find the fingerprints of the eight central activists — Spencer, Pipes, Horowitz, Gaffney, Emerson, Gabriel, Geller and Yerushalmi — on almost every aspect of the recent surge in anti-Muslim fervor in America. The conservative media, led by FOX News personalities Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Eric Bolling and including the upstart Pajamas Media online network, evangelist Franklin Graham, and a contingent of sympathetic right-wing bloggers and commentators, have joined in to help construct a “movement” that 9/11 itself didn’t generate.”
BACKGROUND ON FRANK GAFFNEY:

Gaffney has turned up so many “Muslim infiltrators” in government or civic positions that it is difficult to keep track.  If a Muslim runs for political office, or even wants to get involved in their local community, or establish any sort of institution, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, outrageous charges of “creeping Sharia prononent”,  “stealth jihadist”, “Muslim Brotherhood plant”, etc. are made by Islamophobes.   Here are just a few examples of such attacks (almost all instigated by Frank Gaffney):

— Rep. Keith Ellison has faced numerous assaults. — David Ramadan, a Muslim GOP candidate in a Virginia House of Delegates race. — Sohail Mohammed nominated as a judge on the NJ state Superior Court. — Suhail Khan was accused of being a Muslim Brotherhood operative “infiltrating” CPAC.   — Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates was attacked for giving Muslims common legal advice.  — Faisal Gill, a former JAG officer in the Navy and a Bush White House official accused of terrorist connections when he attempted to get involved in local politics. —Parvez Ahmed’s appointment to the Jacksonville, Florida Human Rights Commission was strongly opposed. — Rep. Andre Carson was recently embroiled in a manufactured controversy.  — Ahmed Rehab faced bigotry when he was appointed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as part of an advisory committee on immigration issues.  — Halim Dhanidina, who spent 14 years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, was appointed to a California Superior Court judgeship by Gov. Jerry Brown, he was attacked for having been in the MSA as a student.  — Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy is pressuring the Gov. of Tennessee to fire Samar Ali from the position of Director of the Economic and Community Development Dept.  — Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Combatting Violent Extremism Working Group (CVE). — Imam Mohamed Magid, President of ISNA. — Ingrid Mattson former President of ISNA for being included in Inaugural Prayer Service. — Mazen Asbahi who was forced to resign as Obama’s Muslim Outreach Coordinator. — Dalia Mogahed for her appointment to the White House’s Office of Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.  — Huma Abedin has been facing bigoted accusations for at least the past year. — Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was attacked for wanting to build a community center. Imams Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir for wanting to build a Muslim college, Zaytuna.

You don’t even have to be a Muslim to come under attack by the Gaffney and his fellow Islamophobes.

— Gov. Rick Perry was attacked by Islamophobes simply for his friendship with the Aga Khan and not being anti-Muslim enough.    —  Gov. Chris Christie was accused of “abetting treason” for appointing a Muslim.   — Frank Gaffney claimed that the Center for American Progress was part of ‘red-green axis’ with Muslim Brotherhood.   — Elena Kagan was accused of “enabling efforts to insinuate” Shariah law in the United States.  — Gen. David Petraeus was accused of of “submission to Sharia law”.  — When Herman Cain met with Imam Magid of ISNA and other Muslim leaders to apologize for some anti-Muslim statements, Gaffney objected and accused Cain of meeting with Muslim Brotherhood operatives.   — Karen Hughes, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy was attacked for attending an ISNA conference.  — Gaffney called President Obama“America’s first Muslim president”, and claimed that President Obama is advancing Sharia Law and the ‘Radical Homosexual Agenda’ in the Military, and said that Obama’s respect for Muslims is a secret code telling “those who adhere to Sharia [Muslims] that we will submit to Sharia.” . — Gaffney called the U.S. Missile Defense Agency Logo “evidence of Obama’s ‘Submission To Shariah’.” — Gaffney claimed that Grover Norquist “is helping the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrate the conservative movement”.  —  — GOP Presidential Candidates were asked by Frank Gaffney to sign a “pledge” or loyalty oath against Sharia.

Gaffney is one of those who continuously discovers non-existent Muslim jihad plots.  Islamophobessee jihad everywhere, but Gaffney specifically has an obsession with Sharia plots.  See Islamic Sharia and Jewish Halakha Arbitration Courts for a full discussion of the anti-Sharia movement. For example:

— Gaffney contended in a Washington Times editorial that the efforts to use non-interest measures to do banking transactions was a Muslim conspiracy to impose Islamic law on the United States. — Gaffney published an over the top Islamophobic rant calling the proposed Cordoba House/Park51 center “a durable, symbolic taunt by our enemies about their bloody victory”, which is “designed to be a permanent, in-our-face beachhead for Shariah, a platform for inspiring the triumphalist ambitions of the faithful and eroding resistence to their demands for separate and (for the moment, at least) equal treatment in America.”  He also uses all the tired cliches – taqiyya, stealth jihad, etc. — Gaffney regularly suggests that any opposition to his positions is taqiyya which we have dealt with previously. — Gaffney said about the newly opened Zaytuna College “This is stealth jihad in the sense that it is about promoting in the United States incubators for sharia,” the religious law of Islam.”  Gaffney thinks Al-Jazeera is a purveyor of Islamic propaganda and part of the “civilizational jihad”, and wrote an article  entitled “Take Out Al Jazeera,” offering a rationale for bombing not only Al Jazeera but Al Arabiya as well. — Gaffney also thinks that Anders Breivik’s manifesto might be a false flag operation that “contributes to Sharia’s efforts” – that means the only possible culprits are, of course, Muslims.  See Understanding Shariah Law:  Conservatives’ Skewed Interpretation Needs Debunking, by Wajahat Ali and Matthew Duss which provides more useful information on this topic. See Islamophobes see Jihad everywhere for refutation of hundreds of such false claims.

Here are just a few ridiculous claims about nonsensical Muslim jihad plots that Gaffney and his fellow Islamophobes have uncovered:

An Eid Celebration for Muslim Special Needs Kids was described as a “stealth jihad”.   A children’s page in a newspaper focusing on Eid was described as a toxic propaganda plot.  Joel Hinrichs (a Christian) had a beard and had walked through the parking lot of a campus mosque thus proving that his crime was an example of sudden jihad syndrome.   The awful April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech by a Korean student was also called Islamic jihad because Cho’s father had once worked in Saudi Arabia (before he was married and before Cho was born).  A Muslim doctor had a heart attack and died at the wheel of his car which then crashed into a shopping mall and this was described as “vehicular jihad”.   A Muslim cab driver objected to what he considered pornographic ads on the roof of his cab, and that became astealth-jihad plot to impose Sharia on America.  Any Muslim who has sued an employer for violation of their rights under the EEOC is engaged in employment jihad, or litigation jihad.  Muslim environmentalists are said to be actually engaged in “civilizational jihad”.  A cartoon series “The 99” aimed at young Muslims was described as “cultural jihad”.  The victims of the terrorist attack of 9/11 included Muslims, they were accused of dying as martyrs in an act of jihad.

The Islamophobes have uncovered countless examples of “shocking” Muslim jihad plots.  They have uncovered:  bumper sticker jihad,  Thanksgiving turkey jihad, an incredible paisley scarf jihad, marriage to important men jihad, spit jihad, fashion jihad, spelling bee jihad, rape jihad,  defacing dollar bills jihad,   population jihad, creeping Sharia jihad,   mosque building jihad, terror baby jihad, “creeping Sharia” jihad,  pedophilia jihad,  bus driver prayer jihad,forehead bruise jihad, postage stamp jihad, soup jihad,  banning alcohol jihad, fake hate crimes jihad, piggy bank jihad,  tv reality series jihad, handshake jihad, prom jihad, interfaith jihad, Arabic language jihad,  public school jihad, religious accommodation jihad, Crescent moon jihad, Christmas tree tax jihad, oath of office jihad, immigration jihad, community fundraiser jihad.  Christina Abraham (a Muslim) has a name that is not recognizably Muslim enough and so we have stealth name jihad.  And, when it seemed they might have run out of plots to warn about, we now have public school/madrassa jihad, and post office jihad, andfood jihad.

Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy (CSP) has produced or cooperated in the production of a number of “reports”.

— The right-wing “Team B II” report Shariah: The Threat To America” which claims that the “Muslim Brotherhood in insinuating shariah into the very heartland of America through stealthy means.”  —  CSP also produced Shariah Law and American State Courts which distorted information about court cases and their possible implications.  Both are discussed at length in the article Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy Sharia Reports a Threat to American Ideals — David Yerushalmi who was one of the authors of the Team BII report also released a report Mapping Sharia:  Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi which was published in Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Quarterly Summer 2011 issue.  I have debunked this one in an article titled Mapping Sharia Project Goes Beyond Islamophobia to Raving, Paranoid, In(SANE)ity!. — The CSP also produced a 10-hour video course The Muslim Brotherhood in America from which Michelle Bachmann got her “facts”. — According to the Center for American Progress Fear, Inc. report, Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy (CSP) funded research David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry’s book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.  See Dave Gaubatz and the “Muslim Mafia” for more detailed background including the fact that Gaubatz is also a former employee of David Yerushalmi’s racist hate group Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE).  Dave Gaubatz was at one-time “Director of Intelligence and Counter-terrorism Studies” for Yerushalmi.  In 2007, Yerushalmi’s group paid Gaubatz $148,898 for “research.”

Gaffney and the CSP also sponsor and participate in other Islamophobes anti-Muslim activities.  This Islamophobic network is very much intertwined.  For example:

— One of the anti-mosque rallies was sponsored by a group called The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero.  They sponsored one of the most hateful rallies against the Cordoba House/Park51 Center.  However, as Glenn Greenwald has reported “The group which sponsored this rally has a website, the repellently named StopThe911Mosque.com, which is registered to The Center for Security Policy, the group of Frank Gaffney.” — Gaffney is one of the regular speakers at David Horowitz’ annual Islamo Fascism Awareness Week on college campuses. — David Yerushalmi is Pamela Geller‘s personal attorney and has represented AFDI/SIOA (Stop the Islamization of America) run by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.  Yerushalmi incorporated American Freedom Defense Initiative which is the non-profit under which she and Robert Spencer produce their blogs, Atlas Shrugs and Jihad Watch.  He is also the legal counsel for Frank Gaffney’s anti-Muslim Center for Security Policy and served in the same role for Stop the Madrassa, the group which got Debbie Almontaser fired as principal of the Khalil Gibran Academy.— Gaffney regularly appears on Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT for America program, on which once said that Muslims practicing Sharia should be prosecuted for sedition. — Gaffney co-sponsored Geert Wilders’s National Press Club event. — Gaffney PNAC was one of the founders of the (Project for a New American Century), the notorious neo-con think. — Loonwatch did a lengthy report on LATMA and Caroline Glick which included this interesting fact:  Although Latma operates in Israel, it acts as an initiative of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a 501(c)(3) and DC-based think tank, where Caroline Glick serves as the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs.  TAM has a backgrounder on LATMA and Glick titled Caroline Glick and LATMA:  Promoting the meme of Muslims as “the other” outlining many of their vicious anti-Muslim propaganda pieces on their weekly television program.

FUNDING:

A number of investigations have been done into where the money comes from for Gaffney’s CSP to operate:

The Center for American Progress “Fear, Inc. report of 2011reported:  “In 2009, the Center for Security Policy (CSP)’s annual revenue was nearly $4 million, and Frank Gaffney’s annual salary was nearly $300,000 as president of the organization. Over the past decade, the Scaife foundations gave CSP nearly $3 million, the Bradley Foundation more than $800,000, the Becker foundations about $375,000, and the Anchorage and William Rosenwald funds about $437,000, with the Fairbrook Foundation contributing smaller amounts. All told, CSP received about $20 million in revenue between 2002 and 2009.”

Max Blumenthal reported that: The $437,000 in donations Gaffney reaped from the Rosenwald family enabled him to churn out conspiratorial pamphlets like his 2010 “Shariah: The Threat to America,” in which he warned that American Muslims were engaged in a “stealth jihad” to place the country under the control of Sharia, or Islamic law.

According to Alex Seitz-Wald at Think Progress:  CSP has big-time right-wing funders like theBradley Foundation and, presumably, its board of directors. Gaffney’s board includes the vice president of Van Scoyoc Associates, which touts itself as the “largest independent lobbying company in Washington, D.C,” with numerous defense clients and $15.93 million in lobbying revenue over the first six months of 2010. Other members of Gaffney’s board include the former vice president of Boeing’s missile defense division, and the head of the investment firm American Securities Management L.P.  The group paid Gaffney $288,300 in 2008, according to its most recently available 990 form.

Bob Smietana reported that Frank Gaffney, head of the Washington, D.C.-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.

According to Paul Blumenthal: Irving Moskowitz provided $100,000 to the Center for Security Policy.

The problem is that this sort of Islamophobic rhetoric and activity is coming not just from the professional Islamophobes, but is also coming from GOP elected representatives, and very often they are getting their facts from people like Gaffney.  In the article Where is the U.S. Government Getting It’s Information on Islam and Muslims? this unfortunate tendency to go to disreputable sources for information is discussed in detail.

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