Anti-Muslim

Anti-Muslim hate groups broadly defame Islam and traffic in conspiracy theories of Muslims being a subversive threat to the nation. These groups largely appeared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and mix racism and anti-immigrant ideas. Their rise breeds a climate of fear, hate and intimidation directed toward Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim.

Top Takeaways

The number of anti-Muslim groups decreased to 34 from 39 between 2022 and 2023. The drop came mostly from local chapters of such groups as ACT for America and G416 Patriots Idaho showing no activity for the year. The long-standing anti-Muslim blog Refugee Resettlement Watch, run by Ann Corcoran, was also dormant in 2023. 

Despite the decrease, the organized anti-Muslim movement continues to be a political force. Significant developments in Islamophobic activity came in the last quarter of 2023 as global attention turned to war and conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Key Moments

In 2023, the anti-Muslim group Understanding the Threat ceased operations. Despite spending the first half of the year conducting civilian-focused Islamophobic training seminars and pushing out such content as calling U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a “terrorist,” the group’s leader John Guandolo announced Understanding the Threat would close. “We have to shut our doors,” he wrote in an email to supporters. “The assaults from our adversaries financially and legally have been withering and overwhelming.” Guandolo remains a consultant for training programs designed mainly for law enforcement.

Anti-Muslim groups continued to align themselves with xenophobic groups and push anti-immigrant rhetoric. In July, Florida-based group The United West helped organize a screening of a film on Capitol Hill produced by former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan. The United West continues to partner with Homan and his project, Defend the Border and Save Lives.

ACT for America, the anti-Muslim group run by Brigitte Gabriel, adopted a nativist tone on top of its regular Islamophobia. The group circulated a petition calling to “Stop the Taxpayer Funded Border Invasion.” In it, the group peddled ideas mirroring “great replacement” rhetoric, writing, “The Southern Border Invasion and migrants entering through ports of authority and international airports in every state, are part of a concerted effort by the Left and globalists to transform America through replacement.” 

The anti-Muslim movement has spent the last few years expanding its agenda and turning its attention to such conservative hot-button issues as critical race theory, inclusive education, election fraud conspiracy theories and demonizing trans people. Throughout most of 2023, hard Islamophobic rhetoric and activity appeared to be down to a slow trickle. 

But the events of Oct. 7, 2023, which launched the Israel-Hamas war and all its associated bloodshed, brought the anti-Muslim groups back to their core ideology, and they wasted no time politicizing the conflict to peddle an Islamophobic agenda. Amid the conflict, antisemitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence increased – with several tragic attacks on Palestinian and Muslim Americans. These included the stabbing death of a young boy near Chicago in October 2023 and the shooting of three young men in Burlington, Vermont, in November 2023.  
 
ACT for America used the conflict to push its own agenda. The group circulated a petition in October 2023 calling to bar Palestinian refugees from being resettled in the U.S. Gabriel also used the opportunity to peddle copies of her 2006 book Because They Hate, which is full of Islamophobic content. 

FrontPage Magazine, a publication of the hate group David Horowitz Freedom Center, published articles claiming, “What happened in Israel is not about Israel: it’s about Islam.” Jihad Watch, a group affiliated with the Horowitz Freedom Center and run by prolific anti-Muslim figure Robert Spencer, ran an article saying: “We’re in a war between savages and civilization. Everything else is a detail.”

What’s Ahead

The impact of Islamophobia and the anti-Muslim movement is also reflected in international developments including unrest in Paris after the police killing of an Algerian boy during summer 2023 and the political comeback of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party in the Netherlands. The international connections of American anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ movements with far-right actors and authoritarian governments abroad remain a concern.

The Islamophobic climate stoked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas demonstrated these groups remain anti-Muslim to the core. The anti-Muslim movement is likely to continue peddling its brand of hate. 

Background

Anti-Muslim hate groups spread disinformation, prejudice and conspiracy theories about Muslims and Islam. Despite Islam having a long and storied history in the United States, these groups portray those who worship Islam as fundamentally alien and a foreign threat. Members of hate groups seek to attach Muslims to a set of inherent negative traits. This includes denigrating Muslims and their faith as being monolithic, irrational, intolerant and a violent threat to American society. This rhetoric is often reinforced by hard-right politicians who deploy Islamophobia to score political points among their base. Propaganda from anti-Muslim hate groups can create a climate in society where bullying, intimidation and even hate crimes directed at Muslims communities can occur.

These groups typically hold conspiratorial views and frame Islam as a foreign threat to the U.S. This includes presenting Islam as not only a potential violent threat, but also a cultural one. Anti-Muslim groups accuse Muslims of being a fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism – a conspiracy theory known as “civilization jihad.”

Anti-Muslim groups engage in a variety of activities to spread hate, though groups can vary in approaches and tactics. Such activities may include publishing Islamophobic content, holding large-scale demonstrations and conferences and calling for a halt to Muslim immigration and refugee-resettlement programs. These groups may also challenge the construction or expansion of mosques, make derogatory statements about Muslim political candidates and elected officials and work to pass anti-Muslim legislation.

Many of the anti-Muslim groups form a constellation of interconnected, tight-knit organizations. These groups often share staff, board members and sources of funding. They also stay consistent and disciplined in their messaging and conspiracy theories about Islam.

These groups vary in scope and role. Some, like Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, serve as think tanks churning out reports raising the specter of Sharia law. Sharia is a set of guiding religious principles that anti-Muslim hate groups try to twist into something insidious to sow fear of Islam. The David Horowitz Freedom Center, based in Sherman Oaks, California, serves as a think tank as well as an umbrella organization for other Islamophobic projects such as Robert Spencer’s hate blogsite Jihad Watch and FrontPage Magazine, a web publication featuring the writings of anti-Muslim and far-right authors.

ACT for America seeks to have a presence in the Beltway, pushing Islamophobic and nativism legislation while also operating a network of semi-autonomous chapters throughout the country. Islamophobic figures such as David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center have a hand in crafting anti-Muslim legislation and provide legal counsel to other anti-Muslim groups. Other state- and city-based hate groups take on local opposition campaigns like derailing refugee resettlement efforts and working to pass anti-Sharia legislation.

Islamophobia continues to be intertwined with U.S. politics and is often deployed by political candidates to gain votes. Anti-Muslim groups have cultivated allies in Congress and among other political networks. Elected officials such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, among others, remain staunch allies to these groups, appearing at events they organize.

Anti-Muslim groups and figures are sometimes given platforms at such large-scale political events as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as well as at smaller events hosted by local groups. Anti-Muslim propagandists Brigitte Gabriel and Frank Gaffney are reported members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive right-wing coalition aimed at influencing policy. Gaffney, Gabriel and other figures making up the anti-Muslim network also enjoy clout among right-wing and conservative news media.

Each year, the David Horowitz Freedom Center holds its annual Restoration Weekend that brings together a mix of anti-Muslim figures, conservative commentators and elected officials. The 2022 event took place at the Arizona Biltmore Resort after The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, where the conference was for many years prior, canceled its contract with Horowitz’s group in 2021. During the event, outgoing Texas congressman and longtime Horowitz ally Louie Gohmert was awarded the group’s Annie Taylor Award. Arizona Rep. U.S. Andy Biggs also spoke at the event and used his time to warn of an “invasion” happening at the southern border.

Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry are nothing new in the United States. But prior to Sept. 11, 2001, there was not an organized movement dedicated to spreading Islamophobia, as there was for other hate movements. This changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when a cottage industry of disinformation peddlers was built virtually from the ground up. Led by activists such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Brigitte Gabriel, whose goal was to poison any debate about the religion of Islam and depict Muslims as fundamentally at odds with America.

In the years after 9/11, these groups and figures were able to capture an audience racked with fear and uncertainty to spread their anti-Muslim bias. These groups have flourished and were politically influential amid the backdrop of the U.S. “War on Terror,” the bias Countering Violent Extremism programs and other governmental efforts to criminalize and spy on Muslim communities.

Not until the Obama administration did the movement begin to crystallize as a sophisticated network of groups and activists. Conspiracy theories swirled alleging former President Barack Obama was a practicing Muslim and in the pocket of the Muslim Brotherhood, a favorite bogeyman among anti-Muslim groups. In 2010, such anti-Muslim figures as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer flexed their influence when they showed up in opposition to the proposed site of an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, dubbing it the “Ground Zero Mosque.”

Former President Donald Trump tapped into the bigotry from the anti-Muslim network and made Islamophobia a cornerstone of his administration. Anti-Muslim hate groups had unprecedented access to the White House under Trump. Figures associated with hate groups received jobs in Trump’s administration in such policy areas as immigration and national security. Some hate figures also served as unofficial advisers and bragged about having a line to the president through some of his cabinet and staff. Trump implemented policies long championed by anti-Muslim groups such as the Muslim ban and a low cap on refugees. President Joe Biden’s election left anti-Muslim groups without their top political ally – but Islamophobia preceded Trump and continues to be prevalent since he left office.

a map of the United States with the number of Anti-Muslim groups in each state

2023  Anti-Muslim Hate Groups

View all groups by state and by ideology.
* - Asterisk denotes headquarters.

ACT for America
Los Angeles, California
Long Island, New York
San Gabriel Valley, California
Santa Clarita, California
Connecticut
Washington, D.C.*
Metairie, Louisiana
Houston, Texas
Vancouver, Washington

AlertAmerica.News
Hauppauge, New York

American Freedom Defense Initiative
New York, New York

American Freedom Law Center
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Center for Security Policy
Washington, D.C.

Citizens for National Security
Lake Worth, Florida

Counter Jihad Coalition
Santa Monica, California

Cultures In Context Incorporated/Turning Point Project
Ave Maria, Florida

David Horowitz Freedom Center
Sherman Oaks, California

Florida Family Association
Tampa, Florida

Fortress of Faith
Bellingham, Washington

Foundation for Advocating Christian Truth/Acts17Apologetics
Bronx, New York

Glazov Gang Productions
Los Angeles, California