It has been just about a decade since Islamophobia exploded inthis country. That was the moment that the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hitby al Qaeda terrorists. It existed prior to 9/11, but the losses that day andthe general terror it inflicted upon this country made many, many Americansmuch more wary of Arabs and, fairly quickly, fearful of the religion theterrorists professed.
The first sign that 9/11 would be exploited to advancevarious agendas came from Binyamin Netanyahu, who was quotedin the New York Times as saying theattacks would be good for Israel:
Asked tonight [September 11, 2001]what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel,Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.''Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediatesympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond betweenour two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but theUnited States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror."
Netanyahu subsequently reiterated his views about 9/11,quoted herein Haaretz.
And, of course, ever since 9/11 the "pro-Israel" lobby hassuccessfully used it to build support for right-wing Israeli policies in theUnited States.
But the lobby isn't alone.
It is just one of the components of an orchestrated andwell-financed effort to make Americans fear and hate Muslims and Arabs.
I have to admit, however, that until I read a reportpublished today by the Center for American Progress (CAP), I had no idea justhow orchestrated and well-financed this movement was.
The report, "Fear Inc: The Roots of The Islamophobia Networkin America," demonstrates that a small group of self-proclaimed experts (FrankGaffney, David Yerushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Steve Emerson)backed by a host of foundations and donors (many of which also fund the lobby)have put Islamophobia on the map.
To put it simply, without these "experts," their donors, andFox News (their media mouthpiece) you would never have heard that a Muslim communitycenter (the "Ground Zero Mosque") was being constructed in New York City. Andthe center certainly would not have become a major news story. Nor wouldRepublican (and even a few Democratic) candidates for president, Congress, andeven village councils be called upon to condemn Islam and "Sharia Law" or facebeing labeled a supporter of terrorism. Nor would Newt Gingrich, Herman Cainand Rick Santorum make hatred of American Muslims such an integral part oftheir campaigns.
It all starts with the money. According to CAP:
A smallgroup of foundations and wealthy donors are the lifeblood of the Islamophobianetwork in America, providing critical funding to a clutch of right-wing thinktanks that peddle hate and fear of Muslims and Islam-in the form of books,reports, websites, blogs, and carefully crafted talking points that anti-Islamgrassroots organizations and some right-wing religious groups use as propagandafor their constituency.
Someof these foundations and wealthy donors also provide direct funding toanti-Islam grassroots groups. According to our extensive analysis, here are thetop seven contributors to promoting Islamophobia in our country:
- Donors Capital Fund
- Richard Mellon Scaife foundations
- Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
- Newton D. & Rochelle F. Beckerfoundations and charitable trust
- Russell Berrie Foundation
- Anchorage Charitable Fund and WilliamRosenwald Family Fund
- Fairbrook Foundation
Most of these are new to me, although when I worked at AIPACit was hard to miss the fact that some of them supported both AIPAC and itsthink tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The amazing thing about the CAP report is that it exposespeople who try very hard to cover their tracks. It is one thing to be known forsupporting AIPAC, but it is quite another to be identified with the likes ofSteve Emerson, Daniel Pipes -- and the truly unhinged Pam Geller, who appears in the CAP report asonly a second-tier hater but whose anti-Muslim vehemence is nothing short ofdisgusting. (She rationalizedthe killing of the kids in Norway by pointing out that the camp they attendedwas associated with Norway's Labor Party, which she claims is anti-Israel!)
The hate funders are particularly determined tolay low since the Oslo slaughter by a self-describedChristian conservative named Anders Breivik, who said that he was influenced byRobert Spencer, Pam Geller, and David Horowitz (another prominent propagandistagainst Muslims and beneficiary of the various anti-Islam foundations).
But CAP followed the money, went behind the innocent-soundingfoundation names, and cross-referenced them. And now we have it: the hatenetwork exposed.
It's pretty ugly. Jews whose main concern is Israel alignthemselves with Christian rightists who don't like Jews. There are even a fewMuslims who are dispatched by the network to tell audiences at churches andsynagogues just how bad their people are. It's weird.
But it's also very dangerous, as the Norway slaughterattests.
The strangest thing about the killings is that it happened inNorway. Reading this report, you have to wonder why it hasn't happened here.Yet.