Max Blumenthal on Anti-Islam Campaigning in the US

Max Blumenthal has written an overview of what he calls “the Great Islamophobic Crusade” in the USA, starting with the David Project’s opposition to Joseph Massad and culminating (so far) with the campaign against Cordoba House and with the Oklahoma “anti-Sharia” measure. He notes the role of one particular sugar daddy:

One philanthropist in particular has provided the beneficence to propel the campaign ahead. He is a little-known Los Angeles-area software security entrepreneur named Aubrey Chernick, who operates out of a security consulting firm blandly named the National Center for Crisis and Continuity Coordination.

…Through the Fairbrook Foundation, a private entity he and his wife Joyce control, Chernick has provided funding to groups ranging from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and CAMERA, a right-wing, pro-Israel, media-watchdog outfit, to violent Israeli settlers living on Palestinian lands and figures like the pseudo-academic author Robert Spencer, who is largely responsible for popularizing conspiracy theories about the coming conquest of the West by Muslim fanatics seeking to establish a worldwide caliphate.

Chernick’s role was previously noted at Politico, first in a piece by Ken Vogel and Giovanni Russonello, and then in a follow-up from Laura Rozen.

Of course, talk of “pro-Israel” organisations and of an “Israel lobby” will be seized on gleefully (and in bad faith) by some as evidence that Max is propounding an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory. However, while Max outlines the parts played by various activists, he doesn’t lay claim to a shocking revelation that reveals a hidden factor in political life. It’s in no way surprising that those who urge unconditional support for the Israeli hawks would like us all to fear Muslims, or that those who see themselves as activists in a general war against Islam would vicariously identify with the IDF and with Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The interesting issue – which Max attends to – is how this plays out through particular individuals.

As for the dynamics of anti-Islam activism, I’ve already made the point more than once (although my regular trolls tend to ignore it) that the demagogues and opportunists would be far less likely to gain traction without the acts and provocations of Islamic extremists. The general cultural context is also important; a 2007 review of Mearsheimer and Walt by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs has some sensible insights about the Israel lobby:

One problem is that Mearsheimer and Walt decontextualize the activity of Jews and their allies. Attempts by pro-Zionist students and pressure groups to challenge university decisions to grant tenure or otherwise reward professors deemed too pro-Arab are portrayed as yet another sign of the long reach and dangerous power of the octopus. In fact, these efforts are part of a much broader, and deeply deplorable, trend in American education, by which every ethnic, religious, and sexual group seeks to define the bounds of acceptable discourse. African Americans, Native Americans, feminists, lesbian, gay, and transgendered persons — organizations purporting to represent these groups and many others have done their best to drive speakers, professors, and textbooks with the “wrong” views out of the academy. Zionists have actually come relatively late to this particular pander fest, and they are notable chiefly for their relatively weak performance in the perverse drive to block free speech on campus.

We are today very sensitive about prejudice and bigotry, and it is manifestly obvious that this means that false allegations can be deployed to shut down debate and vilify opponents. In turn, those who deserve to be called out for bigotry can dismiss criticism by pointing to bogus accusations. It’s not strange that the Israel lobby engages in this behaviour (although it’s often ignored by those on the right who complain when anyone else does it) – and the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Ahmadinejad, along with the grim history of anti-Semitism, mean that appeals to our sensitivity may be particularly effective.

Chernick’s National Center for Crisis and Continuity Coordination has a website here; Max is right about its ostensibly “bland” character, and it is quite a contrast to some of the other private security and intelligence organisations I’ve written about recently.

4 Responses

  1. “… the demagogues and opportunists would be far less likely to gain traction without the acts and provocations of Islamic extremists”

    Well said.

  2. Just because this author wants to disparage the likes of Robert Spencer by implying he’s somewhat delusional, does not mean what Splencer is warning against is not true. After all it was not Allah who sent his only begotten son because he so loved the world so that it would provide humankind with salvation if they believe from damnation. It was not allah who through his son said love your enemies, etc. Nor was it allah who sent angels to sing to shepherds of peace on earth and goodwill to mankind. Rather, it was Mohammed on behalf of allah (he claimed) that spoke allah’s will that if the infidels don’t convert, then kill them wherever you find them, that Jews are descended from apes and pigs, that Christians are to pay the jizya and become dhimmis. The word Islam means submission – all must submit to allah and his so called prophet. Christ came to set us free but Mohammed sought to enslave.

    • If you don’t know that your god and the god of Islam are one in the same, then your ignorance is as great as your bigotry.

      “Allah” is the Arabic word for god, just as “Dios” is the Spanish word for god and 神 is the Chinese word for god. Arab christians refer to god as Allah. You don’t get to change history and meaning just because you don’t like it.

      P.S. Christ didn’t come to set anybody free, the Christ of the Bible is a myth.

  3. Arab christians refer to god as Allah

    You’re full of shit.

    In Malaysia Christians, be they Arab, Chinese or South Asian are forbidden from using the word “Allah” to refer to god.

    With more Muslims converting to Christianity, the nutjob clerics are getting nervous, and so feel that Christians refering to god as Allah leads to confusion.

    P.S. Christ didn’t come to set anybody free, the Christ of the Bible is a myth

    Christ IS risen and is present in the hearts of 2,5 billion people. And it’s no coincidence that those 2,5billion are basically the most advanced and enlightened indiviuals on the planet

    Muhammed ONCE existed, but he since he was but a meshuggah, his carcass burns in hell.

    Sam Harris on Islam:

    It is time we recognized—and obliged the Muslim world to recognize—that “Muslim extremism” is not extreme among Muslims. Mainstream Islam itself represents an extremist rejection of intellectual honesty, gender equality, secular politics and genuine pluralism. The truth about Islam is as politically incorrect as it is terrifying: Islam is all fringe and no center. In Islam, we confront a civilization with an arrested history.

    It is as though a portal in time has opened, and the Christians of the 14th century are pouring into our world.

    The idea that Islam is a “peaceful religion hijacked by extremists” is a dangerous fantasy—and it is now a particularly dangerous fantasy for Muslims to indulge. It is not at all clear how we should proceed in our dialogue with the Muslim world, but deluding ourselves with euphemisms is not the answer. It now appears to be a truism in foreign policy circles that real reform in the Muslim world cannot be imposed from the outside. But it is important to recognize why this is so—it is so because the Muslim world is utterly deranged by its religious tribalism. In confronting the religious literalism and ignorance of the Muslim world, we must appreciate how terrifyingly isolated Muslims have become in intellectual terms. The problem is especially acute in the Arab world. Consider: According to the United Nations’ Arab Human Development Reports, less than 2% of Arabs have access to the Internet. Arabs represent 5% of the world’s population and yet produce only 1% of the world’s books, most of them religious. In fact, Spain translates more books into Spanish each year than the entire Arab world has translated into Arabic since the ninth century.

    That’s what you get , Dogsbody, when you buy into the lies of a meshuggah. A study in utter retardation

    Woof! Woof!

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