A piece in Wired has highlighted how fringe organisations stoke up fear with ant-Muslim sentiment in the US:
“A study published by a sociologist has revealed that fear-mongering non-governmental anti-Muslim organisations have been heavily influencing US media since 9/11, their messages seeping into news articles and television reporting and drawing their ethos from the fringes, straight into the mainstream.
What’s perhaps most troubling about the results is how these minor groups, which would ordinarily receive little or no air time, have gained an element of respect that has led to them receiving more funding and coupling with influential bodies. Their influence is such that they have even been able to paint mainstream Muslim organisations as radical, says the study.
“The vast majority of organisations competing to shape public discourse about Islam after the September 11 attacks delivered pro-Muslim messages, yet my study shows that journalists were so captivated by a small group of fringe organisations that they came to be perceived as mainstream,” the paper’s author, University of North Carolina assistant professor of sociology Christopher Bail, told Wired.co.uk. “
I can’t say I am surprised given the activities of Pam Geller and Robert Spencer, which I have covered before.
In Britain, MAMA is the organisation to contact in the event of racism or bigotry towards Muslims. They can be contacted at, phone: 0800 456 1226, text: 01157070007, email info@tellmamauk.org or on Twitter at @tellmamauk.
The original paper from Dr. Bail, “The Fringe Effect: Civil Society Organizations and the Evolution of Media Discourse about Islam,” American Sociological Review, 77(7) is available as a PDF here.
Soupy One 
Have you caught up with Eric Allen Bell? He makes Pamela seem almost reasonable!
No, and looking at the material I feel lucky to have been blissfully unaware of his existence.
How far off the scale is he? I can see that he seems to come from the Counter-Jihad side with material in the awful FrontPage, but how far right does he go?
He talks about nuking Mecca – he comes from a liberal background, so he’s a bit odd. I am not sure he seems fully stable. I don’t feel it’s accurate to describe him as ‘far right’, precisely – i think he is just an extreme Islamophobe. Debbie Schlussel is awful too.