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Gaffney Still Fearmongering About Sharia In U.S.

January 31, 2011 1:41 pm ET — 17 Comments

On Fox News' Fox & Friends, right-wing pundit and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney baselessly claimed that "Muslim Brotherhood front organizations" are influencing the U.S. government and are pushing "subversive techniques" to impose Sharia law in the U.S. Gaffney has a history of using Fox News to push his conspiracy theories about Sharia law.

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Gaffney Baselessly Suggests "Muslim Brotherhood Front Organizations" Are Infiltrating U.S. Govt., Institutions

Gaffney Baselessly Claims "Muslim Brotherhood Front Organizations" Have "Intensive Influence" On U.S. Government's View Of Muslims. During the January 31 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson discussed the recent protests in Egypt with Frank Gaffney, President of the American Center for Security Policy. After talking about the possible extent of the Muslim Brotherhood's role in the Egyptian protests, Gaffney went on to further suggest that "councils of the United States government...have been subjected to intensive influence operations by known Muslim Brotherhood front organizations in this country to believe that these guys are somehow nonviolent." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/31/11]

Gaffney Fearmongers Over "Sharia-Compliant Finance" And "Insinuations Of Sharia Into Our Courts." Gaffney also told Carlson:

GAFFNEY: I think as we say in our book, it's much more the case that [Muslim Brotherhood front organizations] are pre-violent [rather than nonviolent]. They will use violence when the circumstances are right and in the meantime, they're using subversive techniques of various kinds, including Sharia-compliant finance and various kinds of insinuations of Sharia into our courts and other ways to try to accomplish their ultimate objective, which is to bring Sharia about worldwide. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/31/11]

Gaffney Refers To Gaza As The "So-Called Palestinian Area." Responding to one of Carlson's questions about the extent of the Muslim Brotherhood's activities in the Middle East, Gaffney referred to the Gaza Strip as the "so-called Palestinian area." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/31/11]

Gaffney Has A History Of Incendiary And Islamophobic Attacks

Gaffney: "The Left" And "The Islamists...Are Advancing The Takedown Of America." On the August 23, 2010, edition of Fox News' The Glenn Beck Show, Gaffney told host Glenn Beck:

I think there's a commonality of interests between folks who embrace what we've talked about before, as kind of the transnational agenda of the left and the transnational agenda of the Islamists ... They are working in concert in a lot of different ways that are advancing the takedown of the America, the mutation, or fundamental transformation of America in ways that will, I'm afraid, make it much more difficult for us to stop either of these agendas at our expense. [Fox News, The Glenn Beck Show, 8/23/10]

Gaffney: Obama Administration "Has Exhibited A Sympathy...For The Agenda...Of The Muslim Brotherhood." Also on the August 23, 2010, edition of The Glenn Beck Show, Gaffney told Beck, "I think this administration has exhibited a sympathy, and the president particularly, a sympathy for the agenda of folks who are, in fact, under one front organization or another of the Muslim Brotherhood, seeking to promote Sharia in America." Gaffney went on to claim, "Virtually any Muslim-American organization in this country, of any prominence, is a Muslim Brotherhood front," and referenced the Holy Land Foundation case. In fact, the organizations Gaffney is referencing donated to the Holy Land Foundation before it was uncovered that the organization was secretly funneling money to terrorists. [Fox News, The Glenn Beck Show, 8/23/10Media Matters, 2/18/10, 7/27/10]

Gaffney Wrote That Signs With "'Sharia' Lettered In Dripping, Blood-red Ink" Were "Informed Opposition" To The Park 51 Mosque. On August 26, 2010, Gaffney wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Times that protesters of the Park 51 mosque "had come together ... in informed opposition to the impetus behind that mosque: Sharia." As an example of "informed opposition," he pointed to "signs [throughout the crowd] with just the word 'Sharia' lettered in dripping, blood-red ink." [Washington Times, 8/26/10]

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    • Author by Imbecile (January 31, 2011 2:09 pm ET)
      6  
      If you went through this and used the find-and-replace command and replaced all the "Muslims" with "Jews", I wonder what this would resemble.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by m.welker (January 31, 2011 2:58 pm ET)
        3  
        Glenn Beck talking about George Soros?
        Report Abuse
        • Author by MJPollard (January 31, 2011 3:04 pm ET)
          3  
          Soros! Drink!

          Oh, wait, that only works when Aqualung says it. My bad.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by m.welker (January 31, 2011 3:10 pm ET)
            2  
            Yes, please don't place me anywhere near where Glenn Beck resides in your mind. I like to think of myself near the other end of the spectrum. But you can drink anyways if you want. Not necessarily something I'd advise though; here it is only 2:10 PM.
            Report Abuse
        • Author by docb (February 01, 2011 10:21 am ET)
          1  
          There is an attempt to invoke Republican Sharia Law with the Gop anti-abortion push and taking Women's rights by -redefining rape!

          'If men could get pregnant-- abortion would be legal'! not my quote but it applies here!
          Report Abuse
      • Author by dkylep (January 31, 2011 3:30 pm ET)
        3  
        You've noticed that too huh Imbecile? Remarkable how the very thing that they preach against, and accuse others of, they themselves so closely resemble.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by grmce (January 31, 2011 8:03 pm ET)
          4  
          That, in a nutshell (pun force of habit rather than intended), is the obscenity of the situation in Palestine. The extreme Zionist position involves inflicting similar evils upon the innocent Arab population to what Europeans inflicted upon Jews. Two wrongs do not make a right and the behaviour of Zionists since the Great War desecrates the memory of their antecedents who suffered the pogroms, the segregation and the Holocaust.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by ONOMATOPOEIA (January 31, 2011 3:44 pm ET)
      3  
      "Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." ~Bertrand Russell

      Be afraid sheeple. Sharia is coming for you.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by CenterRight (January 31, 2011 4:43 pm ET)
        1  
        If a new regime takes over in Egypt, it'll be interesting to see if the contry's relationship with Israel changes.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by Bongo Fury (January 31, 2011 5:32 pm ET)
        3  
        ..and then it will be "My Sharia." Retro is back.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by Imbecile (January 31, 2011 5:35 pm ET)
          4  
          Oh, my little pretty Muslim, pretty Muslim.

          When you gonna give me some time, Sharia?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by soze169880 (January 31, 2011 5:40 pm ET)
            4  
            Shaaaaria, baby (Sharia, baby)
            Sha-ri-a, won't you give me a fright? (Won't you give me a fright?)
            I'm gonna name you
            With no context
            Blame you
            For Crisis X
            Tame you
            By state referendum
            I'll be good and ready when they send 'em!
            Report Abuse
    • Author by soze169880 (January 31, 2011 5:29 pm ET)
      6  
      "Sharia" has joined "Democrat party", "Obamacare" and "one-world government" in the category of Phrases I Cannot Take You Seriously If You Use.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by cpinva (January 31, 2011 5:30 pm ET)
      5  
      note that none of the "FOXheads" called mr. gaffney on his assertions, and asked him for specific examples to support his claims. this is what real journalists would have done.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by grmce (January 31, 2011 8:06 pm ET)
      3  
      Mr Gaffney seems less "Frank" and more "Gaff", but not particularly "ney".
      Report Abuse
    • Author by indigo1968 (February 01, 2011 11:33 am ET)
      1  
      Gaffney is such a hack. He and Joey Farah from WorldNutDaily should get together and form a bowling team.
      Report Abuse
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