FrontPage Magazine Compares Liberal Think Tank to Nazis
FrontPage Magazine鈥檚 Daniel Greenfield with total hysteria today to a report on anti-Muslim activists, 鈥�,鈥� that was released by the Center for American Progress (CAP) last week. Greenfield alleges that the report, which named FrontPage Magazine and its head David Horowitz as key players in fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S., is part of an anti-Semitic conspiracy.
鈥淚f Americans view Islam badly, it can only be because a handful of Jewish experts financed by other rich Jews brainwashed them into it,鈥� Greenfield writes, falsely implying that the CAP report makes the argument that the Jewish community writ large is maligning Muslims in the U.S. Rather, CAP鈥檚 report profiles a small handful of activists, some Jewish and some not, who have worked to demonize the Muslim community.
Greenfield actually compares CAP鈥檚 work directly to major anti-Semites deserving of condemnation, writing, 鈥淲hen Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad blamed Jewish influence for the poor image of Muslims in the West, he was widely condemned for it.鈥� And he doesn鈥檛 stop with one example. He further analogizes CAPs report to various major instances of anti-Semitism over the centuries. 鈥淓ngland鈥檚 first socialist party blamed the Boer War on the Jews. Henry Ford claimed the Jews were behind WWI. Charles Lindbergh delivered speeches accusing the Jewish lobby of stirring up war against Germany,鈥� writes Greenfield.
He even analogizes the report to the anti-Semitic violence of the Nazis, particularly on Kristallnacht: 鈥淚n the dark days of the Twentieth Century, while Jewish storeowners were sweeping up broken glass, and Jewish children were being assaulted on the streets of Europe 鈥� the appeasers were blaming the Jewish lobby for growing tensions in Europe. Now as Jewish storeowners sweep up broken glass after leftist pro-Muslim attacks on their stores and Jewish children are attacked again on the streets of Europe 鈥� growing tensions with the Muslim world are once again blamed on the Jewish Lobby.鈥�
Greenfield鈥檚 conclusion: 鈥淭he Center for American Progress is guilty of repeating a sinister history鈥� and 鈥渂laming Jews for Islamophobia.鈥� Greenfield says CAP鈥檚 researchers have done 鈥渢he work of the jihadists and have thus also become part of the problem.鈥�
In his Web posting, Greenfield takes a cheap shot at the report鈥檚 co-author, Faiz Shakir, of whom he says that if he 鈥渞eally wanted to understand why his religion is viewed negatively by so many Americans,鈥� Shakir should 鈥渟tand at Ground Zero, the graveyard of thousands murdered by holy warriors invoking the Koran 鈥� walk through Times Square, where a fellow Pakistani plotted to detonate a car bomb, or 鈥� visit the small towns where every few weeks a body is lowered into the ground courtesy of a Muslim terrorist.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 the first hysterical response to CAP鈥檚 report from FrontPage Magazine. Earlier, Horowitz CAP 鈥渇ascistic鈥� and accused it of trying to 鈥渟ilence critics of Islamic terror.鈥� FrontPage is also planning to release its own report, 鈥淚slamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future.鈥�
