By Joe Mulhall
September 12 2016
Those who believe themselves to be self-styled ‘counter-jihadists’ (part of what we define as the counter-jihad movement, or CJM) are forever telling us that they are not racist. They only target Islamic extremists, they maintain. Of course, anyone who monitors them, as we do, knows that is a willful flight from reality. More often than not they target all Muslims.
Recently that mask has slipped even further. While the CJM is not an orthodox far-right movement, some CJM leader’s reactions to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in America has revealed a number of stark parallels.
Unsurprisingly it has been the notorious Robert Spencer who has been at the forefront of the CJM attacks on Black Lives Matter. Spencer has written of the ‘myths of Black Lives Matter’ which are ‘not only widely perpetuated but politicized by the worst leftists, and manipulated by jihadists.’ Instead of discussing the very real anger over police shootings that is driving BLM, Spencer instead encourages people to look at ‘the social ills within the black community’.
He claims that: ‘Jihadists have been promoting a dangerous alliance with blacks’. On his website Jihad Watch he posted a video by ‘Understanding the Threat’, which used footage provided by Frank Gaffney’s Centre for Security Policy called ‘Black Lives Matter: Hamas Pawn’. Under the video Spencer wrote: ‘An alliance of terrorist organizations’.
Spencer’s sentiments have been strongly echoed by his friend and comrade Pamela Geller who wrote: ‘American terror-tied groups like Hamas-CAIR support and agitate for the Black Lives Matter movement.’
When writing of the supposed Islamist/BLM alliance, her staggering anti-Muslim racism and ignorance is laid bare. ‘It’s ironic, of course, because blacks (abeed in Arabic, meaning slave) are held as slaves in Muslim countries’. Here she is likely referencing shocking slavery that exists in Mauritania, though she is of course happy to insinuate to her ill-informed readers that this is the case for all Muslim countries.
Geller has long had a problem with BLM and when DeRay McKesson, a BLM leader, received a guest lectureship at Yale she wrote an entire article about how it was ‘still more of the poison fruit of the decay and decline of American universities into indoctrination camps for the far-left.’ Her anger over his appointment (considering that it has nothing to do with Islam or Islamic extremism) is indeed telling and shines a light on Geller’s wider views about race.
The Centre for Security Policy (CSP), led by Frank Gaffney, a leading American CJM member and key influence on Trump’s anti-Muslim outbursts, has also sought to draw links between Islamists and BLM. An article on the CSP website by Kyle Shideler states that: ‘Islamist organizations in the West, including leaders from Muslim Brotherhood groups like The Council on American Islamic Relations, and the Muslim American Society have repeatedly engaged in rhetoric bordering on incitement to violence in their endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement. Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab and other jihadist groups have also weighed in in favor of the anti-police campaign.’
Other leading CJM organisations in America have also been outspoken in condemning BLM. Elizabeth Ruiz, writing for the David Horowitz Freedom Centre website in the wake of Baton Rouge police shooting, argued: ‘… murdering police officers has long been encouraged by activists with the Marxist, anti-American, revolutionary Black Lives Matter cult, with the support of the activist Left and financing from speculator George Soros.’ Also on Horowitz’s website Ruiz wrote about: ‘… supporters of the violent Black Lives Matter movement and its dirty, body-pierced, communist, socialist, and anarchist allies.’
Of course, Horowitz himself has form in this area. Chip Berlet writing for the Southern Poverty Law Centre has shown how Horowitz:
has blamed slavery on “black Africans … abetted by dark-skinned Arabs” — a selective rewriting of history. He also claims that “there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians — Englishmen and Americans — created one.” That, of course, is false. […] He has attacked minority “demands for special treatment” as “only necessary because some blacks can’t seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,” rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism.
It is perhaps no surprise then that Horowitz is happy to publish the hate-filled articles of Elizabeth Ruiz.
The reactions of these key CJM activists are revealing in a number of ways. They once again expose the conspiratorial and obsessive nature of counter-jihadists, who tend to see Islam as the root of all evil and imagine its tentacles at work everywhere. They take the most perfunctory connections and extrapolate them out to full-blown alliances; anything they dislike is secretly driven by an Islamist cabal. Here we see striking parallels with traditional antisemitic conspiracy theories that see the ‘hidden hand’ of Judaism everywhere.
Also similar to the Jewish conspiracy theories is the way counter-jihadists continually bemoan the supposed secret alliance between Marxists, the far left and (in this case) Muslims (rather than Jews). The only difference being is that Bernard Baruch, the traditional bogyman of antisemitic conspiracies, has been replaced by George Soros.
However, most telling about the reactions among the CJM to Black Lives Matter is the instinctive, unthinking and reactionary hostility which has been displayed, despite the BLM movement having nothing to do with Islam. Here we see the racism of the CJM laid bare. They may wrap it up in anti-Islamist conspiracies but the truth is more simple: people who are racists are very rarely only racist towards one community, and the counter-jihadists’ reactions to Black Lives Matter proves that once again.
Originally published by Hope Not Hate
By Joe Mulhall
September 12 2016
Those who believe themselves to be self-styled ‘counter-jihadists’ (part of what we define as the counter-jihad movement, or CJM) are forever telling us that they are not racist. They only target Islamic extremists, they maintain. Of course, anyone who monitors them, as we do, knows that is a willful flight from reality. More often than not they target all Muslims.
Recently that mask has slipped even further. While the CJM is not an orthodox far-right movement, some CJM leader’s reactions to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in America has revealed a number of stark parallels.
Unsurprisingly it has been the notorious Robert Spencer who has been at the forefront of the CJM attacks on Black Lives Matter. Spencer has written of the ‘myths of Black Lives Matter’ which are ‘not only widely perpetuated but politicized by the worst leftists, and manipulated by jihadists.’ Instead of discussing the very real anger over police shootings that is driving BLM, Spencer instead encourages people to look at ‘the social ills within the black community’.
He claims that: ‘Jihadists have been promoting a dangerous alliance with blacks’. On his website Jihad Watch he posted a video by ‘Understanding the Threat’, which used footage provided by Frank Gaffney’s Centre for Security Policy called ‘Black Lives Matter: Hamas Pawn’. Under the video Spencer wrote: ‘An alliance of terrorist organizations’.
Spencer’s sentiments have been strongly echoed by his friend and comrade Pamela Geller who wrote: ‘American terror-tied groups like Hamas-CAIR support and agitate for the Black Lives Matter movement.’
When writing of the supposed Islamist/BLM alliance, her staggering anti-Muslim racism and ignorance is laid bare. ‘It’s ironic, of course, because blacks (abeed in Arabic, meaning slave) are held as slaves in Muslim countries’. Here she is likely referencing shocking slavery that exists in Mauritania, though she is of course happy to insinuate to her ill-informed readers that this is the case for all Muslim countries.
Geller has long had a problem with BLM and when DeRay McKesson, a BLM leader, received a guest lectureship at Yale she wrote an entire article about how it was ‘still more of the poison fruit of the decay and decline of American universities into indoctrination camps for the far-left.’ Her anger over his appointment (considering that it has nothing to do with Islam or Islamic extremism) is indeed telling and shines a light on Geller’s wider views about race.
The Centre for Security Policy (CSP), led by Frank Gaffney, a leading American CJM member and key influence on Trump’s anti-Muslim outbursts, has also sought to draw links between Islamists and BLM. An article on the CSP website by Kyle Shideler states that: ‘Islamist organizations in the West, including leaders from Muslim Brotherhood groups like The Council on American Islamic Relations, and the Muslim American Society have repeatedly engaged in rhetoric bordering on incitement to violence in their endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement. Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab and other jihadist groups have also weighed in in favor of the anti-police campaign.’
Other leading CJM organisations in America have also been outspoken in condemning BLM. Elizabeth Ruiz, writing for the David Horowitz Freedom Centre website in the wake of Baton Rouge police shooting, argued: ‘… murdering police officers has long been encouraged by activists with the Marxist, anti-American, revolutionary Black Lives Matter cult, with the support of the activist Left and financing from speculator George Soros.’ Also on Horowitz’s website Ruiz wrote about: ‘… supporters of the violent Black Lives Matter movement and its dirty, body-pierced, communist, socialist, and anarchist allies.’
Of course, Horowitz himself has form in this area. Chip Berlet writing for the Southern Poverty Law Centre has shown how Horowitz:
It is perhaps no surprise then that Horowitz is happy to publish the hate-filled articles of Elizabeth Ruiz.
The reactions of these key CJM activists are revealing in a number of ways. They once again expose the conspiratorial and obsessive nature of counter-jihadists, who tend to see Islam as the root of all evil and imagine its tentacles at work everywhere. They take the most perfunctory connections and extrapolate them out to full-blown alliances; anything they dislike is secretly driven by an Islamist cabal. Here we see striking parallels with traditional antisemitic conspiracy theories that see the ‘hidden hand’ of Judaism everywhere.
Also similar to the Jewish conspiracy theories is the way counter-jihadists continually bemoan the supposed secret alliance between Marxists, the far left and (in this case) Muslims (rather than Jews). The only difference being is that Bernard Baruch, the traditional bogyman of antisemitic conspiracies, has been replaced by George Soros.
However, most telling about the reactions among the CJM to Black Lives Matter is the instinctive, unthinking and reactionary hostility which has been displayed, despite the BLM movement having nothing to do with Islam. Here we see the racism of the CJM laid bare. They may wrap it up in anti-Islamist conspiracies but the truth is more simple: people who are racists are very rarely only racist towards one community, and the counter-jihadists’ reactions to Black Lives Matter proves that once again.
Originally published by Hope Not Hate