Unmasked anti-Muslim troll Amy Mekelburg connected to Chris Gaubatz

Information published on social media and reviewed by Hatewatch show that RAIR’s president is Chris Gaubatz, a well-known anti-Muslim figure previously affiliated with the hate group Understanding the Threat. …

Though not the most outspoken anti-Muslim figure, Gaubatz has presented Islam as a violent religion and subscribes to a variety of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. In 2016, he joined up with former FBI agent turned anti-Muslim conspiracist John Guandolo. Up until April of this year, Gaubatz served as vice-president of Guandolo’s consulting firm Understanding the Threat (UTT). During that time, Guandolo and Gaubatz traveled the country providing training seminars about the “jihadi threat” to law enforcement and civilians. …

Trump’s Loudest Anti-Muslim Twitter Troll Is A Shady Vegan Married To An (Ousted) WWE Exec

Siino, meanwhile, moved to Los Angeles to launch a doomed internet media startup called WeMash with Quincy Jones III, son of the famous music producer. …

Mekelburg had also been trying to make inroads into what Ibrahim Hooper calls “the cottage-industry of Islam haters,” which is run by bigots such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, Brigitte Gabriel and Frank Gaffney — several of whom have close ties to the Republican establishment and the Trump administration. Their efforts can be remunerative, thanks to generous funding from conservative and libertarian foundations such as the Donors Capital Fund.

Mekelburg’s best connection to this world was through Anni Cyrus, who produces The Glazov Gang, an Islamophobic talk show that can be found on YouTube. Host Jamie Glazov is the editor of one of Horowitz’s anti-Muslim publications. Mekelburg asked for Cyrus’ help in launching her own anti-Muslim organization. Cyrus, who did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment, greeted Mekelburg’s overture with enthusiasm. …

Mekelburg named her organization Resistance Against Islamic Radicals (RAIR). She created a website, set up a Facebook page and a Twitter handle, and recruited Cortez to design artwork from behind bars, according to Galasso. RAIR’s mission would be “to stop the Jihadi infiltration in our American communities.” Mekelburg didn’t mention herself anywhere on the organization’s website. Under an “accomplices” section, however, she posted the names, photos and contact information for people and groups she believed were collaborating with jihadi terrorists. That could mean anyone with a connection to Islam.

Connections:

In January 2014, Jones founded WeMash, an Internet service that connects owners of content (movie studios, news organizations, sports entities, music labels/publishers) with creators from every field (video artists, filmmakers, musicians, and more) to reimagine content beyond its original context. Investors include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

– Quincy Jones III

Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

– Andreessen Horowitz

Horowitz was born Benjamin Abraham Horowitz in London, England and raised in Berkeley, California, the son of Elissa Krauthamer and conservative writer and policy advocate David Horowitz. Horowitz’s great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who arrived in the U.S. in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.

– Ben Horowitz

David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer. He is a founder and president of the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center’s website FrontPage Magazine; and director of Discover the Networks, a website that tracks individuals and groups on the political left. Horowitz also founded the organization Students for Academic Freedom.

– David Horowitz

The David Horowitz Freedom Center, formerly the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC), is a conservative anti-Islam foundation founded in 1988 by political activist David Horowitz and his long-time collaborator Peter Collier. It was established with funding from groups including the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation and the Scaife Foundation.

It runs several websites and blogs, including the anti-Islam website FrontPage Magazine, Students for Academic Freedom and the anti-Muslim blog Jihad Watch. It has been regarded as being part of the counter-jihad movement.

– David Horowitz Freedom Center

Jihad Watch is an American far-right anti-Muslim conspiracy blog operated by Robert B. Spencer. A project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Jihad Watch is the most popular blog within the counter-jihad movement.

– Jihad Watch

In 2003 he founded and has since directed a blog that tracks what he considers Islamic extremism, known as Jihad Watch. He co-founded the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America with blogger and far-right conspiracy theorist Pamela Geller. Reports that two of Spencer’s books were listed in FBI training materials and that he had given seminars to various law enforcement units in the United States stirred controversy. …

In July 2011, Wired reported that two of Spencer’s books were listed in FBI training materials. Both The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam were recommended for agents hoping to better understand Islam.

– Robert B. Spencer

American Counter-jihad movement

The U.S.-based Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) is led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, as a program under their American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). According to the AFDI website, the initiative aims, among other activities, to:

…Build strategic alliances with activist groups in Europe and Israel to engage in open and stealthy counter-jihad measures…

European Counter-Jihad Movement

The umbrella organization, Stop Islamisation of Europe, was founded by Anders Gravers Pedersen, who also sits on the board of the Stop Islamisation of Nations. There are numerous affiliated “Stop the Islamisation” and “Defense Leagues” in several European countries, among them Stop Islamisation of Denmark, Stop Islamisation of Norway, and the English Defence League.

– Counter-jihad

Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) is an international counter-jihad organization founded in 2012 by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer of SIOA, and Anders Gravers Pedersen of SIOE. Other board members are Debbie Robinson, of Q Society of Australia; Ezra Levant, a Canadian publisher; Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-American writer; Ali Sina, an Iranian-born Canadian activist; Stefan Herre, a German author of the blog Politically Incorrect; Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli author; Babu Suseelan, a Hindu activist; Oskar Freysinger, a Swiss politician; Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media Report; and Ashraf Rameleh the President of Voice of the Copts. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are President and Vice President of SION. SION has taken part in hosting international counter-jihad conferences along with other organisations and multiple individual speakers, including in Stockholm, Sweden and New York City in 2012 and in Melbourne, Australia in 2014.

– Stop Islamization of America

Right-Wing Trolls Lash Out Against Journalist For Revealing Identity Of Anti-Muslim Bigot