POLICY BRIEF: Mainstreaming Hate
Mainstreaming Hate: The Far-Right Fringe Origins of Islamophobic and Anti-Refugee Politics
Policy Brief by J. Dana Stuster and Samuel Davidoff-Gore
December 2015
To read the full report, click here.
The National Security Network (NSN) is pleased to release a new policy brief, Mainstreaming Hate: The Far-Right Fringe Origins of Islamophobic and Anti-Refugee Politics.
Since the November 13 terrorist attack in Paris, politicians have seized on reports of participation in the attacks by alleged Syrian refugees to impugn U.S. efforts to resettle 10,000 refugees displaced by the Islamic State and the violence of the Syrian civil war – a relatively small number of refugees in relation to the overall number of people displaced from Syria and the burden on other nations accepting Syrian refugees. These political attacks are irrational and disconnected from events. They ignore key facts, most importantly the drastic differences between the relatively unchecked refugee flow into Europe and the thorough and time-intensive vetting process involved in the U.S. resettlement program. Some Republican presidential candidates have gone further and proposed measures that would circumscribe the rights of Muslim-Americans that are protected by the First Amendment.
The current political climate is the culmination of a years-long and well-funded effort to bring Islamophobia and xenophobia from the far-right fringe to the political mainstream. This rhetoric and legislation has a direct lineage stemming from a network of hate groups and conspiracy theorists. The legitimization of these extremists’ views in the political discourse is an irresponsible denigration of American democracy.
In the News
- Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Has Gone From Fringe To Mainstream, Report Says, ThinkProgress
- The Man Behind Donald Trump’s Latest Policy Platform Is a Crackpot Anti-Muslim Extremist, Gawker
To read the full report, click here.
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