A small group of foundations and wealthy donors are funding the multi-million dollar network that fuels Islamophobia in the United States. 

The network is led by anti-Muslim activists who receive lucrative profit from turning the American public against Muslims and Islam. 

According to a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) eight key foundations contributed $57 million to the Islamophobia Network between 2001 and 2012. In a separate report, the Council on American Islamic Relations found that the inner core of the Islamophobia Network had at least $119,662,719 in total revenue between 2008 and 2011.

As funding for the Islamophobia Network grows, so does its influence and capability to incite more violence towards Muslims. The messages of anti-Muslim activists in the Islamophobia Network reach millions in and outside the United States. 

We all have a role to play in preventing the Islamophobia Network’s reach from expanding-and that includes non-Muslims.

We are living amid an undeclared Muslim Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The challenges American Muslims face today are parallel to those African Americans faced during the 1960s civil rights movement. 

African Americans did not stand alone in their quest for basic rights and human dignity. They prevailed in large part because Americans of all backgrounds stood with them. 

Similarly, a diverse group of Americans is now standing with the African American community against police brutality, which makes the movement stronger. 

By joining forces in large numbers, Americans can help weaken and kill the dangerous ideology of Islamophobia. 

Attacks against American Muslims have risen with the emergence of ISIS and other terrorist groups carrying out acts of violence in the name of Islam.

The work of anti-Muslim activists in the Islamophobia Network, including Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, poses serious threats. 

They provoke hate and incite the people acting on it.

In 2011 Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian right wing extremist, killed eight people with a bomb he planted in an Oslo government building. Hours later, he shot and killed an additional 68. His 1,500 page manifesto calls upon others to engage in similar attacks and pledges to fight “ongoing Islamic colonization of Europe.”

The manifesto mentioned Spencer and his blog, Jihad Watch, 162 times and Geller’s blog, Atlas Shrugs, 12 times.

Spencer was listed in CAP’s report as one of the six individuals responsible for orchestrating the majority of misinformation about Islam and Muslims in the United States. Jihad Watch was one of the 10 main organizations fueling the Islamophobia network. 

Geller and Spencer bear a responsibility for the bloodshed in Oslo and for the pain and anguish the families of the victims continue to endure. 

They speak out against terrorism, yet their own words are closely linked to a horrific terrorist.  

The political players, grassroots organizations, media outlets, validators and the religious right in the Islamophobia Network also bear responsibility for the injustice American Muslims face everyday.

Fox News was listed as one of the media allies in the Islamophobia Network. In 2012, an Indiana man plead guilty to setting fire to a mosque in Ohio and said he did it after getting “riled up” from watching Fox News. 

Too many innocent people have lost their lives as a result of the hate Islamophobia breeds in the minds and hearts of people. 

This is a pivotal time in history for American Muslims. Those who have spoken out against Islamophobia stand on right side of history.