bill federer wm

Another anti-Muslim figurehead involved with CNP is <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr"> Frank Gaffney</a>.

A former Ronald Reagan administration staffer, Gaffney has since become

one of the most prolific anti-Muslim propagandists in the country. He

is gripped by paranoid fantasies of foreign entities such as the Muslim

Brotherhood infiltrating and supplanting the U.S. from within. Gaffney

founded the anti-Muslim hate group <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/center-security-policy"> Center for Security Policy</a> and now serves in an executive chairmanship role at the group.

    <font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pix Frank Gaffney, founder and president of

the Center for Security Policy, testifies during a hearing of the Senate

Judiciary Committee in 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win

McNamee/Getty Images)

</div>

Hatewatch first reported on Gaffney’s CNP membership in the

publication of the group’s 2014 roster. He is listed as a “Gold Circle

Member” in CNP’s September 2020 membership roster. Gold Circle Members

pay a yearly fee of $10,000, as shown by nomination documents. Like

Gabriel, Gaffney’s listed interests at CNP include “Radical Islam.”

Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2016, candidate Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458836388/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> used data</a>

from a shoddy survey commissioned by the Center for Security Policy to

justify his call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering

the United States.” The survey was done by The Polling Company,

Kellyanne Conway’s company. Conway served as Trump’s senior counselor

and was a member of CNP’s executive committee from 2014 to 2015, tax

records show.

Like other anti-Muslim and far-right <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/03/24/hate-group-leaders-antigovernment-extremists-push-anti-china-coronavirus-rhetoric"> actors</a>,

CNP has begun to frame China as a new Cold War-style adversary. Gaffney

and his group are active in stoking alarmism about the supposed threat

from China. At a CNP conference in August 2020 in Arlington, Virginia,

the coalition’s sister lobbying arm CNP Action, Inc., hosted a panel

titled “Reckoning with China: Action Steps,” according to a <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/10/27/secretive-council-for-national-policy-closely-tied-to-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> leaked copy</a> of the agenda obtained by the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy. The panel featured Gaffney as a participant.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a right-wing activist who is married to U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is also a CNP member and counts

“Radical Islam” among her interests. In 2013, Mother Jones <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> reported</a> Ginni Thomas and Gaffney were part of another right-wing strategy group known as Groundswell.

CNP has also included Islamophobic figures in its orbit and network.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Adviser who was

later pardoned by the former president after lying to the FBI, has ties

to CNP, though he is not listed as a member. Flynn spoke at a CNP Policy Counsel event in July 2016. His name is also <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentAllpress/status/1364480765199704069" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> associated</a> with a CNP Zoominfo <a href="https://archive.is/CF2Kz" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">account</a>,

as uncovered by investigative researcher Brent Allpress, suggesting

Flynn might be involved more formally with the coalition. Flynn has a

history of expressing anti-Islam sentiment, once <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-national-security-adviser-mike-flynn-called/story?id=43575658" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> calling</a>

the religion “a cancer.” In 2016, ACT for America advertised Flynn

serving on its board of advisers. He was also a keynote speaker at ACT’s

2016 conference in Washington, D.C.

In September 2017, longtime anti-Muslim figurehead <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-horowitz"> David Horowitz</a>

(who is not listed as a member) spoke at a CNP conference in Colorado

Springs, Colorado. The theme of the event and Horowitz’s presentation

was “Mapping the Left.” Horowitz heads the eponymously named David

Horowitz Freedom Center, a hate group known for spreading anti-Muslim

sentiment and helping fund other Islamophobic projects such as Jihad

Watch and FrontPage Magazine. Once a leftist in the 1960s, Horowitz now tries to smear his former political affiliation as being totalitarian.

Dr. Mark Christian is listed as a member of CNP’s Board of Governors,

which carries an annual fee of $6,000. Christian runs the anti-Muslim

hate group Global Faith Institute, a group that peddles Islamophobic

conspiracy theories while claiming to advocate for “the victims of

Islam.” Christian is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity. He

joins a cottage industry of former Muslims now disparaging their former

faith. Christian is willing to associate with extreme figures in the

anti-Muslim network, such as the former FBI agent turned anti-Muslim

hate figure <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/26/anti-muslim-figure-john-guandolo-posts-%E2%80%98cruel-and-inappropriate%E2%80%99-tweet-about-southwest"> John Guandolo</a>. Christian subscribes to the conspiracy theory that Islamic Sharia law is slowly “creeping” into American society.

“Islam has infiltrated all aspects of our life: our schools,

churches, media, courts, military and our government,” reads a 2017

Global Faith Institute email to supporters. “Every day we are losing

more of our freedom because of creeping sharia law.”

Christian did not answer a request for comment.

CNP’s rosters reveal the membership of other figures known for

spreading Islamophobic rhetoric. One is far-right historian William

“Bill” Federer, who treads in Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ conspiracy

theories. According to the watchdog and research group Right Wing Watch,

Federer <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-activist-exposes-the-obama-ferguson-islamist-homosexual-plot-to-destroy-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> once claimed</a>

that an “atheist homosexual gay agenda movement” will “open up” the

U.S. “to move into an Islamic future.” Federer has been featured at

events such as the Values Voter Summit, an annual conference put on by

the Family Research Council. Brigitte Gabriel has also spoken at the

Values Voter Summit in recent years, including 2018 and 2019. Family

Research Council’s executive vice president Jerry G. Boykin is also a

member of CNP.

Boykin has a track record of making anti-Muslim remarks, once <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/boykin-islam-should-not-be-protected-under-the-first-amendment/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> claiming </a> Islam should not be protected by the First Amendment. Boykin used <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7241287/CNP-Policy-Counsel-September-2014-Jerry-Boykin.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> similar rhetoric</a> in a 2014 news briefing for Policy Counsel,

a CNP publication and speaker series to inform the public on a “wide

range of topics” and “variety of opinions.” Boykin goes heavy on the

anti-Islam rhetoric in the article, which touches on the rise and

activities of the terrorist group ISIS at the time. Boykin took issue

with former President Barack Obama’s attempts to not conflate the

terrorist group with a religion of around 1.8 billion people.

“I think most Americans have figured this out,” Boykin said. “When

you say Isis [sic] is not Islam the rest doesn’t really matter because

if you are laying out a strategy that doesn’t start with an

understanding of your enemy and who you are up against and what

motivates him to do what he does the rest doesn’t matter.”

Boykin adds elsewhere: “One of the mistakes that we make about Islam

is that only 16% of Islam is actually a religion.” He claims the rest is

a legal, geopolitical and military system. Claiming Islam is not a

religion – or only part one – is a well-tread trope deployed by

Islamophobic figures. “But only 16% is an actual religion,” he said.

“And we make the mistake of thinking that it’s exactly like

Christianity. It is not.”

CNP’s Policy Counsel includes a disclaimer that views

expressed in the articles are not always representative of the

coalition. “These views should not be construed as the views of the

Council for National Policy, as an attempt to aid or hinder the

enactment of any legislation, or as an intervention in any political

campaign for public office,” the disclaimer reads.

However, as CNP papers brought to light by Documented reveal, the coalition has advocated for policies steeped in Islamophobia.

<h2>Turning interest into action...</h2>