Conference the Latest Sign of Increased Anti-Immigrant Activity in North Carolina

On August 10-11, 2012, an anti-immigrant conference will take place in Wilmington, North Carolina titled, “IIImpact – illegal immigration and the cost to YOU!” The list of conference speakers was announced on July 23 and brings together many of the main anti-immigrant voices in the state as well as some speakers known for their anti-Muslim statements and associations.

The conference is the latest example of an increase in activity by the anti-immigrant players in North Carolina. In 2011, the NC House created the House Select Committee on the State’s Role in Immigration Policy. The Committee has had numerous hearings throughout 2012 and has provided a platform for anti-immigrant and immigrant rights activists to voice their opinions. On June 13, 2012, for example, anti-immigrant leaders including William Gheen, James Johnson and Ron Woodard met with Speaker of the House Thom Tillis (R-District 98) to discuss immigration issues. It is unclear at this time what the attendance of the conference will be but anti-immigrant groups in North Carolina have been encouraging people to go to the event for a number of weeks.

Scheduled speakers at the August event include:

William Gheen – Founder/head of the anti-immigrant group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). Gheen has a long history of hateful rhetoric towards immigrants.  ADL has a lengthy profile on Gheen which can be read here.

James Johnson – Founder/head of the anti-immigrant group North Carolinians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (NCIFRE). On his Facebook page, Johnson has circulated material from the racist Web site, VDARE.com and the white supremacist group, American Renaissance. Johnson has also attended FAIR’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event in the past. 

Ron Woodard – president of the anti-immigrant group, NC Listen. NC Listen is listed on the Web site of the extreme anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) as a local affiliate for North Carolina. NC Listen’s mission statement says that it “partners” with FAIR. Woodard has also attended FAIR’s annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event in the past. 

Sheriff Sam Page (R-Rockingham) will also be speaking. Page spoke to Congressional Leaders at an event put together by FAIR in May 2012.  In October 2011, Page participated in a panel titled, “Crime Challenges from Illegal Immigration” which was sponsored and moderated by the anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). 

Ilario Pantano – A former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and 2012, Pantano has promoted anti-Muslim sentiment. Pantano spoke at both the 2010 and 2011 9/11 rallies in New York City put on by anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller. He has also written the following about the Islamic center close to ground zero: “It is about marking religious, ideological and territorial conquest.” He continued by stating, “This mosque is a martyr-marker honoring the terrorists who less than a decade ago killed thousands of us just two blocks away, and it must be stopped.”

Sue Myrick – retiring NC Congresswoman (R-District 9) who also has a history of anti-Muslim sentiment – she has spoken at the national conference of ACT! for America, one of the largest anti-Muslim groups in the country. She also wrote a forward for the book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.  

Anti-Muslim ACT! for America Urges Counterterrorism Program

Brigitte Gabriel, founder and president of ACT! for America, an organization promoting the idea that Islam is a backward and seditious political ideology, has issued an appeal to supporters to enlist their help to confront changes taking place in law enforcement training programs across the nation.

Addressing recent controversies regarding the use of anti-Muslim materials in counterterrorism training courses, Muslim-American civil rights organizations have demanded that training materials be reviewed and expunged of offending content.

To counter what Gabriel terms as “political correctness,” ACT! for America has launched “The Thin Blue Line Project,” a project that will oversee the creation of a website designed by and for law enforcement professionals. According to Gabriel, this project and website will easily provide the resources and information law enforcement officials need in order to combat the doctrine of jihad, Islamic terrorism, and organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in America.

“Those on the Thin Blue Line need to understand the ideology driving the terrorism. They need to be able to connect the dots between what these jihadists believe…They need to understand the ‘threat doctrine’,” Gabriel says in her appeal for support.

To make this project a reality, ACT! for America is calling on concerned members, known as “Patriot Partners,” to donate $11 per month to make “The Thin Blue Line Project” possible.

In her writings and public appearances, Gabriel often portrays Islam as a threat. For example, in her book They Must Be Stopped; Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It, Gabriel wrote, “It is not yet politically correct to talk about a religious war. But this is exactly what we are facing: a religious war declared by devout Muslims….It's not radical Islam. It’s what Islam is at its core.”

Earlier this year, in a New Year’s message to ACT! members, Gabriel asked supporters to come together and support the “Patriot Partner Campaign,” a campaign designed to introduce additional anti-Shariah bills in U.S. states throughout the 2012 legislative session. In a message promoting the campaign, Gabriel said, “We are facing an enemy in radical Islam that’s using our laws, our open-mindedness, and our tolerance against us.”

Radical English Defence League Emerges in U.S.

The English Defence League (EDL), a UK-based right-wing, anti-Islamic and self-described “Counter Jihad movement,” has launched a chapter in the United States.

The newly created United States of America Defence League (USADL) claims to be “a human rights organization that was founded in the defense of our nation and to stand in unison with the EDL and other such organizations, to halt the spread of Sharia law.”

The organization, which officially launched its website on May 7, 2012, states that a central tenet of its mission is public education and the need to ensure that the public is provided with a “more realistic and less sanitized view of Islam…” While its mission statement warns against assuming that all Muslims are guilty of committing acts of terrorism, it goes on to say that “the Islamic book of worship calls for all Muslims to participate in Jihad, in one form or another.”

USADL’s National Director is Bill Turner, who is known for his anti-government and conspiratorial writings, which have been published on a number of right-wing websites and disseminated through his Twitter handle, “JihadiHunter.”

Bill Turner

While anti-Muslim bias has been a primary theme in his writings as well, Turner’s role in launching the USADL suggests that he is gearing up to advance a more conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda.

USADL’s website indicates that membership is open to all who “recognize the threat that Sharia Law poses to free people everywhere.” Although it is still too early to confirm the size and viability of the new organization, it already claims to have approximately 60 members.

Earlier this year, EDL announced plans to form a new political party in the UK.

Radical English Defence League To Form Political Party

The English Defence League (EDL), a UK-based right-wing, anti-Islamic and self-described “Counter Jihad movement,” announced plans to form a new political party in the coming months. EDL’s foray into politics is influenced by the success of other similar political parties in Europe, most notably the Dutch Freedom Party, the political party led by radical Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

An EDL spokesman stated that the organization’s party will be named the Freedom Party, and its official launch will take place in May at the EDL Luton demonstration, an annual protest that began with the organization’s founding in 2009. In the past, EDL demonstrations have been marked by violence, with some bordering on full riots resulting in numerous arrests, property damage and injuries to law enforcement.

Members of the Welsh Defense League raising their hands in a Nazi salute

The group has also been accused of being a haven for right-wing racists, a charge the group denies. However, EDL has been linked to various racist English groups, such as the Welsh Defence League, an EDL division that has many local white supremacists in its ranks.

According to the organization’s mission statement, EDL’s mission is “to oppose what it considers to be the spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic extremism in England.” Stephen Lennon, head of the EDL, said that the Freedom Party will be an anti-Islamist political party “that gives everyone an option in a non-racist way.”

Geert Wilders Launches Anti-Immigrant Website

Radical anti-Muslim Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders has started a new website promoting his party’s anti-immigrant platform. The website, called “Hotline for Reporting Central and Eastern Europeans,” allows visitors to submit a complaint if they have “lost [their] job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central or Eastern European.” Wilders claims the website, which has been widely condemned by several EU nations, has already received 40,000 submissions.

In the last several years, Wilders has been embraced by U.S.-based anti-Muslim bigots like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, and has served as the keynote speaker at demonstrations organized by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), an organization led by Geller and Spencer that promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam. In 2009, Geller claimed to have personally financed Wilders’s trip to the U.S., during which he attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. Soon after, Geller accompanied Wilders on a speaking tour, visiting synagogues and university campuses in several U.S. cities.

Racists and Bigots to Descend on CPAC Conference in Washington, DC

The February 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual event that features a wide variety of speakers from conservative circles, will host a session on “the failure of multiculturalism” that will include racist Peter Brimelow as a speaker. Brimelow runs the racist and anti-immigrant Web site VDARE and has spoken at racist gatherings, including the September 2011 national conference of the National Policy Institute (NPI), a white supremacist think tank, as well as the 2009 Baltimore, Maryland, conference “Preserving Western Civilization.”  He is also a contributing editor of the Web site Alternative Right, which is edited by white supremacist Richard Spencer, who also heads NPI.

Also appearing at this year’s CPAC event are several anti-Muslim bigots and activists, among them the leaders and founders of the anti-Muslim organization Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. Together with Tea Party nation, SIOA will host a session titled “Islamic Law in America: How the Obama Justice Department is Selling Us Out.” In addition to speeches by Geller and Spencer, the session will include appearances by David Yerushalmi, one of the driving forces behind the anti-Shariah movement.

This is not the first time Geller has appeared at CPAC promoting her anti-Muslim conspiracies. In 2009, Geller attended the conference with radical anti-Muslim Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

American Anti-Muslim Organization Goes Global

Update: Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) will hold a “Global Counter Jihad Rally” in Stockholm, Sweden in early August. This will mark the first time SION and its U.S. and trans-Atlantic supporters will gather for a public event.

The latest outgrowth of the trans-Atlantic cooperation between anti-Muslim activists was announced on January 17 by Pamela Geller, head of Stop Islamization of American (SIOA). Geller announced on her blog that SIOA, an organization that promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda under the guise of fighting radical Islam, is joining forces with its sister organization in Denmark, Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), whose campaigns against Islam in Europe have influenced Geller’s campaigns in the U.S.

The new organization, called Stop Islamization of Nations (SION), purports to “stand for freedom and oppose the advance of Islamic law, Sharia,” and says it will offer “diversity and sensitivity training to corporations and government agencies…to help these entities understand the jihad threat.” Geller and her longtime associate Robert Spencer will assume leadership of this organization, which will likely serve as another platform to disseminate SIOA/SIOE’s conspiratorial agenda.