The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is paying $3.375 million settlement to Quilliam Foundation Founder Maajid Nawaz – a liberal Muslim and former militant Islamist – when the leftist group included him on its now-defunct list, called the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.”

Because Nawaz exposed Islamic terrorism and its jihadist motivations, SPLC accused him of “savaging Islam” on its “anti-Muslim extremists” list that was published in December, which it pushed on the mainstream media “to serve as a resource for journalists to identify promoters of hateful propaganda.”

Staver "[The legal settlement] is a chink in the armor – and I think it portends what is coming. The Southern Poverty Law Center has gotten away with this far too long, they've committed too much damage, and we know from the Family Research Council situation in 2012 it puts people's lives in danger. "This will come to an end one way or another – and I predict an avalanche of lawsuits against the SPLC. Mat Staver, founder

Liberty Counsel

(labeled a "hate group" by SPLC) Wildmon "Companies and government entities that reference the Southern Poverty Law Center as an authority on hate … need to drop the SPLC as an 'authority' because they are not." Tim Wildmon, president

American Family Association

(labeled a "hate group" by SPLC) Murray "... If everybody decided to correct the lies that the SPLC has taken upon itself to spread over recent years, then the SPLC, which failed to shut itself down when its work was done, could be shut down by the very people it has spent recent years trying to shut up. Which would not just be poetic, but justice too." Douglas Murray, senior fellow

National Review Institute "[This settlement] is a major blow to the SPLC. Their whole cottage industry is to stir up hate .... They should be sued out of existence, really." "[Those of us on] the right ... don't spend our time ... talking about how much we hate other people .... We hate what they do; we hate abortion; we hate what the homosexual transgender movement does to people and to children – but we don't single out people and say that we hate them. That is a construct of the left. It's a way to marginalize and target people in order to destroy them." Sandy Rios, director of governmental affairs

American Family Association

(labeled a "hate group" by SPLC) Gaffney "The discredited Southern Poverty Law Center collaborates with other leftist and Islamist organizations to smear those who are effective in defending freedom against all enemies, foreign and domestic. For once, they have paid a price for doing so – a $3.375 million price .... "The SPLC's poisonous, but profitable, modus operandi ruins lives and put America's security at risk. No reputable organization should allow itself to be associated with such misconduct." Frank Gaffney, president and CEO

Center for Security Policy

(labeled a "hate group" by SPLC)

Forced to pay and retract …

SPLC promptly deleted the list in April 2018 after Nawaz gained legal representation against the liberal organization, and attorneys argued that he had every right to warn the world about the Islamic terrorism from his past experience – without being labeled a “hater.”

“Nawaz is informed by his experience as a former member of a global terror organization and as a political prisoner in Egypt and routinely criticizes the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that gives rise to terrorism,” Liberty Counsel (LC) stated in its press release. “As a result of that work, the SPLC and a coalition of partner organizations that helped create the list accused him of ‘savaging Islam.’”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver stressed that SPLC’s reputation for pushing its leftist pro-Muslim propaganda was perpetuated by its politically correct list.

“This settlement is another example that the Southern Poverty Law Center is incapable at monitoring the very thing it claims to track,” Staver insisted on the LC release. “No credible journalist should ever rely on the SPLC. The SPLC reeks with hateful, false and defamatory rhetoric.”

The Christian legal expert also noted that SPLC has been slandering many other conservative and Christian groups to forward its progressive agenda.

“[SPLC has been] doing to a lot of organizations exactly what they did to Maajid Nawaz,” Staver argued, according to WND.

SPLC apparently knew that it had no chance of defending its slanderous campaign in the courtroom … and buckled.

“This is a significant settlement – $3.375 million – and it did not even go to litigation,” Staver told PJMedia. “It was a result of a demand letter.”

As a result of losing the lawsuit, SPLC President Richard Cohen was compelled to write a public apology for his ultra-left group – an acknowledgment that he posted on his website.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong to include Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in our Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” Cohen admitted in his SPLC statement. “Since we published the Field Guide, we have taken the time to do more research and have consulted with human rights advocates we respect. We’ve found that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.”

He was forced to acknowledge that SPLC’s pro-Muslim agenda – that blasts conservatives for warning Americans about the dangers of Islamic terrorists – did not warrant his group’s attack on Nawaz as a so-called “anti-Muslim” extremist.

“Although we may have our differences with some of the positions that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have taken, they are most certainly not anti-Muslim extremists,” Cohen continued. “We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to Mr. Nawaz, Quilliam and our readers for the error, and we wish Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam all the best.”

Slandering the right nothing new at SPLC

Staver stressed that GuideStar – another liberal group being sued by LC – will likely suffer the same fate as SPLC as a result of the settlement, and the Christian attorney went on to note that other conservative groups have had the same beef with SPLC, which sets out to criminalize its ideological opponents.

"There are probably about 60 organizations that we're talking to – there's at least 60," Staver recounted to PJ Media – noting the group of 47 nonprofit leaders who denounced the SPLC in 2017. "[T]hat group has grown since then."

He went on to explain how SPLC was caught red-handed using its typical tactics to vilify its political opponents and asserted that the latest settlement will work to check the left-leaning group’s illicit slanderous campaigns in the future.

“[The allegations that were at issue here were very similar to the allegations against the other groups,” Staver added. “The SPLC promotes false propaganda, demonizes and labels groups they disagree with, and that labeling has economic, as well as physical, consequences … [and the settlement with Nawaz] will encourage further legal action.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco called out SPLC’s hypocrisy that was highlighted in the lawsuit.

“[It’s] appalling and offensive for the Southern Poverty Law Center to compare peaceful organizations which condemn violence and racism with violent and racist groups just because it disagrees with their views,” Tedesco expressed, according to WND. “That’s what SPLC did in the case of Quilliam and its founder Maajid Nawaz, and that’s what it has done with ADF and numerous other organizations and individuals.”

A big web of lies

SPLC’s longstanding assault on all things conservative and biblical can be evidenced through its notorious track record over the years.

“SPLC was linked to domestic terrorism several years ago when Floyd Lee Corkins III attacked the Washington office of Family Research Council, with the intent – he later explained – to kill as many people as he could,” WND reported. “He admitted under questioning that he picked FRC because SPLC had it on its ‘hate’ list.”

Even Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) – who miraculously played in the last week’s Congressional Baseball Game just one year after being severely shot in the hip while practicing for the annual game last year – was a target of SPLC, and his life-threatening wound was likely due to its slanderous campaign against him.

“Last year, the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game was a fan of SPLC, which had falsely claimed Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the players, was a white supremacist,” WND noted.

Included in SPLC’s “hate group” claims is D. James Kennedy Ministries, which has already sued the group, and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) President and CEO Franklin Graham is amazed at the group’s frivolous and “incredible” claims that it makes to forward its ultra-left agenda.

“A hate group?” Graham asked in amazement in a Facebook post. “Can you believe this – the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., has labeled a number of Christian groups such as D. James Kennedy Ministries and the Family Research Council run by my good friend, Tony Perkins, as ‘hate’ groups. Why?”

And SPLC’s massive influence on social media to influence public opinion – in just a matter of seconds around the world on any given topic or issue – was also noted.

“Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and other web giants [were reported in recent weeks to have a reliance] on SPLC for its assessment of conservative groups,” WND pointed out.