It’s good to see the hard-Left smear machine the SPLC lose a battle, but it is likely that it only gave in to Nawaz because he is a Leftist. The rest of us on the list continue to be defamed and marginalized by our presence on the list, since the establishment media continues to cite the SPLC as if it were a reliable source, when actually its “anti-Muslim extremist” list only includes people for opposing jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others.
Take me off the list, SPLC, and you can Paypal my $3,375,000 to director@jihadwatch.org.
“SPLC Apologizes, Pays Settlement to Islamic Reformer It Wrongly Labeled ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist,’” by Jack Crowe, National Review, June 18, 2018:
The Southern Poverty Law Center has reached a settlement with liberal Islamic reformer Maajid Nawaz and his organization, the Quilliam Foundation, for wrongly including them on its now-defunct list of “anti-Muslim extremists.”
The SPLC announced Monday that it has agreed to pay Nawaz and Quilliam $3.375 million “to fund their work to fight anti-Muslim bigotry and extremism.” The settlement was the result of a lawsuit Nawaz filed in April after the group added his name to its “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.”
The SPLC deleted the list, which was published in 2016 and was intended to serve as a resource for journalists, shortly after Nawaz filed the suit, despite having ignored his requests for retraction for roughly two years.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong to include Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in our Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. Since we published the Field Guide, we have taken the time to do more research and have consulted with human rights advocates we respect,” SPLC president Richard Cohen said in a statement. “We’ve found that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism. Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists. We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best.”…
melek-ric says
“…we have taken the time to do more research…”
So, they’re admitting they placed people and organizations on their defamation list with little or no research into their background, activities or qualifications. Any decent libel lawyer could cut SPLC to pieces with this statement alone.
mummymovie says
Exactly, melec-ric. Very good point.
Robert, I believe you, if anybody, should certainly be entitled to more than a bit of this type of compensation from the evidently deep pockets and coffers of the supposedly “non-profit”(?) SPLC.
Unfortunately, it seems only muslims are to be afforded this caliber of victimhood.
$3.75M… Wow! It sure pays to be a muslim victim these days, doesn’t it?
infidel says
Robert…Thanks for the info.. which certainly WILL NOT BE MENTIONED by the MSM.
More importantly, JW readers would LOVE to know.. WHERE IS ALL THIS MONEY COMING FROM?? after all the SPLC fights for the poor and the oppressed ?? SO WHERE IS THIS MONEY COMING FROM and this thing needs to be investigated…Anyway.. I can get the stink here.
infidel says
And the more I think of this.. the more I can see this as an INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT…A STRATEGIC BUYOUT..
JeffS says
Robert, when are you going to file your lawsuit? Soon, I hope! I’ll contribute.
Buraq says
The Southern Impoverished Law Center! Clowns!
Rarely says
$3,375,000 isn’t bad. In Canada the going rate for compensating a jihadist is $10,000,000 (but it’s Canadian dollars).
Heck, its become any industry.
Rarely says
“an” industry not “any”
Janwaar Bibi says
The left has used law suits very successfully to target people they oppose. It’s time for payback. Robert Spencer needs to sue the SPLC – I’ll donate for that worthy cause.
pfwag says
Precedent set. Judiciial Watch needs to sue them too.
jayell says
“We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best.”…
What’s that old saying? “Be sincere even if you don’t mean it” – especially if it might stop the compensation bill getting any bigger. Now, when are they going to make their next ‘error’?
Norger says
The SPLC. is or should be acutely aware that designating someone as an “anti-Muslim bigot” is tantamount to putting that person’s name on a “hit list.” The SPLC is reckless, irresponsible and hypocritical to the extreme.
R Cole says
Think it should be the beginning of the lawsuits against SPLC.
That Hirsi Ali is on their list, shows SPLC specifically targets ex-Muslims and Muslim reformers for religious persecution.
::
Well, for now, it’s off to the Cayman Islands they go for some cash.
Amit says
I hope all the major Christian organisations now sue the SPLC for placing them on their “hate” list. The SPLC is a self appointed far Leftist Cultural Marxist organisation that sees itself as THE arbiter of all that is righteous in Western society. That self-aggrandizement is blatantly false. The SPLC is neither “poor” nor “lawful” in it’s bogus operations to defame and character assassinate persons and groups with impunity. I think their main offices need to be federally raided and their financial accounts clinically audited. Their 300+ million slush funds in overseas accounts need to be fully investigated!!!
Mark Berlinger says
Be assured corporate media will continue to cite Southern Poverty Law Center as a reliable source, when it’s only a source of hard left propaganda.
gravenimage says
SPLC apologizes, pays $3,375,000 to Maajid Nawaz for smearing him as “anti-Muslim extremist”
…………………
As noted, the SPLC is not apt to apologize to Robert Spencer any time soon for their smear, nor to make a nice donation to Jihad Watch…
Nor, notably, did Maajid Nawaz stand up for Anti-Jihadists:
“Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz enraged about being on SPLC hit list of ‘anti-Muslim extremists’ with ‘real bigots’”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/muslim-reformer-maajid-nawaz-enraged-about-being-on-splc-hit-list-of-anti-muslim-extremists-with-real-bigots
JOHN says
Sounds like a scam between two lying, neo-Nazi thugs. Don’t fall for it.
Michael Copeland says
“…liberal Islamic reformer Maajid Nawaz” ??
Could Jack Crowe of National Review cite what it is that Maajid Nawaz has managed to reform?
Allah says Islam is perfect, “This day I have perfected your religion for you” – Koran 5:3.
Allah also said “None can change his words” -K.18:27
Sharia specifies killing (vigilante-style, penalty-free) for anyone who denies any verse.
“Reformer” sounds like an empty claim.
gravenimage says
Yep.
DaydEllis says
The Southern Poverty Law Center has lots of money so this payout will be just a drop out of the bucket.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/1/splc-transferred-millions-offshore-tax-havens/
Investigate Gov Corruption NOW says
Not really. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is listed by SPLC as an extremist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center runs ‘a scam,’ charges Ayaan Hirsi Ali
by Emily Jashinsky
| June 12, 2018 03:09 PM
PALO ALTO, Calif.— Imagine Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s surprise to find that a career spent fighting extremism had landed her on a list of extremists.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a self-described “civil rights” group with a well-documented habit (or a strategy, more likely) of branding as “extremists” and “hate groups” outspoken enemies of the cultural Left. When SPLC came after Hirsi Ali, the activist and scholar vigorously defended her reputation.
“I’ve never met anyone from the Southern Poverty Law Center. I didn’t know they existed until they put my name on that list,” Hirsi Ali told reporters at a Hoover Institution media round table Monday, reflecting on the SPLC’s decision to categorize her as an anti-Muslim extremist. “Since 9/11/2001, I was used to being put on lists, and in so many different ways being vilified. So, at first, I didn’t think anything of it until I realized their level of influence, that they were actually saying you can’t invite this woman because she is an extremist. And then I went on their website and I saw who the other extremists are — white supremacists, and all the fringe, really, really radical extreme fringe groups — and I thought, who on earth are these people, and why are they taken so seriously?”
Born in Somalia, where she grew up a “devout Muslim,” Hirsi Ali was subject to genital mutilation, ultimately fleeing to the Netherlands in her early 20s to escape a forced marriage. Her career has subsequently focused on fighting Islamic extremism, especially in the context of women’s rights and, among other pursuits, she’s held positions at the American Enterprise Institute, Harvard University, and Hoover, where Hirsi Ali currently works as a research fellow.
After the white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., last summer, “Apple and JPMorgan and [George] Clooney started throwing money at” SPLC, “making them even more influential,” Hirsi Ali said, explaining why she sought out a platform in the New York Times to expose the SPLC’s practices, frustrated by that string of high-profile donations.
“It’s really kind of a scam that these people are pulling off. At one point they started off with very serious issues like civil rights groups, and stood up for these people, but after that it’s just one big fundraising machine,” Hirsi Ali noted.
Eighteen months after being published, the list of “anti-Muslim extremists” that included Hirsi Ali was wiped from the SPLC’s website this April. But a quick search reveals several negative references to her remain on the site, including one from February that refers to Hirsi Ali as “a prominent figure within the broader anti-Muslim hate movement.”
Credulous major media outlets often cite SPLC designations as objective descriptors, giving the group undue legitimacy and influence. But Hirsi Ali has been smeared by others too. Brandeis University rescinded its decision to award her an honorary degree in 2014, with the university arguing some of her “past statements” were “inconsistent” with its core values.
“I don’t have the resources, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the organization to put up a real pushback, and sometimes I wish I could, and I think a lot of people who are in my line of work who are considered to have ideas that are out of the box, they just don’t have those resources,” Hirsi Ali said on Monday. “I wish we could have an entire infrastructure to do just that, so we don’t do it. I can’t go on every single publication and tell them this is unfair, and this is what we should be looking at.”
That others face similar treatment from academic institutions leads Hirsi Ali to believe the trend is rooted in something “much deeper.”
“I also don’t take it personally, because were I the only one to be disinvited, I would have thought, ‘This is weird,’ but if people like Christine Lagarde are disinvited and Condoleezza Rice, then you think this is not something about just the issue of Islam, or radical Islam, or Islam and women, etc. or even immigration,” she mused. “This is much deeper. And every day you read something about some campus in our country that’s disinviting someone, trying to fire someone, kids becoming outraged about something because they feel empowered by their administrations and their boards.”
“And that’s a bad thing,” Hirsi Ali added. “But I don’t take it personally, because it’s happening everywhere.”