Jihad Watch

Jihad Watch

Type of site	Blog
Available in	English
Owner	Robert Spencer
Created by	Robert Spencer and Hugh Fitzgerald
URL	jihadwatch.org
Registration	None
Launched	23 September 2003
Current status	Active

Jihad Watch is an American far-right^[4] Anti-Islam^[10] blog operated by Robert Spencer.^{[6][11][12][13]} A project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Jihad Watch is the most popular blog within the counter-jihad movement.^[14]

Organization

The site features commentary by multiple editors, and its most frequent editor is Robert Spencer.^[15] It is a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.^[14] Dhimmi Watch was a blog on the Jihad Watch site, also maintained by Spencer, focusing on alleged outrages by Muslims.^[16]

Funding

The Horowitz Freedom Center has paid Spencer, as Jihad Watch's director, a $132,000 salary in 2010. Jihad Watch has also received funding from donors supporting the Israeli right,^[15] and a variety of individuals and foundations, like Bradley Foundation and Joyce Chernick, wife of Aubrey Chernick.^[17] Politico said that during 2008–2010, "the lion's share of the $920,000 it [David Horowitz Freedom Center] provided over the past three years to Jihad Watch came from [Joyce] Chernick".^[17] In 2015, Jihad Watch received approximately $100,000 in revenue, with three quarters of that revenue coming from donations.^[18]

Content and traffic

Articles begin with editorial commentary, then follow usually with a linked excerpt from a news website.

Jihad Watch is one of the world's most popular sites on the subject of terrorism, with more than 6,000 other sites being linked to it.^[6] It is the most popular counter-jihad blog.^[14]

Reception

Jihad Watch has widely been described as an anti-Muslim blog.^[6][11][12] Jihad Watch has been criticized for its portrayal of Islam as a totalitarian political doctrine.^[11] The Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League consider Jihad Watch an active hate group due to its "extreme hostility toward Muslims."^[18] Guardian writer Brian Whitaker described Jihad Watch as a "notoriously Islamophobic website",^[19] while other critics such as Dinesh D'Souza,^[20] Karen Armstrong and Cathy Young, pointed to what they see as "deliberate mischaracterizations" of Islam and Muslims by Spencer as inherently violent and therefore prone to terrorism.^[13][21]

Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani Prime Minister, in her book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West, wrote that Spencer uses Jihad Watch to spread misinformation and hatred of Islam. She added that he presents a skewed, one-sided, and inflammatory story that only helps to sow the seed of civilizational conflict.^[22]

Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, wrote that "Most of the effective surveillance work tracking jihadi sites is being done not by the FBI or MI6, but by private groups. The best-known and most successful of those are [Internet] Haganah ... SITE [Institute] ... and Jihad Watch."^[23]

The website was cited 64 times by Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who committed the 2011 Norway attacks due to his belief that Muslim immigrants were a threat to Western culture.^[24] Breivik later said that he was a neo-Nazi since the early 1990s, and only in later years disguised himself with and exploited counter-jihad writings.^[25]

In 2017, Christine Douglass-Williams was terminated as a board member of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for her writings on the blog.^[26]

References

1. Bettiza, Gregorio (2019). Finding Faith in Foreign Policy: Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-19-094946-4. Retrieved 3 February 2021 – via Google Books.
2. Ebner, Julia (30 September 2017). The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism. Bloomsbury. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-78673-289-7. Retrieved 3 February 2021 – via Google Books.
3. Khan, Saeed (9 August 2019). "How the largest American Muslim foundation was falsely demonised by white supremacists". The Parliament Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
4. ^[1][2][3]
5. Kumar, Deepa (1 January 2014). "Mediating Racism: The New McCarthyites and the Matrix of Islamophobia". Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. 7 (1). Brill: 9–26. doi:10.1163/18739865-00701001. ISSN 1873-9865. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
6. Bail, Christopher (2 August 2016). Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream. Princeton University Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780691173634. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
7. Gardell, Mattias (1 January 2014). "Crusader Dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the Quest for a Monocultural Europe" (PDF). Terrorism and Political Violence. 26 (1). Taylor & Francis: 129–155. doi:10.1080/09546553.2014.849930. ISSN 0954-6553. S2CID 144489939. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
8. Sidahmed, Abdel Salam (29 June 2010). "'Jihadiology' and the problem of reaching a contemporary understanding of Jihad". In Rippin, Andrew; Ismael, Tareq Y. (eds.). Islam in the Eyes of the West: Images and Realities in an Age of Terror (PDF). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203854389. ISBN 978-1-136-99018-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
9. Jamin, Jérôme (17 October 2014). "Cultural Marxism and the Radical Right". In Jackson, Paul; Shekhovtsov, Anton (eds.). The Post-War Anglo-American Far Right: A Special Relationship of Hate. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-137-39619-8. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
10. ^{[5][6][7][8][9]}
11. Kundnani, Arun (June 2012). "Blind Spot? Security Narratives and Far-Right Violence in Europe" (PDF). International Centre for Counter-terrorism. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
12. • Rohlinger, Deana. "New Media and Society". NYU Press. p. 101. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    • Herndon, Astead W. (20 June 2019). "'These People Aren't Coming From Norway': Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
    • Huang, Frankie (27 November 2018). "China's Most Popular App Is Full of Hate". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 27 November 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    • Lytvynenko, Jane; Silverman, Craig (16 April 2019). "Here Are The Hoaxes And Misinformation About The Notre Dame Fire". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
    • Palma, Bethania (6 April 2018). "FACT CHECK: Did a 'Muslima' Nurse Practitioner Decapitate Her Son Because of Her Religion?". Snopes. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
    • Esposito, John L. (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 24 March 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
    • Ismael, Tareq Y.; Rippin, Andrew, eds. (2010). Islam in the Eyes of the West: Images and Realities in an Age of Terror (PDF). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-415-56414-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021. cited from Webb, E. (2012). "Review of Tareq Y. Ismael & Andrew Rippin (eds.), Islam in the Eyes of the West: Images and Realities in an Age of Terror". Contemporary Islam. 7 (3): 413–420. doi:10.1007/s11562-012-0196-9. S2CID 140511975.
    • Varisco, D. M. (2009). "Muslims and the media in the blogosphere". Contemporary Islam. 4: 157–177. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.465.1191. doi:10.1007/s11562-009-0106-y. S2CID 143792038. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
    • Topal, Semiha (2011). "Everybody Wants Secularism—But Which One? Contesting Definitions of Secularism in Contemporary Turkey". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 25 (1–3): 1–3. doi:10.1007/s10767-011-9114-z. S2CID 144506792.
    • Larsson, Göran (2014). "Islamophobia or Legitimate Concern? Contrasting Official and Populist Understanding of Opposition to Muslims". In Mays, Christin; Deland, Mats; Minkenberg, Michael (eds.). In the Tracks of Breivik: Far Right Networks in Northern and Eastern Europe. Vienna: Lit Verlag. pp. 155–66. ISBN 9783643905420. OCLC 881140905. [Jihad Watch] can also be seen as a type of hub for the expression of anti-Muslim attitudes
13. Armstrong, Karen (27 April 2007). "Balancing the Prophet". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
14. Pertwee, Ed (10 December 2020). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (16): 211–230. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. S2CID 218843237. Among the [David Horowitz Freedom Center]'s many projects are Jihad Watch, the most popular counter-jihad blog; 'Discover the Networks', a database of the US Left; and FrontPage, an online magazine edited by Jamie Glazov, whose internet TV show, The Glazov Gang, broadcasts interviews with leading counter-jihad figures.
15. Barnard, Anne; Feuer, Alan (10 October 2010). "Outraged, And Outrageous". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
16. Oborne, Peter (7 July 2008). "The shameful Islamophobia at the heart of Britain's press". The Independent. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
17. Russonello, Giovanni; Vogel, Kenneth P. (5 September 2010) [first published 4 September 2010]. "Latest mosque issue: The money trail". Politico.Com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
18. Angwin, Julia; Larson, Jeff; Varner, Madeleine; Kirchner, Lauren (19 August 2017). "Despite Disavowals, Leading Tech Companies Help Extremist Sites Monetize Hate". ProPublica. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
19. Whitaker, Brian (7 February 2006). "Drawn conclusions". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
20. D'Souza, Dinesh (2 March 2007). "Letting Bin Laden Define Islam". Archived from the original on 4 March 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
21. "The Jihad Against Muslims". 6 June 2006. Archived from the original on 13 February 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2008.
22. Benazir Bhutto, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West, Harper, 2008, pp. 245–6.
23. Atwan, Abdel Bari (2008). The secret history of al Qaeda – Google Books. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520255616. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
24. Shane, Scott (24 July 2011). "Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S." New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
25. "Breivik: - Jeg leste Hitlers Mein Kampf da jeg var 14 år". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). 16 March 2016.
26. "Race relations board member says she's been fired over writings about Islam". CBC News. 21 December 2017.