15 ‘Useful Infidels’ for Muslim Brotherhood in America

By Leo Hohmann

Morris Dees of the SPLC is one of the global Islamic movement's best assets, according to the Middle East Forum's new report titled '15 Useful Infidels'
Morris Dees of the SPLC is one of the global Islamic movement’s best assets, according to the Middle East Forum’s new report titled ’15 Useful Infidels’

Everyone has heard of “useful idiots,” a term coined decades ago and widely attributed to Vladimir Lenin, the leader of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, who promised to bring down capitalism from within.

But the Muslim Brotherhood, a leader in the global Islamic movement, learned a lot of tricks from its old communist buddies, say those who have studied the organization.

They, too, have learned how to borrow from within.

The Brotherhood’s revealing document, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for North America,” which was seized by the FBI in 2004, states that the brothers “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions” (emphasis added).

To accomplish this task of infiltrating and destroying from within, the Brotherhood needs useful idiots, just like the communists did.

Now, a group of researchers has exposed the identities of some of these pawns.

Middle East Forum, which is headed by the noted historian and Islam scholar Daniel Pipes, puts a new twist on the old theme by calling those on the list “Useful Infidels.”

useful infidelsMEF’s Islamist Watch project has published a “Field Guide to Useful Infidels” for journalists that includes what it believes are 15 pro-Islamist puppets. Among them are politicians like Chris Christie, CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, actor Ben Affleck and Secretary of State John Kerry. They are found on the left as well as on the right.

Useful infidels employ various tactics, according to the report’s summary:

“Some seek to redefine the threat by arguing that ISIS killers should not be described as Muslim terrorists out of fear that doing so would provide ‘the type of Islamic legitimacy that they are so desperately seeking, but which they don’t deserve at all.’ Others seek to distract from the Islamist threat by claiming there is a deluge of anti-Muslim hate crimes or non-Muslim threats of violence where few exist.

“Some cooperate with Islamist groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Others focus on depriving law enforcement of the necessary training and resources to recognize and counter Islamist threats. Or they legitimize Islamists as the only representative and acceptable face of American Islam, to the detriment of moderate Muslims, who are ignored and powerless.

“Many useful infidels defame those who speak up about the threat of Islamism, both Muslim and non-Muslim, often accusing them of bigotry and claiming their critique, and not Islamism itself, is the cause of jihad, extremism, and violence. Some go so far as to compile blacklists of those accused of this alleged thought crime.”

So, with no further adieu, here are the top useful infidels – non-Muslims who do the bidding of some of the nastiest Islamist groups on the planet, including the Muslim Brotherhood:

Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck, actor: According to the report, the film star well-known for supporting liberal causes such as same-sex marriage, “has gained the most attention accusing others of bias toward the Arab-Islamic world.

“During an October 2014 debate on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Affleck famously called the anti-Islamist views expressed by Maher and fellow panelist Sam Harris ‘gross’ and ‘racist … like saying, ‘you shifty Jew.’

“The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Islamist group named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, subsequently added Affleck to a list of individuals it deems worthy of thanks from Muslims.”

amanpourChristiane Amanpour, journalist, chief foreign correspondent for CNN: She is well-known for injecting her opinion into so-called news reports for CNN. “Amanpour sparked considerable controversy with her 2007 series CNN Presents: God’s Warriors, which drew equivalency between Islamist terrorists and Israeli settlers. Even liberal MSNBC host Dan Abrams accused the veteran journalist of the ‘worst type of moral relativism’ for failing to ‘distinguish between Islamic terrorists who utilize fierce violence to achieve warped goals, and the merely fiercely religious or even just those who fiercely believe in the state of Israel.'”

Read the full Middle East Forum report on “Useful Infidels.”

Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong, British-born writer and broadcaster: Two of her early books charted the course she would take as an intellectual: 1991’s “Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet,” which won the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award, and 1993’s “A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”

She later penned “Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time.”

“Armstrong believes that Islamist terror is motivated by ‘humiliation’ caused by colonial abuse of the Muslim world and continued Western support for repressive Arab regimes and Israel,” the report states.

“Every fundamentalist movement that I’ve studied, in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is rooted in a profound fear of annihilation,” Armstrong once wrote.

Armstrong spoke at the 2012 annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, an organization originally founded by Muslim Brotherhood activists and named as a co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial.

Learn more about the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan to transform America, one city at a time, in the blockbuster new release “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.”

Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal

Max Blumenthal, journalist and author, and son of Clinton family confidante Sidney Blumenthal.

After the Obama administration took office, Blumenthal shifted his focus to Israel and became an outspoken supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction, or BDS, movement. His 2013 book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” drew condemnation even from left-wing critics of Israel. The Nation’s Eric Alterman blasted the book, claiming it “could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed).”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has listed Blumenthal as one of the country’s most prominent anti-Semites. Tablet has described his work as “anti-Zionist polemic dripping with cartoon-like, racially weighted depictions of Israeli Jews. What distinguishes him from many other anti-Zionist writers is not his political views, but the obsessive nature of his work, which seems animated not by moral passion or analysis but by hate.”

Blumenthal sees so-called “Islamophobia” as a conspiracy by the pro-Israel lobby. Blumenthal has appeared as a speaker at numerous fundraising banquets for CAIR.

John Brennan was sworn in as CIA director in March 2013
John Brennan was sworn in as CIA director in March 2013

John Brennan, CIA director, national security operative. He served in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, then came out of retirement to join Obama’s team, according to the report, “because of a shared philosophical approach to the Middle East. In particular, he has advocated for compromise with Iran and for engagement with Islamists at home and abroad.”

Under pressure from Muslim organizations alleging that the FBI employed bigoted training materials, Brennan in 2011 oversaw a purge of FBI training manuals deemed offensive to Muslims, using the standards of CAIR, ISNA and other Muslim Brotherhood groups to determine what was offensive.

Some of Brennan’s more disturbing quotes are as follows:

“Nor do we describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenant [sic] of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.” — White House press conference, May 26, 2010.

“In all my travels the city I have come to love most is al-Quds, Jerusalem” (using the Arabic term for the city in first reference). — Speech at New York University, Feb. 13, 2010.

“President Obama [does not] see this challenge as a fight against ‘jihadists.’ Describing terrorists in this way — using a legitimate term, ‘jihad,’ meaning to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal — risks giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve.” — Remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Aug. 6, 2009.

Gov. Chris Christie
Gov. Chris Christie

Chris Christie, politician. The governor of New Jersey since 2010, Christie formerly served as a federal prosecutor appointed by George W. Bush. He was one of the first Republicans to endorse Donald Trump for president.

But Christie has a long history of enabling Islamists while in office. In 2011, he chose Islamist Sohail Mohammed to be a judge for New Jersey’s superior court. When members of New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Mohammed about his expressed support for Shariah (Islamic law), Christie ridiculed them as “crazies” (winning praise from CAIR-New Jersey).

When revelations that the New York Police Department (NYPD) had carried out surveillance of Islamists in New Jersey surfaced in 2012, Christie lashed out at the NYPD. “I don’t know if this NYPD action was born out of arrogance, or out of paranoia, or out of both,” he said, “but we’re taking a real good, strong hard look at it.”

In 2008, Christie kissed and hugged Mohammad Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, shortly after he made anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas statements. Christie further instructed Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna to act as a character witness at his deportation hearing.

In 2010, he approved a New Jersey Transit employee’s termination because he publicly burned three pages of a Quran. Derek Fenton received the American Civil Liberties Union’s help in successfully getting his job back.

Some of his disturbing quotes:

“My view is he’s always had a very good relationship with us, and he’s a man of great goodwill.” — Remarks on Imam Qatanani, Sept. 3, 2008.

“Sharia law has nothing to do with this at all. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. … So, this Sharia law business is crap. It’s just crazy. And I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. I mean, you know, it’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.” — Responding to criticism of his appointment of Sohail Mohammed, board member and co-founder of the Islamist organization American Muslim Union, to a state superior court, July 26, 2011.

SPLC Founder Morris Dees
SPLC Founder Morris Dees

Morris Dees, co-founder and chief litigator for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dees made his living originally by combatting black poverty and filing lawsuits against hate groups like the KKK, successfully bankrupting many of them while enriching himself and using direct mail to warn of an alleged resurgence of white supremacism. “No resurgence ever came, but the alarmism enabled the SPLC to develop one of the largest war chests of all American nonprofits [$303 million in 2014],” the report states.

“With the decline of the KKK and other above-ground racist organizations in recent years, the SPLC cast about for more ‘extremists’ with whom to alarm the public.”

Far-left journalist Alexander Cockburn has called Dees the “arch-salesman of hate-mongering.”

An example of this was SPLC’s condemnation of GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson as an “extremist,” citing mainly his position in favor of traditional marriage, a position held by millions of American Christians, not to mention Muslims.

Dees has partnered with groups such as the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America to wage campaigns against individuals and groups leading the fight against Islamism, branding them “anti-Muslim” bigots.

SPLC speakers have participated in events organized by U.S. Islamist groups (e.g., MPAC in August 2012 and CAIR-Alabama in March 2016).

Matt Duss, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. In 2011, he co-authored “Fear Inc.: The roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” a detailed report accusing “misinformation experts” of “spreading hate and misinformation” about Islam, which he considers a religion of peace.

John Esposito, professor of religion and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, the founding director of its Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, the founding director of ACMCU’s Bridge Initiative, which “connects the academic study of Islamophobia with the public square.”

Throughout his long career, Esposito has argued that political Islam offers the best pathway for the Muslim world to enter modernity and has striven to de-emphasize the connection between Islamism and violence, blaming terrorism instead on grievances concerning European colonialism and American support for Israel.

Consequently, Esposito has vigorously sought to discredit critics of Islamism, sponsoring and participating in numerous academic events focused on “Islamophobia,” the subject of his 2011 book, “Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century.”

Glenn Greenwald, journalist, civil rights lawyer and activist, best known for publishing the Snowden revelations in the Guardian.

Greenwald loves to attack what he perceives as widespread anti-Muslim bigotry, attributing it in part to the pernicious influence of the Jewish lobby. He routinely argues that American Jews are loyal to Israel exclusively and deliberately foment violence against the Muslim world.

Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald

Greenwald is a frequent speaker at CAIR national and chapter events. Most notably, for CAIR-Los Angeles’s annual summit in 2013, Greenwald addressed the event by video, describing CAIR as “the most steadfast and fearless” of the “handful of organizations that have stood really firm and steadfast in defense of our basic constitutional protections.”

Greenwald has made many comments in support of Hamas and Hezbollah but one of his most inflammatory statements came in 2015 in an article for the Intercept: “But there are all kinds of pernicious taboos in the West … why is violence by Muslims the most menacing one? Violence spurred by Jewish and Christian fanaticism is legion, from abortion doctors being murdered to gay bars being bombed to a 45-year-old brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza due in part to the religious belief (common in both the U.S. and Israel) that God decreed they shall own all the land.”

Secretary of State John Kerry
Secretary of State John Kerry

John Kerry, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts and current secretary of state in the Obama administration.

Kerry spearheaded a failed effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and a successful effort to accommodate Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He also once said that climate change is as dangerous, if not more so, than ISIS.

Here are some of his words of wisdom:

“Daesh [ISIS] is in fact nothing more than a mixture of killers, of kidnappers, of criminals, of thugs, of adventurers, of smugglers and thieves… And they are also above all apostates, people who have hijacked a great religion and lie about its real meaning and lie about its purpose and deceive people in order to fight for their purposes.” — Remarks at a press conference in Rome, Feb. 2, 2016.

“Iran was hurtling towards an unaccounted for, uninspected, full-fledged nuclear program with high levels of enrichment where they had enough enriched material to make 10 to 12 bombs. … Now, frankly, at Iran’s consent and agreement, they have rolled that back.” — CNBC, Jan. 20, 2016.

Grover Norquist
Grover Norquist

Grover Norquist is one of the most influential libertarian-conservative activists of his generation. For three decades, his non-profit Americans for Tax Reform has petitioned politicians across the country to sign a “Taxpayer Protection Pledge”: no increase in net taxes. But Norquist’s influence has spread beyond ATR. He founded the influential Washington, D.C.-based Wednesday Meeting, a gathering of Republican and conservative activists. He is a board member of the National Rifle Association as well as the American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.

Norquist took two checks of $10,000 each from Abdurahman Alamoudi to start the Islamic Free Market Institute. Alamoudi would later be convicted on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 23 years in jail.

Norquist appointed Alamoudi’s deputy Khaled Saffuri to run the organization.

Norquist went with prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Jamal Al-Barzinji to the treasury secretary’s office to demand the end of the use of “secret evidence” at terrorist trials.

On Sept. 26, 2001, Norquist arranged a meeting between George W. Bush and Islamists Salam Al-Marayati, Dr. Yahya Basha and Muzammil Siddiqi.

Norquist facilitated the placement of Suhail Khan, an alleged Islamist agent of influence, into the Bush administration. In 2011, Khan would tell activists at CPAC: “There is no Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

In an interview with ThinkProgress.org, he said, on the subject of “Islamophobia” Republicans should “[K]nock that stuff down and just make it clear that there’s no place for that in the party of Reagan.”

Read the full Middle East Forum list of 15 “Useful Infidels.”

Learn more about the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan to transform America, one city at a time, in the blockbuster new release “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.”

Leo Hohmann

Leo Hohmann has been a reporter and news editor at WND as well as several suburban newspapers in the Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, areas. He also served as managing editor of Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina. His latest book is "Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration And Resettlement Jihad." Read more of Leo Hohmann's articles here.


Leave a Comment