Speaker warns of radical Islam making inroads in U.S.

Nearly 500 people turned out Thursday to hear the words of Brigitte Gabriel, a national figure who was greeted by rounds of standing applause from the Flathead Valley audience.

“The reality is, right now across the globe, we are witnessing the resurrection of the Islamic state,” Gabriel said Thursday at the Easthaven Baptist Church north of Kalispell.

Gabriel is the founder and chief executive officer of Act! For America, a growing organization that focuses on radical Islam. She said Thursday that the organization has a full-time lobbyist in Capitol Hill, 300,000 members and 250 chapters, including a recently minted group in the Flathead Valley.

She is well-received in many conservative circles and the organization is active in state and national politics.

Critics say she distorts the perception of the larger Muslim community and casts an entire religion under a harsh light. A 2011 New York Times article said that her presentation of Islam is one that’s “so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion.”

In her books, through her organization and in speaking engagements such as the one in Kalispell, Gabriel warns that radical Muslims are deceptively tipping the scales in their favor.

Gabriel arrived at the church first for a meet-and-greet session with local chapter members. She was a wealth of energy, shaking hands with the two-dozen people in the room and remembering names.

She was greeted with a standing ovation at the beginning of her speech. Her theme was that the radical Islamic movement was not only on the doorstep of American culture but gaining ground.

Gabriel, who was born in Lebanon, repeated the story of an attack on her hometown by extremists. She said they turned her home into rubble, which forced her to live in a bomb shelter for much of her youth.

After the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, she founded the organization and dedicated herself to the idea that American values are under fire from radical Islam.

It happens with the infiltration of political groups and legislative bodies, she said. It also happens in other nonprofit organizations. In one example, she decried the American Civil Liberties Union’s support of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“How can these people be working together?” Gabriel said. “But the ACLU is being used as the useful idiots at the hands of the Islamists who have an agenda, who are trying to advance their agenda in the West. That’s what we are dealing with.”

According to IRS filings, Act! operates on more than $1 million in donations, of which Gabriel commands a six-figure income. She boasted that the group has helped pass 37 bills in 19 states over five years.

Gabriel touched on some current legislative goals. They include bills that ban aspects of foreign law in U.S. courts, which Gabriel noted was due to some courts using notes of Islamic law in limited civil proceedings.

The ACLU has opposed these bills and challenged the passage of legislation in Oklahoma.

The local chapter is working to echo those efforts in the Montana Legislature. Caroline Solomon, the local Act! for America chairwoman, provided a legislative list that includes the court mandate as well as a “Free Speech Defense Act.” The latter would help shield Americans from foreign libel suits, according to Solomon.

The Flathead County chapter also is working on a Truth in Montana Textbooks initiative modeled after a recent effort in Texas.

Solomon said chapter members plan to read through new public-school textbooks and make suggestions on the views presented.

“It’s not often complete untruths, but it’s also the presentation of the truth that is biased,” Solomon said.

Critics have said that the efforts in Texas have tried to minimize events such as slavery and the U.S. Civil War. Revised textbooks will hit classrooms this fall.

The Flathead County chapter is moving along steadily. It started last September and Solomon said that nearly 50 people now attend monthly meetings.

Solomon said she feels that the members are realizing that they’re not alone in their views of the country and are being re-energized.

“It’s because people kept coming, and then basically you saw yesterday what we have done in nine months,” she said Friday.

She said the organization isn’t out to oppose all Muslims, a population that hovers between 1.5 billion and 2 billion people worldwide. Solomon said Act! For America is concerned only with extremist groups and individuals.

In her speech on Thursday, Gabriel held her energy throughout the hour. She gave rousing accounts of American values that received repeated applause.

Her speech was peppered with strong urges for people to join and donate to Act! For America, with registration forms underneath every seat. She preached the idea that a dedicated few can make a big difference.

“We are building the firewalls state by state, in every state, to protect the nation from the encroachment of radical Islam, and we want you here involved,” Gabriel said.

Reporter Matt Hudson may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.