MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A decade after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks, a second wave of anti-Muslim hatred is being propelled by a
small cadre of activists who are exploiting Americans’ fears of Islamic
extremism, according to the latest issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s
Intelligence Report, released this week.

In the wake of this hysteria, anti-Muslim hate crimes have
been reported across the country, protests have been launched against mosques,
and lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced legislation to ban
the use of Islamic religious law, called shariah, in the U.S. legal system – a
completely unfounded fear.

The report, which is the cover story in the Summer 2011
issue of the SPLC’s quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report, can be
read at www.splcenter.org.

“We’ve seen a remarkable resurgence of anti-Muslim
hatred around the country,” said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence
Report. “Unlike the first and far more understandable wave that followed
the Sept. 11 attacks, however, this one was largely ginned up by politicians
and commentators pandering for votes and ratings. It’s been a despicable
exercise in Muslim-bashing for personal benefit. While there are legitimate
concerns about terrorism, the rhetoric we’ve been hearing aims to demonize all
Muslims.”

This issue of Intelligence Report also includes an interview
with former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analyst Daryl Johnson, who
says that the department has effectively gutted a unit that analyzed the
terrorism threat from right-wing extremists. That action came in response to a
2009 DHS  report on domestic
extremism that was wrongly criticized as tarring all conservatives as potential
terrorists. Johnson, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, was
the principal author of that report.

The cover story, titled “Jihad Against Islam,”
recounts recent incidents that strongly suggest a spike in anti-Muslim hate
crimes. In May 2010, for instance, a bomb exploded at an Islamic center in
Jacksonville, Fla. In August, a man slashed the neck and face of a New York
taxi driver after finding out he was a Muslim. Four days later, someone set
fire to construction equipment at the future site of an Islamic center in
Murfreesboro, Tenn. This March, a radical Christian pastor burned a Qur’an in
Gainesville, Fla., leading to deadly riots in Afghanistan that left at least 20
people dead.

At the heart of this vilification of Muslims – a group that
comprises less than 1 percent of the U.S. population – have been activists such
as Pamela Geller, co-founder of the anti-Muslim hate group Stop Islamization of
America. Geller led the protest against a proposed Islamic cultural center in
New York City, deriding it as a 9/11 “victory mosque” that would be
two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. Geller is one of 10
anti-Muslim hardliners profiled in this issue of Intelligence Report.

Politicians have added fuel to the fire. At the state level,
legislators have stoked unfounded fears of shari’a law infiltrating U.S.
courts. At the national level, U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York last week held
the second of his controversial hearings on the radicalization of American
Muslims. King has said there are “too many mosques” in America,
claiming without evidence that 80 to 85 percent of mosques are controlled by
fanatical extremists. Similarly, last August, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas took
to the floor of Congress to warn of Muslim women being brought to the United
States to birth terrorists, though he was unable to provide evidence of such a
plot.

Citizen protests also have challenged perfectly legal mosque
or Islamic center construction projects in New York City; Murfreesboro, Tenn.;
Temecula, Calif.; Sheboygan, Wis.; and elsewhere.

The first wave of anti-Muslim sentiment that occurred after
the 2001 terrorist attacks was effectively tamped down by President George W.
Bush’s efforts to make clear that terrorism, not Islam or Muslims in general,
was the nation’s enemy. That effort by a conservative president, coupled with
military action in Iraq and Afghanistan – actions that Americans may have
considered an adequate response to the terrorist attacks – largely neutralized
efforts to demonize Muslims in the United States.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit organization
that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education, litigation
and advocacy. The Intelligence Report tracks the activities of hate groups and
monitors militia and other extremist, antigovernment activity. For more
information, visit www.splcenter.org.