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{{Short description|Lebanese-American author and activist (born 1964)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{POV|date=April 2013}}
{{BLP primary sources|date=December 2012}}
}}
{{Infobox person {{Infobox person
|name = Brigitte Gabriel | name = Brigitte Gabriel
| native_name_lang = ar
|other_names = Nour Saman<br />(alternative ])<ref name="NYT0311" />
| other_names = Nour Semaan (])<ref name="NYT0311" />
|birth_date = {{Birth_date and age|1964|10|21}}
| image = Brigitte Gabriel speaks on Refugee Crisis in Twin Falls, Idaho.jpg
|birth_place = ], ], ]
| caption = Gabriel speaking at a conference in ], 2016
|occupation = Author, activist, journalist
| native_name = {{nobold|{{lang|ar|{{Script/Arabic|بريجيت غابرييل}}|rtl=yes}}}}
|years_active = 1986–present
| birth_name = Hanan Qahwaji
|website = ,
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|10|21}}
| birth_place = ], Lebanon
| citizenship = ]
| occupation = {{hlist|Activist|author|journalist|lecturer}}
| years_active =
| organization = ]
| spouse = {{marriage|Charles Tudor|1989}}
| website =
}} }}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2023}}


'''Brigitte Gabriel''' ({{langx|ar|بريجيت غابرييل}}; born '''Hanan Qahwaji''',<ref name='now.mmedia.me'>{{cite web|title=The dark angel Gabriel |url=https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/the_dark_angel_gabriel |website=NOW News |publisher=Mercury Media |format=Commentary |date=3 November 2011 |access-date=17 December 2014 |archive-date=10 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710101948/https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/the_dark_angel_gabriel |url-status=live}}</ref> 21 October 1964) is a Lebanese-American ], author and lecturer, and ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/pompeo-muslims/555680/ |title=Mike Pompeo's Allies on the Anti-Muslim Right |last=Beinart |first=Peter |date=15 March 2018 |website=] |language=en-US |access-date=10 December 2018 |archive-date=11 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211095537/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/pompeo-muslims/555680/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/13/sweeping-comments-by-trumps-state-dept-pick-about-islam-have-long-worried-muslim-advocates/|title=Mike Pompeo, Trump's pick to replace Tillerson, has long worried Muslim advocates|access-date=30 December 2018|archive-date=11 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211013241/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/13/sweeping-comments-by-trumps-state-dept-pick-about-islam-have-long-worried-muslim-advocates/|newspaper=] |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/keith-ellison-andr-carson-mike-pompeo-opposition/index.html |title=Muslim lawmakers call on senators to oppose Pompeo confirmation, citing record |access-date=30 December 2018 |archive-date=11 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211010443/https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/keith-ellison-andr-carson-mike-pompeo-opposition/index.html |website=] |date=12 April 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pompeos-disturbingly-consistent-friendships-with-anti-muslim-bigots |title=Mike Pompeo's Disturbingly Consistent Friendships with Anti-Muslim Bigots |last=Obeidallah |first=Dean |author-link=Dean Obeidallah |date=13 March 2018 |work=] |access-date=10 December 2018|language=en |archive-date=8 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208020127/https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-pompeos-disturbingly-consistent-friendships-with-anti-muslim-bigots |url-status=live}}</ref> She is the founder of ], an advocacy group that opposes ].
'''Brigitte Gabriel''' (a.k.a. '''Nour Saman''', born October 21, 1964), is an American journalist, author, social commentator and activist.<ref name="NYT0311">{{cite news | author= Laurie Goodstein | title=Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/us/08gabriel.html|publisher=]|date=2011-03-07}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=9}} "...my tenth birthday, October 21, 1974..."</ref> Gabriel says that Islamic fundamentalism and extremism keeps countries backward,<ref name="hate-189" /><ref name="hate-188" /> and is the root cause of ].<ref name="hate-202" /><ref name="hate-203" /><ref name="hate-205" /> To promote her views, she founded the American Congress For Truth and ACT! for America, a citizen action network that promotes "national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of Radical Islam."<ref name=Gabrielintro1>Gabriel, 2006, p.xvi of the 2008 edition.</ref>


==Early life==
She frequently speaks at ] ] organizations such as ], ], ] and ] groups. In her own words, she gives voice to "what many in America are thinking, but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a ], ], ], or intolerant."<ref name=Gabrielp205>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=205}}</ref>
Gabriel was born on 21 October 1964 to a family of ] in the ] of ].<ref name="Gabrielp4">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=4}}</ref> During the ], Muslim militants launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near her family's house and destroyed her home. Gabriel, who was ten years old at the time, suffered shrapnel injuries in the attack.<ref name="NYT0311">{{cite news|last1=Goodstein|first1=Laurie|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/us/08gabriel.html|title=Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message|date=7 March 2011|work=]|access-date=15 June 2017|archive-date=13 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190313222407/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/us/08gabriel.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gabrielp29">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=29}}</ref> For the next seven years, she and her parents were forced to live underground in an {{convert|8|by|10|ft|m|adj=on}} bomb shelter with only a small kerosene heater, no sanitary systems, no electricity or running water, and little food.<ref name="An inside ally" /> Gabriel had to crawl in a roadside ditch to evade Muslim snipers on her way to collect water from a nearby ].<ref name="An inside ally" /><ref name="Gabrielp44">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=44}}</ref>


In the spring of 1978, a bomb explosion caused Gabriel and her parents to become trapped in their shelter for two days.<ref name="Gabrielp49-50">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|pp=49–50}}</ref><ref name="njjn16">{{cite news|title=Lebanese Christian expert on terrorism to help honor her IDF saviors|url=http://njjewishnews.com/article/32489/lebanese-christian-expert-on-terrorism-to-help-honor-her-idf-saviors#.WNRpvBiZNPN|archive-url=https://archive.today/20161108184234/http://njjewishnews.com/article/32489/lebanese-christian-expert-on-terrorism-to-help-honor-her-idf-saviors#.WNRpvBiZNPN|url-status=dead|date=7 November 2016|first=Debra|last=Rubin|work=NJJN|archive-date=8 November 2016}}</ref> They were eventually rescued by three ],<ref name="Gabrielp51">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=51}}</ref> one of whom had befriended Gabriel before being killed by a landmine.<ref name="Gabrielp67">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=67}}</ref>
==Personal account of early life==
Brigitte Gabriel was born in the ] of ] to a ] Christian couple, a first and only child after over twenty years of marriage.<ref name=Gabrielp4>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=4}}</ref> She recalls that during the ], Islamic militants launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near her family's house and destroyed her home. Gabriel, who was ten years old at the time, was injured by ] in the attack.<ref name="NYT0311" /><ref name=Gabrielp29>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=29}}</ref> She says that she and her parents were forced to live underground in all that remained, an {{convert|8|by|10|ft|m|adj=on}} ] for seven years, with only a small kerosene heater, no sanitary systems, no electricity or running water, and little food.<ref name="An inside ally" /> She says she had to crawl in a roadside ditch to a spring for water to evade Muslim snipers.<ref name="An inside ally" /><ref name=Gabrielp44>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=44}}</ref><ref name="Heritage Foundation speech">{{Citation
|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fa9yKQeTY|title=Brigitte Gabriel Heritage Foundation speech|publisher=YouTube|date=October 18, 2006}}</ref>


Gabriel wrote that in 1978, a stranger warned her family of an impending attack by Muslim insurgents on the Christian populace in her area. However, the attack was thwarted by the ]. Later, her mother was seriously injured in an attack and subsequently taken for treatment at a hospital in ]. During this period, Gabriel's views on the Israelis changed as she began to question ] that she had witnessed as a child.<ref name="An inside ally" /><ref name="Gabrielp77">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=77}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/jewess-press/impact-women-history/brigitte-gabriel-a-remarkable-fighter-for-israel/2015/03/02/|title=Brigitte Gabriel: A Remarkable Fighter For Israel|author=Prof. Livia Bitton-Jackson|date=March 2, 2015|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=16 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116020813/http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/jewess-press/impact-women-history/brigitte-gabriel-a-remarkable-fighter-for-israel/2015/03/02/|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to Gabriel, at one point in the spring of 1978, a bomb explosion caused her and her parents to become trapped in the shelter for two days.<ref name=Gabrielp49-50>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|pp=49–50}}</ref> They were eventually rescued by three Christian militia fighters,<ref name=Gabrielp51>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=51}}</ref> one of whom befriended Gabriel but was later killed by a land mine.<ref name=Gabrielp67>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=67}}</ref>


Multiple facts surrounding Gabriel's upbringing and autobiography have been disputed, with American author Dave Gaubatz calling her account of growing up in Lebanon as "dramatically fabricated.”<ref>Piggott, Stephen ''Southern Poverty Law Center''</ref>
Gabriel wrote that in 1978 a stranger warned her family of an impending attack by the Islamic militias on all Christians. She says that her life was saved when the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in ]. Later, when her mother was seriously injured and taken to an Israeli hospital, Gabriel was surprised by the humanity shown by the Israelis, in contrast to the constant propaganda against the Jews she saw as a child.<ref name="An inside ally" /><ref name="HeritageLecture">{{cite web
|url=http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev092706a.cfm
|title=Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|work=Heritage Live – Events
|publisher=The Heritage Foundation
|quote=Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam.
}} – speaker profile from lecture series</ref> She says of the experience:


===Education===
:"I was amazed that the Israelis were providing medical treatment to Palestinian and Muslim gunmen...These Palestinians and Muslims were sworn, mortal enemies, dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of Jews. Yet, Israeli doctors and nurses worked feverishly to save their lives. Each patient was treated solely according to the nature of his or her injury. The doctor treated my mother before he treated an Israeli soldier lying next to her because her injury was more severe than his. The Israelis did not see religion, political affiliation, or nationality. They saw only people in need, and they helped."<ref name="An inside ally" /><ref name=Gabrielp77>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=77}}</ref>
After graduating from high school, Gabriel completed a one-year course in ] at a ] in 1984.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=95}}</ref>


==Career==
Opinion editor Michael Young of '']'' and Franklin Lamb of ''Al-Ahram Weekly'' claimed that Gabriel over-simplifies the conflict in South Lebanon as a Muslim war against the Christians.<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline"/><ref name=young/> Lamb alleged that she lived relatively normally during the Lebanese Civil War; Young, by contrast, described Gabriel's account of her experiences as "overdone" and described her persona and campaign as a "con act."<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline">{{Citation
Using the pseudonym Nour Semaan,<ref name='now.mmedia.me'/> Gabriel was a news anchor for ''World News'', an Arabic-language evening news broadcast of ], which "was then run by ]'s ] to spread his politically conservative, ] in the ]."<ref name="NYT0311" /> The broadcasts covered ], ], ], ], and ]. Gabriel reported on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from central Lebanon and the "]" in southern Lebanon, as well as the ]. She then moved to Israel<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline">{{Citation |last=Lamb |first=Franklin |title=Lost from Lebanon |edition=887 |newspaper=Al-Ahram |location=Cairo |date= 6–12 March 2008|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/887/focus.htm |access-date=10 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806142103/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/887/focus.htm |archive-date=6 August 2009 }}</ref><ref name=young>{{cite web|url=http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?page=2&ID=248970&MID=0&PID=0&FParentID=0&FFParentID=0&orderdir=desc|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130200340/http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?page=2&ID=248970&MID=0&PID=0&FParentID=0&FFParentID=0&orderdir=desc|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 January 2013|title=The Dark angel Gabriel|date=11 March 2011|first=Michael|last=Young|publisher=NOW Lebanon}}</ref> before emigrating to the ] in 1989.
|last=Lamb
|first=Franklin
|title= Lost from Lebanon
|edition=887
|newspaper=AL-AHRAM
|location=Cairo
|date=6–12 March 2008
|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/887/focus.htm
|accessdate = 10 February 2010}}</ref><ref name=young>{{cite web|url=http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?page=2&ID=248970&MID=0&PID=0&FParentID=0&FFParentID=0&orderdir=desc|title=The Dark angel Gabriel|date=11 March 2011|author=Michael Young|publisher=NOW Lebanon}}</ref>


Gabriel wrote the book ''Because They Hate'' in 2006, and ''They Must Be Stopped'' in 2008, which sold a combined 120,000 copies in print,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/among-republicans-polls-show-fear-of-islam-is-always-on-high-simmer/2015/10/01/1b60b29c-66bf-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html|title=Among Republicans, polls show, fear of Islam is always on 'high simmer'|last=Tucker|first=Neely|date=1 October 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|issn=0190-8286|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=14 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514165150/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/among-republicans-polls-show-fear-of-islam-is-always-on-high-simmer/2015/10/01/1b60b29c-66bf-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> with the former reaching number 12 on ] for political books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/books/16blog-polibooks.html|title=Hardcover Best Seller List|website=] |date=17 November 2006|access-date=26 March 2020|archive-date=9 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609025708/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/books/16blog-polibooks.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Education==
Graduating from high school, Gabriel then completed a one-year ] course at a ] in 1984.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=95}}</ref>


===ACT for America===
==Career==
{{main|ACT! for America}}
Using the name '''Nour Saman''', Gabriel was a news anchor for ''World News'', an Arabic-language evening news broadcast of ], a Marjayoun-based station run by the now defunct ] and funded by ].<ref name=page2>{{cite news | author=Laurie Goodstein | title=Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/us/08gabriel.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1 | publisher=] | date=2011-03-07}}</ref> Broadcast in Israel, ], ], ] and ], Gabriel covered the Israeli withdrawal from central Lebanon, the Israeli Security Zone (occupied South Lebanon), and the Palestinian uprising in the ] and ]. She moved to Israel<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline">{{Citation
Her organization ] has been described as ].<ref>{{cite web|title=Act for America|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/act-america|publisher=]|access-date=29 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229055302/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/act-america|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Lavish gala hosted by anti-Muslim group canceled at Mar-a-Lago|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/07/act-for-america-mar-a-lago-gala-cancelled-anti-muslim-group|newspaper=]|access-date=29 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229055251/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/07/act-for-america-mar-a-lago-gala-cancelled-anti-muslim-group|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/alt-right-america-first-rallies-move-online-after-boston-free-speech-protest-653372|title=Protests by an anti-Islamic alt-right group are moving online after Boston counterprotest|date=22 August 2017|work=Newsweek|access-date=22 August 2017|language=en|archive-date=11 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411150433/https://www.newsweek.com/alt-right-america-first-rallies-move-online-after-boston-free-speech-protest-653372|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/act-cancel-america-first-rallies-largest-anti-muslim-group-counter-protesters-a7906836.html|title=US's largest anti-Muslim group cancels 67 rallies after seeing size of anti-fascist crowd in Boston|date=22 August 2017|work=The Independent|access-date=22 August 2017|language=en-GB|archive-date=4 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404224951/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/act-cancel-america-first-rallies-largest-anti-muslim-group-counter-protesters-a7906836.html|url-status=live}}</ref> According to '']'', ACT for America draws "on three rather religious and partisan streams in American politics: ] ], hard-line defenders of Israel (both ] and ]) and ] ]".<ref name="NYT0311" /> According to '']'', the organization "touted as its 'first accomplishment' its 2008 campaign to shut down a ] ]."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-a-series-of-fringe-anti-muslim-conspiracy-theories-went-mainstream--via-donald-trump/2016/11/05/7c366af6-8bf0-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html|title=How a series of fringe anti-Muslim conspiracy theories went mainstream — via Donald Trump|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=21 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321130507/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-a-series-of-fringe-anti-muslim-conspiracy-theories-went-mainstream--via-donald-trump/2016/11/05/7c366af6-8bf0-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
|last=Lamb
|first=Franklin
|title= Lost from Lebanon
|edition=887
|newspaper=AL-AHRAM
|location=Cairo
|date=6–12 March 2008
|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/887/focus.htm
|accessdate = 10 February 2010}}</ref><ref name=young>{{cite web|url=http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?page=2&ID=248970&MID=0&PID=0&FParentID=0&FFParentID=0&orderdir=desc|title=The Dark angel Gabriel|date=11 March 2011|author=Michael Young|publisher=NOW Lebanon}}</ref> before immigrating in 1989 to the United States.


In February 2017, Gabriel said that she provided a "national security briefing" at the ].<ref name=":2" /> She met with aides at the White House in March 2017, during the ].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/brigitte-gabriel-white-house|title=Despite Earlier Denials, The White House Now Says An Anti-Muslim Leader Had A Meeting There|work=BuzzFeed|date=21 March 2017|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=22 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322015719/https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/brigitte-gabriel-white-house|url-status=live}}</ref> She has written intermittently for '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-breitbart-news/|title=Factsheet: Breitbart News|date=November 10, 2019|work=Bridge Initiative|publisher=Georgetown University}}</ref>
According to the ] (CIP), Gabriel, "has made a post-9/11 career out of roundly denouncing Islam, decrying 'political correctness,' and promoting the concept of an existential clash of cultures.<ref name=CIP>{{Cite web|url=http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4493|title= Americas Program Profile: Brigitte Gabriel|date=August 23, 2007|publisher=Center for International Policy (CIP)|accessdate=2010-02-11}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> States the CIP, "Her pro-Israel, anti-Islam spiel, coupled with her compelling personal history, has made her a popular speaker, writer, and general expert. She appears sometimes as a commentator on television news and radio programs, often speaking out for the rights of Muslim women."<ref name=CIP/>


==Views==
==="Recommended speaker"===
{{Conservatism US|activists}}
Gabriel is listed as a "recommended ]" by the ] Fellowship Speakers Bureau, a pro-Israeli advocacy group, on their Web site, although she is is not a member of that organization.<ref name=Hasbara>{{cite web|url=http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/index.php?page=recommended-speakers#brigitte%20Gabriel|title=Hasbara Fellowship Speakers Bureau|publisher=Israelactivism.com|accessdate=2010-03-07}}</ref>
{{Criticism of religion sidebar}}


The ] described ACT! for America as "the largest grassroots ] group in the country,"<ref name="splc">{{Cite news|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/03/23/who-real-brigitte-gabriel|title=Who is the Real Brigitte Gabriel?|work=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=24 March 2017|language=en|archive-date=11 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411171259/https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/03/23/who-real-brigitte-gabriel|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/among-republicans-polls-show-fear-of-islam-is-always-on-high-simmer/2015/10/01/1b60b29c-66bf-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html|title=Among Republicans, polls show, fear of Islam is always on 'high simmer'|last1=Tucker|first1=Neely|date=1 October 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=24 March 2017|last2=Tucker|first2=Neely|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=14 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514165150/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/among-republicans-polls-show-fear-of-islam-is-always-on-high-simmer/2015/10/01/1b60b29c-66bf-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and the ] has described it as "one of the main sources of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation".<ref name="theguardian">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/21/act-for-america-brigitte-gabriel-muslim-white-house-meeting|title=Leader of group widely identified as anti-Muslim meets with White House|last=Beckett|first=Lois|date=21 March 2017|work=The Guardian|access-date=24 March 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413224459/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/21/act-for-america-brigitte-gabriel-muslim-white-house-meeting|url-status=live}}</ref> According to '']'', the organization has been "widely identified as anti-Muslim".<ref name="theguardian" /> Gabriel and ACT! have been described as part of the ] movement.<ref name="perwee">{{cite journal|title=Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution|first=Ed|last=Perwee|year=2020|journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies|volume=43|issue=16 |pages=211–230|doi=10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688|s2cid=218843237 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/27/17157534/john-bolton-mike-pompeo-trump-islam-jihad|title=How John Bolton and Mike Pompeo mainstreamed Islamophobia|first=Zack|last=Beauchamp|work=Vox|date=April 23, 2018}}</ref>
====''Because They Hate''====
In her first book, Gabriel discusses her experiences as a ] (]) Christian living in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1970s.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|pp=4–6}}</ref> She describes the story of her family and her childhood, hiding in a bomb shelter. She details her opinions that her country's inherent ] acceptance of all faiths and cultures including the then dominant Lebanese Christian phalangists, led to Lebanon's ruin by the continuous attacks from indigenous Muslims, other Christian groups and migrant Palestinians.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|pp=13–16}}</ref>


According to ] in '']'', "the organization has condemned cities with large Muslim populations for serving ] in public schools. In 2013, its ] chapter urged members to 'protest' food companies that certify their meat as compliant with Islamic dietary law. ACT! for America tries to dissuade ] and ] from conducting ] with ]. And in state after state, it has lobbied state legislatures and school boards to purge textbooks of references that create 'an inaccurate comparison between ], ] and ].'"<ref name=":2" />
Gabriel comments that "anyone who voices his or her opinion contrary to "]" is immediately tagged a "racist" or "bigot" and that this has resulted in a "social paranoia which discourages free thought and expression."<ref name=Gabrielp216>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=216}}</ref> Moreover, she states that societies and cultures must be held accountable for their actions and that "by not judging others&nbsp;... we have helped create the monsters we are dealing with today."<ref name=Gabrielp186/>


According to Laurie Goodstein of '']'', Gabriel "presents a portrait of Islam so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion."<ref name="NYT0311" /> Goodstein says that Gabriel "insists that she is singling out only ']' or Muslim ']'—not the vast majority of Muslims or their faith. And yet, in her speeches and her two books, she leaves the opposite impression."<ref name="NYT0311" />
The book made '']'' hardcover best seller list.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news
|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/books/16blog-polibooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
|title=Hardcover Best Seller List
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|date=17 November 2006
|work=The New York Times Books
|publisher=The New York Times Company
|quote=The author (who describes herself as an Arab Christian and victim of radical Islam) presents her view of Islamic Terrorism.
}}</ref> The introduction of the 2008 edition of ''Because They Hate'' claimed that the book was put on the reading list at the ] and that it was assigned as mandatory reading for ] heading to the ].<ref name=Gabrielintro>Gabriel, 2006, p.xx of the 2008 edition.</ref>


'']'' described her as "the most influential leader in America's increasingly influential anti-Islam lobby."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidnoriega/meet-the-charming-terrifying-face-of-the-anti-islam-lobby|title=Brigitte Gabriel Wants You To Fight Islam|work=BuzzFeed|access-date=13 June 2018|language=en|archive-date=13 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713074439/https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidnoriega/meet-the-charming-terrifying-face-of-the-anti-islam-lobby|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Washington Post'' describes her two books as "alarmist tracts about Islam."<ref name=":0" /> Beinart described her as "America's most prominent anti-Muslim activist."<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas-most-anti-muslim-activist-is-welcome-at-the-white-house/520323/|title=America's Most Prominent Anti-Muslim Activist Is Welcome at the White House|last=Beinart|first=Peter|work=The Atlantic|access-date=24 March 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=24 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524071931/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas-most-anti-muslim-activist-is-welcome-at-the-white-house/520323/|url-status=live}}</ref>
====''They Must Be Stopped''====
{{Reduced pull quote|right|We, as infidels in the eyes of our enemy, need to understand the danger we face: A ] ideology&nbsp;– whether its origin is mainstream or marginal&nbsp;– threatens to enslave, dominate, and murder us in order to realize its vision for global conquest.|''They Must Be Stopped''<ref name=Gabrielp7>Gabriel, 2008, p. 7.</ref>}}
The jacket cover of her book ''They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It'' states the following:
* Fundamentalist Islam is a religion rooted in seventh-century teachings that are fundamentally opposed to democracy and equality
* Radical Islamists are utterly contemptuous of all "infidels" (non-Muslims) and regard them as enemies worthy of death
* ] are increasing in number, and they are just one part of a growing radical Islamic army on U.S. soil
* Radical Islam exploits the U.S. legal system and America's protection of religion to spread its hatred for Western values
* America must organize a unified voice that says "enough" to political correctness, and demands that government officials and elected representatives do whatever is necessary to protect us


Stephen Lee, a publicist at ] for Gabriel's second book, has called her views "extreme,"<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |url=http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/a-radical-islamophobe/?apage=2#comments |work=The New York Times |title=A Radical Islamophobe? |first=Clark |last=Hoyt |date=21 August 2008 |access-date=26 April 2010 |archive-date=14 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714080827/https://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/a-radical-islamophobe/?apage=2#comments |url-status=live }}</ref> and ] of '']'', who interviewed Gabriel in August 2008, described her as a "radical Islamophobe".<ref name=JI>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishindependent.ca/archives/Dec09/archives09Dec18-06.html |publisher=Jewish Independent |date=18 December 2009 |title=Use the anti-Semitism test |first=Mira |last=Sucharov |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019234806/http://www.jewishindependent.ca/archives/Dec09/archives09Dec18-06.html |archive-date=19 October 2010}}</ref> According to Clark Hoyt from ''The New York Times'', over 250 people wrote in to protest that label in the days that followed.<ref name="nyt" /> ], a Senior Resident Scholar at ] in Washington, said that her "agenda is pure unadulterated hatred" and that she has "a pathological hatred of Muslims and other ]".<ref name=Mainstream>{{Cite news|url=http://www.politico.com/story/2011/03/anti-islamic-groups-go-mainstream-050837|title=Anti-Islamic groups go mainstream|work=Politico|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=10 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910041300/http://www.politico.com/story/2011/03/anti-islamic-groups-go-mainstream-050837|url-status=live}}</ref> Gabriel disputes the charge, saying that "I have no quarrel with Muslims who wish to practice the spiritual tenets of their religion in peace".<ref name=Mainstream />
==Viewpoints==
{{Criticism of religion sidebar}}


===Opinions on Islam=== ===Opinions on Islam===
In 2009, Gabriel said that there is a "cancer called ]" that permeates a ] in which "extreme is mainstream".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-security-picks-deepen-muslim-worries-about-an-anti-islamic-white-house/2016/11/18/d7796cc6-add6-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html|title=Trump's security picks deepen Muslim worries about an anti-Islamic White House|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=24 March 2017|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504233624/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-security-picks-deepen-muslim-worries-about-an-anti-islamic-white-house/2016/11/18/d7796cc6-add6-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 2014, Gabriel said that "The radicals are estimated to be between 15 to 25 percent" worldwide.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2015/0113/How-many-Muslim-extremists-are-there-Just-the-facts-please|title=How many Muslim extremists are there? Just the facts, please.|last=LaCasse|first=Alexander|date=13 January 2015|work=Christian Science Monitor|access-date=24 March 2017|issn=0882-7729|archive-date=2 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202223558/https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2015/0113/How-many-Muslim-extremists-are-there-Just-the-facts-please|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Milbank>{{cite web|url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/06/dana-milbanks-heritage-disaster-190551|title=Dana Milbank's Heritage disaster|last=Byers|first=Dylan|date=17 June 2014|work=On Media, where politics meets press|publisher=Politico.com|language=en|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-date=4 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104213602/https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/06/dana-milbanks-heritage-disaster-190551|url-status=live}}</ref> In an interview with '']'', she stated that "A practising Muslim who upholds the tenets of the ]—it's not that simple—a practising Muslim who goes to ] every ], ], and who believes that the Koran is the word of God, and who believes that ] is the perfect man and is a ]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=3403|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070907090017/http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=3403|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 September 2007|title=The world according to Brigitte Gabriel (June 6, 2007)|date=7 September 2007}}</ref>
Gabriel is critical of Islam and believes that "the degraded state of Arab societies is caused by Islam",<ref name="hate-189">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=189}} "It kills self-expression, self-improvement, and empowerment because the religion demands that Islam be the center of one's life and existence, and it dictates how you should be, how you should live."</ref> and that ] are "lagging behind" because of social and religious values.<ref name="hate-188">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=188}} "hey have an ingrained corruption that runs throughout their societies. They respect craftiness and deceit over honesty and virtue. They are consumed with hate for one another."</ref> She considers "Islamic terrorists" simply as devout followers of Islam,<ref name="hate-205">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=205}} "Islamic terrorists are really just very devout followers of Muhammad. They are following his example and doing exactly what the Koran teaches and their mullahs exhort them to do with a daily diet of righteous jihad."</ref> following an example set by Muhammad's behavior.<ref name="hate-202">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=202}} " was a warrior who preached violence and the slaughter of thousands in establishing and spreading Islam."</ref><ref name="hate-203">{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=203}} "he prophet Mohammed, a successful military leader who led his Muslim army against non-Muslims, is an inspiration to almost a billion people around the world."</ref> According to Laurie Goodstein, as published in '']'', she portrays Islam as "thoroughly bent on destruction and domination" and her message is ].<ref name="NYT0311" />


When Gabriel was invited to speak as part of a lecture series organized by ]'s Jewish community in October 2004, many in attendance were angered by her referring to Arabs as "barbarians." The Freeman Centre for Jewish Life at Duke University later apologized for her comments.<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline" /> Following her speech at a women's campaign event for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa (JFO) in November 2008, many in attendance registered their protests, leading Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the JFO, to write a letter in which he acknowledged that Gabriel made, "unacceptable gross generalizations of Arabs and Muslims," distancing his organization from her views.<ref name=JI />
{{Reduced pull quote|right|It is not ] to say that our Western societies are better than the Muslim Arab societies, but we are, we have been, and we always will be.|''Because They Hate''<ref name=Gabrielp185/>}}
Stephen Lee, a publicist at ] for Gabriel's second book, has called her views "extreme",<ref name="nyt">{{cite news| url=http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/a-radical-islamophobe/?apage=2#comments | work=The New York Times | title=A Radical Islamophobe? | first=Clark | last=Hoyt | date=2008-08-21 | accessdate=2010-04-26}}</ref> and ] of '']'', who interviewed Gabriel in August 2008, described her as a "radical ]".<ref name=JI>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishindependent.ca/archives/Dec09/archives09Dec18-06.html|publisher=Jewish Independent|date=December 18, 2009|title=Use the anti-Semitism test|author=Mira Sucharov}}</ref> According to Clark Hoyt from ''The New York Times'', over 250 people wrote in to protest that label in the days that followed.<ref name="nyt"/>


In 2007 at the ] annual conference, Gabriel delivered a speech that included the following:
Gabriel is critical of Americans who "find all sorts of things wrong with America", who "badmouth and put down our culture, government, and country", while having "never experienced life in an oppressive culture or under an oppressive leadership such as is found in the ]."<ref name=Gabrielp185>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|pp=185–186}}</ref> She believes that Americans should "acknowledge that our Western culture is better than others."<ref name=Gabrielp186>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=186}} "... stand up and lift your head and be proud of what America and Western culture stand for."</ref>


<blockquote>The difference, my friends, between ] and the ] is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil ... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "]" which is very different from ]... because our God is the God of love.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cair.com/cair_in_the_news/incitement-brigitte-gabriel-says-arabs-have-no-souls/ |website=CAIR |title=Incitement: Brigitte Gabriel Says Arabs 'Have No Souls'|date=20 August 2007 |access-date=13 August 2022}}</ref></blockquote>
In viewing America as "a powerful and great nation" possessing "superior culture and values", Gabriel sees the entitlements that ] ] has bestowed through "the ] value system" and the ideals of the ], who "worked to establish rights for the individual, rights that did not exist under other forms of government at that time."<ref name=Gabrielp184>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=184}}</ref>


In March 2011 while being interviewed by ] on ], Gabriel defended the speech, saying "I was talking about how Palestinian mothers are encouraging their children to go out and blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. And it was in that context that I – that I contrasted the difference between Israel and the Arabic world, was the difference between democracy and barbarism."<ref name="CNNMar2011">{{cite web|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/08/ita.01.html|title=Brigitte Gabriel's Anti-Islam Message on Radical Muslims|access-date=15 June 2011|date=8 March 2011|publisher=]|archive-date=23 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223211523/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/08/ita.01.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to Gabriel, since ] views the destruction of Israel alongside the United States as "a parallel strategic objective",<ref name=Gabrielp169>{{harvnb|Gabriel|2006|p=169}}</ref> she therefore sees the survival of Israel as being of paramount importance as a vanguard of Western culture and as "the only Western-style nation in the Middle East, one that Arabs despise, feel threatened by, and vow to destroy."<ref name=Gabrielp184/>

In a symposium held in January 2009 titled "Homegrown Jihadis" by '']'', she stated Islam "promotes intolerance and violence", and that "Moderate Muslims must organize and engage those enlightened, educated and westernized Muslims in the community to begin a dialogue to discuss the possibility of reform in Islam just as ] and ] have been reformed."<ref name="FrontPageSYMPOSIUM">{{cite web
|url=http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=33886
|title=FrontPageMagazine.com
|accessdate=2009-05-09
|work=Symposium: Homegrown Jihadis
|publisher=FrontPage Magazine
}} Symposium held in January 2009.</ref>


===Arab–Israeli conflict=== ===Arab–Israeli conflict===
{{Main article|Arab–Israeli conflict}}
Gabriel views the ] as being "intractable because the Arab world refuses to accept the right of a ] to exist." This animosity, having once been rooted in ] has evolved, according to Gabriel, into the more sinister spectre of "radical Islamic supremacism" which now appears to seek "bigger game in the West." She cites examples such as the ] of 1979 and the rise of ] as bringing to the forefront radical Islamic ideologies that are rooted in "religious hatred, humiliation, and resentment" of Israel and the West.<ref name=Gabrielp173-174>Gabriel, 2006, p. 173-174.</ref>
Regarding the ], Gabriel stated: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the ] first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."<ref name="An inside ally">{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=146686|title=An inside ally|access-date=16 March 2010|first=Deena|last=Yellin|date=25 June 2009|work=Jerusalem Post|archive-date=23 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023143935/http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=146686|url-status=live}}</ref>


===Iran–Israel proxy conflict===
Gabriel believes this can be seen in the ] where, in her view, ] has largely been replaced by "holy obligation" motivating adherents to commit "terrorist murder."<ref name=Gabrielp181>Gabriel, 2006, p. 181.</ref> She states that the legitimization of Palestinian suicide attacks within Israel has now evolved to where, "] believe that they may commit mass murder anywhere in the world to advance their holy cause." As a result, she believes the world now suffers "from a plague of Islamic terrorism... authored and perfected by the Palestinians."<ref name=Gabrielp182>Gabriel, 2006, p. 182.</ref>
{{Main article|Iran–Israel proxy conflict}}
In a speech at a conference sponsored by the UN Permanent Mission of Palau and the Aja Eze Foundation, Gabriel said that she viewed Israel as the vanguard in the world's fight against ], equating Israel's fight against ] and ] with the global fight against the ].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-houses-but-does-not-sponsor-anti-semitism-conference/|title=UN houses, but does not sponsor, anti-Semitism conference|work=The Times of Israel|access-date=24 March 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=24 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324181310/http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-houses-but-does-not-sponsor-anti-semitism-conference/|url-status=live}}</ref>


===Raise the voting age===
With regard to the ], Gabriel states: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the Palestinians first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."<ref name="An inside ally">{{cite web
After record youth turnout in the 2022 US midterm election helped avert the expected 'red wave' of Republican wins in state races, Gabriel tweeted, "Raise the voting age to 21." on the social media web site Twitter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://twitter.com/ACTBrigitte/status/1590404126428434433|title=Raise the voting age to 21|work=Brigitte Gabriel ('Twitter' Profile, Rebranded as 'X')|access-date=8 November 2023|language=en-US|archive-date=9 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509183445/https://twitter.com/ACTBrigitte/status/1590404126428434433|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/nov/17/sunny-hostin/no-republicans-dont-want-to-raise-voting-age-to-28/|title=Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28|work=PolitiFact|access-date=8 November 2023|language=en-US|archive-date=30 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630012231/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/nov/17/sunny-hostin/no-republicans-dont-want-to-raise-voting-age-to-28/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/some-republicans-want-to-raise-voting-age-after-gen-zs-strong-midterm-turnout?ref=scroll|title=Some Republicans Want to Raise Voting Age After Gen Z Midterm Turnout|work=Daily Beast|access-date=8 November 2023|language=en-US|archive-date=9 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509141441/https://www.thedailybeast.com/some-republicans-want-to-raise-voting-age-after-gen-zs-strong-midterm-turnout?ref=scroll|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/16/gen-z-helped-to-stop-the-red-wave-in-the-midterms-the-republicans-response-try-to-raise-the-voting-age|title=Gen Z helped to stop the 'red wave' in the midterms. The Republicans' response? Try to raise the voting age|work=The Guardian|access-date=8 November 2023|language=en-US|archive-date=17 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517133053/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/16/gen-z-helped-to-stop-the-red-wave-in-the-midterms-the-republicans-response-try-to-raise-the-voting-age|url-status=live}}</ref>
|url=http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=146686
|title=An inside ally
|accessdate=2010-03-16
|author= DEENA YELLIN
|date = 2009-06-25
|publisher=Jerusalem Post
}}</ref>

===Controversy at speaking engagements===
When Gabriel was invited to speak as part of a lecture series organized by Duke University's Jewish community in October 2004, many in attendance were angered by her referring to Arabs as "barbarians." The Freeman Centre for Jewish Life at Duke University later apologized for her comments.<ref name="AL-AHRAMweeklyonline"/> Following her speech at women's campaign event for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa (JFO) in November 2008, many in attendance registered their protests, leading Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the JFO, to write a letter in which he acknowledged that Gabriel made, "unacceptable gross generalizations of Arabs and Muslims," distancing his organization from her views.<ref name=JI/>

In 2007 at the Christians United for Israel annual conference, Gabriel delivered the following speech:

{{quote|The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil .... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "Allah" which is very different from the God we believe.... because our God is the God of love.|] annual conference 2007<ref name=CUFI2007/>}}

This speech was subsequently criticised by journalist ] as being "hate speech" and stated that Brigitte Gabriel "paints a wide swath of humanity as subhuman", comparing her to Goebbel's Reich.<ref name="CUFI2007">{{cite web
|url=http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/7/27/22357/2657/Front_Page/McCain_and_Lieberman_Frolic_At_CUFI_s_Festival_Of_Hate
|title=McCain and Lieberman Frolic At CUFI's Festival Of Hate
|accessdate=2010-05-09
|author= Bruce Wilson
|authorlink = Bruce Wilson (American journalist)
|date = 2007-08-15
|publisher=]
}}</ref>

In March 2011 while being interviewed by ] on ], Gabriel defended the speech stating:

{{quote|I was talking about how Palestinian mothers are encouraging their children to go out and blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. And it was in that context that I – that I contrasted the difference between Israel and the Arabic world, was the difference between democracy and barbarism.<ref name=CNNMar2011/>}}

She further added:

{{quote|How easily journalists, or people and comments especially now with the Internet age, can take few words and either paste them together or edit them together to basically express their own point of view.<ref name="CNNMar2011">
{{cite web
|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1103/08/ita.01.html
|title=Brigitte Gabriel's Anti-Islam Message on Radical Muslims
|accessdate=2011-06-15
|author= CNN.com Transcripts
|date = 2011-03-08
|publisher=]
}}</ref>
}}

In June 2014, Gabriel sat on the panel at a symposium by The Benghazi Accountability Coalition and The Heritage Foundation. Sabah Ahmed, a woman in an Islamic head covering from the audience, asked: "How can we fight an ideological war with weapons? How can we end this war? How do you ever win this thing if you don't address it ideologically?" Brigitte Gabriel answered repeatedly that in specific historic cases of large scale violence and terror against innocent populations "the peaceful majority were irrelevant" in terms of preventing atrocities. She remarked that the panel was about discussing accountability of the Benghazi incident and not about solutions to address the root of the problem, at which point Gabriel received two rounds of applause lasting 28 and 17 seconds and a standing ovation from the audience.<ref name="BACHF2014_WashPost_Milbank">
{{cite web
|url=http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/06/18/politicos-reporting-disaster/|title=Politico's reporting disaster
|accessdate=2014-07-18
|date = 2014-06-18
|author = Dana Milbank
|publisher=]
}}</ref> In the original context of the inquirer trying to find a smart way of disarming ideologists, Gabriel addressed the inquirer directly with "you are making a point about peaceful moderate Muslims" and concluded:{{quote|It is time to throw political correctness in the garbage where it belongs.<ref name="BACHF2014_AT_Video">
{{cite web
|url=http://www.americanthinker.com/video/2014/06/amazing_answer_peaceful_muslims_concern_standing_ovation.html
|title=Amazing Answer to 'Peaceful Muslims' Concern Gets Standing Ovation
|accessdate=2014-07-18
|date = 2014-06-18
}}</ref>}}


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Gabriel |first=Brigitte |display-authors=0 |title=Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-35837-7|year=2006}}
{{refbegin}}
*{{citation|last=Gabriel|first=Brigitte|title=Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pmmCnppIll0C|place=], ], ] |publisher=] |isbn=0-312-35837-7|year=2006|ref=harv}} * {{cite book |last=Gabriel |first=Brigitte |display-authors=0 |title=They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-312-38363-3}}
*{{citation|last=Gabriel|first=Brigitte|title=They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gxffnPOnLCMC|place=New York City, New York, United States|publisher=]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-312-38363-3|ref=harv}}
{{refend}}

==See also==
{{Portal|United States|Biography|Islam}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|2}} {{Reflist|30em}}


==External links== ==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*
*
* *
*
* , ]
* to ]
*
* {{C-SPAN|1021864}}


{{Authority control}}
===Video===
* to ]
* {{YouTube|NdV0m97suyk| Book Interview "Because They Hate"}} by ] on The Leon Charney Report
* {{YouTube|mjYqMlSNZ3E|November 2006 Interview}} by ] on The Leon Charney Report


{{Authority control|VIAF=43724297}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ] -->
| NAME = Gabriel, Brigitte
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Nour Saman (pen name)
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American journalist
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1964-10-21
| PLACE OF BIRTH = Marjeyoun, Marjeyoun District, Lebanon
| DATE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
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Latest revision as of 11:53, 17 November 2024

Lebanese-American author and activist (born 1964)

Brigitte Gabriel
بريجيت غابرييل‎
Gabriel speaking at a conference in Twin Falls, Idaho, 2016
BornHanan Qahwaji
(1964-10-21) October 21, 1964 (age 60)
Marjayoun, Lebanon
Other namesNour Semaan (pen name)
CitizenshipUnited States
Occupations
  • Activist
  • author
  • journalist
  • lecturer
OrganizationACT for America
Spouse Charles Tudor ​(m. 1989)​
Websiteactforamerica.org

Brigitte Gabriel (Arabic: بريجيت غابرييل; born Hanan Qahwaji, 21 October 1964) is a Lebanese-American conservative activist, author and lecturer, and critic of Islam. She is the founder of ACT for America, an advocacy group that opposes Islamic extremism.

Early life

Gabriel was born on 21 October 1964 to a family of Maronite Christians in the Marjeyoun District of Lebanon. During the Lebanese Civil War, Muslim militants launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near her family's house and destroyed her home. Gabriel, who was ten years old at the time, suffered shrapnel injuries in the attack. For the next seven years, she and her parents were forced to live underground in an 8-by-10-foot (2.4 by 3.0 m) bomb shelter with only a small kerosene heater, no sanitary systems, no electricity or running water, and little food. Gabriel had to crawl in a roadside ditch to evade Muslim snipers on her way to collect water from a nearby spring.

In the spring of 1978, a bomb explosion caused Gabriel and her parents to become trapped in their shelter for two days. They were eventually rescued by three Christian militiamen, one of whom had befriended Gabriel before being killed by a landmine.

Gabriel wrote that in 1978, a stranger warned her family of an impending attack by Muslim insurgents on the Christian populace in her area. However, the attack was thwarted by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Later, her mother was seriously injured in an attack and subsequently taken for treatment at a hospital in Israel. During this period, Gabriel's views on the Israelis changed as she began to question Lebanon's anti-Israel propaganda that she had witnessed as a child.

Multiple facts surrounding Gabriel's upbringing and autobiography have been disputed, with American author Dave Gaubatz calling her account of growing up in Lebanon as "dramatically fabricated.”

Education

After graduating from high school, Gabriel completed a one-year course in business administration at a YWCA in 1984.

Career

Using the pseudonym Nour Semaan, Gabriel was a news anchor for World News, an Arabic-language evening news broadcast of Middle East Television, which "was then run by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network to spread his politically conservative, Pentecostal faith in the Middle East." The broadcasts covered Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Gabriel reported on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from central Lebanon and the "Security Zone" in southern Lebanon, as well as the First Palestinian Intifada. She then moved to Israel before emigrating to the United States in 1989.

Gabriel wrote the book Because They Hate in 2006, and They Must Be Stopped in 2008, which sold a combined 120,000 copies in print, with the former reaching number 12 on The New York Times Best Seller list for political books.

ACT for America

Main article: ACT! for America

Her organization ACT for America has been described as anti-Muslim. According to The New York Times, ACT for America draws "on three rather religious and partisan streams in American politics: evangelical Christian conservatives, hard-line defenders of Israel (both Jews and Christians) and Tea Party Republicans". According to The Washington Post, the organization "touted as its 'first accomplishment' its 2008 campaign to shut down a Minnesota Islamic school."

In February 2017, Gabriel said that she provided a "national security briefing" at the White House. She met with aides at the White House in March 2017, during the Donald Trump administration. She has written intermittently for Breitbart News.

Views

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The Southern Poverty Law Center described ACT! for America as "the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in the country," and the Council on American–Islamic Relations has described it as "one of the main sources of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation". According to The Guardian, the organization has been "widely identified as anti-Muslim". Gabriel and ACT! have been described as part of the counter-jihad movement.

According to Peter Beinart in The Atlantic, "the organization has condemned cities with large Muslim populations for serving halal food in public schools. In 2013, its Houston chapter urged members to 'protest' food companies that certify their meat as compliant with Islamic dietary law. ACT! for America tries to dissuade Jews and Christians from conducting interfaith dialogue with Muslims. And in state after state, it has lobbied state legislatures and school boards to purge textbooks of references that create 'an inaccurate comparison between Islam, Christianity and Judaism.'"

According to Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times, Gabriel "presents a portrait of Islam so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion." Goodstein says that Gabriel "insists that she is singling out only 'radical Islam' or Muslim 'extremists'—not the vast majority of Muslims or their faith. And yet, in her speeches and her two books, she leaves the opposite impression."

BuzzFeed News described her as "the most influential leader in America's increasingly influential anti-Islam lobby." The Washington Post describes her two books as "alarmist tracts about Islam." Beinart described her as "America's most prominent anti-Muslim activist."

Stephen Lee, a publicist at St. Martin's Press for Gabriel's second book, has called her views "extreme," and Deborah Solomon of The New York Times Magazine, who interviewed Gabriel in August 2008, described her as a "radical Islamophobe". According to Clark Hoyt from The New York Times, over 250 people wrote in to protest that label in the days that followed. Hussein Ibish, a Senior Resident Scholar at The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said that her "agenda is pure unadulterated hatred" and that she has "a pathological hatred of Muslims and other Arabs". Gabriel disputes the charge, saying that "I have no quarrel with Muslims who wish to practice the spiritual tenets of their religion in peace".

Opinions on Islam

In 2009, Gabriel said that there is a "cancer called Islamofascism" that permeates a Muslim world in which "extreme is mainstream". In June 2014, Gabriel said that "The radicals are estimated to be between 15 to 25 percent" worldwide. In an interview with The Australian Jewish News, she stated that "A practising Muslim who upholds the tenets of the Koran—it's not that simple—a practising Muslim who goes to mosque every Friday, prays five times a day, and who believes that the Koran is the word of God, and who believes that Mohammed is the perfect man and is a radical Muslim."

When Gabriel was invited to speak as part of a lecture series organized by Duke University's Jewish community in October 2004, many in attendance were angered by her referring to Arabs as "barbarians." The Freeman Centre for Jewish Life at Duke University later apologized for her comments. Following her speech at a women's campaign event for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa (JFO) in November 2008, many in attendance registered their protests, leading Mitchell Bellman, president and CEO of the JFO, to write a letter in which he acknowledged that Gabriel made, "unacceptable gross generalizations of Arabs and Muslims," distancing his organization from her views.

In 2007 at the Christians United for Israel annual conference, Gabriel delivered a speech that included the following:

The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil ... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "Allah" which is very different from the God we believe... because our God is the God of love.

In March 2011 while being interviewed by Eliot Spitzer on CNN, Gabriel defended the speech, saying "I was talking about how Palestinian mothers are encouraging their children to go out and blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. And it was in that context that I – that I contrasted the difference between Israel and the Arabic world, was the difference between democracy and barbarism."

Arab–Israeli conflict

Main article: Arab–Israeli conflict

Regarding the two-state solution, Gabriel stated: "Forcing Israel to accept a two-state solution is not going to work unless the Palestinians first are forced to clean up their act and eliminate hatred from their schoolbooks, teach tolerance to their people, and preach acceptance of Israel and the Jews as a neighbor."

Iran–Israel proxy conflict

Main article: Iran–Israel proxy conflict

In a speech at a conference sponsored by the UN Permanent Mission of Palau and the Aja Eze Foundation, Gabriel said that she viewed Israel as the vanguard in the world's fight against Islamic terrorism, equating Israel's fight against Hamas and Hezbollah with the global fight against the Islamic State.

Raise the voting age

After record youth turnout in the 2022 US midterm election helped avert the expected 'red wave' of Republican wins in state races, Gabriel tweeted, "Raise the voting age to 21." on the social media web site Twitter.

Bibliography

  • Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. St. Martin's Press. 2006. ISBN 0-312-35837-7.
  • They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. St. Martin's Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-312-38363-3.

References

  1. ^ Goodstein, Laurie (7 March 2011). "Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  2. ^ "The dark angel Gabriel" (Commentary). NOW News. Mercury Media. 3 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  3. Beinart, Peter (15 March 2018). "Mike Pompeo's Allies on the Anti-Muslim Right". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 11 December 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  4. "Mike Pompeo, Trump's pick to replace Tillerson, has long worried Muslim advocates". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 11 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
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  8. Gabriel 2006, p. 29
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  12. Rubin, Debra (7 November 2016). "Lebanese Christian expert on terrorism to help honor her IDF saviors". NJJN. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016.
  13. Gabriel 2006, p. 51
  14. Gabriel 2006, p. 67
  15. Gabriel 2006, p. 77
  16. Prof. Livia Bitton-Jackson (2 March 2015). "Brigitte Gabriel: A Remarkable Fighter For Israel". Archived from the original on 16 November 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  17. Piggott, Stephen Who is the Real Brigitte Gabriel? Southern Poverty Law Center
  18. Gabriel 2006, p. 95
  19. ^ Lamb, Franklin (6–12 March 2008), "Lost from Lebanon", Al-Ahram (887 ed.), Cairo, archived from the original on 6 August 2009, retrieved 10 February 2010
  20. Young, Michael (11 March 2011). "The Dark angel Gabriel". NOW Lebanon. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013.
  21. Tucker, Neely (1 October 2015). "Among Republicans, polls show, fear of Islam is always on 'high simmer'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
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  28. ^ Beinart, Peter. "America's Most Prominent Anti-Muslim Activist Is Welcome at the White House". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  29. "Despite Earlier Denials, The White House Now Says An Anti-Muslim Leader Had A Meeting There". BuzzFeed. 21 March 2017. Archived from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  30. "Factsheet: Breitbart News". Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. 10 November 2019.
  31. "Who is the Real Brigitte Gabriel?". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  32. ^ Tucker, Neely; Tucker, Neely (1 October 2015). "Among Republicans, polls show, fear of Islam is always on 'high simmer'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  33. ^ Beckett, Lois (21 March 2017). "Leader of group widely identified as anti-Muslim meets with White House". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  34. Perwee, Ed (2020). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (16): 211–230. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. S2CID 218843237.
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  43. "The world according to Brigitte Gabriel (June 6, 2007)". 7 September 2007. Archived from the original on 7 September 2007.
  44. "Incitement: Brigitte Gabriel Says Arabs 'Have No Souls'". CAIR. 20 August 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  45. "Brigitte Gabriel's Anti-Islam Message on Radical Muslims". CNN. 8 March 2011. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  46. "UN houses, but does not sponsor, anti-Semitism conference". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  47. "Raise the voting age to 21". Brigitte Gabriel ('Twitter' Profile, Rebranded as 'X'). Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  48. "Republicans want to raise the voting to age 28". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on 30 June 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  49. "Some Republicans Want to Raise Voting Age After Gen Z Midterm Turnout". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  50. "Gen Z helped to stop the 'red wave' in the midterms. The Republicans' response? Try to raise the voting age". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.

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