ISLAMOPHOBIC ORGANIZATIONS: Center for Security Policy

Center for Security Policy

What is the Center for Security Policy? 

The Center for Security Policy is a key anti-Muslim lobbying and propaganda group founded by Frank Gaffney. CSP seeks to advance anti-Muslim sentiment in both policy and society and predicates Islam as an existential threat to America. 

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identifies Center for Security Policy as an anti-Muslim hate group. SPLC calls Gaffney “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes” and as a key propagandist and conspiracy theorist for the Islamophobia movement.  

A 2019 report by CAIR detailing support for Islamophobia originating from philanthropic organizations revealed that Center for Security Policy received more than $3.4 million in funding from charitable groups between 2014 and 2016. In the same period, Center for Security Policy spent close to $1.5 million to advance anti-Muslim positions and policies with Republicans officials as well as engaged in anti-Muslim law enforcement training.  

Anti-Muslim Activities 

Founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration official, the Center for Security Policy is “a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the anti-Muslim movement in the United States.” The Center for Security Policy’s website features rhetoric characterized as anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim. Gaffney has spread hysteria about “creeping Sharia,” and its perceived threat to American democracy. He has also accused Islamic organizations and individuals of conspiratorial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The Center for Security Policy has published articles alleging that Muslims in the US aim to destabilize the nation by infiltrating institutions and gaining access to top government officials and political operatives. CSP published “A Trojan Horse for the Islamists” that alleges President Biden’s support for the Muslim American community signaled he was “clearly handing over the reins of American policy domestically and abroad to the most radical of the Red-Green alliance and those who tow the line of the Islamist way of thought.” 

CSP engages in anti-Muslim law enforcement training, often working closely with disgraced former FBI agent John Guandolo on providing anti-Muslim instruction for U.S. law enforcement officials. John Guandolo is founder of Understanding the Threat, a training group known for providing anti-Islam instruction for U.S law enforcement officials, and has portrayed American Muslims “as secret operatives in a war against Christianity and the Constitution.” In 2007, CSP gave Guandolo its “Defenders of the Home Front” award.  

At a 2015 conference hosted with Guandolo in Denver, Gaffney called Somali-American communities as “colonies” and said of Somali workers at meatpacking plants in Colorado: “I don’t know about you, but it kind of creeps me out that they are getting jobs in the food supply of the United States.” 

In 2010, the CSP partnered with various anti-Muslim activists, collectively referred to as “Team B II,” to produce a report titled “Shariah: The Threat to America.” The report claimed that numerous Muslim organizations in America were attempting to implement Sharia law across the country and alleged that some of these organizations were fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. 

In another report from 2015, the Center for Security Policy falsely accused Grover Norquist, a prominent Republican anti-tax activist, and Suhail Khan, a former Bush administration official involved in Muslim outreach initiatives, of having connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. The report further accused various Muslim leaders of infiltrating the George W. Bush government. 

Gaffney falsely accused former President Obama of being a secret practicing Muslim. Gaffney asked The Washington Times: What if it turns out that some of the people the Obama administration has been embracing are actually promoting the same totalitarian ideology and seditious agenda as al Qaeda, only they’re doing it from White House Iftar dinners?”  

Influence 

Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy funded the introduction of anti-Sharia bills, many using the American Laws for American Courts template legislation, in state legislatures across the United States. According to a report published by Haas Institute at the University of California Berkeley, Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy provided $153,000.. From 2010 to 2016, Haas Institute reported 194 anti-Sharia bills were introduced in 39 state legislatures, of which 18 bills were enacted into law. 

In 2015, CSP organized four National Security Action Summits in Nevada, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa — all critical primary states. Prominent Islamophobic speakers included Herman Cain, Steve King, John Bolton, and Phyllis Schlafly were platformed. A number of anti-Muslim GOP candidates attended, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and Ben Carson.  

Further strengthening its ties to presidential candidates, in September of 2015, CSP co-sponsored an anti-Iran rally in Washington, D.C. where it invited Cruz and Trump to speak. CSP also invited Act for America president, Brigitte Gabriel, who took the stage to amplify the demonization of Muslims.  

On December 7, 2015, then presidential candidate Trump cited a debunked CSP poll as justification to call for a Muslim Ban, a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. CPS commissioned The Polling Company, led by Kellyanne Conway who became a Trump advisor, to conduct the poll in June of that year. The Intercept reported the poll utilized a non-probability based, opt-in online survey that had no statistical validity.  

Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, responsible for the deaths of 77 people in Oslo and Utoya Island, cited the works of Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy on eight occasions in his manifesto. 

ACT For America

ACT for America is one of the largest anti-Muslim hate group in the U.S. ACT advances harmful conspiracy theories about Muslim Americans, supports anti-Muslim politicians, and advocates for anti-Muslim policies.

Read More »

Adelson Family Foundation

The Adelson Family Foundation is among the largest private donors to anti-Muslim groups, warding $5.85 million to anti-Muslim groups between 2014 and 2016, and then giving nearly $4 million to these groups between 2017-2019.

Read More »

American Center for Law and Justice

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is an anti-Muslim, constitutional law firm established by televangelist Pat Robertson and Jay Sekulow. This organization is known for disseminating anti-Muslim propaganda. 

Read More »

American Freedom Defense Initiative

The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) is an Islamophobic hate group led by Pamela Geller. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identifies the organization as an anti-Muslim hate group. At one time, SPLC considered Geller “the anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead.”  

Read More »

American Freedom Law Center

The American Freedom Law Center, Inc. (AFLC) is an anti-Muslim law firm co-founded and co-led by David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise.   The center often acts as the Islamophobia Network’s legal counsel and has represented Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy and Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative.  

Read More »

American Islamic Forum for Democracy

American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is an anti-Muslim lobby group founded by Zhudi Jasser. Under Jasser’s leadership, AIFD has allied itself with institutions and legislative efforts that attempt to limit Muslims’ access to enumerated freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Read More »

Americans for Peace and Tolerance

Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) is a Boston-based lobby group founded by Charles Jacobs that proliferates misinformation and conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslim-Americans. It is dedicated to undermining mainstream Muslim institutions and promoting Islamophobia within the media. 

Read More »

You are now leaving Islamophobia

Islamophobia provides links to web sites of other organizations in order to provide visitors with certain information. A link does not constitute an endorsement of content, viewpoint, policies, products or services of that web site. Once you link to another web site not maintained by Islamophobia, you are subject to the terms and conditions of that web site, including but not limited to its privacy policy.

You will be redirected to
in 3 seconds...

Click the link above to continue or CANCEL