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Islamophobia Is Still a Republican Value

It is perhaps a given that the Republicans will draw all the wrong conclusions from their recent electoral defeat. They will, for example, likely support some kind of amnesty program euphemized as “immigration reform” for illegal immigrants in the mistaken belief that it will somehow reverse their dismal showing among Hispanic voters. It will only […]

It is perhaps a given that the Republicans will draw all the wrong conclusions from their recent electoral defeat. They will, for example, likely support some kind of amnesty program euphemized as “immigration reform” for illegal immigrants in the mistaken belief that it will somehow reverse their dismal showing among Hispanic voters. It will only succeed in alienating their existing base of support.

For those of us who have been hoping that the light bulb might turn on regarding the ill-conceived preemptive foreign policy based on “American Exceptionalism” that has produced catastrophe after catastrophe while bankrupting the nation, it would appear that we will have to wait a bit longer based on evidence coming in from New York City. On February 16th, the Women’s National Republican Club will be hosting a “Henrietta Wells Livermore School of Politics … evening with Frank Gaffney. Mr. Gaffney is the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. The Center is a not-for-profit, non-partisan educational corporation established in 1988. Under Mr. Gaffney’s leadership, the Center has been nationally and internationally recognized as a resource for timely, informed and penetrating analyses of foreign and defense policy matters.”

Not quite true. Gaffney, consistently hawkish and pro-Israel, once described Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a “man of peace through restraint.” Gaffney has received significant funding from California bingo king Irving Moskowitz, who supports numerous right-wing Israeli groups in the belief that peace talks between Israel and the Arabs are suicidal for Israel. Moskowitz has been linked to Likud politicians ever since Menachem Begin in 1960 and once compared assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for supporting “appeasement policies” akin to those applied to the Nazis before World War II.

According to the Center for American Progress’s report on Islamophobia, Fear, Inc., the Center for Security Policy is “… a central hub of the anti-Muslim network and an active promoter of anti-Sharia messaging and anti-Muslim rhetoric.” It identifies Gaffney’s group as “a key source for right-wing politicians, pundits, and grassroots organizations, providing them with a steady stream of reports mischaracterizing Islam and warnings about the dangers of Islam and American Muslims.”

Gaffney’s overwhelmingly negative reporting on Islam and Muslims has included the book Shariah: The Threat to America, of which he was a contributing author and the publisher. The book is purportedly a report produced by several “top security policy experts” challenging the federal government’s failure to confront the threat of “political Islam.” The report contends that the United States is threatened by “the totalitarian socio-political doctrine that Islam calls shariah.” Gaffney’s belief that the United States will soon be overwhelmed by “creeping shariah” is reflected in his call on Congress to revive the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in an effort to “root out” Islamist operatives.

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