ADL Articles

August 13, 2017 Racial hatred, bias and white supremacy were on full display in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. In the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades, “Unite the Right” brought together white supremacist groups including the alt-right, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Their stated goal was to save the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, because like other places in the South, there are still monuments there celebrating heroes…

August 13, 2017 On the morning of Saturday, August 12, hundreds of white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, for the Unite the Right rally. The rally never happened, but it almost didn’t matter: The event was the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades. On Friday afternoon, over the objections of the Charlottesville city council, Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler secured a permit to gather in one of the typically bucolic college town…

August 04, 2017 On August 5th, 2012, six Sikh worshippers were killed, and four others wounded, by a white supremacist skinhead at their Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The shooter then turned his gun on himself. Less than a week after the tragedy, US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. participated in a memorial service for the victims, stating that the crime was “an act of terrorism, an act of hatred, a hate crime.” Now, five year later, as we observe the anniversary of this…

July 28, 2017 Since July 14, 2017, the Al-Aqsa events have shaken both the geopolitical and virtual landscape of Jerusalem, and tensions have generated hateful, anti-Semitic speech from international terror groups and everyday-Twitter users. On July 27, the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula media outlet, al-Malahem Media, released a 13-minute video titled, “For You, oh Al-Aqsa,” featuring Khalid Batarfi, one of the organization’s senior military commanders. The video…

July 24, 2017 “Imagine getting your debts paid off, including student loans, back child support debt and get your home free and clear with the Little Promissory Note,” the website promises, “LPN Money that you don’t have to pay back once it is processed.”  A YouTube video advertising this “Little Promissory Note” promises that it “is the same as a dollar bill that can pay off all types of debts.” The Little Promissory note sounds…

July 19, 2017 Fourth Circuit Gets It Right on Legislative Prayer In a recent decision, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (en banc) ruled that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners’ practice of exclusively opening public meetings with Christian prayer is unconstitutional. The 10-5 decision rejected a 3-judge panel decision of the Fourth Circuit upholding the practice. ADL had joined a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief to the Court arguing that the Board’s…

July 17, 2017 William Scott Planer has joined the ever-expanding list of white supremacists vandalizing and attacking Jewish institutions nationwide. Planer, who lives in Denver, was arrested on July 14, 2017 for affixing a “Fight Terror, Nuke Israel” sticker to the door of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is being held at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado on a $500,000 bond as a fugitive from justice for felony…

June 30, 2017 UPDATE: In early March 2018, federal prosecutors revealed that members of Aryan Strikeforce talked about committing a suicide bombing attack on counter-protestors at a November 2016 white supremacist rally in Harrisburg, PA.  The attack would have been perpetrated by a terminally ill member of the group, who planned to hide the bomb in his portable oxygen tank.  There is no indication that the plan, which displayed a type of delusional thinking that’s typical…

June 27, 2017 On June 25, two different far-right activist groups held competing rallies in Washington, D.C., and bickered over the rallies’ respective goals and attendance. The “rally for free speech,” held near the Lincoln Memorial, featured a number of white supremacist speakers, including Richard Spencer and Nathan Damigo, while the “rally against political violence,” held near the White House, focused on vilifying the left. Some of the speakers involved…

June 22, 2017 Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan is not the only NOI member fomenting anti-Semitism these days. In recent weeks, his spokesperson, Ava Muhammad, has been loudly sharing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. An NOI Mother’s Day panel in New Orleans on May 11, “Testimonies of Extraordinary Women,” consisted of a nearly three-hour-long panel of four women, including Ava Muhammad, praising Farrakhan. When asked by an audience member why it’s…

June 20, 2017 As in 2015 and 2016, ISIS is using the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to encourage and carry out a rash of deadly attacks. During Ramadan in 2016, ISIS killed an estimated 421 people and injured 729 more. Unfortunately, 2017 appears to be following the same deadly pattern. In the last three weeks, ISIS has carried out more than 15 deadly terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, the UK, Australia, among others, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, most of them…

June 14, 2017 By Oren Segal Director of ADL's Center on Extremism On Wednesday, June 14, a congressional baseball team was attacked by a lone gunman in the midst of a morning practice. The U.S. House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise (LA), was seriously injured, and several others were also shot. The gunman was killed at the scene. This shooting was, as far as we know, a premeditated, ideological act, and should be considered a domestic terror incident. In the wake of the 2016…