As the
cottage industry of self-styled national security experts, pundits, Republican
operatives, think tanks, and advocacy groups have spent years in fuelling
anti-Muslim bigotry, Republican head of the congressional Homeland Security
Committee Rep. Peter King is stoking Islamophbia through his controversial
hearings on what he calls the "radicalization" of the American Muslim
community. [4]
In a bid to
cast suspicion upon the seven-million strong American Muslim community by
stoking anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia, Peter King has held three
anti-Muslim hearings so far and hopes to stage more in future. The first
hearing, held on March 10, 2011, was denounced by a number of Congressmen,
including the former Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
After the shooting in Arizona
last January that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) injured and six dead,
the ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Thompson called for King to expand his
focus. The alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, is not Muslim.
On June 15,
he continued Muslim witch-hunt with another controversial hearing. The focus of
the second hearing was on the "threat of Muslim-American radicalization in U.S.
prisons," and though King painted the threat as serious, but there was little
evidence to support that claim.
Republican Rep. Peter King continued his anti-Muslim witch-hunt on July 27, 2011 with his congressional hearing on the so-called "radicalization" of American Muslims. This time the focus of his hearing was the Somali community. This was King's third such hearing that came five days after the Oslo Massacre by the right-wing terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik who was perhaps radicalized by a group of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam American bloggers and zealots such as Bat Ye'or, Daniel Pipes, Hugh Fitzgerald, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer Walid Shoebat. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's top Democrat, pointed to the Norway tragedy as one reason the hearings should not solely focus on Muslim extremists.
Under the
guise of reviewing preparedness for any possible terrorist attack, another
anti-Islam and anti-Muslim hearing was held by the New York State Senate on,
April 8, 2011. Like the similar Muslim-bashing hearings by the Republican
congressman Peter King, the New York
hearing drew sharp rebuke by Democrats. In a letter addressed to Republican
lawmaker Greg Ball, who called the controversial hearing, 11 Democrats said
that the hearing is designed to "isolate and villify Muslims."
On March
29, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin held the first-ever Congressional hearing on
the civil rights of American Muslims by saying a "backlash" which began after
the attacks of September 11, 2001, continues against "innocent Muslims, Arabs,
south Asians and Sikhs." American Muslims are entitled to the same
constitutional protections as other Americans, Durbin said, adding that this is
an issue of "not just free exercise of religion but freedom of speech."
Tellingly the hearing was largely ignored by the media.
Exponential rise of
Islamophobia in post 9/11 America
Recent
years have witnesses an exponential rise in Islamophobia which should be
understood as a potent political tool that is used to exploit fear to gain
political mileage. According to the CAIR/UC Berkeley report [5] of June 2011,
Muslim-bashing factored into the 2010 midterm elections and is already front
and center in the upcoming presidential campaign. It says that Islamophobia has
actually increased since the election of President Barack Obama, with
right-wing Republicans feeding on anti-Muslim sentiments and fears over the
so-called Sharia law.
The
anti-Muslim sentiment in America
is being generated by a cottage industry of Muslim bashers and Islamophobic
groups. Some individuals, institutions
and groups are at the center of pushing Islamophobia in America.
A recent
report - The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America
-- by the Center for American Progress report reveals that more than $42 million
from seven foundations over the past decade have helped fan the flames of
anti-Muslim hate in America.
The top seven contributors to promoting Islamophobia in the 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 and Fairbrook Foundation.
Not
surprisingly, the self-proclaimed Islamic expert Steven Emerson has collected
3.39 million dollars for his for-profit company in 2008 for researching alleged
ties between American Muslims and overseas terrorism. In an investigative report titled
"Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear," Bob Smietana of
The Tennessean pointed out that 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. He
went on to say: "Leaders of the so-called "anti-jihad" movement
portray themselves as patriots, defending America against radical Islam.[6]
Oslo Massacre: Connections to US extremists Geller & Spencer
Tellingly,
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, just happen to be among the heroes cited in
the 1,500-page manifesto written by Andrew Behring Breivik, the Norwegian
terrorist whose anti-Muslim paranoia apparently drove him to kill 77 people,
most of them kids, on July 22, 2011. According to the New York Times, Breivik
was deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers lacing his
manifesto with quotations from them, as well as copying multiple passages from
the tract of the Unabomber. [7]
Unsurprisingly,
on that day, for hours Pamela Geller, Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes, Dennis
Prager, David Horowitz, CNN, Fox News and many others were touting the Oslo massacre as most
likely an act of Muslim Jihadists.
Breivik is
apparently an avid fan of U.S.-based anti-Muslim activists such as Pamela
Geller, Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes. He lauds the Stop Islamization of
America co-founded by Geller and Spencer. JihadWatch of Robert Spencer was
cited 112 times. Breivik cited Robert Spencer 54 times in his manifesto. Pamela
Geller, and her blog, Atlas Shrugs, was mentioned 12 times. Daniel Pipes is
cited 11 times and his blog danielpipes.org 14 times.
The nexus
of Islamophobia and right-wing extremism was clearly on display during last summer's
"Ground Zero mosque" hysteria, which culminated in a rally where Geller and
Wilders addressed a crowd that included members of the the English Defense
League (EDL) waving Israeli flags. Breivik is also a fan of EDL.
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