It has always been clear that pro-occupation (not pro-Israel) supporters have been among the major funders of the spreading of Islamophobia in America. Such persons fund smear campaigns against Islam and the American Muslim community to scare Americans because they fear that the socio-political empowerment of American Muslims will somehow change our country’s foreign policy towards Israel.
Hence, people such as Robert Spencer are engaged in protesting the Park 51 community center project in lower Manhattan and Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who is perhaps the most liberal Imam in America.
As Malcolm X stated approximately 50 years ago, “What does a White bigot call a Black man with a Ph.d?…He calls him a n****.” In those days, the most accommodating, passive and patriotic appearing Black men still were hated by groups such as the Klu Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council and those who fit that mold who were activists were still seen as threats by the infamous late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The same holds true for the anti-Muslim bigot, who smears a “liberal” Imam, who is a”sufi,” is in favor of women calling the prayer (adhan) and traveled around the world promoting American policies under the Bush administration. The anti-Muslim bigot calls him a “radical Muslim” or smears him as being a supporter of Hamas, an organization that both provides social services for poor people yet has committed acts of terrorism against Israelis including women and children, which is totally un-Islamic. Malcolm X’s point is that a bigot will continue to be a bigot due to his own hatred and/or self interests, be he a bigot against Blacks, Latinos, Arabs or Muslims.
Below is a story by the conservative Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post that shows who is behind funding the Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch website. Yes, this is not the so-called “liberal” New York Times reporting this or the liberal Israeli Haaretz but the Jerusalem Post.
When are the mainstream American organizations going to come out and denounce those who promote Islamophobia such as Robert Spencer and Jewish American Pamela Geller, who head the SIOA, which is involved in smearing the Park 51 project and other Islamic centers, is the real question.
This isn’t an issue half way across the globe; this is taking place in our backyard, the United States of America!
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http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=187113
Major pro-Israel giver funds ‘Jihad Watch’
By JTA
09/05/2010 09:36
Group opposing Ground Zero mosque is organizing rally on the 9th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.
| WASHINGTON – A woman who with her husband has contributed large sums to pro-Israel and Jewish groups is the principal funder of the group that has taken the lead in opposing an Islamic center in lower Manhattan.
Jihad Watch, the group that is organizing a rally against the planned Islamic center timed for the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks – the center is planned for within three blocks of the site of the attacks – is funded by Freedom Center, a conservative group based in Los Angeles. An investigative report appearing on the online version of Politico on Saturday says that it has confirmed that the “lion’s share” of the $920,000 funneled through Freedom Center to Jihad Watch over the last three years originated with Joyce Chernick. Aubrey and Joyce Chernick, Politico reported, have over the years contributed to, among other groups, the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles; the Anti-Defamation League; the Zionist Organization of America; MEMRI, a group that distributes translations of inflammatory Arabic language material; the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a group that tracks what it depicts as the threat of radical Islam; the American Jewish Congress; CAMERA, a group that tracks what it says is anti-Israel bias in the media; the Central Fund for Israel, a clearinghouse for moneys directed to pro-settler groups; and a number of conservative think tanks. Aubrey Chernick, additionally, was at one time a trustee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A number of these groups, including the Investigative Project, the ADL and the ZOA, have positioned themselves as opposed to the Islamic center. Other Jewish groups, led by the Reform movement, have been outspoken in supporting the center. Jihad Watch, founded by Robert Spencer, has in recent months taken on board Pamela Geller, the New York-based blogger who launched efforts to stop the center’s building. Jihad Watch leads those groups that contend that the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who founded the Cordoba Initiative — the organization behind the planned center — is not, as he and a number of Jewish backers claim, a moderate attempting to bridge divides, but is instead a radical. Rauf has spoken overseas on behalf of the U.S. State Department, under the Obama and Bush administrations, and has described the United States as a nation whose freedoms benefit Muslims. He also eulogized Daniel Pearl, the Jewish journalist murdered in 2002 by Pakistani Islamists, by saying that such victims demand a response from Muslims that they, too, are Jews. He has refused to outright condemn Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip, and has among his associates some prominent Saudi Arabians. The Islamic center’s opponents, led by Jihad Watch, have demanded an accounting of the proposed center’s donors, although Rauf has of yet barely raised funds for the center. |
