Michigan press silences truth

For decades, the Left has sought to enflame tensions along every fault line that exists in Western society. This has reached a fever pitch since the 2016 election, and the Left's hatred, ignorance and viciousness was exemplified by the recent successful effort of Democrat Reps. Andy Levin and Debbie Dingell, along with the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and others, to shut down a 9/11 event scheduled for the Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church – based entirely on false premises. Democrat state reps. Abdullah Hammoud and Mari Manoogian piled on, with the bogus claim that the event sought to "assign blame for 9/11 to the entire Muslim community." Let's be clear: their real goal was to silence us.

USA Today and its subsidiary, the Detroit Free Press chimed in on behalf of their ideological soul mates without seeking any response from those of us who could actually speak to the issue. This newsmagazine added its own bias (From the Publisher/October) by ascribing to the organizers and speakers the Left's constantly overused shibboleth "racism." Embedded in these presumptions is a towering conceit only exceeded by willful ignorance.

I was one of the speakers scheduled for that event. I have studied these issues for 30 plus years, and worked in the White House budget office for three presidents, Republican and Democrat. My credentials speak for themselves, but I and others with critical knowledge are denied the opportunity to speak by people who unscrupulously defame our character with absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Allow me to correct the numerous falsehoods that have been advanced about this event, and hopefully give you pause to reconsider your ongoing efforts to silence people you disagree with. You might just be wrong:

1. This event was cancelled out of fear. Members of a Christian school co-located on the church property were literally terrified that by falsely characterizing the forum as "hate," its opponents had put a target on their children's backs. Not an unreasonable fear these days, when antifa types beat up old ladies and homeless people for supporting Trump, and Islamic terrorists launch murderous attacks against Americans with alarming and growing frequency. Media actually fosters this climate of fear.

2. This was not an "anti-Muslim" event. It was intended to describe how terror-supporting, subversive, Muslim Brotherhood groups, like CAIR, and its leftist allies, directly threaten America. The many press articles, and the dishonest, irresponsible actions of Reps. Dingell and Levin, actually make the case for me.

My belief is that most Muslim-Americans – like all Americans – enjoy the freedom, affluence and relative security living in the U.S. provides. Terrorism is the last thing on their minds. But CAIR and groups like it are intent on destroying that freedom and security, engage in a constant campaign of agitation, and seek to intimidate into silence anyone willing to expose them.

Did you know, for example, that Minnesota Somali Muslims publicly accused CAIR of facilitating recruitment of Somali youths to fight for the terrorist groups ISIS and Al Shabaab? Relatives of a Minnesota Somali killed in Somalia said CAIR is "supporting the groups we suspect of recruiting our kids. We refuse to be silent.” Muslim protesters chanted, “CAIR out! Doublespeak out!”

CAIR warned Minnesota Somalis not to talk with the FBI. One Somali Muslim, Abdirizak Bihi, whose nephew was murdered by Al Shabaab, testified to Congress about terror recruitment, saying, "I tried to warn America," adding that CAIR worked to destroy his reputation, even calling him an "Islamophobe" in its 2013 "Islamophobia" report.

If, as it claims, CAIR is an upstanding civil rights group, why would it attack anyone trying to prevent terrorist recruitment? CAIR's actions, especially its increasingly aggressive efforts to silence us, prove our case. The media dangerously abdicates its responsibility by refusing to report these realities – instead attacking the messenger.

3."Islamophobia" is a word invented by the Muslim Brotherhood to facilitate defamation and intimidation of anyone who exposes them for what they are. They are joined by the SPLC, the ACLU, and now, apparently much of Michigan media, including your paper.

"Islamophobia" is simply the Muslim Brotherhood's adoption of a defamation tactic first articulated 100 years ago by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, who said, "We must write in a language that sows hate, revulsion and scorn toward those who disagree with us." The International Communist movement refined this idea in the 1940s, discrediting Western society as incurably "fascist," "anti-Semitic," "Nazi," or other names "that already have a bad smell" in the public mind. Now we can add "Islamophobe."

The SPLC institutionalized this Leninist "hate" strategy with its "hate list," "hate watch," "hate map" and such. SPLC learned the tactic from German Communist Herbert Marcuse, who SPLC co-founder Julian Bond worked with for years. Marcuse developed the concept of "partisan tolerance," that is, tolerance of Left ideas only, and complete intolerance of ideas from the right. Marcuse advocated violence, deception and suppression of opponents, even to the level of thought. Doesn't that sound familiar?

CAIR has followed suit. All of these terms are thrown at people like myself, who simply know what the facts are and seek to articulate the dangers of this subversive, anti-American agenda. Michigan's current leadership, and much of the organized Left is completely on board with them.

4. Ignorance is no excuse. Are all of you left wing "journalists" so ignorant that you don't know any of this, or are you so invested in your agenda that you are unwilling to admit it? The Left and its Islamist allies have debased political dialogue in the U.S. to infantile, elementary school name-calling, even if it means putting a target on the backs of school children. Are you really comfortable being part of this? When will you people grow up and start doing your jobs? (Note: unlike USA Today, Detroit Free Press, this publication deserves credit for publishing this response. The others refused.)

James Simpson

Baltimore, Maryland

(James Simpson is an economist, businessman, investigative journalist and former career civil servant in the White House Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton)