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June 18, 2018 - Tim Pool Daily Show
10:04
SPLC Must Pay MASSIVE Settlement for Defaming Maajid Nawaz

The SPLC has agreed to settle with Maajid Nawaz and Quilliam for defaming them by calling Maajid an anti Muslim extremist. The legal battle has been going on for nearly two years and finally ended to day. Several weeks ago we saw the SPLC pull down the original article and this to many was a sign of something about to happen. We now learned that it is part of a full apology, retraction, and multi million dollar settlement. Full Disclosure, the SPLC has lied about me in the past and was forced to apologize for it. Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Southern Poverty Law Center has agreed to settle with Majid Nawaz and the Quilliam Organization after they falsely called Majid an anti-Muslim extremist.
This is major breaking news.
This is a fight that's been going on for several years, and the SPLC is not known for backing down after they call someone an extremist, a racist, or imply that an organization is a hate group.
Not only is the SPLC going to apologize, but they're going to pay $3.375 million to Majid Nawaz and Quilliam.
This is a massive multi-million dollar settlement.
So what is the SPLC doing?
Why have they agreed to settle?
And what is Majid Nawaz going to do with all of that money?
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I rely on contributions from all of you to continue making videos just like this.
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Earlier today, MAGID tweeted, breaking, SPL Center admits it was wrong, apologizes to Quilliam Org
and MAGID Noirse for its field guides to anti-Muslim extremists, and agrees to pay $3.375
million.
In a press release from Quilliam, they said, The Southern Poverty Law Center has apologized to Quilliam
and its founder, MAGID Noirse, for wrongly naming them in its controversial
field guides to anti-Muslim extremists. In a public statement, the SPLC's president,
Richard Cohen, explained that Mr.
Noirse and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse,
including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.
The SPLC also agreed to pay $3.375 million, which Quilliam and Nawaz intend to use to fund work fighting anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.
With the help of everyone who contributed to our litigation fund, we were able to fight back against the regressive left and show them that moderate Muslims will not be silenced, said Nawaz.
We will continue to combat extremists by defying Muslim stereotypes, calling out fundamentalism in our own communities, and speaking out against anti-Muslim hate.
This all started nearly two years ago, from the Atlantic.
How did Majid Nawaz end up on a list of anti-Muslim extremists?
Quote, they put a target on my head.
When earlier this week the Southern Poverty Law Center and three other groups released a list of 15 anti-Muslim extremists, many of the names came at no surprise.
They included Pam Geller, who led the fight against the misleadingly nicknamed Ground Zero Mosque, and her ally Frank Gaffney, who has called Barack Obama a crypto-Muslim.
and assailed Grover Norquist as an Islamist agent.
Others were more controversial, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is beloved by some as a truth-teller and reviled by others as a bigot.
But one name in particular struck out.
Majid Nawaz, a British activist who runs the Quilliam Foundation, which calls itself the world's first counter-extremism think tank.
Nawaz is a star in certain anti-terror circles thanks to a compelling personal narrative, a self-described former extremist who spent four years in an Egyptian prison.
He has changed approaches and now argues for a pluralistic and peaceful vision of Islam.
He stood for parliament as a liberal democrat in 2015 and advised Prime Ministers Tony Blair,
Gordon Brown, and David Cameron. The Southern Poverty Law Center has been accused of defaming
many people in the past, and I am someone who is personally affected by this, so take it for what
it is, you're probably going to get a biased view from me because just a few months ago they called
me alt-right and claimed that I'd attended a Holocaust deniers conference in Iran,
which is just crazy because I've never been to Iran.
Their evidence?
They found an archived version of a Holocaust deniers website based in Iran that had my name listed on it alongside other activists.
But again, I've never been to Iran, and I don't know why my name would be on that list.
However, they did apologize for this, and I think the main reason might be because it sounds pretty damn crazy.
The reason why this story is such a big deal, and the reason why it is so dangerous for the SPLC to falsely accuse people of being aligned with certain groups, Is that it can really get you hurt.
There are many Islamist organizations that would kill apostates.
And by calling Majid Nawaz, who is a Muslim, an anti-Muslim extremist, they are putting a target on his back.
And to go back to my personal reference, when they called me alt-right, they seriously did put a target on my back for far-left activists who have been known to be violent on numerous occasions.
Southern Poverty Law Center issued this statement, Today we entered into a settlement with and offered our
sincerest apology to Mr. Majid Nawaz and his organization, the Quilliam Foundation, for
including them in our publication, A Journalist's Manual, Field Guides to Anti-Muslim Extremists.
Given our understanding of the views of Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam, it was our opinion at the time that the field guide was
published, that their inclusion was warranted. But after getting a deeper understanding of
their views and after hearing from others, for whom we have great respect, we realized that we were
simply wrong to have included Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam in the field guide in the first
place.
As part of our settlement, we have paid $3.375 million to Nawaz and Quilliam to fund their work to fight anti-Muslim bigotry and extremism.
It was the right thing to do in light of our mistake, and the right thing to do in light of growing prejudice against the Muslim community on both sides of the Atlantic.
We look to our insurance carrier to cover the cost of the settlement.
Naturally, there are a lot of people who are very, very critical of the SPLC and really don't like them.
In fact, there's a website called splclies.com that calls them out for various, what they say is, unethical behavior.
However, after having received the settlement and apology, Majid Nawaz issued this statement.
unidentified
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, yes, they have finally apologised a year and a half after listing me in their field guide of anti-Muslim extremists.
They've issued a retraction and they've given us a settlement, a multi-million dollar settlement.
I want to thank all of my supporters and everyone that stood by me to get us to this stage, but I do want to say that this isn't the time for us to gloat.
I want to extend an invitation to the Southern Poverty Law Centre to join us at Quilliam, work with us to challenge Islamist extremism and anti-Muslim bigotry wherever we find it.
This should be an instructive moment for all of us.
Too much and for too long the left, and many on the left, have been trying to shut down any debate of critique or criticism around Islam, especially by Muslims within Muslim communities.
Well this moment should teach us all a lesson and allow us to work together to challenge the triple threat facing the world at the moment, and that's far-right extremism, far-left extremism, and from the heavens above, Islamist extremism.
So I extend an invitation to the Southern Poverty Law Centre to work with Kit Quilliam in solidarity against all forms of extremism, and I want to say thank you.
tim pool
And I have to agree.
First, I just want to say, I think what Majid Nawaz does is pretty awesome.
He is a Muslim, and he opposes extremism, and I think that's great.
If you support freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, then I think you would look at Majid Nawaz as someone who's doing good work.
People should be allowed to practice their religion as they see fit, but we want to discourage extremism.
We want extremism, violence, and terrorism to stop.
Whether or not they did this because they were forced to, by lawsuit, or they chose to, is irrelevant.
They did.
The SPLC did apologize.
They did pay a settlement.
And because of that, money is now going to fund the work of Majid Nawaz, who I highly respect.
In which case, we should praise the actions of the SPLC.
They did something good.
Whenever I talk about bad actors, Who are apologizing or are trying to turn a new leaf, I always tell people to accept the apology, to praise them for doing it, encourage good behavior so that people are more inclined to do it in the future.
I have personally experienced defamation at the hands of the SPLC, and they issued an apology about it.
In the article where they called me alt-right and claimed I had gone to some Holocaust scenarios conference, they said that the intent of the article, which they thought was clear at the time of publication, was to show only that individuals on the left share some policy views with respect to multipolarism that are also held by the far right, And there is a lot wrong with that apology.
It's not perfect.
However, I give the SPLC my respect for coming out and admitting they were wrong because it is a very difficult thing for people to do for a lot of reasons.
A lot of people are probably held back by pride or their ego.
And for large organizations, they're also held back by money.
By coming out and admitting they're wrong, they risk losing the support of their donors, in which case it could be a serious risk to their business.
But it was the right thing to do.
And hopefully those who support the SPLC will also support their decision to apologize to those they have wrongfully accused or defamed.
There are still many people that the SPLC has not apologized to.
In fact, a friend of mine who is a hacker was called a white supremacist once, when they are anything but, and the SPLC has refused to apologize for it.
So when I see them not only apologizing, but paying out a multi-million dollar settlement, I say, you know what SPLC?
Bravo for taking down the article where you falsely accused somebody, and then paying for your mistake.
That is entirely respectable.
I hope all of you who are watching agree that when someone does something good, we say, you know what?
Thank you for doing the right thing.
Please encourage that behavior.
The SPLC says their mission is to fight hate, bigotry, and extremism.
And those are noble causes.
So, look, it doesn't matter who you are.
If you're doing something good, you have my respect.
And when you do something bad, I'm gonna call you out for it.
So long as the SPLC's aim is to do something good, I will respect that.
But I will not stand by while they do things that are not respectable.
So if they defame people, they get called out.
If they apologize for it, they get respect.
But let me know what you think!
Do you think this is just a settlement they were forced to pay because of a lawsuit?
Or do you think they actually are acknowledging their mistake?
Comment below and we'll keep the conversation going.
You can follow me on Twitter at TimCast.
Stay tuned.
New videos every day at 4 p.m.
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