PHILADELPHIA – Dec. 27, 2016 – Islamists in the United States increasingly rely on prominent non-Muslims to spread their message and impose their views.
In response, the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch presents A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Useful Infidels, a 20-page report available gratis online or as a PDF download. It identifies 15 prominent non-Muslims who facilitate or directly aid Islamists, thereby helping the media and public understand the tactics used to empower Islamists within American culture, and confronts them with their own words.
The enablers inhabit the fields of entertainment, journalism, government, and academia.
For example:
- Actor Ben Affleck argues that criticizing Islamism is “gross” and “racist.”
- Author Karen Armstrong thinks anti-Islamists are as bad as Nazis.
- Obama’s CIA director John Brennan purged mention of Islamism from training manuals.
- Diplomat Martin Indyk, now of the Brookings Institution, accepted a $14.8 million gift and many smaller sums from the government of Qatar.
- Southern Poverty Law Center chief Morris Dees insults anti-Islamists through misleading reports.
“The Field Guide shines a light on some of those Americans who help grow this repugnant ideology,” said Middle East Forum director Gregg Roman. “They don’t stand up for religious pluralism, freedom of speech, or equality under the law. They do provide cover for anti-American incitement, misogyny, gay bashing, and violence.”
Other “useful infidels” include TV personality Christiane Amanpour, anti-Israel activist Max Blumenthal, Foundation for Middle East Peace president Matt Duss, N.J. Governor Chris Christie, academic John Esposito, reporter Glenn Greenwald, Secretary of State John Kerry, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, San Francisco State University president Leslie Wong, and Democratic Party activist James Zogby.
The Field Guide will be distributed and promoted in a series of social media campaigns and explanatory articles.
Islamist Watch works to prevent Islamists from spreading Islamic law through non-violent means.
The Middle East Forum promotes American interests through activist, intellectual, and philanthropic efforts.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman, Director
Roman@MEForum.org
215-546-5406
