Steven Emerson – An American Pro-Zionist Expert and One of the Makers of Islamophobia in the United States

Steven Emerson is an American expert, journalist, film director, and critic who heads an anti-Muslim hate organization called the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), which it claims itself to be one of the largest intelligence-gathering organizations on Islamic terrorist groups in the world.

IPT is a research organization founded by Steven Emerson in 1995, its primary mission is to represent Islam as a radical religion that is violent and hostile in nature.

Emerson's reputation, a major player in the global Islamophobia industry, has been described as questionable, especially because he fabricated evidence to prove his lies about Islamic extremism in the United States.

In turn, the Center for American Progress (CAP) described Emerson as an expert in disinformation, creating false facts and materials for use by political leaders, grassroots groups, and the media.

 

Spy on Muslims

On December 17, 2021, the Washington Post revealed the details of the espionage story against the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is considered the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States.

 

 

In cooperation with an independent investigative body, the CAIR administration was able to establish the spying of two Muslim activists who had been handing inside information for years to IPT, which is considered an institution known for its hostility to the Islamic community and promotes against the views of Muslims.

In the same regard, a press release for CAIR stated that “the first person is Romin Iqbal, who has been managing the center’s branch in the US state of Ohio for nearly 13 years; and that he was leaking news and recordings of meetings of the senior management of the center for the benefit of an anti-Muslim entity and linked with the Israeli intelligence, it is IPT.”

The council also revealed that “the second person was Tariq Nelson, who was active at the Dar Al-Hijrah Center in Falls Church, Virginia.”

Tariq Nelson admitted he received more than $100,000 over three years from managing IPT.

CAIR’s Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a press conference: “Some of the leaked documents showed that Steven Emerson, the founder of IPT, was communicating with Israeli government officials, especially with the office of then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

In an emailed statement, IPT said: “We will not hesitate to expose extremist Islamic activity on American soil from groups such as CAIR that threaten our national security,” according to its allegations.

 

Founders of Islamophobia

Steven Emerson is a right-wing extremist and one of the main figures who form the intellectual base of the Islamophobia industry and the promotion of its culture in the United States.

According to a Georgetown University research project on Islamophobia, journalist and researcher Steven Emerson is known for his long history of promoting false information and conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslims in America.

IPT, which was founded by Emerson and is based in Washington, DC, is considered by the majority of American Muslims to be an extremist group carrying anti-Muslim sentiments.

However, Emerson uses it to promote work related to serving the Zionist project in the United States of America by defaming Islamic organizations and linking their activities to terrorism.

Through IPT, Emerson frames Islam as an inherently violent and hostile religion, he also boasts a history of fabricated evidence that perpetuates the plots of radical Islam infiltrating America through Islamic civil rights organizations.

In addition to funding of $1,484,335 from donors in the Islamophobia Network from 2001 to 2012, IPT received $1,409,585 in funding from the Middle East Forum (MEF) between 2009 and 2012, which is known as one of the centers of the manufacture, promotion and management of Islamophobia.

A 2010 investigation by the Tennessee newspaper in Nashville found that “Emerson raised nearly $3.4 million by directing money from IPT, considered tax-exempt, to his for-profit company (SAE Productions Consulting Co.) based in Washington, DC.”

In 1997, Emerson submitted to the Associated Press (AP) an alleged FBI dossier outlining ties between Muslim American organizations and extremist Islamic groups, but AP reporters concluded that Emerson actually created the file himself.

Emerson has a history of promoting questionable facts, through IPT, pushing misleading statistics on Islamic terrorism to mislead the domestic Muslim threat that led to Rep. Peter King (Republican from New York) hearings on Islamic extremism.

Emerson received widespread condemnation after appearing on the American Fox News channel, which presented him as an expert in combating terrorism, this follows the January 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“Everyone who lives in the British city of Birmingham are Muslims and it is forbidden for non-Muslims to enter it,” Emerson said.

Not only did Emerson do that, but he also said: “There are neighborhoods in London under the control of Muslim policemen who beat anyone who does not adhere to Islamic dress.”

In turn, UK media regulator Ofcom found Fox News was in violation of UK broadcasting law and called its comments materially misleading and a serious breach.

In response, then British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Emerson was a complete idiot.”

As a result of the embarrassment caused by Emerson's comments to Fox News, Emerson has apologized.

“Sorry, my comments about Birmingham were completely wrong,” he said.

 

Fame and Criticism

Steven Emerson, born on June 6, 1954, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in 1976.

He started his career as a journalist, documentary filmmaker and critic on "terrorism and Islamic extremism."

Emerson served as an investigator for the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1977 until 1982, and he also served as executive assistant to Democrat Senator Frank Church.

From 1986 to 1989, he worked for US News and World Report as a senior editor specializing in national security issues.

In 1990, he joined CNN as an investigative reporter and continued to write about terrorism but leaving in 1993 to work on a documentary film.

Emerson rose to prominence in late 1994 when he produced the documentary Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America, which aired on PBS, in which he warned of future Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States.

Robert Friedman accused Emerson of creating mass hysteria against Arab Americans.

Meanwhile, CAIR noted that “PBS refused requests from Arab and Muslim journalists to air the program before it aired.

“Emerson made false allegations about Muslims in the United States and was promoting a theory about an Islamist terrorist network in the country,” CAIR said.

Emerson gained fame in the early 1990s, publishing books, writing articles, producing films, winning awards, and being frequently cited.

With Emerson's fame came criticism, as some of Emerson's books and articles were reprimanded for plagiarism and contained factual errors, according to a 1999 report by media watchdog group FAIR.

When the FAIR Forum asked how fellow journalists viewed Emerson in 1999, author Seymour Hersh replied, “It's poison.”

However, Emerson was often criticized for holding anti-Islamic views, and that was done by scholars of Islamic studies: such as Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi, and Kai Hafez, and Karl Ernst.

Steven Emerson has even been named along with Daniel Pipes as the two most prominent anti-Islam voices in the United States.