Report finds nation's wealthiest corporations connected to anti-Muslim organizations, candidates, and policies - Action Center on Race and the Economy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Crescendo Project at the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE) released a new report on Wednesday, the anniversary of the infamous U.S. Muslim Ban, titled the “United States of Islamophobia”, exposing corporate ties in all 50 states to Islamophobia.

The report was written in partnership with the Public Accountability Initiative.

“This report sheds light on different ways, big and small, in which we are all complicit in perpetuating a culture of Islamophobia in this country,” said Saqib Bhatti, co-executive director of ACRE.

“It’s not just corporations like News Corp or Halliburton that profit from anti-Muslim bigotry. Whether it’s Verizon or AT&T, Amazon or Walmart, or Wells Fargo or Bank of America, there are perfectly mundane ways in which corporations that we all do business with help promote or enable bigotry and violence against Muslims.”

The report was also released with a petition that had collected more than 3,000 signatures as of Thursday to 51 big corporations, demanding they stop engaging in their alleged anti-Muslim behavior immediately.

Whether it’s providing a platform for anti-Muslim bigotry, helping finance anti-Muslim corporations and hate groups, profiting from war and political turmoil in the Muslim world or donating to anti-Muslim politicians, corporations like yours are complicit in the rise of anti-Muslim hate crimes, violence, and bigotry in the United States. Your actions are all prelude to the Supreme Court ruling on the Muslim ban.”

The big corporations named included Nike, ExxonMobil and Lowe’s.

In Michigan, Amway was named to the list, with a dishonorable mention going to Ford Motor Company.

Amway “donated $25 million over the years to the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth outreach organization that prominently features anti-Muslim speakers and thinkers like Dinesh D’Souza,” the ACRE website reads.

“In a university graduation ceremony in 2007, Richard DeVos’s son likened the presence of the ‘Muslim world’ today to the threat that Hitler imposed globally.”

In addition, tech corporations like Google and Amazon allegedly provide a platform for anti-Muslim bigotry, while Wall Street firms like Wells Fargo, Fidelity and Vanguard help finance anti-Muslim corporations and hate groups, ACRE said.

For more information the petition and the companies named, visit www.ACREcampaigns.org/us-islamophobia.


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