We express our support for the United States Government in its effort to stop Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the danger he poses to the stability and safety of the region.
-- ADL press release, 21 Mar. 2003
Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.
-- ADL statement, 28 Jul. 2010
It is incredibly hard to comprehend the reasoning behind the ADL's continued designation as a "civil rights organization." One can only wonder what relevance advocating the legitimacy of the Iraq War or denigrating the so-called "ground zero mosque" has to with civil rights. The Iraq War brought millions of human beings pain that was also unnecessary. The ADL supported it anyway and, as far as I know, has not retracted their endorsement. Yet for unknown reasons the opinions of "some" 9/11 victims must hold more sway.
The NAACP got reamed by many in the press when it accused the Tea Party movement of harboring certain racist elements. Now the ADL is taking an openly bigoted and exclusionary stance by proposing that Muslims should consider their own religion insensitive to 9/11 victims. Never mind the fact that there were many Muslim victims of 9/11. They don't matter apparently. I sincerely hope that they get called out on it more than the NAACP was for doing its job and calling a spade a spade. It wouldn't be fair if the ADL got away with bigotry when the NAACP was smeared for pointing out bigotry.
You know, I never thought it would get this bad. Really, I didn't. It's like things are getting worse than they were immediately after 9/11. The Islamophobic right has spent 9 years pumping fear and mistrust into the hearts of Americans. Even the most secularized Muslim is said to be a sleeper agent who is lying to us because their religion requires it. Bush said Islam was a "religion of peace" and they mocked him for it despite defending him in almost every other area. Now that they've have gained a foothold in mainstream discourse we will begin losing ground unless we push back. It's gotten to the point that liberals are beginning to cede ground allow the bigots to claim the mantle of centrist respectability. If we wait too long we will find ourselves deemed "radicals" for merely asserting that Muslims are human beings.
On a final note, I will illustrate to the ADL the dehumanization Muslims are being subjected to by the right-wing in both America and Western Europe:
Think about it Mr. Foxman: do you really want to appeal to the people who are promoting such racist filth?