60 groups consider suing Southern Poverty Law Center after it pays $3.4 M in defamation settlement

Jun 21, 2018 by

by Calvin Freiburger, LifeSite:

A $3.375 million defamation settlement and public apology may be just the beginning of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) woes.

Following the news that the self-proclaimed “civil rights” watchdog had admitted defeat in a defamation suit brought by the British-based Quilliam Foundation, a group opposed to Muslim extremism, dozens of other organizations are reportedly considering legal action of their own.

“There are probably about 60 organizations that we’re talking to — there’s at least 60,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the pro-family legal nonprofit Liberty Counsel, told PJ Media. While Liberty Counsel itself has yet to file anything against SPLC, Staver noted that the left-wing group has “been doing to a lot of organizations exactly what they did to [Quilliam founder] Maajid Nawaz that’s part of the settlement.”

Staver noted that the settlement was particularly significant because SPLC surrendered to a demand letter rather than forcing the case to be litigated.

SPLC claims its mission is to monitor “hate groups and other extremists.” But while it does identify some actual racist organizations on the fringes of American politics, many of its targets are mainstream Christian, pro-family, and conservative groups. It originally labeled Quilliam and Nawaz as “anti-Muslim extremists” for criticizing specific Islamic groups and practices, but was forced to admit the group “condemn[s] both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.”

“Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them,” former SPLC spokesman Mark Potok has said. He has also admitted that the group’s definition of “hate group” has “nothing to do with criminality, or violence, or any kind of guess we’re making about ‘this group could be dangerous.’ It’s strictly ideological.”

Read here

Read also: Southern Poverty a Poor Choice for America, FRC

Related Posts

Tags

Share This