David Horowitz Freedom Center

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David Horowitz Freedom Center
DH-FreedomCenter logo.jpg
Founded1988
FounderDavid Horowitz
Peter Collier
TypeConservative think-tank
95-4194642
FocusMedia
Location
  • 14724 Ventura Blvd., S-820
    Sherman Oaks, CA 91403[1]
Coordinates34°09′05″N 118°27′16″W / 34.1514°N 118.4544°W / 34.1514; -118.4544
Area served
United States
ProductFrontPage Magazine
Key people
David Horowitz, Founder & CEO
Peter Collier, Vice President of Publications
Michael Finch, President
Revenue (2013)
$7,095,015[2]
Websitewww.horowitzfreedomcenter.org
Formerly called
Center for the Study of Popular Culture
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The David Horowitz Freedom Center, formerly the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC), is a conservative[3][4][5] 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 FrontPage Magazine, Students for Academic Freedom and the blog Jihad Watch. Both the foundation and Jihad Watch have been described as Islamophobic.[6][7][8]

Mission and budget[]

The original intention of the CSPC was to establish a foothold in Hollywood, California. It was to serve as a platform for conservative speakers and debates between conservative and liberal speakers.[citation needed]

In 2003 Horowitz expanded the scope of the CSPC to include monitoring what CSPC views as an ingrained hostility towards conservative scholarship and ideas within academia. He established Students for Academic Freedom (SAF) to further that goal.[citation needed]

DHFC is a 501(c)(3) charity. In 2005 it had revenues of $4.9 million, expenses of $4.0 million, 8.4% of which was $336,000 compensation for David Horowitz.[1] For 2008 the DHFC reported on IRS Form 990 revenues of $5,466,103 and expenses of $5,994,547 with total compensation to David Horowitz of $480,162 and to vice-president Peter Collier of $228,744.[9][needs update]

Programs[]

The Center has the following ongoing programs.[10]

  • FrontPage Magazine – a political website edited by Horowitz that has been described by scholars and writers as right-wing,[11][12][13][14] far-right,[15][16] Islamophobic,[17] and anti-Islam.[18][19]
  • TruthRevolt – a news website edited by Mark Tapson[20] whose mission is "to expose the leftist news media and to hold them accountable for their hypocrisy and bias."[21]
  • Discover the Networks[22] – a database of alleged left-wing agendas, activists and groups. After two years of development, they went online in February 2005, with a staff of two at a cost of about $500,000.[23]
  • Students for Academic Freedom[24] – addresses issues of alleged liberal bias in American universities.
  • Wednesday Morning Club – events with speakers including former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson, Wafa Sultan, Judge Charles W. Pickering, Dennis Prager, Shelby Steele, Melanie Morgan, Dinesh D'Souza, Dore Gold, Bruce Herschensohn, John O'Sullivan, George W. Bush (1999), Dick Cheney, Robert Bork, Representatives Tom DeLay and Henry Hyde, Senators Trent Lott, Bill Frist and Joseph Lieberman, Christopher Hitchens, Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes and George Will.[25]
  • Jihad Watch (formerly Dhimmi Watch) – a blog run by blogger Robert Spencer[26][27][28] which has been described as one of the main homes of the Counter-jihad movement on the internet.[29]
  • The Individual Rights Foundation[30] – an organization of lawyers to fight "speech codes" and "political correctness" on campuses and elsewhere. Participated as an amicus curiae in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the successful defense of the Boy Scouts of America against the ACLU in the Supreme Court.[31][32]
  • Restoration Weekend – an annual conservative political activism conference and fundraising/networking event.

Heterodoxy was a news magazine published in a tabloid format by the center, edited by David Horowitz and Peter Collier. Its focus was said[by whom?] to be on exposing the excesses of "political correctness" on college and university campuses across the United States.[33]

Funding activities[]

Between July 2000 and February 2006, the center (under its old name) was the sponsor of 25 trips by United States senators and representatives, all Republicans, to six different events. Total expenditures were about $43,000.[34]

In 2014–2015, Horowitz provided $250,000 in funding to the Dutch right-wing nationalist Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom, possibly violating U.S. tax law.[35][36][37]

Criticism[]

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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described the Center as a far-right organization[38] and anti-Muslim hate group.[39][40] According to Horowitz, the SPLC's designation of his conservative think tank as a hate group resulted in his Freedom Center's donation processing system being blocked by Visa and Mastercard.[41]

Chip Berlet, writing for the SPLC, accused Horowitz of blaming slavery on "black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs" and of "attack[ing] minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism."[42]

In a 2011 report authored by Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes and Faiz Shakir of the Center for American Progress cited Horowitz as a prominent figure instrumental in demonizing Islam and spreading fear about an Islamic takeover of Western society.[43] Horowitz responded, saying that the Center had "joined the Muslim Brotherhood".[44]

The Anti-Defamation League wrote that Horowitz sponsors a college campus project that promotes anti-Muslim views and arranges events with anti-Muslim activists.[45] The DHFC was also a sponsor of the May 3, 2015, Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas,[46] where two Muslim terrorist attackers were shot and killed by a school security guard.[47]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Charity Navigator Rating – The David Horowitz Freedom Center". Charitynavigator.org. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  2. ^ Organizational Profile – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
  3. ^ Maureen Ryan. The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the Aftermath in American Narratives of the Vietnam (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War Culture, Politics, and the conservative David Horowitz Freedom Center). Univ. of Massachusetts Press. p. 213.
  4. ^ Asma Khalid (October 20, 2007). "Horowitz campus effort targets Islamic 'fanatics'". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  5. ^ Michael Krebs (December 23, 2010). "Controversy in Seattle over anti-Israel outdoor advertisements". DigitalJournal.com. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  6. ^ Kazem, Halima (June 20, 2016). "Funding Islamophobia: $206m went to promoting 'hatred' of American Muslims". The Guardian. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  7. ^ Yang, Jennifer (December 21, 2017). "Board member of anti-racism agency fired amid accusations of Islamophobic commentary". Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  8. ^ John L. Esposito (2011). "Islamophobia and the Challenges of Pluralism in the 21st Century - Introduction" (PDF). Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  9. ^ "2008 IRS Form 990" (PDF).
  10. ^ [1] Archived June 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Jenkins, Philip (2007). God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis. Oxford University Press. pp. 14, 182. ISBN 9780199886128. ultra-conservative [p. 14] ... right-wing [p. 182]
  12. ^ Lisa Wangsness (December 5, 2016). "An interfaith marriage of our times: Muslim and Jewish groups form coalition to fight bigotry". The Boston Globe.
  13. ^ Dan Conifer (July 11, 2016). "Text slabs from Pauline Hanson's One Nation policies lifted from internet". ABC News (Australia).
  14. ^ Erdoan A. Shipoli (2018). Islam, Securitization, and US Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 247.
  15. ^ David Kenner (September 10, 2013). "How Assad Wooed the American Right, and Won the Syria Propaganda War". Foreign Policy.
  16. ^ Allan Smith (March 10, 2017). "Monica Crowley claimed reports of her plagiarism were 'debunked' – but they weren't". Business Insider.
  17. ^ Ekman, Mattias (March 30, 2015). "Online Islamophobia and the politics of fear: manufacturing the green scare". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 38 (11): 1986–2002. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.1021264. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 144218430.
  18. ^ David Noriega (November 16, 2016). "How One Policy Change Could Wipe Out Muslim Civil Liberties". BuzzFeed.
  19. ^ Mathias, Christopher (January 13, 2017). "Ted Cruz vs. The Muslim Brotherhood Boogeyman". Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  20. ^ Tapson, Mark. "TruthRevolt's New Editor-in-Chief". TruthRevolt. David Horowitz Freedom Center. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  21. ^ "Our Mission". TruthRevolt. David Horowitz Freedom Center. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  22. ^ "Discover the Networks". Discover the Networks. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  23. ^ Gorenfeld, John (April 12, 2005). "Roger Ebert and Mohammed Atta, partners in crime – Salon.com". Dir.salon.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  24. ^ "Students For Academic Freedom". Students For Academic Freedom. Archived from the original on August 8, 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  25. ^ "PFAW". Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  26. ^ Glenn Beck Transcript, CNN, August 10, 2006
  27. ^ Glenn Beck Transcript, CNN, October 23, 2006
  28. ^ Invitation to author upsets Muslims, Indianapolis Star, March 18, 2007 Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ Hegghammer, Thomas (July 24, 2011). "The Rise of the Macro-Nationalists". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  30. ^ "Individual Rights Foundation". Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  31. ^ "Documents". BSALegal.org. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  32. ^ [2] Archived October 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  33. ^ Horowitz, David; Collier, Peter (January 1, 1994). The Heterodoxy Handbook: How to Survive the PC Campus. Regnery Pub. ISBN 9780895267313 – via Google Books.
  34. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2006.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  35. ^ Fang, Lee (March 3, 2017). "California Nonprofit May Have Violated Tax Law By Donating to Anti-Muslim, Far-Right Dutch Candidate". The Intercept.
  36. ^ Ishaan, Tharoor (March 14, 2017). "Analysis - Geert Wilders and the mainstreaming of white nationalism". The Washington Post.
  37. ^ "Geert Wilders's Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money". The New York Times.
  38. ^ "Dutch Lawmaker Brings His Anti-Muslim Spiel to U.S." Southern Poverty Law Center.
  39. ^ "Hate Map". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  40. ^ "Michael Flynn Failed to Disclose Income From Russia-Linked Entities". The New York Times.
  41. ^ "Report: Visa, Mastercard blocked donations to conservative think tank on advice from SPLC". World Tribune: Window on the Real World. August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  42. ^ Berlet, Chip (2003). "Into the Mainstream". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
  43. ^ Ali, Wajahat; Clifton, Eli; Duss, Matthew; Fang, Lee; Keyes, Scott; Shakir, Faiz (August 26, 2011). "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America". Center for American Progress. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  44. ^ George Zornick (August 29, 2011). "Fear, Inc.: America's Islamophobia Network". The Nation. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  45. ^ "Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)". Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  46. ^ "Meet Robert Shillman, the Tech Mogul Who Funds Pamela Geller's Anti-Islam Push".
  47. ^ Chandler, Adam (May 4, 2015). "A Terror Attack in Texas". The Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved June 28, 2016.

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