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ACT for America
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ACT for America
ACT for America, also referred to as ACT! for America, founded in 2007, is a US based advocacy group that stands against what it perceives as "the threat of radical Islam" to Americans. The group has been characterized by some media outlets as anti-Muslim.
Critics of the group, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress, describe it as a hate group. It has been called the U.S.'s largest anti-Muslim organization. Since 2017, the group has organized rallies in support of Donald Trump.
The group's founder and central figure is the Lebanese-American conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel, a Maronite Catholic. Guy Rodgers, a Republican consultant who was National Field Director for the Christian Coalition of America in the 1990s, is executive director. The group was established in 2007, and grew out of the American Congress for Truth, which Gabriel established in 2002 to promote her beliefs, books, and public appearance. The American Congress for Truth was later renamed Act! for America Education and "continues to operate as a separate non-profit tax-exempt organization".
Political scientist Nadia Marzouki identified ACT for America as part of an "echo chamber of Islamophobic misinformation". The group has been described as anti-Muslim by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Buzzfeed News and the Independent, and a hate group by the Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Anti-Defamation League states that the "ACT stokes irrational fear of Muslims" through spreading misinformation and that it "propagates the hateful conspiracy theory" that there is a Muslim plot to impose Islamic law in the U.S. The organization has been considered a part of the counter-jihad movement.
The Huffington Post, linking to a report by the Center for American Progress, described ACT for America as "a central player in the movement to generate fears about Islamic Sharia law". The report describes the organization as a "single-minded Islamophobia [group]". Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center criticized the group as having "eagerly tapped into a groundswell of anti-Muslim rage and done what it could to fan the flames".
According to The New York Times, the conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, "a hawkish policy analyst and commentator, who has been known to take polarizing positions", described the group as a "force multiplier" in promoting laws proposed by David Yerushalmi. ACT members have introduced Yerushalmi's anti-foreign law bill (also known as anti-Sharia bill) in several state legislatures, accompanying it with "a public outreach blitz about the 'threat' of Sharia to America". Gabriel has promoted the belief that there is an Islamic conspiracy in the United States, stating that "tens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities, even infiltrating our government" and asserting that radicalized Muslims "have infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department".
ACT has lobbied state and federal officials, seeking "to impact national security policy". These officials include U.S. Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, who appeared on ACT's "internet television show before hosting a series of hearings on radicalization that singled out Muslims in 2011". It once counted former U. S. National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn as a member of its board; Flynn has criticized Islam in ways similar to ACT, such as that the Muslim faith itself is one of the root causes of Islamist terrorism; that Islam as a political ideology rather than a religion; that it is a malignant cancer; and that "fear of Muslims is rational". The group has published voter guides and congressional scorecards, and as of 2014 employed a full-time congressional lobbyist, Lisa Piraneo, who is the group's director of government relations.
In an e-mail distributed in July 2011, the group stated: "ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims are engaged in stealth jihad. ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims 'must be stopped'." The Southern Poverty Law Center, called this a "whitewash" and in reply quoted statements from founder Brigitte Gabriel:
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ACT for America
ACT for America, also referred to as ACT! for America, founded in 2007, is a US based advocacy group that stands against what it perceives as "the threat of radical Islam" to Americans. The group has been characterized by some media outlets as anti-Muslim.
Critics of the group, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress, describe it as a hate group. It has been called the U.S.'s largest anti-Muslim organization. Since 2017, the group has organized rallies in support of Donald Trump.
The group's founder and central figure is the Lebanese-American conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel, a Maronite Catholic. Guy Rodgers, a Republican consultant who was National Field Director for the Christian Coalition of America in the 1990s, is executive director. The group was established in 2007, and grew out of the American Congress for Truth, which Gabriel established in 2002 to promote her beliefs, books, and public appearance. The American Congress for Truth was later renamed Act! for America Education and "continues to operate as a separate non-profit tax-exempt organization".
Political scientist Nadia Marzouki identified ACT for America as part of an "echo chamber of Islamophobic misinformation". The group has been described as anti-Muslim by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Buzzfeed News and the Independent, and a hate group by the Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Anti-Defamation League states that the "ACT stokes irrational fear of Muslims" through spreading misinformation and that it "propagates the hateful conspiracy theory" that there is a Muslim plot to impose Islamic law in the U.S. The organization has been considered a part of the counter-jihad movement.
The Huffington Post, linking to a report by the Center for American Progress, described ACT for America as "a central player in the movement to generate fears about Islamic Sharia law". The report describes the organization as a "single-minded Islamophobia [group]". Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center criticized the group as having "eagerly tapped into a groundswell of anti-Muslim rage and done what it could to fan the flames".
According to The New York Times, the conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, "a hawkish policy analyst and commentator, who has been known to take polarizing positions", described the group as a "force multiplier" in promoting laws proposed by David Yerushalmi. ACT members have introduced Yerushalmi's anti-foreign law bill (also known as anti-Sharia bill) in several state legislatures, accompanying it with "a public outreach blitz about the 'threat' of Sharia to America". Gabriel has promoted the belief that there is an Islamic conspiracy in the United States, stating that "tens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities, even infiltrating our government" and asserting that radicalized Muslims "have infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department".
ACT has lobbied state and federal officials, seeking "to impact national security policy". These officials include U.S. Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, who appeared on ACT's "internet television show before hosting a series of hearings on radicalization that singled out Muslims in 2011". It once counted former U. S. National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn as a member of its board; Flynn has criticized Islam in ways similar to ACT, such as that the Muslim faith itself is one of the root causes of Islamist terrorism; that Islam as a political ideology rather than a religion; that it is a malignant cancer; and that "fear of Muslims is rational". The group has published voter guides and congressional scorecards, and as of 2014 employed a full-time congressional lobbyist, Lisa Piraneo, who is the group's director of government relations.
In an e-mail distributed in July 2011, the group stated: "ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims are engaged in stealth jihad. ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims 'must be stopped'." The Southern Poverty Law Center, called this a "whitewash" and in reply quoted statements from founder Brigitte Gabriel:
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