Posted on 08/28/2011 9:16:32 AM PDT by bimboeruption
It has been just about a decade since Islamophobia exploded in this country. That was of 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 massive hemorrhaging of terror."
Netanyahu subsequently reiterated his views about 9/11, quoted here in Haaretz.
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 hate 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 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 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 hater 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 associated with Norway's Labor Party, which she claims is anti-Israel!)
The hate 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 hate 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.
In 1864, somewhere in the Colorado Territory of the United States, a former Methodist minister named Col. John Milton Chivington instructed his men to destroy an Indian village:
“Kill and scalp all, little and big ... Nits make lice.”
During the seven hours of the attack, a 6-year-old bearing a white flag was shot dead on the spot. One soldier carved out a woman’s genitals and brandished them on a stick. Bodies were mutilated, brains knocked out, infants clubbed.
In this case of genocide, the perpetrators were 700 American soldiers, and the victims, 500 noncombatant Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. But a similarly horrific example might have surfaced from Babi Yar or Dili, Srebrenica or Rwanda. Genocides in vastly different cultures share this reality: Scores of innocent people die at the brutal hands of ordinary men.
James Waller, a professor of psychology at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., suggests that perpetrators of genocide — those who commit what Waller calls “extraordinary human evil” — aren’t just ideologically committed sociopaths or else passive weaklings who’ve been forced to pull the trigger. And contrary to what historians such as Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, the author of “Hitler’s Willing Executioners,” contend, ...
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2002/08/22/waller
A: I am saying yes, we may have to. At least convince the islamic world we are capable of it. The only one I can think of who has actually killed am enemy in combat is Col. Alan West, whom I hope will be Sarah’s V.P. choice.
Wow. So you are proposing that the USA engage in a campaign of genocide never seen before in this world - far worse than Killing Fields of Cambodia, worse than the Holocaust, worse than the gulags of the USSR. And you think that Sarah Palin and Allen West would not only accept this, but would be willing to lead it. How about adding concentration camps and gas ovens? That would make it much more efficient, don't you think?
**At least convince the islamic world we are capable of it.**
They declared WAR on us in the early 70’s and have been killing our people ever since...
How about you TWO Liberal muslim APOLOGISTS... KISS OUR AMERICAN BUTTS...
quoting SALON.COM???? if your not LIBERAL... YOU’RE TOO STOOPID TO BE A FReeper!!!!
FU and the Camel you rode in on!!
Who quoted Salon? And I never thought I would be on a conservative forum and see people advocating for genocide. If that is what conservatism has come to, then God help us all.
Both you and another poster implied we should kill all Muslims simply for being Muslims. The definition of genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group". So the term is correct. And I am appalled. If you want to kill every jihadist on the planet, I will support it - they have declared war and are actively participating in it. If you want to pass laws clearly stating that no religious code may or laws such as sharia may be implemented anywhere in the US - fine, I am on board with that. But to say we should kill all of the Muslims in the world becuase they are Muslim is a call to genocide, and you should be ashamed.
Killing an entire group of people because of their religious beliefs is genocide. Sorry you don’t like the label. Even in war, you don’t kill everyone - you kill the people fighting against you (in this case, the jihadists). By suggesting that we kill over a billion muslims, as the other poster suggested, you are contemplating the worst war crime in the history of the world.
Killing an entire group of people because of their religious beliefs is genocide. Sorry you don’t like the label. Even in war, you don’t kill everyone - you kill the people fighting against you (in this case, the jihadists). By suggesting that we kill over a billion muslims, as the other poster suggested, you are contemplating the worst war crime in the history of the world.
It does. When people talk about terrorism they talk about terrorism from below, like Osama bin Laden expressing a grievance against some country, state or institution. It's really renegade terrorism. But my book focuses more on state-sponsored terrorism. One of the things I'm trying to play out now is that while we're all captivated with the idea of terrorism from below, in truth, it's state-sponsored terrorism that claims millions of more lives over the course of history.
The above is from the link you provided - a great read - thanks for sharing.
Are you a plant, a seminar caller, a sand-bagger? You’re not going to get me to angrily reply in kind; maybe you actually should go away and try to put into practice the murder you’ve preaching. I’d guess you’ll not get far.
‘Bye. Let us know how it works out.
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