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ABSTRACT
The transatlantic Islamophobia industry, emboldened by US intelligence efforts to entrap Muslims, appears to have helped to increase permissible levels of Islamophobia across the US, as illustrated by the fiery anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 presidential campaign. In this article, I first look at five key leaders of the Islamophobia industry who also claim to be “terrorism experts” and have links to US and Israeli intelligence. I then describe US law enforcement’s mass surveillance of Muslims and its invention of terrorists, including a map of the “successful terrorist prosecutions” claimed by the US Department of Justice, most of which were tried only as criminal cases. Finally, I explore in-depth the case against the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity based in Texas that was run by Palestinian-Americans and targeted by both the state and the Islamophobia industry for its dubious links to “terrorism”, helping to legitimate the Bush W. Administration’s “War on Terror”. I argue that this nexus of intelligence and Islamophobia has empowered anti-Muslim voices that were formerly marginal.
Acknowledgments
This article is dedicated to all those who have unjustly suffered as a consequence of the “War on Terror”. A sincere thank you to Professor Carol Fadda-Conrey, for her intellectual insight, inspiration and kindness, and to all the community activists in Central New York, who despite being traumatised by security officials, still kindly shared their stories with me and never stopped resisting – this research is inspired by you. Additional special thanks to Prof. David Miller and the amazing research team at Spinwatch for their important work on the transatlantic Islamophobia network and the funding of Israeli settlements. Aspects of this article were presented in different forms during conferences or lectures at Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Bath, American University of Beirut and Villanova University.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Anderson (Citation1991) first used the term “imagined communities” to argue that national communities are imagined or created. Here, the imagined American community excludes Muslim and Arab Americans.
2. This phrase is borrowed from Gregory (Citation2004) in his discussion of the extra-territorial aspects of the “War on Terror”, and Akbar (Citation2013), who uses the “term ‘geography’ to capture law enforcement’s efforts to surveil and generate profiles on specific sites where Muslims gather and Muslim religious and political cultures emerge”.
3. Non-profit tax records can be accessed at the Foundation Center’s website: http://foundationcenter.org/find-funding/990-finder.
4. “Our team: R. James Woolsey,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies”, n.d. http://www.defenddemocracy.org/about-fdd/team-overview/r-james-woolsey/. Accessed 3 July 2015.
5. “Board of advisors,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, n.d. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/about/board-of-advisors. Accessed 3 July 2015.
6. “About the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, n.d. http://www.jcpa.org/about-jun04.htm. Accessed 3 July 2015.
7. “Dore Gold articles,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, n.d. http://jcpa.org/publication/dore-gold-articles/. Accessed 3 July 2015.
8. “Lenny Ben-David,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, n.d. http://jcpa.org/researcher/lenny-ben-david/. Accessed 3 July 2015.
9. Woolsey spoke at the 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 annual IDC conferences.
10. “Fellows: Matthew Levitt”, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, n.d.
11. “Professional Advisory Board”, IDC Herzliya, n.d. http://www.ict.org.il/Content.aspx?ID = 30. Accessed 3 July 2015.
12. “FDD Team”, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, n.d. http://www.defenddemocracy.org/about-fdd/team-overview/category/csif-board-of-advisors. Accessed 3 July 2015.
13. Emerson spoke at the ITC conference in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
14. “Steven Emerson,” Breitbart News, n.d. http://www.breitbart.com/author/steven-emerson/. Accessed 11 April 2017.
15. “Daniel Pipes,” Middle East Forum, n.d. https://www.meforum.org/meib/pipes.htm. Accessed 3 October 2016.
16. “Fellows,” Center for Security Policy, n.d. http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/about-us/fellows/. Accessed 3 October 2016.
17. On the other hand, Gaffney strongly criticised President George W. Bush’s outreach to Muslim-Americans after 9/11. See Gaffney (Citation2003).
18. “Frank Gaffney Jr.,” Southern Poverty Law Center, n.d. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr. Accessed 4 October 2016.
19. “Frank Gaffney,” Breitbart News, n.d. http://www.breitbart.com/author/fgaffney/. Accessed 5 April 2017.
20. “Board of Directors,” Family Security Matters, n.d. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/about/page/board-of-advisors. Accessed 7 October 2016.
21. “Authors,” Family Security Matters, n.d. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/Authors/default.asp. Accessed 7 October 2016.
22. Although ethnic studies as a field is not organised along religious lines, the subfield of Arab-American Studies has addressed the post-9/11 discrimination to demonstrate its racialised nature.
23. Negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam have been well entrenched in the American imagination for some time. As Said (Citation1997, xiii) argued, Western news coverage of events like the Salmon Rushdie affair in “seemed to epitomise Islam’s viciousness, its resolute war against modernity and liberal values, as well, of course, as its capacity of reaching across the oceans into the heart of the West in order to challenge, provoke and threaten”.
24. “Highlights of AP’s Pulitzer Prize-winning probe into NYPD intelligence operations,” Associated Press, n.d. http://www.ap.org/media-center/nypd/investigation. Accessed 19 May 2017.
25. The FBI’s Intelligence Assessment also discriminates, identifying indicators that were “developed in order to identify an individual going through the radicalization process”. These include “[w]earing traditional Muslim attire”, “[g]rowing facial hair”, “[f]requent attendance at a mosque or prayer group”, “[t]ravel to a Muslim country”, “[i]ncreased activity in a pro-Muslim social group or political cause”, and “[p]rosletysing” (Akbar Citation2013, 827).
26. Clark and Black (Citation2016) have recently documented the US government’s rendition programme, which disappeared not only people, but also the law.
27. Project Salam, n.d. http://www.projectsalam.org/database.html. Accessed 19 May 2017.
28. The organisations affiliated with Hizbullah that are listed as “Specially Designated Nationals” by the US Treasury Department include: The Martyrs Foundation, assisting those wounded in wars as well as the families of martyrs; Emdad Committee, assisting children, mainly orphans and the poor; Jihad al-Binaa, building social and humanitarian infrastructure; Waad Rebuild, managing the massive reconstruction efforts after the 2006 war against Israel; al-Nour Broadcasting, the party’s radio station; and finally al-Manar, the party’s television channel.
29. “The USA PATRIOT Act: Preserving Life and Liberty,” Department of Justice, n.d. https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm. Accessed on 19 May 2020,167.
30. “Specially Designated Nationals list (SDN),” US Department of the Treasury, n.d. http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/SDN-List/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed on 19 May 2017.
31. On the other hand, respected academic experts like John Esposito, professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, were not allowed to testify at the trial. Personal correspondence with Esposito in summer 2015; and “US Vs. Holy Land Foundation,” SAS, 20 August 2009.
32. Because of the blockade, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 80 per cent of the population now requires humanitarian aid. See OCHA (Citation2015).
33. A Palestinian-American accountant, Elbarasse’s property was searched after he and his wife were sighted in an SUV crossing a bridge while videotaping. The Washington Post reported that the videotape “showed the Elbarasse family packing for a vacation but also included footage of ‘the cables and upper supports of the main span’ of the Bay Bridge”. However, he was under suspicion for having a professional relationship with Hamas deputy political chief Mousa Abu Marzouk when the latter was living in the US. See Rich and Markon (Citation2004).
34. A blogpost on a counter jihad website called Abington a “whore” who was “shilling for the enemy” by testifying in the first place. See Mayer (Citation2008).
35. See the State Department memo (redacted) at http://crimeblog.dallasnewsblogs.com/files/import/27,915-Defense”s%20Oct.%2020%20motion%20arguing%20for%20Abington%20to%20testify.pdf. Accessed 4 October 2016.
36. In technical terms, in 2008 the court upheld the rejection of the 2004 district court’s application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel (Rowe Citation2009, 290).
37. See “Counter terrorism guide,” National Counterterrorism Center, n.d. https://www.nctc.gov/site/index.html. Accessed 19 May 202016.
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Sarah Marusek
Sarah Marusek is a post-doctoral research fellow in religion studies at the University of Johannesburg, researching Islam, Islamophobia, decolonial frameworks and theologies of liberation. Her doctoral research focused on Shi‘i Islamic activism in Lebanon. A manuscript of this research, entitled Faith and Resistance: The Politics of Love and War in Lebanon, will be published by Pluto Press in 2018.