U.S. Far-Left Group SPLC To Pay Counter-Extremist Maajid Nawaz $3.3M Settlement
U.S. Far-Left Group SPLC To Pay Counter-Extremist Maajid Nawaz $3.3M Settlement Over Anti-Muslim ‘Hate List
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June 8, 208
Chris Tomlinson
The settlement amount was announced by Mr Nawaz on Twitter Monday following a lawsuit brought against the group last year for including him on their “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.”
Nawaz included a press release from the anti-extremist Quilliam group which he co-founded that said not only was the SPLC paying Nawaz and Quilliam $3.375 million U.S. dollars but also formally apologized to Nawaz for including him on their “hate list.”
The statement adds that SPLC president Richard Cohen said, ” Mr Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamic extremism.”
Last year Nawaz commented on the motivation behind the lawsuit saying, “The Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, who made their money suing the KKK, was set up to defend people like me but now have become the monster they have claimed they wanted to defeat.”
“Placing my name on a list like this not only smears my name but also puts me in physical danger,” he added.
The fear of physical danger is not unwarranted as a case in 2012 proved when a man named Floyd Lee Corkins III used an SPLC hate-list as a guide when he broke into Family Research Council (FRC) offices with the intent of killing everyone in the office.
Corkins later admitted in a videotaped interview that he used the SPLC list to choose his target.
Following the announcement of victory in the lawsuit Nawaz first wroteon Twitter, “I don’t **** around,” and later released a video calling on the SPLC to work with Quilliam in order to combat far-right extremism, far-left extremism and Islamic extremism.
Nawaz has been vocal on many topics regarding Muslim extremism and has even spoken out against Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs, slamming politicians in Telford earlier this year saying, “Time and time again, they have found that British Pakistani and Bangladeshi south-Asian Muslim men, like me, have been involved in grooming underage white girls and targeting them in what I would describe as racially-motivated sexual assault.”
“For fear of racism — the local politicians for fear of losing votes and police for fear of being sacked by those politicians — have been hiding this situation. Of course, this led to a national inquiry — we know that because the conclusions of that inquiry were the same,” he said.
The SPLC also put out a statement on their website apologizing to Nawaz and Quilliam saying, “after getting a deeper understanding of their views and after hearing from others for whom we have great respect, we realize that we were simply wrong to have included Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam in the Field Guide in the first place.”
Regarding the 3.3m dollar settlement, the group said, “It was the right thing to do in light of our mistake and the right thing to do in light of the growing prejudice against the Muslim community on both sides of the Atlantic. We will look to our insurance carrier to cover the cost of the settlement.”
While the SPLC does list many neo-Nazi and far-right organisations and movements across North America, it has largely neglected far-left extremism, with no mention of extremist groups like Antifa on their “hate lists.”
On their website, the SPLC answered why they don’t consider Antifa a “hate group” saying, “The SPLC condemns violence in all its forms, including the violent acts of far-left street movements like Antifa (short for anti-fascist). But the propensity for violence, though present in many hate groups, is not among the criteria for listing.”
The SPLC also has links to other far-left “anti-hate” organisations across the globe including UK-based HOPE not Hate who also have little to say on far-left extremism.
Earlier this year the organisation published the address of a private Identitarian conference which was then seen by Antifa who showed up in the area hours later causing violence. One far-left extremist was arrested by police after attacking a conference attendee.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018...-on-hate-list/
