That would be the 2016 “Field Guide” written by Mark Potok that they created to try to silence voices they disapprove of (yours truly is on it!).
This time their shoddy research cost them big bucks and a black eye.
I told you about Maajid Nawaz’s case here.
From Fox News:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced Monday that it would pay $3.375 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a British anti-extremism group that was put on a list of “anti-Muslim extremists.”
In a statement, the Alabama-based SPLC apologized to the Quilliam Foundation and its founder, Maajid Nawaz.
“Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists,” the statement read in part. “We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam, and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best.”
In 2016, the SPLC included Nawaz and Quilliam in an online publication called “A Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” The list, which included conservative blogger Pamela Geller and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, drew ire from across the political spectrum.
That October, left-wing British writer Nick Cohen accused the SPLC of “[doing] the dirty work of the misogynists, the racists, the homophobes, the censors, and the murderers it was founded to oppose” in calling Nawaz an extremist. In June 2017, Nawaz told Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” that the SPLC was “ideologically driven to silence any voice that introspects from within the Muslim community.”
The list has since been removed from the SPLC’s website and replaced with the statement apologizing to Nawaz and Quilliam.
[….]
The settlement marked another black eye for the SPLC, which has repeatedly been accused of branding some conservative organizations as “hate groups.” In March, the SPLC was forced to retract an article accusing reporters of enabling white supremacists and anti-Semites.
More here.
Here is my post (I made a joke of it!) when I was initially named on the list of 15 that included in addition to Nawaz, Ayan Hirsi Ali and Pamela Geller some outspoken critics of Islamic supremacism.
(Presumably anyone following this case long ago downloaded the now deleted Field Guide and its ‘proof’ for future reference.)
Taking flak = over the target!
I’m sure I was placed on the list because the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (one of nine federal refugee contractors and close friends with the SPLC) was not happy with the facts I put out about the big money/fat salaries involved in the refugee industry in the US and had hoped to silence me or to at least make sure no one in the mainstream media listened to me.
Here are the others rounding out the list: Steve Emerson, Brigitte Gabriel, Frank Gaffney, John Guandolo, David Horowitz, Ryan Mauro, Robert Muise, Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebot, Robert Spencer and David Yerushalmi.
By the way, below are screenshots of the cover and the credits page. Until now I hadn’t realized that Media Matters for America and others were involved in this shameful project.
My previous posts on the Southern Poverty Law Center are here.
If you are running a struggling non-profit group that has been targeted by the SPLC, maybe you should try a lawsuit to boost your budget!