Anti-Muslim hate groups broadly defame Islam and traffic in conspiracy theories of Muslims being a subversive threat to the nation. These groups largely appeared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and mix racism and anti-immigrant ideas. Their rise breeds a climate of fear, hate and intimidation directed toward Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim.
Top Takeaways
Leadership changes, organizational restructuring and chapter decline were apparent among anti-Muslim groups in 2024. The number of anti-Muslim groups dropped to 31, about an 8% decrease from the previous year, as the groups Truth in Textbooks, Understanding the Threat, and at least one ACT for America chapter ceased operations. The trend in organizational decline has been consistent for the past four years; however, anti-Muslim extremists remain active, and anti-Muslim rhetoric was parroted by other hate groups and hard-right social media personalities in 2024. Anti-Muslim groups primarily mobilized around the Israel-Hamas war in 2024, but also opportunistically attempted to use American domestic tragedies, like the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, and international tragedies, like the stabbing deaths of three children at a dance workshop in Southport, England, to propagate anti-Muslim rhetoric. The 2024 presidential election result points to a political climate favorable to anti-Muslim groups as civil rights and religious pluralism watchdogs warn of a return of policies like the Muslim travel ban.
Key Moments
In March 2024, anti-Muslim extremists John Guandolo and Frank Gaffney used the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland —which killed six construction workers who were immigrants to the United States from four Latin American countries — to claim the ship crashing into the bridge and bringing it down may have been the work of Muslims or Chinese communists, underscoring their ability to warp and politicize any event to peddle an anti-Muslim narrative.
“This may be that or this may be an accident,” Guandolo tweeted. [date] “I lean strongly towards NOT AN ACCIDENT. The fact FBI/DHS say it is NOT terrorism is a key indicator it is. FBI/DHS have been wrong 100% of the time they initially say its NOT terrorism (Ft Hood, Orlando, Ft Lauderdale, Lakewood TX..,).” On the Center for Security Policy website, Gaffney wrote: “These were reportedly all accidents. Yet, we’re are on notice that our critical infrastructure is highly vulnerable to sabotage. And, thanks especially to Benedict Biden’s open borders, tens of thousands of fighting-age men here from jihadist nations and Communist China may have that as a mission.”
In September 2024, the Center for Security Policy (CSP) announced that its founder and noted anti-Muslim conspiracist Frank Gaffney would depart the organization. The departure is a significant development for the anti-Muslim organization and one of several changes among anti-Muslim groups, including the closures of Truth in Textbooks and Understanding the Threat and several ACT for America chapters, that have become a trend since 2020.
CSP board member Andy Miller characterized Gaffney’s outrageous anti-Muslim claims as part of his “unflinching truth-telling.” The CSP continues to publish anti-Muslim content, like claiming “there is only one jihad.” It also continues to employ anti-Muslim hate figure Robert Spencer as a senior fellow and publish his writing on its site.
Despite the organizational changes, the adaptability of anti-Muslim conspiracies and opportunism of anti-Muslim extremist groups has contributed to growing violence against American Muslims and Arab Americans. This trend was amplified in 2024 by the false conflation of American Muslims and Arab Americans with foreign militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and the hard-right reductionism falsely equating some support for Palestinians with antisemitism.
In September 2024, the FBI reported that 2023 saw a 49% increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes and the highest number of hate crimes against Arab Americans since it began keeping records, according to the Arab American Institute (AAI). The same month, in a congressional hearing on hate crimes, Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told AAI Executive Director Maya Berry that she should “hide her head in a bag” because he erroneously claimed she supported Hamas and Iran. In response, Robert McCaw, government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said, “Senator Kennedy and others chose to be an example of the bigotry Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims have faced in recent months and years.” The SPLC noted the comments came “at a time when inflammatory and hateful rhetoric is being levied against communities of color, especially immigrant, Muslim and Arab communities,” and the association between hateful rhetoric and “a climate where fear, bullying and hate crimes can thrive.”
Also in September 2024, Spencer, who leads the group Jihad Watch, published a new book, Muhammad: A Critical Biography, which, like Spencer’s other work, is steeped in anti-Muslim bias. Spencer claims the book offers a “detailed look at the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad and lays bare their contradictions, inconsistencies, and incoherence.” In a November interview published by FrontPage Mag, a publication of the hate group David Horowitz Freedom Center, Spencer veers into great replacement-style rhetoric about the changing demographics in Europe and the U.S., as it pertains to Muslim migrants.
This underscores how anti-Muslim ideology can be driven by demographic anxieties about threats to the power of the dominant culture. In the interview, Spencer says, “There are millions of Muslims in Europe, and the demographic trends lead to a Muslim majority before the end of the century — and the same is going to happen in North America. The citizens, the native populations of Europe and North America, look at these trends and think: ‘We are facing conquest and Islamization, and the brutal subjugation — and ultimate extinction — of native populations, as has happened in North Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere.’ When people hear such things discussed, it seems too terrible to consider. And, besides, everyone has met Muslims who are good people, so people think these claims must be false; this can’t all really be happening. The reality is too frightening to face.”
At the end of November 2024, Spencer was a featured speaker at Restoration Weekend, the annual event sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Naples, Florida. Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders attended the event and received an award, underscoring the ongoing allyship between American and international Islamophobia figures and the important relationship between international political developments and American anti-Muslim rhetoric. Several examples of this relationship include American hard-right figures’ fearmongering around the Israel-Hamas war and their response to the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim riots in England.
In 2024, anti-Islam fearmongering remained high around the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Leading up the anniversary of the tragic Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack which sparked Israel’s military response, Daniel Greenfield penned a piece at FrontPage Mag blaming the entire religion of Islam for the events in Israel and Gaza, a common tactic of the anti-Muslim movement to indict an entire people based on the actions of some.
In the piece, Greenfield said, “Within Islam, Jihads are billed as a campaign to unify the world under the Islamic ‘Ummah,’ to impose Sharia law on all mankind, and eventually usher in a global caliphate. Externally however they are tethered to local and political causes of groups that happen to be Muslim. Muslims see them as Islamic wars, non-Muslims are told that they’re everything else but. Patterns define how we react to things. The question is what is the pattern? … Unless we see the pattern, Islam will drown civilization in its own blood.”
Other extremists used similar rhetoric following the July 29, 2024, stabbing deaths of three children at a dance workshop in Southport, England. After the attacks, racist violence targeting immigrants and Muslims erupted in London and other cities in the U.K., spurred by far-right activists spreading disinformation about the attacker online, according to the BBC. At the time, the SPLC reported that the president of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Gays Against Groomers took to X (formerly Twitter) to equate Islam with pedophilia and characterize the Muslim faith as “a cancer on this world,” and shared content from an account that claims Europe is being invaded by immigrants and Muslims.
Reports show anti-Muslim sentiment has spiked since 2023, tracking with SPLC analysis showing an increase in Islamophobic posturing, especially from the organized anti-Muslim hate network.
In an Oct. 3 piece, The Guardian writes, “Advocates say the aftermath of 7 October in the US had echoes of the fear that followed 9/11, when the government expanded surveillance powers that were largely wielded against Muslim and Arab communities, and hate crimes against them surged. ‘Islamophobia comes in cycles — often tied to something in the news,’ says Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at CAIR. The last year, he continued, ‘stands out for its enormity’ of anti-Muslim hate.” CAIR published a report in 2024 documenting a record high 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim incidents.
In 2024, anti-Muslim groups organized to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In emails leading up the election, the Florida-based anti-Muslim hate group The United West spent time organizing its followers to vote for Trump, who represents their interests, like reimplementing the Muslim ban. The group said in an April 8, 2024, email: “The STRATEGIC, educational objective of The United West is to mobilize enough patriotic Americans to elect Donald Trump as President and many pro-American, pro-border security, pro-Israel politicians, at all levels to save America from the current Democrat disaster.”
On Nov. 4, ACT for America’s Brigitte Gabriel wrote on X that “Kamala Harris and her radical far left amnesty plan will drive America into the ground, she must be stopped!” After the election, Gabriel lauded Trump’s selection of Tom Homan as incoming “border czar,” tweeting on Nov. 11, “I am proud to announce that my dear friend Tom Homan will be in charge of all our border security in the new Trump administration. He will be in charge of deporting all illegal migrants who flooded our country in the last four years.” This shows the ongoing overlap of anti-immigrant sentiment and willingness to use great replacement-style rhetoric, such as alleging the nation is being “flooded” with mostly nonwhite migrants.
What’s Ahead
As the Israeli-Hamas war and Middle East conflicts continue, the accompanying Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment associated with them are likely to continue. Anti-Muslim groups and their allies are sure to continue to use the conflict to further vilify the religion of Islam and its adherents.
Anti-Muslim hate groups appear energized by Trump’s presidential win and some campaign promises he made during his bid for a second term, including a renewed Muslim ban and mass deportations. Homan, a former ICE chief, spent the Biden years associating with various hate groups, including The United West. On the campaign trail, Trump floated the idea of “remigration,” a concept popular among hard-right European identitarian movement and politicians including Geert Wilders. The term refers to polices that consider migrants and even their descendants to be non-ethnically European and would forcibly relocate Remigration is a “policy to reverse the so-called ‘great replacement,’” according to Jakob Guhl, manager of policy and research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which works to safeguard human rights and reverse extremism and disinformation. The remigration concept plays into demographic anxieties around the country’s religious and racial makeup that undergird the anti-Muslim movement.
Background
Anti-Muslim hate groups spread disinformation, prejudice and conspiracy theories about Muslims and Islam. Despite Islam having a long and storied history in the United States, these groups portray those who practice Islam as fundamentally alien and a foreign threat. Members of hate groups seek to attach Muslims to a set of inherent negative traits. This includes denigrating Muslims and their faith as being monolithic, irrational, intolerant and a violent threat to American society. This rhetoric is often reinforced by hard-right politicians who deploy Islamophobia to score political points among their base. Propaganda from anti-Muslim hate groups can create a climate in society where bullying, intimidation and even hate crimes directed at Muslims communities can occur.
These groups typically hold conspiratorial views and frame Islam as a foreign threat to the U.S. This includes presenting Islam as not only a potential violent threat, but also a cultural one. Anti-Muslim groups accuse Muslims of being a fifth column intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism — a conspiracy theory known as “civilization jihad.”
Anti-Muslim groups engage in a variety of activities to spread hate, though groups can vary in approaches and tactics. Such activities may include publishing Islamophobic content, holding large-scale demonstrations and conferences and calling for a halt to Muslim immigration and refugee-resettlement programs. These groups may also challenge the construction or expansion of mosques, make derogatory statements about Muslim political candidates and elected officials, and work to pass anti-Muslim legislation.
Many of the anti-Muslim groups form a constellation of interconnected, tight-knit organizations. These groups often share staff, board members and sources of funding. They also stay consistent and disciplined in their messaging and conspiracy theories about Islam.
These groups vary in scope and role. Some, like the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, serve as think tanks churning out reports raising the specter of Sharia law. Sharia is a set of guiding religious principles that anti-Muslim hate groups try to twist into something insidious to sow fear of Islam. The David Horowitz Freedom Center, based in Sherman Oaks, California, serves as a think tank as well as an umbrella organization for other Islamophobic projects such as Robert Spencer’s hate blogsite Jihad Watch and FrontPage Magazine, a web publication featuring the writings of anti-Muslim and far-right authors.
ACT for America seeks to have a presence in the Beltway, pushing Islamophobic and nativism legislation while also operating a network of semi-autonomous chapters throughout the country. Islamophobic figures such as David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center have a hand in crafting anti-Muslim legislation and provide legal counsel to other anti-Muslim groups. Other state- and city-based hate groups take on local opposition campaigns like derailing refugee resettlement efforts and working to pass anti-Sharia legislation.
Islamophobia continues to be intertwined with U.S. politics and is often deployed by political candidates to gain votes. Anti-Muslim groups have cultivated allies in Congress and among other political networks. Elected officials such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania remain staunch allies to these groups, appearing at events they organize.
Anti-Muslim groups and figures are sometimes given platforms at such large-scale political events as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as well as at smaller events hosted by local groups. Anti-Muslim propagandists Brigitte Gabriel and Frank Gaffney are reported members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive right-wing coalition aimed at influencing policy. Gaffney, Gabriel and other figures making up the anti-Muslim network also enjoy clout among right-wing and conservative news media.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center holds an annual Restoration Weekend that brings together a mix of anti-Muslim figures, conservative commentators and elected officials. The 2022 event took place at the Arizona Biltmore Resort after The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, where the conference was for many years prior, canceled its contract with Horowitz’s group in 2021. During the event, outgoing Texas congressman and longtime Horowitz ally Louie Gohmert was awarded the group’s Annie Taylor Award. Arizona Rep. U.S. Andy Biggs also spoke at the event and used his time to warn of an “invasion” happening at the southern border.
Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry are nothing new in the United States. But prior to Sept. 11, 2001, there was not an organized movement dedicated to spreading Islamophobia, as there was for other hate movements. This changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when a cottage industry of disinformation peddlers was built virtually from the ground up. Led by activists such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Brigitte Gabriel, their goal was to poison any debate about the religion of Islam and depict Muslims as fundamentally at odds with America.
In the years after 9/11, these groups and figures were able to capture an audience racked with fear and uncertainty to spread their anti-Muslim bias. These groups have flourished and were politically influential amid the backdrop of the U.S. “War on Terror,” the bias Countering Violent Extremism programs and other governmental efforts to criminalize and spy on Muslim communities.
Not until the Obama administration did the movement begin to crystallize as a sophisticated network of groups and activists. Conspiracy theories swirled alleging former President Barack Obama was a practicing Muslim and in the pocket of the Muslim Brotherhood, a favorite bogeyman among anti-Muslim groups. In 2010, such anti-Muslim figures as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer flexed their influence when they showed up in opposition to the proposed site of an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, dubbing it the “Ground Zero Mosque.”
Then former President Donald Trump tapped into the bigotry from the anti-Muslim network and made Islamophobia a cornerstone of his administration. Anti-Muslim hate groups had unprecedented access to the White House under Trump. Figures associated with hate groups received jobs in Trump’s administration in such policy areas as immigration and national security. Some hate figures also served as unofficial advisers and bragged about having a line to the president through some of his Cabinet and staff. Trump implemented policies long championed by anti-Muslim groups such as the Muslim ban and a low cap on refugees. President Joe Biden’s election left anti-Muslim groups without their top political ally — but Islamophobia preceded Trump and continues to be prevalent since he left office.
2024 Anti-Muslim Hate Groups
* – Asterisk denotes headquarters.
ACT for America
Los Angeles, California
Long Island, New York
San Gabriel Valley, California
Santa Clarita, California
Connecticut
Washington, D.C.*
Houston, Texas
Vancouver, Washington
AlertAmerica.News
Hauppauge, New York
American Freedom Defense Initiative
New York, New York
American Freedom Law Center
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Center for Security Policy
Washington, D.C.
Citizens for National Security
Lake Worth, Florida
Counter Jihad Coalition
Santa Monica, California
Cultures In Context Incorporated/Turning Point Project
Ave Maria, Florida
David Horowitz Freedom Center
Sherman Oaks, California
Florida Family Association
Tampa, Florida
Fortress of Faith
Bellingham, Washington
Foundation for Advocating Christian Truth/Acts17Apologetics
Bronx, New York
Glazov Gang Productions
Los Angeles, California
Global and Theological Trends
San Antonio, Texas
Global Faith Institute
Omaha, Nebraska
Global Patriot Radio
New York
Jihad Watch
Manchester, New Hampshire
Last Chance Patriots
Dayton, Montana
Live Up to Freedom
Akron, Ohio
Political Islam
Nashville, Tennessee
RAIR Foundation USA
Fishkill, New York
The Straight Way of Grace Ministry
Marble Hill, Missouri
Truth in Love Project
Maryville, Tennessee
The United West
Lake Worth Beach, Florida