Anti-Islam Speaker Tied to 'Eurofacists'
J Morgan
Even other extremists critical of Robert Spencer's 'neo-Nazi' links
WASHINGTON, April 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed today that a speaker for an
event next week at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., will
also take part in an upcoming "Eurofacist" conference in Europe.
Robert Spencer, publisher of the anti-Islam Internet hate site "Jihad
Watch," is scheduled to speak at AU on April 27 about "The Threat of
Militant Islam." The event is sponsored by a student group called Youth
for Western Civilization (YWC), which describes itself as the "West's
right wing youth movement." YWC's mission statement says: "This movement
is focused on the support of Western history, identity, high culture,
and pride and opposition to radical multiculturalism, political
correctness, racial preferences, mass immigration, and socialism."
SEE: Youth for Western Civilization
http://www.westernyouth.org/index.htm
A March 30, 2009, article in The Tennessean said of YWC: "The Southern
Poverty Law Center issued a warning last month that the national
founders of Youth for Western Civilization, Marcus Epstein and Kevin
DeAnna, have posted to white supremacist Web sites in the past." Center
spokeswoman Heidi Beirich said of the language the group is using: "To
us, it's racism, pure and simple."
SEE: Youth for Western Civilization Group at Vanderbilt Stirs Furor
In recent weeks, even other anti-Muslim Internet sites have criticized
Spencer for his ties to "Eurofacists."
SEE: Civil War Raging in Right-Wing Blogosphere
The blog "Little Green Footballs" (LGF) notes that Spencer will speak at
a European conference in May "organized by a group called 'Pro Koln' --
a successor to the notorious fascist group 'Deutsche Liga fur Volk und
Heimat' (the 'German League for People and Homeland')."
LGF goes on to note that the Pro Koln group "is under observation by the
German inland secret service...One of the main organizers of 'Pro Koln'
is Manfred Rouhs. Here are two photos of Rous with hardcore neo-Nazi
activist Axel Reitz, who the local media call 'the Hitler of Cologne.'"
SEE: Robert Spencer Confirmed to Attend Eurofascist Conference
In responding to LGF's criticism, Spencer claims, "Racist parties such
as the BNP and anti-Semites such as Jean Marie LePen's National Front
are not welcome and have not been invited."
But a September 19, 2008, article in Britain's Independent newspaper
about a similar Pro Koln conference said, "Pro Cologne [Pro Koln]
claimed on its website that...guest speakers would include the French
National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Heinz-Christan Strache,
the leader of Austria's right-wing Freedom Party...Pro Cologne said the
Flemish far-right leader Filip Dewinter...would address the conference
today. Mario Borghezio, of Italy's Northern League, was also scheduled
to attend."
Another speaker at the May event in Europe, Pamela Geller, operates one
of the Internet's most vicious anti-Islam sites. Her blog features
categories such as "Advancing Islamic Lies," "Islam 2008: Religion of
Barbarism" and "Slavery: An Arab custom." Geller has also been
criticized by other Islamophobes for her extremism and for supporting
far-right groups in Europe.
Both Geller and Spencer are supporting an anti-Islam conference on April
27 in Florida. CAIR has called on Rep. Adam Hasner, the leader of that
state's House Republicans and a member of the conference's "host
committee," to disassociate himself from the event, calling it a "hate
fest."
SEE: Fla. House GOP Leader Linked to Anti-Islam Hate Fest
In 2007, Spencer spoke at a so-called "Counterjihad Brussels 2007"
conference in Belgium attended by those with links to far-right parties
such as Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang (Belgium) and Ted Ekeroth of
Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden). Both parties have been accused of either
having a racist platform, a neo-Nazi past or having links to neo-Nazis
and other racists.
Vlaams Belang is the successor to the Vlaams Blok party, which was
banned in 2004 for being an illegal racist political faction. (Vlaams
Belang's founders were Nazi collaborators in World War II.)
SEE: Court Rules Vlaams Blok is Racist
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3994867.stm
Of Sverigedemokraterna, the International Herald Tribune wrote:
"Sverigedemokraterna, or the Sweden Democrats, have been part of this
country's political landscape for almost 20 years, but they were
considered too close to the Nazi-inspired far-right to contend for large
numbers of votes." (7/7/06)
Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald wrote
on that hate site: "Only one group, only one belief-system,
distinguishes itself by appearing incapable of fitting in. And that is
Muslims, and Islam...if one really knew what Islam contained...then how
could any decent person remain a Muslim?"
He also recommended that western nations be "Islam-proofed the way a
house is child-proofed," compared Muslims to Nazis and urged that they
be boycotted: "[I]t should not be hard to find ways to limit the spread
or practice of Islam. And if in addition to whatever local, state and
federal government officials do, private parties simply conduct their
own boycott of goods and services offered by Muslims, in the same way
that they would have refused to buy, in 1938, a German Voigtlander
camera..."
CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy
organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its
mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue,
protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions
that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: iho...@cair.com; CAIR
Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171,
E-Mail: aru...@cair.com
Bruce Chiles
"J Morgan" <John...@email.non> wrote in message
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