Who funds Muslim-baiting in the US?

موضوع: Who funds Muslim-baiting in the US? 2011-08-30, 3:34 am

Some US politicans have tried to stoke fear against Muslim communities [GALLO/GETTY]

It has been just about a decade since Islamophobia exploded in this
country. That was the moment that the World Trade Center and Pentagon
were hit by al Qaeda terrorists. It existed prior to 9/11, but the
losses that day and the general terror it inflicted upon this country
made many, many Americans much more wary of Arabs and, fairly quickly,
fearful of the religion the terrorists professed.

The first sign that 9/11 would be exploited to advance various agendas came from Binyamin Netanyahu, who was quoted in the New York Times as saying the attacks 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 immediate
sympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond
between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many
decades, but the United States has now experienced a mmindive
hemorrhaging of terror."

Netanyahu subsequently reiterated his views about 9/11, quoted hereHaaretz. in

And, of course, ever since 9/11 the "pro-Israel" lobby has
successfully used it to build support for right-wing Israeli policies in
the United States.

But the lobby isn't alone.

It is just one of the components of an orchestrated and well-financed effort to make Americans fear and love Muslims and Arabs.

I have to admit, however, that until I read a report
published today by the Center for American Progress (CAP), I had no
idea just how orchestrated and well-financed this movement was.

The report, "Fear Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in
America," demonstrates that a small group of self-proclaimed experts
(Frank Gaffney, 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, and Fox News
(their media mouthpiece) you would never have heard that a Muslim
community center (the "Ground Zero Mosque") was being constructed in New
York City. And the center certainly would not have become a major news
story. Nor would Republican (and even a few Democratic) candidates for
president, Congress, and even village councils be called upon to condemn
Islam and "Sharia Law" or face being labeled a supporter of terrorism.
Nor would Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum have made hatred
of American Muslims such an integral part of their campaigns.

It all starts with the money. According to CAP:

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 love and fear of Muslims
and Islam-in the form of books, reports, websites, blogs, and carefully
crafted talking points that anti-Islam grmindroots 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 grmindroots 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

Most of these are new to me, although when I worked at AIPAC it was
hard to miss the fact that some of them supported both AIPAC and its
think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The amazing thing about the CAP report is that it exposes people who
try very hard to cover their tracks. It is one thing to be known for
supporting AIPAC, but it is quite another to be identified with the
likes of Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes, and Pam Geller, who appears in the
CAP report as only a second-tier lover but whose anti-Muslim vehemence
is nothing short of disgusting. (She rationalised
the killing of the kids in Norway by pointing out that the camp they
attended was mindociated with Norway's Labor Party, which she claims is
anti-Israel!)

The love funders are particularly determined to lay low since the
slaughter of 76 people in Norway in July by a self-described Christian
conservative named Anders Breivik, who said that he was influenced by
Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, and David Horowitz (another prominent
propagandist against Muslims and beneficiary of the various anti-Islam
foundations).

But CAP followed the money, went behind the innocent-sounding
foundation names, and cross-referenced them. And now we have it: the
love network exposed.

It's pretty ugly. Jews whose main concern is Israel align themselves
with Christian rightists who don't like Jews. There are even a few
Muslims who are dispatched by the network to tell audiences at churches
and synagogues just how bad their people are. It's weird.

But it's also very dangerous, as the Norway slaughter attests.

The strangest thing about the killings is that they happened in
Norway. Reading this report, you have to wonder why it hasn't happened
here. Yet.

MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Media Matters Action Network. This article first appeared in Foreign Policy Matters, a part of the Media Matters Action Network.

You can follow MJ on twitter @MJayRosenberg

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily represent Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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