Gatestone Institute is a
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
known for publishing anti-Muslim articles.
It was founded in 2008 by
Nina Rosenwald
Nina Rosenwald is an American political activist and philanthropist. An heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune, Rosenwald is vice president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund and co-chair of the board of American Securities Management. She is th ...
, who serves as its president.
Former
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations ...
and former
national security advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
,
John R. Bolton
John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Stat ...
, was its chairman from 2013 to March 2018. Its current chairman is
Amir Taheri
Amir Taheri ( fa, امیر طاهری; born 9 June 1942) is an Iranian-born columnist and activist author based in Europe. His writings focus on the Middle East affairs and topics related to Islamic terrorism. He has been the subject of many c ...
.
The organization has attracted attention for publishing false or inaccurate articles, some of which were shared widely.
History
Gatestone Institute was founded by political activist
Nina Rosenwald
Nina Rosenwald is an American political activist and philanthropist. An heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune, Rosenwald is vice president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund and co-chair of the board of American Securities Management. She is th ...
in 2008.
From 2008 to 2012, the institute operated under two different names: "Hudson Institute New York" (not to be confused with the
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporat ...
) and Stonegate Institute.
The Gatestone Institute's personnel include Nina Rosenwald (President), and Naomi H. Perlman (Vice President).
Amir Taheri
Amir Taheri ( fa, امیر طاهری; born 9 June 1942) is an Iranian-born columnist and activist author based in Europe. His writings focus on the Middle East affairs and topics related to Islamic terrorism. He has been the subject of many c ...
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 A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
for President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
Bolton was paid at least $310,000 by the organization.
Its authors include
Nonie Darwish
Nonie Darwish ( ar, نوني درويش; born Nahid Darwish, 1949) is an Egyptian-American writer, founder of ''Arabs for Israel'' movement, and is Director of Former Muslims United. Darwish is an outspoken critic of Islam. The Southern Poverty L ...
,
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
,
Raymond Ibrahim Raymond Ibrahim (born 1973) is an American author, translator, columnist, critic of Islam and a former librarian. His focus is Arabic history and language, and current events. He is the author of four books, ''Defenders of the West: The Christian ...
,
Denis MacEoin
Denis M. MacEoin (26 January 1949 – 6 June 2022) was a British academic, scholar and writer with a focus on Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies. He authored several academic books and articles, as well as many pieces of journalism. Since 2014 ...
,
Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its ''Middle East Quarterly'' journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the ...
,
Raheel Raza
Raheel Raza (born 1949–50) is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker, media consultant, anti-racism activist, and interfaith discussion leader. She is among the most prominent Muslim supporters of Israel. She lives in Toronto ...
,
Khaled Abu Toameh
Khaled Abu Toameh ( ar, خالد أبو طعمة, he, חאלד אבו טועמה; born 1963) is an Israeli Arab journalist, lecturer and documentary filmmaker.
Abu Toameh writes for ''The Jerusalem Post'' and for the New York-based Gatestone ...
,
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders (; born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (''Partij voor de Vrijheid'' – PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives (''Tweede Kamer'' ...
,
Janusz Wójcik
Janusz Marek Wójcik (November 18, 1953 – November 20, 2017) was a Polish politician, football player and coach.
Playing career
He played in several clubs at home and abroad, including Agrykola, Gwardia, Ursus and Hutnik Warszawa, Ravalpandi ...
,
Bat Ye'or
)
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, birth_place = Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt
, death_date=
, death_place=
, occupation = Writer
, nationality = British
, signature=
, alma_mater = University College LondonUniversity of Geneva
, genre=
, notableworks = ''The Decline ...
, Josef Zbořil and Dexter Van Zile.
Rebekah Mercer
Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved i ...
, a billionaire heiress known for her donations to right-wing causes, was listed as a Gatestone board member in April 2017. When the foreign policy-focused website LobeLog inquired about her role in the organization, Gatestone removed all information about her from their website. It was later revealed that
Mercer Family Foundation
The Mercer Family Foundation is a private grant-making foundation in the United States. As of 2013, it had $37 million in assets. The foundation is run by Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of computer scientist and hedge fund manager Robert Mercer.
...
gave $150,000 to Gatestone in 2014 and 2015.
Gatestone had a revenue of $2.3 million in 2016.
Gatestone authors, including
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders (; born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (''Partij voor de Vrijheid'' – PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives (''Tweede Kamer'' ...
, have appeared on Russian media, including
Sputnik News
Sputnik (; formerly Voice of Russia and RIA Novosti, naming derived from Russian ) is a Russian state-owned news agency and radio broadcast service. It was established by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya on 10 Novemb ...
and
RT.
Content
Anti-Muslim bias
The Gatestone Institute has been frequently described as anti-Muslim,
regularly publishes false reports to stoke anti-Muslim fears,
and has published false stories pertaining to Muslims and Islam.
Gatestone frequently warns of a looming "jihadist takeover" and "Islamization" of Europe, leading to a
"Great White Death".
Gatestone authors have a particular interest in Germany and Sweden, and frequently criticize leaders such as
Macron and
Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
.
The organization has been regarded as being part of the
counter-jihad movement
Counter-jihad, also spelled counterjihad and known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and campaign organisations all linked by apocalyptic beli ...
.
During the campaign for the
2022 French presidential election
The 2022 French presidential election was held on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Macron, f ...
, Gatestone Institute backed anti-Muslim candidate
Eric Zemmour.
Gatestone has published the writings of
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders (; born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (''Partij voor de Vrijheid'' – PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives (''Tweede Kamer'' ...
. 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."
Alina Polyakova, a
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
fellow and expert on far-right populism, said that Gatestone's content "was clearly anti-immigrant" and "anti-Muslim".
Policy analyst J. Dana Stuster of the
National Security Network
The National Security Network (NSN) was a non-profit foreign policy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that focused on international relations, global affairs and national security. Characterizing itself as " progressive ...
, writing in ''
The Hill'', criticized Gatestone as "paranoid" for claiming that
immigration to Europe
Immigration to Europe has a long history, but increased substantially in the later 20th century.
Western Europe countries, especially, saw high growth in immigration after World War II and many European nations today (particularly those of the EU- ...
was "civilization jihad" and a "Muslim invasion".
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
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.
Zuhdi Jasser
Zuhdi Jasser, also known as M. Zuhdi Jasser, and Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser ( ar, محمد زهدي جاسر; born 17 November 1967) is an American religious and political commentator and medical doctor specializing in internal medicine and nuclear ca ...
, 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."
[ ]Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoin ...
, a civil libertarian
Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation, social nor ...
lawyer and retired academic who contributes to Gatestone, also defended the organization against charges of anti-Muslim bias.
Inaccurate reports
Multiple viral anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim falsehoods originate from Gatestone.
In 2011 and 2012, Gatestone published articles claiming that Europe had Muslim " no-go zones", falsely describing them variously as "off-limits to non-Muslims" and "microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law". The claim that there are areas in European cities that are lawless and off limits to local police or governed by Sharia is false. Gatestone's claims were picked up by many outlets, including '' FrontPageMag'', and ''The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
''. The idea of no-go zones originated from Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its ''Middle East Quarterly'' journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the ...
, who later retracted his claims.
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
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. Snopes rated the claim "false". Snopes pointed out that the report only made a recommendation and it was issued by the Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, not the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. Gatestone subsequently corrected the article and apologized for the error, 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". According to Snopes, Gatestone used "shoddy research and cherry-picked data." 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.
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. The misleadingly headlined article was widely distributed on Facebook, and its claims were repeated by other conservative websites.
The Gatestone Institute published false articles during the 2017 German federal election
Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter.
The Christian Democr ...
. 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." 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. Gatestone also cross-posted a ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' article, which, according to BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
News, "grossly mischaracterized crime data" concerning crime by refugees in Germany.
See also
* List of think tanks in the United States
This is a list of notable think tanks in the United States.
Politics and economy
*Acton Institute
*Allegheny Institute for Public Policy
* American Action Forum
*American Civil Rights Union
* American College of Pediatricians
*American Ent ...
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Conservative organizations in the United States
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
Think tanks established in 2008
Far-right politics
Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States
Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in New York City
Counter-jihad