American Philanthropies Donate $105 Million to Islamophobic Groups

Rabat – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its new report “Islamophobia in the Mainstream.” It concluded that 35 American charitable institutions and foundations transferred a total of $105 million to 26 Islamophobic groups, between 2017 and 2019, to spread misinformation about Islam and Muslims.

CAIR announced the publication of “Islamophobia in the Mainstream” on January 11 in a press release. The new report attracted the attention of international media since CAIR is “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization.”

In the report, CAIR defines islamophobia as “fear, hatred, or prejudice toward Islam and Muslims that results in a pattern of discrimination and oppression.”

The council analyzed tax documents of the 50 largest charitable institutions in the United States and concluded that 35 of them funneled funds to anti-muslim groups in the 2017-2019 period. Top funders included Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism Inc., the Adelson Family Foundation, Schwab Charitable Fund, Marcus Foundation, and the Jewish Communal Fund.

The Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism allocated over $60 million to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). ACLJ is a law firm that “protect[s] religious and constitutional freedoms,” based on their website. CAIR reports that ACLJ filed a court brief to defend US President Donald Trump’s 2017 Muslim Ban.

CAIR collected and analyzed reports from Texas, California, and Massachusetts on school bullying. The organization found that “students continue to face physical and verbal abuse for being Muslim and do not feel comfortable expressing their Muslim identity and engaging in classroom discussions about Muslims and Islam.”

Based on a media analysis of their 2019-2020 press releases, the council reported on anti-mosque incidents in the United States included destruction, damage, and vandalism as well as harassment and intimidation.

Additionally, the media analysis led to the recording of 40 instances of islamophobia in social media provoked by institutional leaders between 2019 and 2020. The council defined institutional leaders as “individuals who hold a position of influence or power within our trusted institutions.”

CAIR also claims that 7 individuals with a history of islamophobia were nominated or/and appointed to serve in Trump’s administration.

On January 12, the council reported that anti-Muslim groups hired private intelligence operatives for over a decade to surveil Muslim leaders.

CAIR National Executive Direct Nihad Awad commended “the whistleblowers who are coming forward to apologize, take responsibility and provide information.”

He confirmed that the council is “working diligently to uncover, disrupt and expose every attempt that this anti-Muslim hate group and its allies have made to spy on American Muslims in service to the Israeli government.”

Notably, the council continues to report on hate crimes against Muslim communities in the United States. The council’s “Hijacked by Hate” report was the first to uncover the involvement of American philanthropies with Islamophobic organizations. “Islamophobia in the Mainstream” is an extension of the 2019 “Hijacked by Hate” report.

Islamophobia in Europe

In Europe, Islamophobia continues to be a prominent issue particularly with the rise of right-wing parties and the spread of far-right extremist attacks against vulnerable minority communities.

In 2021, the British Hope not Hate NGO conducted an analysis of posts across Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and WhatsApp. The NGO noted “a significant number of users sharing content portraying British Muslims as “super-spreaders” of the virus, as well as anti-British, and in some cases even supposedly using COVID-19 as a form of ‘jihad’.”

In its 2020 “State of Hate Report,” Hope not Hate recorded that Hungarians held the most negative views on Muslims. 54% of polled people expressed Islamophobic views. In general, the NGO concluded that one-fifth of respondents have “very negative” views on Muslims in most European countries.

Read Also: Islamophobia: One Third of Europeans Hold Negative Views on Muslims