ACT FOR AMERICA
A guide to ACT’s anti-Muslim agenda—
and how to expose it
From the Center for New Community
ACT for America is the largest anti-Muslim grassroots organization
operating in the United States. The group is responsible for promoting
policies at the federal and state level responsible for not only stoking
fear of Muslims in America, but making it harder for one to live in the
nation and practice one’s faith.
What is ACT For America?
ACT positions itself as being a non-partisan, national security interest group
dedicated to confronting “radical Islam” and terrorism. However, ACT and its
leadership regularly fails to make distinctions and instead pushes harmful
measures and rhetoric directed to those who are Muslim (quotes below). The
organization claims over 300,000 volunteer members and 1,000 chapters
nationwide and a few international ones, making it the most influential
grassroots arm within the organized anti-Muslim movement. ACT uses its
network of chapters to court and lobby national and federal lawmakers to
introduce policies.
ACT was founded in 2007 by Christian Lebanese immigrant Brigitte Tudor [born
Hanah Kahwagi Tudor], who goes by the pseudonym Brigitte Gabriel. Gabriel,
who serves as the group’s president, justifies her criticism of Islam in her
autobiographical accounts of growing up during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.
While her backstory is an unfortunate one, she has since used it to foster a career
of lambasting Muslims and the religion of Islam. Gabriel is the author of two
controversial bestsellers, Because They Hate (2006) and They Must be Stopped
(2008). Following the release of her first book, she set out to establish a
nationwide chapter network to counter what she believes to be the greatest threat
facing the country: Muslims.
What does ACT for America do?
ACT uses its chapters to gain access to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, various state
legislative houses, and other entities such as local school boards. Taking orders
from ACT national office, members affiliated with the group work to lobby for
policies framing Muslims and the religion of Islam as a foreign threat to
American society.
The group is infamous for its efforts to lobby model anti-Shariah law legislation
known as American Laws for American Courts (ALAC), which has been
repeatedly criticized for being discriminatory toward Muslim Americans.
✦ This type of legislation seeks to prohibit state courts from applying Islamic
or “foreign” law. The purpose of these bills is to supposedly preserve the
Constitution, which ACT says is “under attack by Islamist groups due to
the rise of Islamic immigration into our country.”
✦ These bills have repeatedly faced Constitutional scrutiny, including in
2013 when a federal judge struck down a law of this nature in Oklahoma
after finding it disproportionately targeted a religious group for
specifically citing Shariah. Following this verdict, authors of these bills
now opt for more neutral language like “foreign” and “international” law.
✦ These bills have also been exposed as being unnecessary because
Establishment Clause of the Constitution makes it highly unlikely for
foreign laws to supersede U.S. law. Steven D. Schwinn of The John
Marshall Law School has labeled such legislation “a solution in search of a
problem.”
✦ These bills are based in bigotry as the mastermind behind them, antiMuslim lawyer and activist David Yerushalmi, has revealed. In a 2011
interview with The New York Times, he stated: “If this thing passed in
every state without any friction, it would have not served its purpose …
The purpose was heuristic — to get people asking this question, ‘What is
Shariah?’”
Anti-refugee activism
Increasingly, ACT has expanded its agenda to obstruct and vilify refugee
resettlement programs. This comes at a time when the United States is scheduled
to take in thousands of mostly Muslim refugees fleeing war-torn countries such
as Syria. This is another manifestation of ACT’s anti-Muslim activism. According
to the group’s logic, “More Muslim refugees mean more terrorism in America.”
✦ These bills are based in bigotry as the mastermind behind them, antiMuslim lawyer and activist David Yerushalmi, has revealed. In a 2011
interview with The New York Times, he stated: “If this thing passed in
every state without any friction, it would have not served its purpose …
The purpose was heuristic — to get people asking this question, ‘What is
Shariah?’”
✦ In July of 2015, ACT launched refugee resettlement “working groups” in
order to activate its base to push back against these programs and ensure
“potential terrorists are kept on the outside looking in.”
✦ ACT supports anti-refugee legislation, most notably Rep. Brian Babin’s (RTX) Resettlement Accountability and National Security Act (HR 3314)
which, if passed, would put in place a temporary moratorium on refugee
resettlement into the United States. Babin, who also attended ACT’s
national conference, regularly associates with white nationalist figures.
✦ ACT works closely with anti-refugee blogger and activist Ann Corcoran,
who runs the blogsite Refugee Resettlement Watch. Corcoran is known for
pushing conspiracy theories such as Muslims are exploiting refugee and
immigration policies in order to “colonize” the United States. Despite this
and her having no official experience in resettlement policy, ACT
organized a briefing featuring Corcoran for legislative staffers on Capitol
Hill in November 2015.
Quotes from Brigitte Gabriel,
ACT for America founder and president
“[T]he Arab Muslim world, because of its religion and culture, is a natural threat
to civilized people of the world, particularly Western society.” [Gabriel, Brigitte.
(2006). Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.]
“Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.” [Source]
“Islamic terrorists … are really just very devout followers of
Muhammad.” [Gabriel, Brigitte. (2006). Because They Hate: A Survivor of
Islamic Terror Warns America.]
“The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference
between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil ...
this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are
dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call
‘Allah’ which is very different from the God we believe ... because our God is the
God of love.” [Source]
“If a Muslim who has — who is — a practicing Muslim who believes the word of
the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and
prays every Friday, who prays five times a day — this practicing Muslim, who
believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United
States of America.” [Source]
“The Palestinians do not value the lives of their children, and they are willing to
sacrifice their children in the cause of jihad.” [Source]
In a 2014 interview with Fox News, Gabriel equated Islam in Europe to being a
“cancer” that is now “stage four” and “very difficult to control.” [Source]
© Center for New Community 2016
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