Islamophobic network fuelling hate sentiments in US: Report

Anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States are being stoked by a "network" of organisations and donors, seeking to influence public perception of the faith's followers, according to a recent report by the Center for American Progress.  

The report, entitled "Fear, Inc. 2.0, The Islamophobia Network’s Efforts to Manufacture Hate in America," – an update of a 2011 investigation - alleges that a group of foundations are funding politicians, security experts and media workers to make sure that Muslims would not be portrayed in a fair and balanced manner.  

"[Islamophobia] takes the form of a general climate of fear and anger toward American Muslims, as seen in the 'civilization jihad' narrative, the religious right’s rhetoric, and the biased media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing," wrote Matthew Duss, Yasmine Taeb, Ken Gude, and Ken Sofer - the report's authors.

"It comes out in cynical political efforts to capitalise on this climate of fear, as seen in state-level anti-Sharia bills introduced across the country and in far-right politicians’ grandstanding. And perhaps most dangerously, it manifests itself in institutional policies that view American Muslims as a threat, as seen in the FBI training manuals that profile Islam as a religion of violence."

The network has allegedly provide more than $57 million demonise Islam in the public perception.

"The scare mongering perpetuated by the Islamophobia network also frequently dovetails with attempts to institutionalise discrimination against Muslims," wrote Yasmine Taeb in an article in the website ThinkProgress.org.

Taeb told DemocaryNow.org that the 2011 report "chronicled the tightly knit network, group of funders, organisations, activists, elected officials and media commentators that are essentially fanning anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States."

"What we found in our new [2014] report is that this network is not only working to marginalise a community of three million Americans by promoting discriminatory policies, but also we detailed how these policies are impacting the lives of ordinary Americans. " she added.

"We know that the effect of the anti-Muslim hysteria that this network generates is in an uptick in the number of hate crimes…There has been over $57 million that’s been contributed to this fearmongering, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam organisations by eight very wealthy donors."