Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

The radical left "Southern Poverty Law Center" (SPLC) labels opponents of Islamic jihad and Islamic sharia as "extremists" and "hate groups".

Their labels are meaningless. They just mean "people whose politics we don't like".

Southern Poverty Law Center
List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.
- A "hate group" includes anyone whose opinions these lefties disagree with. e.g. Traditional religious Christians. Anyone who criticises gay marriage. Anyone who wants to restrict immigration. Members of the Tea Party. Anyone who criticises Islam. And so on.
- Yes, they do list many actual extremists and hate groups. They have compiled many dossiers on actual hate. But them labelling any given person or group is meaningless. You have to look at each case. They have stripped the term "hate group" of meaning.
- They also ignore pretty much all left-wing and Islamic terror and hate groups.
SPLC list of "Anti-Muslim Extremists", 2016.
- They label as "extremists" the liberal Muslim Maajid Nawaz and the ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
- They also label as "extremists" various rational writers such as David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer.
- The SPLC have no credibility.
SPLC list of "right-wing" terrorism
- Incredibly, this lists Islamic jihad attacks and black shootings of cops as "right-wing" terrorism.
- Incredibly, it lists the Orlando jihad slaughter of gays as "right-wing" terrorism.
- The SPLC are off-the-chart insane.
US Army officer Lt. Col. Jack Rich circulates SPLC propaganda to his subordinates, exposed Apr 2013.
- Lt. Col. Rich tells his subordinates to beware of a large number of Domestic "Hate Groups" - which include conservative Christians and even counterjihad groups. Disgraceful.
- It can be seen that all the information comes from the SPLC.
- For example, the "Anti-Gay" section is copied from the SPLC site here.
- The "Anti-Immigrant" section is copied from the SPLC site here.
- The "Anti-Muslim" section is copied from the SPLC site here.
- And so on. The list of counterjihad groups is just an editing of the list on the SPLC site.
SPLC targeting gender-critical groups, June 2024. Saying men are not women will get you on their "hate map" and make you a target.

Mark Potok of the SPLC appears on ABC TV in Apr 2013 to speculate that the right carried out the Boston bombings.
Unfortunately for him, it later emerged that the bombings were carried out by Muslim jihadist immigrant refugees.

The SPLC have a page on counter-jihadist Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, who they label as an "extremist".

Here is their big chance to show he is an extremist. They can quote him saying extremist things, like "Muslims are subhuman", "Deport all Muslims", and so on. Right?
So, look at their 3 quotes. None of their 3 quotes are extremist at all. A reasonable man could agree or disagree with them, but they are not extremist. They all offer points for rational debate. (In fact, I think I broadly agree with all 3 quotes.)
This was the SPLC's big chance, and this is all they have got?
The SPLC strips the word "extremist" of all meaning by using it to mean "person I disagree with".

Family Research Council shooting

An anti-Christian terrorist is a fan of the SPLC.

Family Research Council shooting, Aug 2012:
- The SPLC labels the Family Research Council (FRC) of Washington DC as a "hate group".
- A gay terrorist carries out a shooting at the Family Research Council in Aug 2012. He identified them as a target using the SPLC website.
- Family Research Council is angry with SPLC: "Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday. But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy."
- Should the SPLC be shut down since its rhetoric leads to violence?
- (No, it shouldn't, if you're asking. But it's nice to see these offensive lefties get a taste of their own medicine.)
Other Christians are angry with the SPLC:
- Live Prayer by TV evangelist Bill Keller is labelled by the SPLC as a "hate group".
- Keller is filing a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC. He says: "The sad shooting the other day at the Family Research Council ... was clearly fueled by the left wing group, the Southern Poverty Law Center."

The gay terrorist who carried out the shooting at the Family Research Council in Aug 2012 identified the FRC as a target using the Southern Poverty Law Center website.
Extract from Statement of Offense

from here and here.

Despite the 2012 shooting, the SPLC still has the FRC on its target map!
Note the image of neo-Nazis with a swastika flag.

The FRC is still on the SPLC "hate map" as at Feb 2013 - still linked to neo-Nazi groups and the like. This despite the fact that we know the 2012 shooter used this page for targets.
Jim Treacher, 7 Feb 2013, contrasts the media treatment of this map, which the shooter admits he used, and the Sarah Palin map blamed for Tucson, which of course the shooter there never saw. Another contrast is that Palin took her map down, despite it being irrelevant, while the SPLC leaves their map up, despite it having been used for a shooting.

Chapel Hill shooting

The killer of Muslims is a fan of the SPLC.

In Feb 2015, Craig Hicks was charged with killing 3 Muslims at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Incredibly, the shooter was a fan of the SPLC.
I pointed out the irony that the killer of Muslims was a fan of the SPLC, who themselves so often smear counter-jihadists as "hate groups" based on flimsy evidence.

Craig Hicks' Facebook shows he is a fan of the SPLC.

Atheist terror:
- Craig Hicks' Facebook shows he was a dedicated atheist, so people first called it "atheist terror".
- Many even rushed to blame Richard Dawkins.
Left-wing terror:
- The narrative got more confusing in Craig Hicks' Facebook likes, which include left-wing pages The Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, "Mitt Romney Sucks", "Organization for Educating Misinformed Tea Party Patriots" and, incredibly, the SPLC.
Not terror at all:
- Hicks' Facebook pages do not indicate any unusual hostility to Muslims. On the contrary, he defended religious freedom for Muslims.
- Michael Nugent goes through the pages and says: "I have found nothing written on his Facebook page to justify the public speculation by others that he murdered his neighbours because he is an atheist and they were Muslims. Indeed, on his Facebook page, he repeatedly promotes freedom of religion explicitly for Muslims, including supporting their right to build a controversial Mosque near the site of ground zero in New York. ... he also writes that he disagrees with the idea of banning religion: "Not that I care for religion, as I most definitely do not, but banning it would be taking away a persons rights and I oppose that.""
- The police say he may have killed the three Muslims because of "an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking", not because of religion or politics.
Blaming anyone and everyone:
- Sister of victim blames the film "American Sniper".
- Father of victim blames the media. For what? For reporting on jihad attacks. He is angry at the media doing their job and "bombarding every American every day with news about what they call 'Islamic terrorism,' none of which is Islamic at all", he says, which would be a surprise to the Islamic terror groups involved.
- Friend of the victims blames Fox News and Republican Governor Bobby Jindal for "creating a climate of hatred" or something. Even though the shooter hated Republicans.
- Dean Obeidallah blames "the GOP officials + professional anti-Muslim bigots". Even though the shooter hated the GOP.
- No, I'm going to stick with blaming the SPLC.

Anti-GOP sentiment seems to correlate with terror

In fact, contrary to the claims above, anti-GOP sentiment seems to correlate with terror.

Craig Hicks hates Mitt Romney.
He later kills Muslims at Chapel Hill.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev celebrates Barack Obama's election and Mitt Romney's defeat.
He later bombs the Boston Marathon.

Return to The anti-counterjihad.