I have long been a supporter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Just in the last couple years, I have cited ADL reports and the ADL site in at least five separate articles. The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 and claims to be, “Now the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all.” While I’m not sure about the ADL being the “nation’s premier” civil and human rights agency, however, it is considered one of the most respected. Nonetheless, the ADL’s recent statements opposing the so called “Ground Zero Masque” are being labeled as an example of ADL’s own bigotry.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, and associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, provides an excellent summery of the ADL’s early years in his recent article, “Hateful Ground Zero Hypocrisy”:
“The ADL was born in 1913, after a Georgia jury falsely convicted a Jewish factory owner named Leo Frank of murdering a Christian employee. The men who defamed, and later lynched, Frank were anti-Semites. But they were not only anti-Semites. Three months after Frank’s murder, some of his tormenters met on Georgia’s Stone Mountain to refound the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that would now dedicate itself not merely to terrorizing African-Americans, but to terrorizing Catholics and Jews as well…declared the ADL’s charter. “Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
However, when it comes to issues relating to Israel, the ADL often finds its allegiance to civil and human rights contradicted by its unconditional support for Israel. As Beinart points out:
“For much of the 20th century, the ADL lived this mission well. It opposed Joe McCarthy, lobbied for civil rights, and denounced the anti-Catholic bigots who insinuated that John F. Kennedy would take orders from Rome…While Israel’s Jews certainly suffered from Arab bigotry and violence, the Jewish state also perpetrated a great deal of bigotry and violence itself, especially after 1967, when it made itself occupier of millions of Palestinians to whom it denied the vote…Had the ADL genuinely tried to apply its universalistic mandate to the Jewish state, it would have become something like the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) or B’Tselem (full disclosure: I’m on B’Tselem’s American board): Israeli human rights organizations that struggle against all forms of bigotry, and thus end up spending a lot of time defending Muslims and Christian Palestinians against discrimination by Jews. But the ADL hasn’t done that. Instead it has become, in essence, two organizations. In the United States, it still links the struggle against anti-Semitism to the struggle against bigotry against non-Jews. In Israel, by contrast, it largely pretends that government-sponsored bigotry against non-Jews does not exist.” [1]
We come to expect the radical rightwing to spew out all kinds of false information and hateful rhetoric. Predictably, rightwing talk radio and Fox Noise has been drumming up whirlwind of Islamophobia and bigotry around the construction of the Islamic center. The rightwing extremists have long been successful in using stirred up fear and anger in order to energize their storm troopers. .The fact that the proposed Islamic center is actually closer to City Hall than Ground Zero and that there already is a masque at Ground Zero doesn’t stop the rightwing from spreading their fears and distortions.
For the ADL to play into the rightwings fears and bigotry is disappointing. ADL knows it is attempting to walk the fence on the issue of the Islamic center. And so here is an extended excerpt of their initial statement of opposition in order to fairly provide context to their position:
“We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship.
We categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry.
However, there are understandably strong passions and keen sensitivities surrounding the World Trade Center site. We are ever mindful of the tragedy which befell our nation there, the pain we all still feel – and especially the anguish of the families and friends of those who were killed on September 11, 2001…
Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.” [2]
To paraphrase ADL’s position on the proposed Islamic Center, while they don’t support the hate speech and bigotry coming from those opposed to the project, we need to be sensitive to their extremistist views which falsely blame Islam for the 9/11 attacks. However, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and the Landmark Perservation Commission overwhelmingly disagreed with the ADL. Perhaps taking his cue from George W. Bush on September 16, 2001 when he said, “We are not at war with Islam, which most Americans respect as a religion of peace," Mayor Bloomberg pronounced today, while standing amongst a gathering or religious leaders, including three Jewish rabbis, “Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values – and play into our enemies’ hands – if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists – and we should not stand for that." [3]
It saddens me to see the ADL take such a seemingly contradictory position on Muslims as they do all other religions. While they claim they “categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry,” they also show a willingness to abandon their position when it comes to Islam and the state of Israel. Several Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations have called on the ADL to reconsider its position. [4] One thing is clear, the reputation of the ADL has certainly been scarred by this most recent example of their organization’s own either double standard or at least willingness to cave to the hate mongers
[2] http://www.adl.org/PresRele/CvlRt_32/5820_32.htm
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/03/michael-bloomberg-deliver_n_669395.html
[4] http://www.jewcy.com/post/ADL_Memo
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