Tuesday 25 Aug 2015 - 12:52 Makkah mean time-10-11-1436
Men carrying rifles attend a “Freedom of Speech” rally organized by anti-Muslim groups, across from the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona, 29 May. (Image from Reuters)
Washington, (IINA) - Militia extremists inspired by right-wing conspiracy theories in America are starting to target American Muslims, a leaked intelligence bulletin from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) counterterrorism division reveals, The Electronic Intifada reported.
Many of the extremists take inspiration from pro-Israel zealots. In one recently uncovered plot, a Christian minister and former congressional candidate planned to launch a military-style attack on a Muslim community in upstate New York.
The FBI document, originally sent to US law enforcement agencies on 28 May, was published last week by public intelligence.
The warning is a reminder of the rising danger posed by right-wing extremists in the country. The militia movement has traditionally directed its violent activities toward government and police.
“Militia extremists are expanding their target sets to include Muslims and Islamic religious institutions in the United States,” the FBI bulletin warns. “This has resulted in increased violent rhetoric and plotting and has the potential to lead, over the long term, to additional harassment of or violence against Muslims by domestic extremists.”
Among the disturbing examples the FBI cites, the most shocking occurred in Mississippi last September, where extremists “discussed kidnapping and beheading a Muslim and posting video of the attack to the Internet.”
The group disbanded before acting on their plans.
Ironically, the FBI concludes that the targeting of Muslims by militias “is a product of ideology that views Muslims collectively with suspicion” – precisely the same ideology underpinning the FBI’s surveillance and entrapment programs aimed at Muslims.
Some of the sources the FBI cites are the hate group Christian Action Network, anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller and a host of right-wing media outlets, including World Net Daily, Fox News, Western Journalism, Patriot News Wire and The Blaze.
The top eight of the network’s wealthy pro-Israel donors poured some $57 million into anti-Muslim organizations between 2001 and 2012, according to CAP.
A comprehensive accounting of the Islamophobia industry by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) identified “at least 37 groups whose primary purpose is to promote prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims.”
Between 2008 and 2011, these groups received a staggering $120 million in revenue and directly lobbied for anti-Muslim legislation in states across the country, according to CAIR.
Geller has raked in millions of these dollars for her American Freedom Defense Initiative, which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
In May, Robert Doggart, a Christian minister and former candidate for Congress in Tennessee, was indicted for plotting an armed attack on a predominantly African American Muslim community in upstate New York that has been the target of wild conspiracy theories hatched by the anti-Muslim, pro-Israel Clarion Project and disseminated by Fox News.
Doggart planned to assemble a group of gunmen to attack the community with assault rifles, explosives and even a machete.
“If it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds,” Doggart allegedly said on a call intercepted by the FBI.
This increasingly violent rhetoric is a direct result of right-wing individuals and organizations capitalizing on anti-Muslim hate, says Imraan Siddiqi, chair of CAIR’s Arizona chapter.
“It’s a whole ecosystem of money being poured into these groups and then it trickles down,” Siddiqi told The Electronic Intifada.
Like the funders of the Islamophobia network, those agitating against Muslims tend to identify strongly with Israel.
Mark Potok, editor-in-chief of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, told The Electronic Intifada that there is a pattern of right-wing extremists shifting their focus against Islam.
“It’s very clear that American religious right organizations are increasingly on the attack with respect to Islam,” Potok said.
He cited groups like the American Family Association that have specialized in anti-LGBT rhetoric. “Those organizations over the last year or so have moved heavily into propaganda against Muslims.”
Yet the US government has done shockingly little to counter right-wing extremism.
At the same time, politicians, particularly Republicans, have pushed some of the most extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric into the mainstream.
“We’re seeing right-wing officials across America at the state and national level tarnishing the image of Islam and there’s very little pushback from government officials,” CAIR’s national communications director Ibrahim Hooper told The Electronic Intifada.
“It’s an extremely worrying situation,” SPLC’s Potok added. “We’ve already seen in the last year or so a major arson at an Islamic complex in Houston and I think it is very likely we will see worse.”
As right-wing militias train their sights at Muslim communities with little government resistance, concern is rising that it is only a matter of time before someone pulls the trigger.
SM/IINA
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