Legal Threat Prompts Southern Poverty Law Center to Delete ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’ List
“Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion”
In recent years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has become little more than a tool the progressive left uses to label people and organizations as promoters of hate. Their website even included a list of people the group claimed were anti-Muslim extremists.
The list was absurd, as it included the pro-woman Muslim reformer Ayaan Hirsi-Ali and even Dr. Ben Carson, although Legal Insurrection had something to say about that: Legal Insurrection gets results: Ben Carson taken off SPLC “Extremist” List
Now another person on the list has taken action which actually resulted in its removal.
Jack Crowe writes at National Review:
Southern Poverty Law Center Quietly Deleted List of ‘Anti-Muslim’ Extremists After Legal Threat
The Southern Poverty Law Center has removed the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” from their website after attorneys for Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list.
The report, which had been active on the SPLC’s website since it was published in December 2016, was intended to serve as a resource for journalists to identify promoters of hateful propaganda; but it included a number of liberal reformers such as Nawaz, a former Islamic extremist who has since dedicated his life to combating the hateful ideology.
“A shocking number of these extremists are seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers. There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested,” the report, which still exists in PDF form, reads.
Nawaz, who founded the anti-extremist think tank Quilliam, said during a Wednesday night appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, a popular podcast hosted by comedian Joe Rogan, that the report was removed from the SPLC website under legal threat sometime in the last two days.
Professor Jacobson wrote about the true nature of the SPLC list in June of 2017:
Southern Poverty Law Center “extremist” lists used “to silence speech and speakers”
Politico magazine has a very detailed article on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), for which I was interviewed, Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way?.
The article, written by Ben Schreckinger, addresses several aspects of the SPLC, including its massive accumulation of wealth seemingly beyond its needs. But much of the focus is on SPLC’s aggressive politics and use of “hate” and “extremist” lists:
…. there are new questions arising around a charge that has dogged the group for years: that the SPLC is overplaying its hand, becoming more of a partisan progressive hit operation than a civil rights watchdog. Critics say the group abuses its position as an arbiter of hatred by labeling legitimate players “hate groups” and “extremists” to keep the attention of its liberal donors and grind a political ax….
The SPLC’s hate group and extremist labels are effective. Groups slapped with them have lost funding, been targeted by activists and generally been banished from mainstream legitimacy. This makes SPLC the de facto cop in this realm of American politics, with all the friction that kind of policing engenders…
The SPLC’s leaders say they are aware of the various critiques lodged against them but have no plans to change their approach….
I was interviewed on the issue of the SPLC hate and extremist lists. That is a topic I have written about extensively, particularly in the earlier years of Legal Insurrection, including these posts, among many:
- Southern Poverty Law Center Completes Its Descent Into Madness (regarding SPLC attack on Sarah Palin)
- Confirmed – SPLC Exaggerated About Klan In Rhode Island
- Neo-Nazis in Rhode Island? SPLC exaggerates again
- SPLC’s hatewatch gives cover to hate
- SPLC Demonizes Supporters of Traditional Marriage
- Southern Poverty Law Center Still Peddling Lie That Giffords Shooter Was Right-Winger
Here is the section of the Politico article in which I am quoted:
William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell and critic of the SPLC, says the group has wrapped itself in the mantle of the civil rights struggle to engage in partisan political crusading. “Time and again, I see the SPLC using the reputation it gained decades ago fighting the Klan as a tool to bludgeon mainstream politically conservative opponents,” he says. “For groups that do not threaten violence, the use of SPLC ‘hate group’ or ‘extremist’ designations frequently are exploited as an excuse to silence speech and speakers,” Jacobson adds. “It taints not only the group or person, but others who associate with them.”
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Comments
Let’s speak plainly. The SPLC is a hate group itself, populated by uber-leftists promoting their own brand of racism and bigotry.
I despise what they say, but I’ll defend their right to say it under the 1st amendment. And THAT is the difference between us and them.
The “Them” will do anything to destroy the “US”. They are so terrified of us simply because of our tolerance.
They are “terrified” of us because they need opposition in order to get funding. America is not generally a racist society, so they have to manufacture targets.
Have you ever wondered when it might be our turn to demonstrate and riot?
SPLC has only existed for the past many decades now to enrich themselves imo.
It seems that’s a task that even the ACLU won’t do anymore.
LocoBreath is correct. But I will add to it: the SPLC is a printing press for money. Their mailings are targeted at people easily frghtened and those whose worldview is through the prism of the holocaust. My generation has a lot of these, but our children and grandchildren – for the most part – see through the SPLC’s scam.
Anyone who knows the truth and texts of Islam is deemed an both an Islamophobe and an anti-Muslim extremist, though neither is accurate.
It’s a play book that has worked well for too long. The left loves to label people who disagree with them to silence them. It is a low means of censorship rather allowing dialog.
It is part of why Trump works well in driving the left crazy, he labels people in obvious ways which exposes them for what they are, right out of their play book. Yet his is targeted. The left label all those in opposition to them with all the typical labels, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobe, bigot, racist, and so on, and it has lost it’s effectiveness because of the wide brush strokes. And because they use it all on everyone.
Silencing the opposing voices is more effective than allowing them to speak, as they might alter someone’s views rather than keep them in lockstep. Reason can overcome group think if it allowed to be heard.
S outhern
P rogressive
L iars
C ommune
The Southern Poverty Law Center has always been a hate group. Its founder, Morris Dees, is a rabid commie in the mold of Bill Ayers and Louis Farrakhan.
Yep, no “In recent years,” to it. It has always been a commie cabal of corrupt haters.
I think it all an act. I think they are just the well paid hit men of the Democratic Party.
SPLC is a sick, and dangerous, joke.
IN addition to all else, like most left wing rulers of the meme, they are cons. Crooked con men that make their living fleecing the wealthy as a protection racket. The principals have homes, property and investment accounts that in no way reflect reported income. They have hidden in the Caymen islands, and perhaps others, tens of millions of dollars according to published reports.