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Gatestone Institute

Not to be confused with Gladstone Institutes.

Gatestone Institute is an American conservative think tank based in New York City, known for publishing articles pertaining to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically with regard to Islamic extremism.[d][4][5][6][7][8] It was founded in 2012 by Nina Rosenwald, who serves as its president.[a][b][9][1]John R. Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former National Security Advisor,[10] was its chairman from 2013 until March 2018. Its current chairman is Amir Taheri.[11][12][13][2] The organization has attracted attention for publishing false or inaccurate articles, some of which were shared widely.[11][14][15][16][17]

Gatestone Institute
Founded2012 (12 years ago) (2012)[a][1]
FounderNina Rosenwald
Typenonprofit
45-4724565
Registration no.5119586
Legal status501(c)(3)
Purposehuman rights policy advocacy, think tank
Headquarters
President
Nina Rosenwald[b]
Key people
Parent organization
Stonegate Institute
Revenue (2021)
$1,735,770[c][3]
Expenses (2021)$1,843,048[c][3]
Websitegatestoneinstitute.org Edit this at Wikidata

History

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Gatestone Institute was founded by political activist Nina Rosenwald in 2012.[a][b][9][1] The institute was founded by a parent organization that was itself founded in 2008 and which operated under two different names: Hudson Institute New York (not to be confused with the Hudson Institute) and Stonegate Institute.[18][19]

The Gatestone Institute's personnel include Nina Rosenwald (President), and Naomi H. Perlman (Vice President). Amir Taheri is the Chairman of Gatestone Europe. John R. Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, served as Gatestone's chairman from 2013 to 2018, when he resigned to become National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump.[12][20] Bolton was paid at least $310,000 by the organization.[20] Its authors include Nonie Darwish, Alan Dershowitz, Raymond Ibrahim, Denis MacEoin, Daniel Pipes, Raheel Raza, Khaled Abu Toameh, Geert Wilders, Janusz Wójcik and Bat Ye'or.[21] The Gatestone Institute has also published many articles by convicted Israeli spy Lawrence Franklin, who's biography on their website makes no reference to his conviction.[22]


Rebekah Mercer, a billionaire heiress known for her donations to right-wing causes, was listed as a member of the Board of Governors of Gatestone in April 2017.[23] After the foreign policy-focused website LobeLog inquired about her role in the organization, Gatestone removed all information about her from their website.[23] The IRS Form-990 filing for tax year 2017 did not list Rebekah Mercer as either a member of the board of trustees, an officer of the organization, or an employee.[24] It was later revealed that Mercer Family Foundation (of which Rebekah Mercer is a key officer) gave $150,000 to Gatestone in 2014 and 2015.[17][23][11] Gatestone had a revenue of $2.3 million in 2016.[11]

As of 2018, Gatestone authors, including Geert Wilders, have appeared on Russian media, including Sputnik News and RT.[11]

Content

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Anti-Muslim bias

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The Gatestone Institute has been frequently described as anti-Muslim,[d][8] regularly publishes false reports to stoke anti-Muslim fears,[20][4] and has published false stories pertaining to Muslims and Islam.[17][25][8] Gatestone frequently warns of a looming "jihadist takeover" and "Islamization" of Europe, leading to a "Great White Death".[11] Gatestone authors have a particular interest in Germany and Sweden, and frequently criticize leaders such as Macron and Merkel.[11] The organization has been regarded as being part of the counter-jihad movement.[26]

Gatestone has published the writings of Geert Wilders. It hosted a 2012 talk by Wilders and paid for a trip he made to the United States in 2016. Gatestone has been criticized for affiliating itself with Wilders, who says that he "hates Islam."[13][27][28][29] Alina Polyakova, a Brookings Institution fellow and expert on far-right populism, said that Gatestone's content "was clearly anti-immigrant" and "anti-Muslim".[11] Policy analyst J. Dana Stuster of the National Security Network, writing in The Hill, criticized Gatestone as "paranoid" for stating that immigration to Europe was "civilization jihad" and a "Muslim invasion".[30]

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has accused Gatestone's founder, Nina Rosenwald, of anti-Muslim bias. Muslim writers for the Gatestone Institute have defended the organization and Rosenwald against the claims by CAIR.[31] Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said, "It goes without saying, but to those who may not know Nina, and having known her now for many years, it is clear to me that she has the highest respect for Muslims who love their faith, love God, and take seriously our Islamic responsibility to defeat the global jihad and its Islamist inspiration."[31] Alan Dershowitz, a civil libertarian lawyer and retired academic who contributes to Gatestone, also defended the organization against charges of anti-Muslim bias.[32]

Inaccurate reports

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Multiple viral anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim falsehoods originate from Gatestone.[17][11][33][34] In 2011[35] and 2012,[15] Gatestone published articles claiming that Europe had Muslim "no-go zones", falsely describing them variously as "off-limits to non-Muslims"[15] and "microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law".[35][7] The claim that there are areas in European cities that are lawless and off limits to local police or governed by Sharia is false.[15][35][7][17][20] Gatestone's claims were picked up by many outlets, including FrontPageMag,[35] and The Washington Times.[7] The idea of no-go zones originated from Daniel Pipes,[35] who later retracted his claims.[15]

On November 18, 2016, Gatestone published an article that said the British Press had been ordered to avoid reporting the Muslim identity of terrorists by the European Union. Snopes rated the claim "false". Snopes pointed out that the report only made a recommendation and it was issued by the Council of Europe, not the European Union.[16] Gatestone subsequently corrected the article and apologized for the error,[36] before removing it entirely from its website.

In 2017, Gatestone falsely claimed that 500 churches closed and 423 new mosques opened in London since 2001, and argued that London was being islamized and turning into "Londonistan".[37][11] According to Snopes, Gatestone used "shoddy research and cherry-picked data."[37] Specifically, Gatestone only counted churches that closed but not churches that opened; data for the period 2005–2012 alone show that 700 new churches opened in London.[37]

Also in 2017, Gatestone ran a story about high Muslim fertility rates, headlined "Muslims Tell Europe: 'One Day This Will All Be Ours.'" However, no Muslim said the quote in question. The quote came from a French Catholic bishop who claimed that this was something that Muslims had told him.[38] The misleadingly headlined article was widely distributed on Facebook, and its claims were repeated by other conservative websites.[38]

The Gatestone Institute published false articles during the 2017 German federal election.[39] A Gatestone article, shared thousands of times on social media, including by senior German far-right politicians, claimed that vacant homes were being seized in Germany to provide housing solutions for "hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East."[14] The German fact-checker Correctiv.org found that this was false; a single house was placed in temporary trusteeship, and had nothing to do with refugees whatsoever.[14] Gatestone also cross-posted a Daily Mail article, which, according to BuzzFeed News, "grossly mischaracterized crime data" concerning crime by refugees in Germany.[40]

Finances

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Finances for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2021[c] (the latest available) consist of: revenue of $1,735,770; expenses of $1,843,048; and donations of $1,737,014.[3]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c organization founded in 2012 per IRS Form-990
  2. ^ a b c Rosenwald was the founding president in 2012 per IRS Form-990 yr2012
  3. ^ a b c finances as shown on IRS Form-990 yr2021
  4. ^ a b Sources describing it as anti-Muslim or anti-Islam include:
    • "John Bolton chaired anti-Muslim think tank". NBC News. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
    • Townsend, Mark (July 29, 2018). "#FreeTommy – the making of a far-right English 'martyr'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
    • Blumenthal, Max (June 14, 2012). "The Sugar Mama of Anti-Muslim Hate". The Nation. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
    • Huang, Frankie (November 27, 2018). "China's Most Popular App Is Full of Hate". Foreign Policy. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
    • Sampathkumar, Mythili. "US national security adviser John Bolton was chairman of 'anti-Muslim' think tank". The Independent. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
    • "How Anti-Muslim Propaganda Travels From Europe To North America To Trump's Twitter Account". BuzzFeed. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
    • Beauchamp, Zack (April 23, 2018). "How John Bolton and Mike Pompeo mainstreamed Islamophobia". Vox. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
    • "US National Security Advisor John Bolton Runs a Think Tank Claiming Europe is Becoming a Caliphate". Al Bawaba. Syndigate.info. March 27, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018. In combining fake reports about sharia courts and claims that the Muslim Brotherhood wants a single, global caliphate, the articles stokes Western nativist fears that Europe is being engulfed in a political Islam that will purge society and replace it with a dystopian one under the banner of Islam.
    • Goodstein, Laurie (April 6, 2018). "Pompeo and Bolton Appointments Raise Alarm Over Ties to Anti-Islam Groups". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2018. Mr. Bolton is chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a think tank that regularly features articles on its website promoting the notion that pliant European countries, especially Britain, are submitting to "Islamization" by hostile Muslim migrants.
    • Levitz, Eric (March 27, 2018). "John Bolton and the Anti-Muslim Bigotry of Mainstream Conservatism". Daily Intelligencer. New York Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2018.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Gatestone Institute - IRS Form-990 yr2012". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. August 13, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Board of Advisors". Gatestone Institute. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Gatestone Institute - IRS Form-990 yr2021". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. November 8, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Beauchamp, Zack (April 23, 2018). "How John Bolton and Mike Pompeo mainstreamed Islamophobia". Vox. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  5. ^ Gjelten, Tom (April 6, 2018). "Trump's National Security And State Department Picks Alarm American Muslims". NPR.
  6. ^ Cerulus, Laurens (July 17, 2017). "Germany's anti-fake news lab yields mixed results". Politico.
  7. ^ a b c d Jack Sommers (January 15, 2015). "France's 'No Go Muslim-Only' Zones Aren't What You Think They Are". Huffington Post.
  8. ^ a b c Filkins, Dexter (April 29, 2019). "John Bolton on the Warpath". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Nina Rosenwald". Gatestone Institute. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  10. ^ TOI Staff (September 10, 2019). "Times of Israel". Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Przybyla, Heidi (April 23, 2018). "John Bolton presided over anti-Muslim think tank". NBC News. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  12. ^ a b "Former UN Ambassador John R. Bolton Joins Gatestone Institute as Chairman". Gatestone Institute. July 17, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  13. ^ a b Blumenthal, Max (June 14, 2012). "The Sugar Mama of Anti-Muslim Hate". The Nation. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  14. ^ a b c "Nein, in Hamburg werden keine Wohnungsbesitzer für Flüchtlinge enteignet". CORRECTIV (in German). May 17, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
  15. ^ a b c d e Matlack, Carol (January 14, 2015). "Debunking the Myth of Muslim-Only Zones in Major European Cities". Bloomberg.com.
  16. ^ a b Garcia, Arturo (November 18, 2016). "False: European Union Gag Order On Revealing Muslim Terrorists' Religion". Snopes.com. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  17. ^ a b c d e Fang, Lee (March 23, 2018). "John Bolton Chairs an Actual "Fake News" Publisher Infamous for Spreading Anti-Muslim Hate". The Intercept. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  18. ^ On January 1, 2012, the Institute’s name changed from "Hudson New York" to Stonegate Institute."Stonegate Institute". Archived from the original on January 8, 2012.
  19. ^ Note to our readers: Unfortunately we have had to change our name again, but last time: Lawyers... What can one do?"Gatestone Institute: International Policy Council". Archived from the original on March 23, 2012.
  20. ^ a b c d "Trump's new national security adviser chairs a group that has spread false claims about Muslim refugees in Europe". Business Insider. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  21. ^ "Authors: Gatestone Institute". Gatestone Institute. Retrieved January 5, 2019. Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Party for Freedom and a prominent critic of Islam who is listed as a Gatestone author, was on an RT broadcast last month saying Europe lacks strong political leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Trump.
  22. ^ "Authors » Gatestone". gatestoneinstitute.org.
  23. ^ a b c "Rebekah Mercer Joins Board of Anti-Muslim Think Tank". LobeLog. April 13, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  24. ^ "Gatestone Institute - IRS Form-990 yr2017". ProPublica - Nonprofit Explorer. August 23, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  25. ^ "Republican Officials Have Been Bashing Muslims. We Counted". BuzzFeed. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  26. ^ Perwee, Ed (2020). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (16): 211–230. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. S2CID 218843237.
  27. ^ "Rightwing thinktank pulls funds for Commons groups after disclosure row". The Guardian.
  28. ^ "How Geert Wilders Became America's Favorite Islamophobe". Foreign Policy. March 1, 2017.
  29. ^ Hakim, Danny; Schuetze, Christopher F. (March 7, 2017). "Before Elections, Dutch Fear Russian Meddling, but Also U.S. Cash". New York Times.
  30. ^ Stuster, J. Dana (December 14, 2015). "The paranoid style in Islamophobic politics". The Hill. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  31. ^ a b Miller, Paul (May 27, 2015). "Islamic Scholars Blast CAIR for Trapping Muslims Into a 'Trance of Victimhood'". observer.com. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  32. ^ Dershowitz, Alan (May 9, 2018). "Alan Dershowitz: NBC's McCarthyesque attack on John Bolton and the Gatestone Institute". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  33. ^ Thomsen, Jacqueline (April 23, 2018). "Bolton chaired nonprofit that shared false anti-Muslim news: report". TheHill. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  34. ^ "US charities fund fringe Islamophobia network — report | DW | 06.05.2019". DW.COM. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
  35. ^ a b c d e David Miller; Tom Mills (January 14, 2015). "Misinformed expert or misinformation network?". openDemocracy. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  36. ^ Mamou, Yves (November 18, 2016). "Council of Europe Recommends British Press NOT Report when Terrorists are Muslims". Gatestone Institute. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  37. ^ a b c "FACT CHECK: Did London Close 500 Churches and Open 423 New Mosques?". Snopes.com. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  38. ^ a b "How Anti-Muslim Propaganda Travels From Europe To North America To Trump's Twitter Account". BuzzFeed News. July 9, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  39. ^ Fang, Lee (September 22, 2017). "Islamophobic U.S. Megadonor Fuels German Far-Right Party With Viral Fake News". The Intercept. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
  40. ^ "Hyperpartisan Sites And Facebook Pages Are Publishing False Stories And Conspiracy Theories About Angela Merkel". BuzzFeed. Retrieved October 6, 2017.
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