Introduction
A Message from CAIR’s National Executive Director

Arizona. Kansas. South Dakota. Tennessee. Oklahoma. Louisiana. This is a sobering fact: by the end of 2012 six states had passed laws designed to vilify Islamic religious practices.

Other facts add to our concern. During the 2012 presidential election cycle, Republican presidential candidates were applauded for taking positions regarding Muslims that blatantly contradicted the U.S. Constitution’s Article VI and First Amendment. Elected officials like Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) used their offices to foster anti-Muslim sentiment.

Places of worship were targeted by hate. After a white supremacist murdered six Sikh worshipers in Oak Creek, Wis., CAIR tracked a spike in anti-mosque incidents across the nation.

Human beings are troubled by such facts. But simply being troubled is not enough. We must study, understand and push back.

The proof of the value of push-back is before us. For years, federal, state and local law enforcement officers were taught biased and inaccurate information about Muslims. In 2011, after being placed under enormous pressure by journalists and advocacy groups like CAIR, the FBI and military agreed to purge their training materials of biased and inaccurate information about Islam.

That search to understand and push back against Islamophobia is why CAIR puts resources into this report.

This report expands on currently available material on the Islamophobia network in several ways:

  • We count groups involved in the American Islamophobia network and separate them into an inner core and outer core.
  • We examine the total revenue available to inner core Islamophobic groups during 2008-2011.
  • Based on a survey conducted with subject matter experts, we rate the state of Islamophobia in America.
  • This report contains the most comprehensive review of the pervasiveness of anti-Islam legislation available to date.
  • This report includes a listing of known anti-Muslim law enforcement and military trainers derived from a number of critical exposés.
  • We add to the names of “the best,” those who are working against Islamophobia and “the worst,” those who promote anti-Islam bias.

It is my sincere prayer to God Almighty that you will join with us in pushing back so that the Islamophobia network can join other bias movements from America’s history on the list of those that failed to derail American pluralism.

In peace,

Nihad Awad

Executive Director

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