Fear, Inc.
The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America
Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott
Keyes, and Faiz Shakir
Center for American Progress
August 2011
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf

[moderator: the entire report may be found at the link 
above.]

This in-depth investigation conducted by the Center for
American Progress Action Fund reveals not a vast right-
wing conspiracy behind the rise of Islamophobia in our
nation but rather a small, tightly networked group of
misinformation experts guiding an effort that reaches
millions of Americans through effective advocates, media
partners, and grassroots organizing. This spreading of
hate and misinformation primarily starts with five key
people and their organizations, which are sustained by
funding from a clutch of key foundations.

The funding

 More than $40 million flowed from seven foundations
over 10 years.

 The foundations funding the misinformation experts:

Donors Capital Fund; Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation;
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Newton and Rochelle
Becker Foundation and Newton and Rochelle Becker
Charitable Trust; Russell Berrie Foundation, Anchorage
Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund;
Fairbrook Foundation.

The misinformation experts

 Five experts generate the false facts and materials
used by political leaders, grassroots groups, and the
media:

 Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy

 David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for
National Existence

 Daniel Pipes at the Middle East Forum

 Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of
America

 Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on
Terrorism

 These experts travel the country and work with or
testify before state legislatures calling for a ban on
the nonexisting threat of Sharia law in America and
proclaiming that the vast majority of mosques in our
country harbor Islamist terrorists or sympathizers.

 David Yerushalmi's "model legislation" banning Sharia
law has been cut and pasted into bills in South
Carolina, Texas, and Alaska. His video on how to draft
an anti-Sharia bill and his online tools have been
picked up nationwide.

The reach

 The movement is moving nationwide in more than 23
states- made possible by a combination of new, single-
minded Islamophobia groups, exemplified by Brigitte
Gabriel's ACT! For America, Pam Geller's Stop
Islamization of America, David Horowitz's Freedom
Center, and existing groups such as the American Family
Association and the Eagle Forum.

 Misinformation experts are broadcast around the
country and the world, with their work cited many times
by (among others) confessed Norway terrorist Anders
Breivik.

 U.S. politicians such as Reps. Peter King (R-NY),
Allen West (R-FL), and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) repeat
these anti-Muslim attacks give credence to incorrect
facts.

The impact

 This small network of people is driving the national
and global debates that have real consequences on the
public dialogue and on American Muslims.

 In September 2010, a Washington Post-ABC News poll
showed that 49 percent of Americans held an unfavorable
view of Islam, a significant increase from 39 percent in
October of 2002.

Why it matters

 These attacks go right to the heart of two critically
important national issues: the fabric and strength of
our democracy and our national security. Our
Constitution upholds freedom of religion for all
Americans. Contending that some religions are not part
of the promise of American freedoms established by our
founders directly challenges who we are as a nation.

 One of Al Qaeda's greatest recruitment and propaganda
tool is the assertion that the West is at war with Islam
and Muslims-an argument that is strengthened every day
by those who suggest all Muslims are terrorists and all
those practicing Islam are jeopardizing U.S. security.

Introduction and summary

On July 22, a man planted a bomb in an Oslo government
building that killed eight people. A few hours after the
explosion, he shot and killed 8 people, mostly
teenagers, at a Labor Party youth camp on Norway's Utoya
Island.

By midday, pundits were speculating as to who had
perpetrated the greatest massacre in Norwegian history
since World War II. Numerous mainstream media outlets,
including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and
The Atlantic,speculated about an Al Qaeda connection and
a "jihadist" motivation behind the attacks. But by the
next morning it was clear that the attacker was a 32-
year-old, white, blond-haired and blue-eyed Norwegian
named Anders Breivik. He was not a Muslim, but rather a
self-described Christian conservative.

According to his attorney, Breivik claimed
responsibility for his self-described "gruesome but
necessary" actions. On July 26, Breivik told the court
that violence was "necessary" to save Europe from
Marxism and "Muslimization." In his 1,500-page
manifesto, which meticulously details his attack methods
and aims to inspire others to extremist violence,
Breivik vows "brutal and breathtaking operations which
will result in casualties" to fight the alleged "ongoing
Islamic Colonization of Europe."

Breivik's manifesto contains numerous footnotes and in-
text citations to American bloggers and pundits, quoting
them as experts on Islam's "war against the West." This
small group of anti-Muslim organizations and individuals
in our nation is obscure to most Americans but wields
great influence in shaping the national and
international political debate. Their names are heralded
within communities that are actively organizing against
Islam and targeting Muslims in the United States.

Breivik, for example, cited Robert Spencer, one of the
anti-Muslim misinformationscholars we profile in this
report, and his blog, Jihad Watch, 162 times in his
manifesto. Spencer's website, which "tracks the attempts
of radical Islam to subvert Western culture," boasts
another member of this Islamophobia network in America,
David Horowitz, on his Freedom Center website. Pamela
Geller, Spencer's frequent collaborator, and her blog,
Atlas Shrugs, was mentioned 12 times.

Geller and Spencer co-founded the organization Stop
Islamization of America, a group whose actions and
rhetoric the Anti-Defamation League concluded "promotes
a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of
fighting radical Islam. The group seeks to rouse public
fears by consistently vilifying the Islamic faith and
asserting the existence of an Islamic conspiracy to
destroy "American values." Based on Breivik's sheer
number of citations and references to the writings of
these individuals, it is clear that he read and relied
on the hateful, anti-Muslim ideology of a number of men
and women detailed in this report-a select handful of
scholars and activists who work together to create and
promote misinformation about Muslims.

While these bloggers and pundits were not responsible
for Breivik's deadly attacks, their writings on Islam
and multiculturalism appear to have helped create a
world view, held by this lone Norwegian gunman, that
sees Islam as at war with the West and the West needing
to be defended. According to former CIA officer and
terrorism consultant Marc Sageman, just as religious
extremism "is the infrastructure from which Al Qaeda
emerged," the writings of these anti-Muslim
misinformation experts are "the infrastructure from
which Breivik emerged." Sageman adds that their rhetoric
"is not cost-free."

These pundits and bloggers, however, are not the only
members of the Islamophobia infrastructure. Breivik's
manifesto also cites think tanks, such as the Center for
Security Policy, the Middle East Forum and the
Investigative Project on Terrorism-three other
organizations we profile in this report. Together, this
core group of deeply intertwined individuals and
organizations manufacture and exaggerate threats of
"creeping Sharia," Islamic domination of the West, and
purported obligatory calls to violence against all non-
Muslims by the Quran.

This network of hate is not a new presence in the United
States. Indeed, its ability to organize, coordinate, and
disseminate its ideology through grassroots
organizations increased dramatically over the past 10
years. Furthermore, its ability to influence
politicians' talking points and wedge issues for the
upcoming 2012 elections has mainstreamed what was once
considered fringe, extremist rhetoric. And it all starts
with the money flowing from a select group of
foundations.

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

Altogether, these seven charitable groups provided $42.6
million to Islamophobia think tanks between 2001 and
2009-funding that supports the scholars and experts that
are the subject of our next chapter as well as some of
the grassroots groups that are the subject of Chapter 3
of our report.

And what does this money fund? Well, here's one of many
cases in point: Last July,former Speaker of the House of
Representatives Newt Gingrich warned a conservative
audience at the American Enterprise Institute that the
Islamic practice of Sharia was "a mortal threat to the
survival of freedom in the United States and in the
world as we know it." Gingrich went on to claim that
"Sharia in its natural form has principles and
punishments totally abhorrent to the Western world."

Sharia, or Muslim religious code, includes practices
such as charitable giving,prayer, and honoring one's
parents-precepts virtually identical to those of
Christianity and Judaism. But Gingrich and other
conservatives promote alarmist notions about a nearly
1,500-year-old religion for a variety of sinister
political, financial, and ideological motives. In his
remarks that day, Gingrich mimicked the language of
conservative analyst Andrew McCarthy, who co-wrote a
report calling Sharia "the preeminent totalitarian
threat of our time." Such similarities in language are
no accident. Look no further than the organization that
released McCarthy's anti-Sharia report: the
aforementioned Center for Security Policy, which is a
central hub of the anti-Muslim network and an active
promoter of anti-Sharia messaging and anti-Muslim
rhetoric.

In fact, CSP is a key source for right-wing politicians,
pundits, and grassroots organizations, providing them
with a steady stream of reports mischaracterizing Islam
and warnings about the dangers of Islam and American
Muslims. Operating under the leadership of Frank
Gaffney, the organization is funded by a small number of
foundations and donors with a deep understanding of how
to influence U.S. politics by promoting highly alarming
threats to our national security. CSP is joined by other
anti-Muslim organizations in this lucrative business,
such as Stop Islamization of America and the Society of
Americans for National Existence.

Many of the leaders of these organizations are well-
schooled in the art of getting attention in the press,
particularly Fox News, The Washington Times, and a
variety of right-wing websites and radio outlets.
Misinformation experts such as Gaffney consult and work
with such right-wing grassroots organizations as ACT!
for America and the Eagle Forum, as well as religious
right groups such as the Faith and Freedom Coalition and
American Family Association, to spread their message.
Speaking at their conferences, writing on their
websites, and appearing on their radio shows, these
experts rail against Islam and cast suspicion on
American Muslims. Much of their propaganda gets churned
into fundraising appeals by grassroots and religious
right groups. The money they raise then enters the
political process and helps fund ads supporting
politicians who echo alarmist warnings and sponsor anti-
Muslim attacks.

These efforts recall some of the darkest episodes in
American history, in which religious, ethnic, and racial
minorities were discriminated against and persecuted.
From Catholics, Mormons, Japanese Americans, European
immigrants, Jews, and African Americans, the story of
America is one of struggle to achieve in practice our
founding ideals. Unfortunately, American Muslims and
Islam are the latest chapter in a long American struggle
against scapegoating based on religion, race, or creed.

Due in part to the relentless efforts of this small
group of individuals and organizations, Islam is now the
most negatively viewed religion in America. Only 37
percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Islam:
the lowest favorability rating since 2001, according to
a 2010 ABC News/Washington Post poll.

According to a 2010 Time magazine poll, 28 percent of
voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible to sit
on the U.S. Supreme Court, and nearly one-third of the
country thinks followers of Islam should be barred from
running for president. The terrorist attacks on 9/11
alone did not drive Americans' perceptions of Muslims
and Islam.

President George W. Bush reflected the general opinion
of the American public at the time when he went to great
lengths to make clear that Islam and Muslims are not the
enemy. Speaking to a roundtable of Arab and Muslim
American leaders at the Afghanistan embassy in 2002, for
example, President Bush said, "All Americans must
recognize that the face of terror is not the true faith-
face of Islam. Islam is a faith that brings comfort to a
billion people around the world. It's a faith that has
made brothers and sisters of every race. It's a faith
based upon love, not hate."

Unfortunately, President Bush's words were soon eclipsed
by an organized escalation of hateful statements about
Muslims and Islam from the members of the Islamophobia
network profiled in this report. This is as sad as it is
dangerous. It is enormously important to understand that
alienating the Muslim American community not only
threatens our fundamental promise of religious freedom,
it also hurts our efforts to combat terrorism. Since
9/11, the Muslim American community has helped security
and law enforcement officials prevent more than 40
percent of Al Qaeda terrorist plots threatening America.
The largest single source of initial information to
authorities about the few Muslim American plots has come
from the Muslim American community.

Around the world, there are people killing people in the
name of Islam, with which most Muslims disagree. Indeed,
in most cases of radicalized neighbors, family members,
or friends, the Muslim American community is as baffled,
disturbed, and surprised by their appearance as the
general public. Treating Muslim American citizens and
neighbors as part of the problem, rather than part of
the solution, is not only offensive to America's core
values, it is utterly ineffective in combating terrorism
and violent extremism.

The White House recently released the national strategy
for combating violent extremism, "Empowering Local
Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United
States." One of the top focal points of the effort is to
"counter al-Qa'ida's propaganda that the United States
is somehow at war with Islam." Yet orchestrated efforts
by the individuals and organizations detailed in this
report make it easy for al-Qa'ida to assert that America
hates Muslims and that Muslims around the world are
persecuted for the simple crime of being Muslims and
practicing their religion.

Sadly, the current isolation of American Muslims echoes
past witch hunts in our history-from the divisive
McCarthyite purges of the 1950s to the sometimes violent
anti-immigrant campaigns in the 19th and 20th centuries.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has compared the fear-
mongering of Muslims with anti-Catholic sentiment of the
past. In response to the fabricated "Ground Zero mosque"
controversy in New York last summer, Mayor Bloomberg
said:

	In the 1700s, even as religious freedom took
	hold in America, Catholics in New York were
	effectively prohibited from practicing their
	religion, and priests could be arrested. Largely
	as a result, the first Catholic parish in New
	York City was not established until the 1780s,
	St. Peter's on Barclay Street, which still
	stands just one block north of the World Trade
	Center site, and one block south of the proposed
	mosque and community center.. We would betray
	our values and play into our enemies' hands if
	we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone
	else.

This report shines a light on the Islamophobia network
of so-called experts, academics, institutions,
grassroots organizations, media outlets, and donors who
manufacture, produce, distribute, and mainstream an
irrational fear of Islam and Muslims. Let us learn the
proper lesson from the past, and rise above fear-
mongering to public awareness, acceptance, and respect
for our fellow Americans. In doing so, let us prevent
hatred from infecting and endangering our country again.

In the pages that follow, we profile the small number of
funders, organizations, and individuals who have
contributed to the discourse on Islamophobia in this
country. We begin with the money trail in Chapter 1-our
analysis of the funding streams that support anti-Muslim
activities. Chapter 2 identifies the intellectual nexus
of the Islamophobia network. Chapter 3 highlights the
key grassroots players and organizations that help
spread the messages of hate. Chapter 4 aggregates the
key media amplifiers of Islamophobia. And Chapter 5
brings attention to the elected officials who frequently
support the causes of anti-Muslim organizing.

Before we begin, a word about the term "Islamophobia."
We don't use this term lightly. We define it as an
exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and
Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes
resulting in bias, discrimination, and the
marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from America's
social, political, and civic life.

It is our view that in order to safeguard our national
security and uphold America's core values, we must
return to a fact-based civil discourse regarding the
challenges we face as a nation and world. This discourse
must be frank and honest, but also consistent with
American values of religious liberty, equal justice
under the law, and respect for pluralism. A first step
toward the goal of honest, civil discourse is to expose
--and marginalize -- the influence of the individuals
and groups who make up the Islamophobia network in
America by actively working to divide Americans against
one another through misinformation.

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