SPLC Disgraces Itself on Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[ericson00]

Last edited Sat Nov 5, 2016, 09:02 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/southern-poverty-law-center-labels-a-muslim-reformer-and-ex-muslim-atheist-as-extremists/

In a misguided attempt to protect Muslims from bigotry and harm, the venerable Southern Poverty Law Center has gone off the rails—so say former Muslims and moderate Muslims working for reform within their own communities. The SPLC has a long history of fighting racism and holding public figures accountable for inciting violence. In 1981, their legal team bankrupted the United Klans of America after Klan leaders incited the racist murder of a young black immigrant. But the group recently published a document that some say borders on their own version of racism and incitement.

At the heart of the controversy is a media blacklist under the title “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” The title itself is indisputably dehumanizing and indirectly threatening. “Field guides” typically describe plants and non-human animals, and the term is associated with hunting. An online search brings up “2016 Hunting and Trapping Field Guide” and “Field Guide for Buck Deer” and “Field Guide: Duck Hunting the Skagit County Coastline.” The title may or may not constitute incitement, but it is at best surprising coming from an organization that has built its legacy by calling out dangerous innuendo.
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But outcry against the list—including a Change.org petition that garnered 8000 signatures in three days—centers on the fact that the SPLC list of 15, which does include some deplorable racists also includes two well-known and widely respected (if controversial) critics of Islam, Aayan Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz. Ali, is a former Dutch politician of Somali descent and a harsh critic of Islam whose foundation opposes honor killing, forced marriage and female genital cutting—which she faced in her own family and community. She recounts this history in her book, Infidel. Nawaz is a practicing Muslim reformer, founder of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank in London.

I'm signing the petition against this. If this doesn't change, I'm not giving my monthly $100 donation to these guys. And I will help troll them pretty hard online.



update: Here is a great rebuttal to this idiocy that got her on this list: