Part II of the Series:
A Who’s Who of the „Free Muslims Board
In Part I of this series, we examined the activities of Jon „Yani“ Haigh, a longtime Queensland resident who operates and monitors a network of racist troll groups on Facebook, and Kamal Nawash (for whom Haigh provides a range of web design and programming services) of the „Free Muslim Coalition Against Terror“ , a group that advocates the political repression and surveillance of the US Arab and Muslim communities (related to the Facebook group „Free Muslims“). This, the second part of the series, examines some of the other shady characters who make up the „Free“ Muslims Coalition.
The board of the Free Muslims are exactly what you’d expect of a group with the stated purpose of putting a Muslim face on the plethora of repressive measures, human rights violations, and outright war crimes that make up the „war on terror“.
Particularly fitting is the presence on the Board of Ray Hanania, who began his career as a journo in Chicago, covering local and regional politics for the Sun-Times and other print, radio, and TV outlets. During this period, he also hosted call-in radio chatshows on WLS, and appeared regularly on Dick Kay’s City Desk on WMAQ-TV. In 1990, he served as a panellist at the Chicago mayoral debate, which resulted in yet another electoral victory for the Daley clan. Two years later, he delved headfirst into the world of Chicago machine politics, founding the Urban Strategies Group, a full-service PR agency whose clients include Mayor-For-Life Daley himself, various city agencies, aldermen, Democratic committeemen, and „three successful candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives“.
Hanania boasts particular expertise in „crisis management“ for „those with serious public relation [sic] challenges“. One imagines that such expertise was quite useful during his stint providing „basic media training“ to the propaganda agency of Israel’s „Palestinian Authority“. Nor could it have hurt when he was called upon by the U.S. State Department and U.S. „Information“ Agency to „provide media training sessions, meetings and presentations…to foreign media and government officials.“ Continue reading →
Part I of a Series on Racism and Infiltration
In the aftermath of the racist tweet and multiple, contradictory „explanations“ by Greta Berlin, much attention has been focussed on the letter published as an appendix to Larry Derfner’s second article on the subject, in which a number of purported members of the „secret group“ corroborate Berlin’s claim that nothing untoward or anti-Semitic was going on in the group in question. Benjamin Doherty revealed, in successive articles on Electronic Intifada, that a number of the signatories were in fact sockpuppets controlled by one Ofer Engel. Another central figure, however, has largely avoided the spotlight.
Before we proceed, however, it is important to keep in mind that the following is not about any one individual, though a number of individuals will be given their time to shine. No, this is about the Palestinian solidarity movement as a whole: What we are and seek to do as a movement, and those who would hijack us for their own purposes.
Yani Haigh and The Trollpen
Jon „Yani“ Haigh: Not One for Subtlety
The final signatory on the „nothing to see here“ letter is a Queensland web designer and photographer by the name of Jon „Yani“ Haigh. He is, in Facebook terminology, the „owner“ of the „secret group“ Any Topic NOT Israel (and a regular in a number of related groups), and operates a number of anonymous and aesthetically nondescript websites, including thebestplans.org and peacearchitects.org.
This article, the first in a series dealing with the activities and associates of Jon „Yani“ Haigh, will seek to provide a brief introduction to Haigh himself, and his close associate Kamal Nawash of the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism. In future articles, we will look at other figures on the „Free Muslims“ Board, including the inimitable Ray Hanania, and other organisations and agencies with which Haigh and his associates collaborate.
Jon „Yani“ Haigh: Jews suck
A recurring theme in his posts is that „Jews suck“, and can only redeem themselves by being baptised Christian, and by boycotting Jewish community institutions and events (along the lines of Herskowitz‘ schul picket). Alternatively, repentant Jews may simply send money to peacearchitects.org. Conflict, unsurprisingly, follows Haigh like the CIA follows Julian Assange.
The same can be said of other regulars of the „secret group“ and affiliated groups, such as fellow signatory Kyle O’Laughlin, who divides his time in Any Topic NOT Israel fairly evenly between complaining that African-American pride is welcomed whilst „White Pride“ is – shockingly enough – considered racist and posting links together with his comrade James Linden Rose on how the KKK and other white supremacist groups are in fact Jewish front groups designed to make white people look bad and thwart Ron Paul’s perennial presidential run.
„KKKyle“ O’Laughlin Laments That „White Pride“ is Considered Racist
Whilst the groups Any Topic NOT Israel, Our Land, and Free Muslims all have anodyne descriptions about getting to know each other and coming up with plans for peace, etc., and mission statements banning racism and flaming, the groups themselves bear little resemblance to these noble sentiments. In point of fact, the groups operate as a breeding and training ground for trolls, particularly those (like O’Laughlin, Linden Rose, and Haigh) of the white supremacist variety, mixed together with a few of the more vocal Zionist trolls. There, they engage in their preferred versions of racism, and hurl accusations back and forth about collaboration, snitching, and participation in world conspiracies of one sort or another, with little to no moderation in sight. One does have to wonder what the purpose of creating and administering a network of racist trollpens would be.
Greta Berlin, as luck would have it, is a member in several of these groups, though the exact
James Linden Rose on „Rule By Jew“
circumstances of her joining them will likely remain unclear, given the fog of bullshit that surrounds her and her cohorts‘ descriptions of the groups.
The Company He Keeps
Yani Haigh, it must be said, is a rather embarrassing person to have vouch for one’s anti-racist credentials. Indeed, were it not for his signature on the „nothing to see here“ letter and the creepily detailed set of mindmaps with which, by his own account, he monitors over 200 Facebook groups „to track troublemakers“, he would be an annoying boor of little consequence; he would merely be someone to avoid sitting in front of at the Gabba when the footie’s on, but would not merit much attention beyond that.
However, over the course of the past week, facts have emerged to place Haigh’s combination of racist boorishness and meticulous surveillance into a broader context. One of the websites Haigh designed and operates, thebestplans.org, is that of an organisation founded by one Kamal Nawash, Esq., Haigh’s employer and fellow member of the groups in question.
Kamal Nawash is a Palestinian-American lawyer, with an LL.M. from American University’s Washington College of Law.
After a stint as counsel for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), in 2003, apparently with the support of hard-right Republican activist Grover Norquist, Nawash stood for election to a seat in the Virginia state Senate. His Senate run was ultimately unsuccessful due to the general climate of scapegoating and criminalisation of Muslim and Arab life in the US.
Some might be led by such an experience to campaign against racism and bigotry. Not Kamal Nawash. Shortly after his electoral defeat, Nawash founded the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terror (and later, its Facebook counterpart, the group „Free Muslims“), an organisation largely dedicated to providing public relations cover to US government repression of the Arab and Muslim community. One view one finds repeated throughout the autobiographies of the Free Muslims Board members is that it is Muslim ideology – and not, say, decades of murderous US and US-sponsored violence against them and their countries – that is at fault for any problems in the Muslim community and the Middle East.
In 2004, the Free Muslims organised a March Against Terror, which was endorsed by a diverse cross-section of people and organisations dedicated to bigotry against Arabs and Muslims (such as Daniel Pipes), to organisations and people dedicated to more general bigotry (RIGHTALK.com), to fellow alibi Muslims such as Zuhdi Jasser of the „American Islamic Forum for Democracy“, to a wide assortment of right-wing organisations that no one had ever heard of and/or offer no proof that they actually exist (such as the „Government of Free Vietnam“, made up of former officials from the US puppet dictatorship who claim to be the legitimate government on account of having been elected fair and square to the position by four US presidents in a row).
Apparently, Nawash’s March Against Terror (and explicitly in support of Bush) caught a few eyes in Washington, because, in 2005, he was rewarded by the Bush White House with an appointment as US envoy to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Around the same time (2003-2007), Nawash began contributing to FrontPagemag.com, the far-right blog run by Stalinist-turned-fascist David Horowitz, who also operates the neo-McCarthyite campus group CampusWatch and the right-wing private intelligence organisation Discover The Networks. Nawash’s articles include titles such as We Are So Sorry for 9-11, French Riots: A Gift from the Open Borders Lobby, and the KCNA-esque Free Muslims Congratulate President George Bush.
This period in the life of Kamal Nawash has been very helpfully chronicled by none other than Daniel Pipes himself. As of 11 September 2003, Nawash earned a strong blast of scorn from the Pipes for suggesting that the Bush administration’s „anti-terrorism“ (i.e., pro-repression) plan raised concerns about „basic Constitutional rights“:
Of particular interest (given that several 9/11 hijackers used a student cover), is Nawash’s objection to the U.S. government tracking foreign students, protesting (nonsensically) that this step would indicate „a willingness to restrict scientific knowledge and scholarship to certain classes of people and to flout, basically, principles of academic freedom.“ Sounds like this man opposes the war on terrorism; in any case, he sure makes for a strange Republican candidate.
Throughout 2003, Pipes had nothing but contempt for Nawash, who was raising objections to the Clinton-era Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which allows the executive branch unilaterally to ban organisations as „terrorist organisations“, and criminalises anyone associated with them, criticising the designation of Palestinian groups disfavoured by the US regime as „terrorist“, and generally raising fairly mild questions about the human rights implications of the „war on terror“. Of US Senator John Warner (R-VA), who had endorsed Nawash’s candidacy for the Virginia state Senate, Pipes wrote: „Virginians might wish to inform their senior senator that he is, to put it mildly, going out on a limb on this one.“
By 2004, however, another tune began to be blown on the Pipes. In noting Nawash’s formation of the Free Muslims group, Pipes writes:
It sounds good and it has been getting lots of good publicity, but given Nawash’s record on terrorism, as established here (his dismissing the concept, his close ties to a person alleged to fund terrorism), I need to be convinced that this leopard has changed his spots.
By 2005, we find Pipes explicitly endorsing the Free Muslims March Against Terror, particularly chuffed that one Khaleel Mohammed „denounc[ed] CAIR“.
Whilst Pipes begins expressing sceptical endorsement (and Pipes has no other kind of endorsement on offer for Arabs and Muslims), by 2006, some within the exceedingly mild-mannered antidiscrimination group CAIR were expressing concern with Nawash and the way in which his remarks were eagerly snapped up by the likes of Daniel Pipes.
In two short years, Kamal Nawash went, in the mind of racist „smearcaster“ Daniel Pipes, from something akin to the 20th hijacker to one of the Good Muslims. A remarkable transformation, to say the least.
Pipes‘ timeline ends in 2008, but one can imagine that he would see no reason to reconsider his assessment in the light of subsequent events. In 2011, Nawash endorsed the neo-McCarthyite hearings chaired by Rep. Peter King on the „radicalisation of American Muslims“, and condemned the Muslim and Arab-American antidiscrimination organisations for their opposition to King’s efforts to further scapegoat and criminalise the Muslim community. When it was revealed this year that the NYPD had, for years, been carrying out a massive, illegal programme of spying on virtually the entire Muslim community of the Five Boroughs, Nawash, along with representatives of other Muslim astroturf groups organised a joint rally in support of the NYPD spying effort with none other than Rep. King himself.
Looking at this trajectory, one might be excused for speculating that Nawash’s conversion from moderate Republican and defender of Muslim and Arab-American rights to Pipes pet was not entirely free of opportunism.
Opportunism, as we will see as this series progresses, is something of an overarching theme.
* * * * * * *
UPDATE: In the twelve hours since this post went live, someone temporarily shut down my Facebook account, and there was an attempt to hack this blog. It appears someone might have succeeded in changing my blog password, thus preventing me getting in. All appears well now, but it does seem that someone is not exactly chuffed to bits that this article was published. They will be positively unecstatic about the subsequent parts of this series.
Meanwhile, Ali Abunimah has published his „final word“ on the debacle that gave rise to this series:
Should I have been more explicit about what I saw? Perhaps, but I had my reasons to take a more restrained approach. I had hoped that by sounding the alarm, and signaling that Berlin’s explanations were not credible, Berlin herself would begin to take the issue seriously, and that the new Free Gaza board would do the same. Sadly that did not happen.
The most dispiriting spectacle over the past two weeks was seeing Berlin disseminating, and a small group of people embellishing, outlandish stories intended to distract and shift the blame on to those who were asking for accountability.
Almost every day, I’ve received emails alleging, among other things, that I am a “Zionist agent,” that I’ve been “conned” by Israel into attacking Berlin so that Israel can steal Gaza’s natural gas, that I am engaged in a “vendetta” because Berlin endorsed a book I didn’t like, and so on. A few of these messages came from people I had previously believed to be reasonable and sensible, which added to the disappointment.
Read the full article here.
Bekah Wolf of Mondoweiss has also come out with a piece very germane to the topic of this series, documenting what some of us had been saying since this began: This wasn’t just one accidental tweet. Alas, Greta Berlin has form.
Some people have come to Greta’s defense, accepting her assertion that this was a technical mistake, that she did not support the content of the video, and that those who have criticized her response to the “mistake” are on a witch hunt. I’d like to acknowledge that the Free Gaza Movement was not synonymous with Greta Berlin; some of my good friends and people I deeply respect were leaders of that movement and their work and commitment should in no way be minimized by this.
Setting aside Greta’s woefully inadequate explanations for the tweet (of which there were several), the fact remains: Greta is an active administrator of a Facebook group that is full of unabashedly anti-Semitic rhetoric and has been called out before by activists for it but has never done anything to challenge or stop it. Since the controversy broke, the “Our Land” group has attempted to cover some of its tracks. The fact that Greta remains an active administrator of a Facebook group that accommodates this kind of bigotry raises serious issues about her commitment to building an anti-racist movement committed to justice and equality. Moreover, her unprincipled, vicious andIslamophobic attacks on the Palestinians who have called her to task for her behavior should alarm all of us who are committed to Palestine solidarity work.
The full article can be found here.
Das Szenenblog Politiski Njeprawy ("Politisch unrichtig")
BUDYŠIN, 19.08.2010 – Auf der Hauptseite des Szenenblogs Politiski Njeprawy wurde heute der Start der neuen Bürgerbewegung Pro Łužyca angekündigt. Die Bewegung, so Pressesprecher Czesław Šimanski, diene „dem Schutz der Kultur und der Werte unserer sorbischen Heimat“.
„Man sieht es, und will es doch nicht wahrhaben“, heißt es in der auf PN veröffentlichten Presserklärung, „zusehends wird unsere Heimat unterwandert und überfremdet. Man kann jede Stadt, jedes Dorf unseres schönen Landes besuchen, ohne ein einziges Mal unsere Landessprache zu hören.“
Schuld an diesen laut Presserklärung „verheerenden Zuständen“ sei eine „schleichende Germanisierung“ durch integrationsunwillige, bildungsferne Deutsche.
Unter der Überschrift Wissen Sie, was das kostet? schimpft der Verband über die „Millionen und Abermillionen“, die angeblich für zweisprachige Straßenschilder ausgegeben werden müssen. Es sei schon so weit, daß selbst Gemeinden umbenannt werden müssen:
Unsere Hauptstadt Choćebuz mußte neulich in Cottbus umbenannt werden, weil unsere ‚deutschen Mitbürger’ (wie sie von den politisch korrekten Gutmenschen immerzu genannt werden) nicht einmal in der Lage sind, einen derart einfachen Ortsnamen auszusprechen. Dabei heißt ‚Cott-Bus’ nach Auskunft unserer Sprachexperten soviel wie ‚Wagen zum Transport von Exkrementen’.
Auch Přibor, Budyšin und Křišow sind „dem politisch korrekten Umbenennungswahn zum Opfer gefallen“. Heute heißen sie Finsterwalde, Bautzen und Buchholz.
Die Bürgerbewegung Pro Łužyca (Pro Lausitz) engagiert sich laut Satzung für "mehr Freiräume für Germanenkritik"
Anlaß der Gründung der Bürgerinitiative war eine Protestveranstaltung gegen den Bau einer Currywurstbude in der Bohata hasa in Budyšin. „Wir können angesichts dieser Provokation nicht mehr schweigen“, hieß es in einem der auf der Kundgebung verteilten Flugblätter. „Es gibt in unserem Land inzwischen mehrere Tausend Currywurstbuden. Sie überfremden unsere Landschaft und verschmutzen unsere Luft mit merkwürdigen Gerüchen.“ Die Errichtung möglichst vieler Currywurstbuden gehöre zu einer festen Vorgehensweise: „Erst bauen die eine Currywurstbude. Dann dauert es nicht mehr lange, bis sie auch noch den Bau eines Einwohnermeldeamtes beantragen, den sie nach ständiger Rechtsprechung auch genehmigt kriegen müssen.“
Dies entspreche den strategischen Zielen der Germanisierer, die nach Angaben zahlreicher Demonstranten im „Komplotthandbuch“ Battis/Krautzberger/ Löhr BauGB enthalten seien. „BauGB ist ein Codewort von denen. Das heißt ‚Baut zur Germanisierung von Budyšin!‘“
„Der Deutsche liebt Karteien über alles. Er will möglichst alles erfassen, aber wenn du in der Kartei schon drin bist, kommst du nicht mal als Leiche wieder raus!“
Dem Zuzug der Deutschen nach Łužyca seien auch fragwürdige Organisationen gefolgt, meint Pressesprecher Šimanski. Besonders schlimm sei die „angeblich friedliche politische Vereinigung CDU“:
Diese Organisation nennt sich in der Öffentlichkeit ‚Christlich-demokratische Union’. Das klingt ja total unbedenklich – wer wird schon was gegen demokratische Christen haben? Aber wir wissen inzwischen ganz genau, daß diese Organisation in nicht unerheblichem Ausmaß mit Schwarzgeld finanziert wird. Und sie können sich hierzulande noch so friedliebend und demokratisch geben – unsere Forscher haben dokumentieren können, daß die CDU an mehreren Bombenanschlägen und Attentaten in Afghanistan beteiligt gewesen ist, und daß sie dort heute noch Tausende schwerbewaffnete Kämpfer bereithält. Für uns steht jedenfalls fest, daß CDU in Wirklichkeit ‚Choćebuz droht der Untergang‘ heißt!
Der Pressesprecher wollte jedoch klarstellen, daß er nichts gegen Deutsche an sich habe:
Die Sorben sind ein gastfreundliches Volk, das sich über jeden Besuch freut. Aber beim Besuch soll es dann gefälligst bleiben. Wir werden nicht mehr tatenlos zusehen, während unsere Städte mit Currywurstbuden verunstaltet werden und man die Vorgärten unserer Bürger vollkotzt ‚weil Rosenmontag is’.
