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Connecting The Dots With Frank Gaffney

For years, we have been covering the attacks that anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney has been leveling against Grover Norquist, a fellow conservative activist who has referred to Gaffney as his “stalker(link is external).”

Indeed, Gaffney has launched a very personal battle against Norquist(link is external), accusing the Americans for Tax Reform leader of helping the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist terrorist groups infiltrate the conservative movement(link is external). These attacks, which often invoke the fact that Norquist is married(link is external) to a Muslim-American woman, have been demonstrated to be completely unfounded(link is external).

Gaffney has Ctrl+Click or tap to follow the link"> recruited other conservative leaders (link is external) into his fight, including commentator Glenn Beck(link is external) and Family Research Council official Jerry Boykin(link is external), and was involved in a campaign to get Norquist thrown off the board of the National Rifle Association(link is external).

Gaffney claims(link is external) that he “saw terrorists in [Norquist’s] office space” and uses guilt-by-association logic(link is external) to tie Norquist to all sorts of unsavory figures through the anti-tax activists outreach to Muslim voters on behalf of conservative causes. Recently, Beck tweeted(link is external) a scandalous photo of Norquist and his wife “palling around with Keith Ellison,” a Muslim Democratic congressman from Minnesota who, according to the Beck’s tweet, is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and wants to “put thousands of prison converts to jihad on the streets.” Naturally, as one source of this “information,” Beck cited(link is external) Gaffney’s group, the Center for Security Policy.

However, the recall vote against Norquist failed(link is external), representing a major rebuke to Gaffney’s efforts.

“The recall was simply the most recent nonsense from Frank Gaffney—my stalker of the last 17 years. The NRA membership defeated his effort last April and again this year,” Norquist said.

Now that the NRA members have kept Norquist on its board(link is external) and rejected the message from Gaffney and others, it is clear that Gaffney, using his own connect-the-dots/guilt-by-association logic, is involved in the Muslim Brotherhood:

  • Frank Gaffney was a senior adviser(link is external) to Ted Cruz
  • Ted Cruz has spoken several(link is external) times(link is external) at NRA events and praised the group.
  • The NRA board includes Grover Norquist.
  • Norquist is, according to Gaffney, a Muslim Brotherhood agent.
  • Therefore, Gaffney is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood!

While obviously it is patently absurd to suggest that Gaffney (or Norquist, for that matter) is a Muslim Brotherhood agent, his connect-the-dots logic works both ways, and can even be used against Gaffney himself.