AFDI/SIOA/SIOE/SION/EDL/BF Global Alliance Rally in Stockholm Fizzles

by Sheila Musaji

In our TAM article AFDI/SIOA/SIOE/SION/EDL - If At First You Don’t Succeed Add Another Acronym we discussed the planned gathering of anti-Muslim hate groups in Stockholm planned for today.  That article also includes background on the individuals and organizations involved.

Pamela Geller had posted an announcement about this gathering Worldwide Counter-Jihad Alliance to Launch with Stockholm Demonstration on August 4 back in June.   

According to their SION press release

The first worldwide counter-jihad initiative will begin August 4 with the First Annual Global Counter Jihad rally in Stockholm, Sweden. Representatives from Stop Islamization of Nations (SION), Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), the English Defence League (EDL), and allied groups will speak.

The Global Counter Jihad rally will feature the president of SION and executive director of SIOA, Pamela Geller, as well as SION Vice President and SIOA associate director Robert Spencer. Also speaking will be the EDL’s Tommy Robinson, SIOE’s Anders Gravers, and other worldwide leaders from official Stop Islamization and Defence League groups

“The conference,” said Geller in a statement, “heralds the launch of a worldwide counter jihad alliance. Freedom fighters from Europe and America, as well as India, Israel, and other areas threatened by jihad, will at last be working together and forming a common defense of freedom and human rights.”

In January of this year, we reported on SIOA’s first announcement of the formation of this new coalition, SION://  Hate Groups Unite to Form an International Hate Coalition.  When that big announcement was made six months ago about the formation of SION, the groups included were:  Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE).  The announcement of this “new” coalition includes the groups: Stop Islamization of Nations (SION), Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), the English Defence League (EDL), and allied groups.  There is nothing new here except that the EDL is now included as well as “allied groups”.  It will be fascinating to see who these shadowy groups are.

It appears they are attempting to re-brand themselves and align together “globally”.  In the article SION://  Hate Groups Unite to Form an International Hate Coalition that I published in January, I noted that:

David Duke attempted to re-image the KKK as a “moderate” group who are simply proud of their race.  Duke attempted to tone down his rhetoric and present the KKK using positive terms.  Duke, and a number of other Klan leaders, denied being racist, but expressed concern about whites being in danger of losing their culture from an onslaught of Blacks and non-European immigrants.  They said things like Our land is once again being destroyed by the same treason. This time it is not only confined to the South, but it is affecting the nation as a whole and “we don’t hate blacks, we just love whites”.  They presented themselves as “pro-white” rather than anti-Black and anti-Semitic.  They claimed that their “movement” was necessary to combat “anti-white and anti-Christian propaganda” and “to promote “White Christian civilization.”  

Taking a page from this attempt to re-image hatred, a core group of Islamophobes is trying to camouflage their ideology by using and abusing terms like “freedom fighters”, “truth tellers”, and “patriots” to cover their extremism and hatred.

International hate groups have just announced that they are uniting in a global anti-Muslim coalition.  Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) are joining together in a coalition called Stop Islamization of Nations (SION).

These groups like the “new” Klan define themselves in positive terms. They say that they are dedicated to defending human rights, religious liberty, freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the West.  They call themselves a coalition of free people determined to stand for freedom and oppose the advance of Islamic law, Sharia.

In March of 2012, as Bob Pitt of Islamophobia Watch has noted in an article with much more information on this SION gathering —  ” The last international protest organised by the EDL and its allies, in Aarhus in March, proved to be a bit of a humiliation, with the small group of “counterjihadists” heavily outnumbered by anti-fascist protestors. No doubt the EDL hopes that SION’s support for the Stockholm demonstration will pull in a few more people.”

The SIOA and the SIOE planned a big rally in July, 2011 but the French and European authorities denied them a permit to hold the rally.  Geller claimed that this was a sign of the “collapse of democracy in Europe” and wrote a vicious article attacking the government for “capitulation to Islamic supremacists and violent radical Leftists” for cancelling a rally planned by their “human rights organizations”.  Loonwatch discusses this at length and provides actual facts.

In September of 2009 SIOE co-sponsored an anti-Mosque program in Harrow with the EDL.  An article by Tristan Kirk in the local Harrow Times noted that

LEADING members of Harrow’s Jewish community have joined together to condemn anti-Muslim campaigners who are planning a protest in the borough this weekend.  Rabbis Aaron Goldstein, Hillel Athias-Robles, Kathleen Middleton, Frank Dabba Smith, and Michael Hilton have signed a letter offering unequivocal support for the borough’s Muslim community.  ...  The show of unity from the Jewish community is in defiance of a direct appeal by SIOE on its website for 1,000 Jews bearing the Israeli flag to turn up.  However, the Rabbis hit out at SIOE’s “outrageous lies” which are “entirely without foundation” and accused the self-confessed islamaphobic organisation of spreading hatred and violence to divide the Harrow community.

The Harrow Council also backed the mosque against the protestors. And, the Community Security Trust (CST) also urged the Jewish community not to lend their support to this protest.  They pointed out that SIOE has a history of racism and bigotry. 

The past gatherings of this “global alliance of acronymns” have been big on impressive sounding adjectives, but fizzled out.  This gathering which was billed as a — worldwide alliance, global gathering, world freedom conference, the world’s leading freedom action organizations joining forces, etc., also fizzled out.

The past few months, this “global gathering” was heavily advertized by those involved: Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, European Freedom Initiative, SION, SIOA, SIOE, EDL, BF, Faith Freedom Int’l, Swedish Defense League,  Finnish Defense League, Norwegian Defense League, Danish Defense League, Die Freiheit Bavaria, Q Society of Australia.

Confirmed speakers advertized for the event included:  Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Tommy Robinson, Kevin Carroll, Anders Gravers, Richard Abrahamson, Mimosa Koiranen, Rune Hauge, Michael Sturzenberger, Pavel Chernev, Philip Traulsen, Debbie Robinson, Leo Baardsan, Paul Weston. 

According to one press report all of that promotion by all of these organizations and their “allies” brought only about 100 supporters to their rally in Stockholm. At least 500 counter demonstrators showed up, and sadly some engaged in violence, attempting to break through police lines. 

The bottom line is that even with all the advance advertizing, the pleas to attend, and to donate for “extra security”, 14% of those gathered were the speakers themselves.  All of these individuals and organizations were only able to turn out 80 to 90 people from across the globe, and if the heavy media presence was also included in the total count, then that number is even lower.

At some point, they will realize that most decent people are fully aware of just how bigoted and hateful they are.

In September, the same organizations and individuals are planning another SION event in New York City.  They plan to hold this spectacle on September 11th at the UN Plaza Millenium Hotel.  At this point speakers are advertized to be Dr. Mordechai Kedar (SANE), Dr. Ashraf Rameleh, Cliff Kincaid (AIM), Anders Gravers (SIOE), Lars Hedegaard, Magdi Christiano Allam, Valentina Colombo, Paul Weston, Lars Vilks, and more ...

In another Geller article, the goals of this coalition are made even more crystal clear

The SION President’s Council’s next initiative will be the first session of the International Freedom Defense Congress, which will be held in New York on September 11, 2012. The principal focus of the Congress will be a media workshop pertaining to Islamic supremacist attempts to restrict the freedom of speech in the free world, and the smear campaigns against freedom fighters in newspapers and media institutions in the West.

The objective of this first-of-its-kind workshop is to develop media-related mechanisms to address the smear campaigns. It will also address the media’s double standard regarding Islam and other religions. The Congress will discuss at length the reasons behind and the
results of the Western media’s offensive campaigns against freedom of speech and the truth about Islam, jihad, Islamic supremacism and Muslims.

The International Freedom Defense Congress will represent a quantum leap in media action, as it discusses, beyond rhetoric, the practical steps to address the phenomenon of the Islamic war against free speech.

SION establishes a common American/European coalition of free people determined to stand for freedom and oppose the advance of Islamic law, Sharia. Islamic law is not simply a religious system, but a political system that encompasses every aspect of life; is authoritarian, discriminatory, and repressive; and contradicts Western laws and principles in numerous particulars. SION respects Muslims as fellow human beings and rejects Islamization as a comprehensive political, religious, cultural and social system of behavior and ideology.

At the International SION/SIOA/SIOE/EDL event in Stockholm, leaders of American and European hate groups met privately, and according to their own reports formed an International Activist Leadership Team to be called the SION President’s Council. The initial members of the President’s Council are SIOE’s Anders Gravers; Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll of the EDL; Debbie Robinson of the Q Society of Australia, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. The members of the newly formed council unanimously voted to elect Pamela Geller Council President. ... The President’s Council differs from the SION Board, which includes Swiss parliamentarian Oskar Freysinger; Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media; Ashraf Rameleh of Voice of the Copts; Ali Sina, the renowned ex-Muslim author and founder of FaithFreedom.org; Wafa Sultan, the ex-Muslim human rights activist and author; the German pro-freedom activist Stefan Herre of Politically Incorrect; the Israeli author Dr. Mordechai Kedar; the Hindu human rights activist Babu Suseelan; and Anders Gravers of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). This Board functions in an advisory capacity, while the President’s Council is a steering committee. It functions as a mobile, proactive, reactive on-the-ground team developing and executing confidential action plans that strike at the heart of the global anti-freedom agenda.

All of this means that the Islamophobia Industry is now organized internationally and preparing to increase the level of propaganda.  They are now organized to carry out their strategy even more vociferously.  Their strategy has already been studied and laid out in The People for the American Way PFAW report The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism which discusses eight strategies employed by anti-Muslim activists to cast doubt on the validity of Islam as a religion and the integrity of American Muslims in order to justify prejudice and illegal discrimination:

Framing American Muslims as dangerous to America; Twisting statistics and using fake research to “prove” the Muslim threat; Inventing the danger of “creeping Sharia”; Justifying taking away freedoms and liberties from Muslims in order to “defend liberty”; Denying the validity of Islam as a religion; Arguing that Muslims have no First Amendment rights under the Constitution; Linking anti-Muslim prejudice to anti-Obama rhetoric; Slandering progressives and non-Christians as unholy and anti-American.

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CRITICAL REPORTS ON THE ISLAMOPHOBIA INDUSTRY

The ACLU report BLOCKING FAITH, FREEZING CHARITY: CHILLING MUSLIM CHARITABLE GIVING IN THE “WAR ON TERRORISM FINANCING” 

ACLU report Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical “Sharia Threat” to Our Judicial System 5/2011

Bureau of International Information Programs report MUSLIMS IN AMERICA: A STATISTICAL PORTRAIT 

CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) reports: WESTERN MUSLIM MINORITIES: INTEGRATION AND DISENFRANCHISEMENT; THE STATUS OF MUSLIM CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 2009: Seeking Full Inclusion;   THE MOSQUE IN AMERICA: A NATIONAL PORTRAIT; and CAIR and the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender (CRG) report Same Hate, New Target:  Islamophobia and its impact in the United States  6/23/11

The Center for American Progress (CAP) report UNDERSTANDING SHARIAH LAW:  Conservatives’ Skewed Interpretation Needs Debunking, by Wajahat Ali and Matthew Duss.

Center for American Progress report FEAR INC.: THE ROOTS OF THE ISLAMOPHOBIA NETWORK IN AMERICA.  The key researchers for this report were Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and Faiz Shakir.  The report itself is the result of a six month investigative project, and is 132 pages in length. Article about the report, with article collection here 8/26/11

Communique Partners report Western Perception of Islam and Muslims 2005

Hope Not Hate Campaign report Counter-Jihad’ Movement profiles over 100 individuals who are central to the international anti-Muslim network

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding published A Portion of the People: Islam in a ‘Christian’ America

MAPOS The MUSLIM AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY by Matt A. Barreto, University of Washington and Karam Dana, Harvard University

MPAC published COUNTERPRODUCTIVE COUNTERTERRORISM: HOW ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS IS UNDERMINING AMERICA’s HOMELAND SECURITY  Several myths abound regarding the role of American Muslims in counterterrorism policy, the most prominent and problematic of which paints the American Muslim community as a threat to America’s national security. In fact, the American Muslim community is an asset to law enforcement in their shared goal to root out terrorism and extremism. The source of suspicion of American Muslims stems from false accusations of American Muslim organizations.

New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) White Paper Religious Freedom Under Attack:  The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State charts rising anti-Muslim trends.  8/2011

People for the American Way (PFAW) report The Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism  7/2011

Political Research Associates report MANUFACTURING THE MUSLIM MENACE: PRIVATE FIRMS, PUBLIC SERVANTS, AND THE THREAT TO RIGHTS AND SECURITY 

Political Research Associates report Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating by Chip Berlet

SPLC published Jihad Against Islam and The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle by Robert Steinback in their Summer 2011 Intelligence Report 6/11

SEE ALSO

ADL backgrounder on SIOA http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/sioa.htm

ADL’s Abe Foxman condemns Geller and Spencer’s 9/11 protest as ‘un-American’ http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2010/9/2/abe-foxman-condemns-geller-and-spencers-911-protest-as-un-am.html

Another hotel turns away Pamela Geller and anti-Shariah group http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot/2011/10/another-hotel-turns-away-pamela-geller-and-anti-shariah-group/

Colorado Klansman Refines Message for the 90’s http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/23/us/colorado-klansman-refines-message-for-the-90-s.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Pamela Geller Announces Another “New Global Force”, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.com/2012/01/18/pamela-geller-announces-another-new-global-force/

Pamela Geller Attempts to Make a Point, Muslims Shrug (SIOA/AFDI/Atlas Shrugs), Sheila Musaji http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/pamela_geller_attempts_to_make_a_point

Pamela Geller’s New Book (Stop the Islamization of America): Communist Bookstore Clerks And “Secret Halal Meat” http://mediamatters.org/blog/201110050010

Islamophobia, Real or Imagined (major collection of articles about these Islamophobes) http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamophobia_real_or_imagined

The Ku Klux Klan: Burning Crosses in Cyberspace http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/kkk.asp

SIOA and SIOE “Transatlantic Summit” Cancelled, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.com/2011/07/02/sioa-and-sioe-transatlantic-summit-cancelled/

SIOA co-founder: kill your liberal relatives and all Muslims http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/3/890055/-SIOA-co-founder:-kill-your-liberal-relatives-and-all-Muslims

SIOA: New Anti-Islam Group, Same Old Faces, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/new-anti-islam-group-same-old-faces/

SIOA and SIOE “Transatlantic Summit” Cancelled, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.com/2011/07/02/sioa-and-sioe-transatlantic-summit-cancelled/

SIOA Stop Islamization vs One Law for All and Harry’s Place, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/stop-islamization-vs-one-law-for-all-and-harrys-place/

SIOA: Dogs, Donkeys and Women, Oh My!, Eli Clifton http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/09/20/dogs-donkeys-and-women-oh-my/

So who are the Nazis?: Meet Atlas Thugs, Max Blumenthal http://www.lobelog.com/so-who-are-the-nazis-meet-atlas%e2%80%99s-thugs/

Where is the U.S. Government Getting It’s Information on Islam and Muslims?, Sheila Musaji http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/where_is_the_u.s._government_getting_its_information_on_islam_and_musl

White Supremacists Find Common Cause with Pam Geller’s Anti-Islam Campaign http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/08/25/white-supremacists-find-common-cause-with-pam-gellers-anti-islam-campaign/

Who Inspired Anders Breivik?, Justin Raimondo http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/08/07/who-inspired-anders-breivik/

A Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_whos_who_of_the_anti-muslimanti-arabislamophobia_industry