No Grover Norquist is not a Member of the Muslim Brotherhood... And They Haven't Infiltrated the US Government Either!

Adam L. Silverman

The ongoing Islamophobic attempts to promote the crack pot idea that the US and the US government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood has found a new host - Glenn Beck (h/t Betty Cracker at Balloon Juice). Apparently Mr. Beck is concerned that Grover Norquist is really a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and, through his membership on its board of directors, has infiltrated the National Rifle Association. He also claims that he got the NRA Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre, to undertake an investigation into Mr. Norquist prior to the board being reseated at the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting. While I don't agree with Mr. Norquist on much, no one deserves this.

So where does this latest bout of Islamophobia come from? It originated with former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney, who has been accusing Norquist of being a member/agent of the Muslim Brotherhood for several years. This included trying to get Norquist banned from attending the Conservative Political Action Committee Annual Meeting a couple of years ago, which he believes, along with the American Conservative Union and the Republican Party, have been infiltrated by the Brotherhood. How did this start, you might ask? Norquist is married to Palestinian-American woman who is also Muslim. Who cares? Apparently former Assistant Secretary of Defense Gaffney does. Gaffney's vicious anti-Muslim prejudice* has caused quite a bit of trouble over the past several years. He was able to convince former Congresswoman Bachmann that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated five executive branch agencies: State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, and the White House. This was partially a circuitous attack on then Secretary of State Clinton as one of her then senior staffers, Huma Abedin**, was the target of Mr. Gaffney's allegations. As you can imagine hilarity ensued. And by hilarity I mean we all had to jump through our grommets answering requests for information explaining why our operations were not being soft on Islamic extremism. The amount of hours spent on this, across multiple departments, agencies, offices, and sections was a tremendous waste of resources. I spent several days helping the folks running my higher headquarters draft our portion of the answers to these requests. Now he's managed to pursue his personal vendetta against Mr. Norquist, via Glenn Beck, all the way to the NRA. Ordinarily a fight between two different types of conservatives wouldn't be of much interest, however, the Islamophobic conspiracies that Gaffney peddles contribute to the increase in prejudice and hate crimes against Muslim Americans, Muslim immigrants in the US, and those misidentified as Muslims (the Sikhs). As President Washington wrote to the Jewish community of Newport: "For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support." Its about time that the rest of us started living up to President Washington's understanding of the US.

* Anti-Muslim prejudice is actually a form of anti-Semitism, as Islam originated as a Semitic religion among a Semitic population. Because the term has become so tightly entwined with anti-Jewish prejudice this often gets over looked.

** Ms. Abedin is married to former Congressman Weiner. 

Comments

[BabelFish]

Adam, I don't know what kind of drugs these people are on but, as they say on the street, "I gotta get me some that!"

[rjj]

Baffle baffle baffle. First thought: Silverman is taking to satire!

Hmmm. Gaffney and Muravchik both have Georgetown and SAIS on their CVs.

Maybe it's a PR campaign by Harvard (people now automatically check to see if Harvard is on the CVs of the "All Against All" agents).

[rjj]

tentative term for media device: Campaign for Opprobrium Dilution (COD) piece.

[Babak Makkinejad]

A L Silverman:

"Anti-Muslim prejudice is actually a form of anti-Semitism" the American Jews have to be reminded of this as their posture - in defense of Israel - has been anti-Muslim; in my opinion.

[FND]

I believe many Republicans hate Norquist because he is an equal opportunity budget slasher advocate. The Republicans only want to cut other people's welfare and not their own, like all of the tax loop-holes that benefit their special interests. Of course that's why the Democrats hate him too.

[The Beaver]

Mr Silverman,

Who is next on their list ? George Clooney - his wife is Lebanese Druze/Sunni (on her father's side as her mother is Sunni)

[FND]

I'm not sure about this, but its my theory that the term anti-semitism came about during a time when Jews were essentially the only semites in Europe. The term really should be changed to what it really means both today and in years past, which is anti-Jewish. It think there is a resistance to making the change because anti-semitism just sounds more evil for some reason. I guess because of its history it sounds more evil than anti-Jewish.

[mbrenner]

Trying to make sense of these bizarre eruptions is fruitless. Although one might find clues as to the proximate causes in each instance, the macro explanation for all this lunacy is that once a society and culture breaks free of its moorings, anything and everything can happen. Usually, these occurrences are random as to time, place and particular form of expression. That is why our extreme and growing tolerance for all types of mad declarations and actions via the diffuse media is so deleterious to our political health and sanity. The MSM, for their part, amplify the pernicious effects by either willingly serving as conduits (for the sake of ratings) or remain silent about these offenses. All signs indicate that it will only get worse. Look at what even the presidential aspirants are saying.

[confusedponderer]

Yes, I think, put in religious terms, Norquist is true believer - an anti-tax Jihadi in relentless pursuit of starving the beast, and not so much a partisan hack.

It was iirc Norquist who wrote and Bremer who administered to Iraqi post 2003 a new tax code with a 15 percent flat tax. I wonder whether they fully appreciate the gift.

https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/168/36888.html

[The Moar You Know]

Since I despise both Norquist and Beck, I'm just going to lie back in my beach chair and cheer for everyone in this CF.

[VietnamVet]

Dr. Silverman,

This bizarreness is due to America losing touch with reality. The West was built on science and regulated capitalism. The plutocrat’s counter-revolution that started in 1980 with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher tossed the fact based legal system aside. The gulags are built and privatized. Education camps teach “Wealth is good” and “Work is freedom” to new debt slaves. War is peace.

News is propaganda. Vladimir Putin reappears and orders nearly 40,000 troops to be at combat readiness for exercises in Russia's Arctic North and elsewhere, which appeared meant to dwarf war games in neighboring NATO-member Norway. But not once is this new Cold War 2.0 between Russia and the NATO identified as such.

[different clue]

FND,

I remember reading that the term "anti-semitism" was first invented by either a German or an Austrian agitator
in the late 1800s. He invented it because it had been called Jew-hating or Jew-baiting till then and was beginning to seem rather low-class. So he thought calling it "anti-semitism" would elevate it (and him) to the level of other political philosophies (and political philosopers) which ended with the letters "ism".

If we want a word which precisely means "anti-semitism" towards Jews in particular, perhaps the word could be antijewism . . . antijewite . . . antijewitic.

And since some of the distaste for Islam and Muslims seems to go beyond fear ( phobia) to plain dislike or even hate, perhaps the word antimuslimism . . . antimuslimite . . . antimuslimitic . . . should be considered? Just a thought.

[different clue]

VietnamVet,

I would so much love to see people who want to restore a form of New Deal realism, regulation and minimal fairness step up and begin calling themselves New Deal Reactionaries. I would love to see them form a New Deal Restoration Party. . . . a serious party which would make a multi-decade effort to regain offices at many levels and repair some of the legacy damage of Thatcher-Reaganism.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear a newly elected NDRP President end his/her Inaugural Address with:
" The Reagan Revolution is Over. The New Deal Restoration has begun. There is no more Brezhnev Doctrine for Conservatives."

[scott s.]

I've never been a fan of the NRA putting "celebrities" on the Board. I can see it has some publicity value, but beyond that what does a Norquist actually bring to the NRA? (And I have no use for "The sky is falling, the sky is falling -- I can't tell you when but it's falling so in the meantime buy all the gold and survival food you can from my sponsors" Beck.)

I guess I have more a prosaic interest in NRA's competition division and want to know what the directors are doing for competitive shooting. It seems ever since the break with US Olympic Committee that resulted in creation of USA Shooting the NRA has not given a great deal of attention to competitive shooting -- at least not the traditional disciplines.

[sglover]

Things like this make me admire the staff at The Onion even more. How can any satire top this?

But hasn't Beck's star faded in the loon galaxy? Maybe this is a stunt to draw some publicity, which of course is never bad. I tried watching him once, and while he was serving up lunacy, it was a pretty tedious performance. (If I remember correctly, Beck was using a blackboard to 'prove' how Woodrow Wilson and Trotsky were both -- something or other. He didn't cry, which is what I was hoping for.)

[oofda]

I am curious and a bit concerned as to what the voices in Frank Gaffney's head are going to tell him to do next. Probably the Muslim Brotherhood is now in the process of infiltrating the NFL.

And what would Norquist bring to the Board of the NRA anyway? Is he a shooter?

[walrus]

I love watching so called Conservatives eating their young.

[elkern]

I don't recall ever agreeing with Glenn Beck on anything, but this (Norquist = MB agent) would explain why Norquist has been working tirelessly for decades to "drown the US government in a bathtub".

OTOH, Beck might have confused Norquist with another seditious alien - Grover from Sesame Street.

[Fred]

Beaver,

nah, they'll just point out that she's a Palestinian Rights activist lawyer and that he makes a great Palestinian.

[MRW]

Bob Smietana, Religion editor for The Tennessean, wrote an exposé in October, 2010 of the "multimillion-dollar industry of self-proclaimed experts who spread hate toward Muslims in books and movies, on websites and through speaking appearances. Leaders of the so-called "anti-jihad" movement portray themselves as patriots, defending America against radical Islam. Smietana went after their finances, questionable claims of being non-profits, and where the money is really going after preying on ultra-conservatives’ fear. Fun read.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240374/Anti-Muslim-crusaders-make-millions-spreading-fear

Here are some choice parts of it:
-------------------
"Frank Gaffney, head of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Security Policy, earned a $288,300 salary from his charity in 2008. Gaffney was a key witness in recent hearings in the Rutherford County lawsuit filed by mosque opponents. He said he paid his own way.

On the stand, the Reagan-era deputy assistant defense secretary accused local mosque leaders of having ties to terrorism, using ties to Middle Eastern universities and politics as evidence. His main source of information was his own report on Shariah law as a threat to America, one he wrote with other self-proclaimed experts.

But, under oath, he admitted he is not an expert in Shariah law."
-------------------

-------------------
"Brannon Wheeler, history professor and director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the United States Naval Academy, said critics of Islam mistakenly assume that Shariah law is a set of fixed principles that apply to every Muslim, everywhere.

That's not the case, he said, making clear that he speaks as an expert and not for the Navy or the Naval Academy.

While [Former Tennessee State University physics professor Bill] French, for example, has put together his 'Sharia Law for Non-Muslims', no similar book exists for Muslims.

"There's no text that is entitled The Shariah," Wheeler said. "It's not a code of law. It's not like you could go to the library and get the 12 volumes of Shariah law."

Instead, Shariah is flexible, and applies differently in different contexts. It comes from clerics' and scholars' interpretations of the Quran and other holy books.

Wheeler also had harsh words for Gaffney's report, which claims Shariah is an imminent threat to America.

"He makes the Shariah look absurd and insidious by trolling through and finding outrageous rulings and then making them universal for all time," Wheeler said. "It's ridiculous."
-------------------

[BabelFish]

Your last statement, in turn, will only fuel rumors that Beck is the secret love child of John Boehner and Big Bird. Got the penchant for random bawling from his dad and his IQ from the Bird.

[Alī Bābā]

Dr. Silverman,

I have some first hand background how and where much of this duckspeak comes from. If anything Grover suffers from an acute case of political cranial rectal inversion. 

Grover was instrumental in delivering the Muslim vote for Bush in 2000. In doing so he was awarded political chips, as in getting political appointments. One of those appointments was a gentleman named Suhail Kahn. Mr. Kahn was awarded a muslim outreach position within the Bush WH press Slshop and all was just peachy until September 11, 2001.

Both the Bush or should I say the Cheney administration, was scrambling and confused to an extent that made  the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup look conservative. In an attempt to appease its Muslim base and remembering the Marx Brothers, started to meet with what appeared to be American Muslim leaders, if there are such things.

Let's go "Back to the Future" and remember that Bush began several meetings with those supposed leaders along with photo ops in the rose Garden. What was unknown or overlooked was many of those smelling the Roses in the Rose Garden had ties to both Hamas and Hezbollah and were under investigation, some would later be indicted long with the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation.

Suhails family especially his father Mahboob who was a major benefactor in the largest Mosque in Orange County , California was about to become news. The Los Angeles FBI JTTF had a file on the family the size of most walk in closets.

When questions started to raise on how or whom was coordinating all of these meetings, Suhail was discovered. Remember now this is during the time when the stove piping of intelligence and coordination between federal agencies made gladiators look like humanitarians. Well the USSS presidential protective detail got into a gladiator match with the LA JTTF and the secret service won. Suhail was quietly pushed over to DOT (supervising our nuke weapon transportation)  and the Holy Land Foundation became famous.

While I am not a big fan of Grovers. IMO the only thing he is guilty of is being a egotistical DC power broker.

Where the rest of this comes from? I just shake my head.

[MRW]

Some headlines on the Holy Land Foundation that look more like persecution than Hamas and Hizbollah raining down on our shores: http://electronicintifada.net/tags/holy-land-foundation

People were accused of being terrorists, and went to jail, for donating to this charity, the largest in the USA, like feeding Palestinian women and children after Israel would mow the Palestinian lawn with bombs and white phosphorus. I've heard the Muslim religion requires a Mormon-like tithing to charity, something like 10%. Can anyone confirm? And that this 'required' tithing has been used to shut down many Islamic charities by the usual anti-Muslim suspects, with the PR value they can spin in the press.

[MRW]

Adam Curtis' brilliant and cynical/comical exposé of the so-called terrorist cases and sleeper cells in the US dismantles the government's official position. No wonder this show was banned on public tv here.

"Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear" - Pt. 3
http://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/video/power_of_nightmares_politics_of_fear
No time to watch the whole thing? Start at 24:30 min to 37:20. 13 minutes with a beer.

[Cee]

The Moar You Know,

Really!!!

I've been laughing so hard that I have tears streaming down my face as I sip my basil martini.