A feature in the Washington Post takes a swipe at the embattled Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of the country’s most well-funded “anti-hate” organizations. The piece highlights the group’s recent “blunders,” including its failed attempt to brand moderate Islam critic Maajid Nawaz and HUD Secretary Ben Carson as “extremists.”
The Post, despite its largely left-wing editorial line, admitted that the SPLC’s reputation has taken a hit in recent years thanks to its overzealous adding of conservative groups to its “hate list”
The Post went on to admit that the SPLC damaged its own reputation with “blunders”:
Along the way, the SPLC undermined its own credibility with a couple of blunders. In 2015, it apologized for listing Ben Carson as an extremist (though not on the hate list), saying the characterization was inaccurate. Then, this past June, the group paid $3.4 million to Muslim activist Maajid Nawaz and his Quilliam organization to settle a threatened lawsuit. The SPLC had listed them in a “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” (again, not on the main hate list). The SPLC apologized for misunderstanding Nawaz’s work to counter Islamist extremism. – READ MORE