In Controversial refugee resettlement speaker draws 200 to presentation, the Brainerd Dispatch reported that the Blandin Foundation, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Sharia law were among the subjects of anti-refugee and immigrant rabblerouser Ron Branstner's ire.
A reader who attended the presentation has sent us notes on the attack on Blandin, along with scans of Branstner's handouts. While Branstner's fanboys tout these as "facts," the sources do not withstand scrutiny.
Branstner's standard fare: bashing the Blandin Foundation
Our reader reports on the meeting:
A key premise of the presentation was that in the 1980s the Blandin Foundation entered a secret agreement with “the Hormel Foundation” to import illegal, cheap labor to bust unions, and also identified 280 additional communities in Greater Minnesota that would equally benefit from this strategy. The McKnight Foundation was also identified as a collaborator (and “there are six of the McKnights, including one in Little Falls”), all taking orders from “the Bermuda Philanthropies” which in turn is a shill for the High Council of the United Nations, which is now under control of Islamic extremists. I attended Blandin Leadership Training many years ago and to target Blandin and I am sure he was referring to the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls (McKnight) is simply whacko conspiracy theory.
Branster explained, “the primary motivation behind the NGO interest in encouraging resettlement (including importation of undocumented workers, the lines between legal processes and refugee resettlement and the arrival and treatment of undocumented workers very “vague”) is that non-profit organizations and governmental units make so much money on each new arrival. He continued, all “charities” are actually false fronts to launder money to pay back to elected officials; the only honest charity in the world is Wounded Warriors. He compared what the non-profit (respected Minnesota) charities are doing as slavery/human trafficking. This guy, a former Minute Man is highly supportive of immigrants and refugees, of course. He claimed no political party and then slashed only one political party. Watch for PDF of the handouts. Check the sources of them. Nothing even remotely mainstream. . . .
Branstner's attack on the Blandin Foundation has been his standard fare for at least eight years. In 2008, the Austin (MN) reported in Media, Austin history discussed at immigration forum:
According to Branstner, foundations have a hidden agenda and that is to support open borders to allow American industries and businesses a ready supply of “cheap labor.”
The 1985-86 labor dispute and strike at Hormel Foods Corporation facilities resulted, in part, with the need for “cheap labor.”
He quickly spun off charges Apex Austin was created to assist “cheap labor” in coming to Austin.
That, the more than 700 Austin citizens who participated in the Blandin Foundation’s Community Leadership Program, were “brainwashed” into supporting the movement toward cultural diversity.
In 2015, the St. Cloud Times reported in Fact-checking debunks some claims about refugees:
Branstner on the Blandin Foundation: “They have a school that they send all their reps from cities to these schools — either mayors, bankers, heads of schools, people in the medical industry. They send them to school and put all these programs together so they can bring in as many … people as they can. Why do they do this? They do it for cheap labor.”
Blandin does provide community leadership training. But Blandin’s Allison Ahcan said Blandin “is about stronger rural Minnesota communities, period.”
“The foundation stands by rural Minnesota leaders ... as they build communities where all the members can meet their needs, work together for the common good and participate in creating a healthy future,” Ahcan stated.
After tracking down the sources of the handouts, Bluestem concurs with the reader's assessment of the documents.
Two handouts: page extracted from disputed report; Bircher article
Our source sent along the handouts. Perhaps the most mainstream source is the Heritage Foundation; Branstner handed out a one-page, undated document supposed drawn from a Heritage document, though it contained no information that would help track down the specific report from the conservative think tank. We believe the data comes from this 2013 study, The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty to the U.S. Taxpayer. NBC Latino reported that conservative groups "blasted" the study at the time it was released. Sourcewatch looks at the think tank's funding here.
The other document is the John Birch Society's Stop the UN's Role in Resettling Refugees in the U.S..While the page with the article is no longer on JBS website, it is preserved online in an action alert. The Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Intelligence Report looked at Bringing Back Birch in 2013.
Agenda 21: Tom DeWeese on Non-Governmental Organizations
The handout below is by Agenda 21 conspiracy theorist Tom DeWeese, who earned a place in the SPLC's Extremist Files. The DeWeese entry notes:
Tom DeWeese has built a career on conspiratorial warnings about Agenda 21, a completely voluntary United Nations set of principles for sustainable resource management. Where others see sensible environmental guidelines, DeWeese finds sinister land-grabbing socialist UN initiatives that threaten national sovereignty, private property rights and freedom, not to mention turning our children into one-world government zombies.
Attack of NGOs: Handout from Ron Branstner's 1/6 Baxter meeting
Bill French: Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, Chapter 5
Branstner's final handout, "Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, Chapter 5-- The Kafir," was written by Bill French and published at French's Center for the Study of Political Islam.
French was one of the subject for 2010 investigative report by The Tennessean, Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear:
While large organizations like Emerson's aren't the norm, other local and national entrepreneurs cash in on spreading hate and fear about Islam.
Former Tennessee State University physics professor Bill French runs the Nashville-based, for-profit Center for the Study of Political Islam. He spoke recently to a group of opponents of the Murfreesboro mosque gathered at a house in Murfreesboro.
With an American flag as a backdrop, French paced back and forth like the Church of Christ ministers he heard growing up. His message: how creeping Shariah law is undermining the very fabric of American life.
"This offends Allah," said French, pointing to the flag on the wall. "You offend Allah."
French, who has no formal education in religion, believes Islam is not a religion. Instead, he sees Islam and its doctrine and rules — known as Shariah law — as a totalitarian ideology.
In his 45-minute speech, he outlined a kind of 10 commandments of evil — no music, no art, no rights for women — taken from his book Sharia Law for Non-Muslims. The speech was free, but his books, penned under the name "Bill Warner," were for sale in the back and ranged from about $9 to $20.
When he was done, the 80 or so mosque opponents gave him a standing ovation and then began buying French's books to hand out to their friends. . . .
The message anti-Islam authors and groups disseminate isn't always accurate.
Brannon Wheeler, history professor and director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the United States Naval Academy, said critics of Islam mistakenly assume that Shariah law is a set of fixed principles that apply to every Muslim, everywhere.
That's not the case, he said, making clear that he speaks as an expert and not for the Navy or the Naval Academy.
While French, for example, has put together his Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, no similar book exists for Muslims.
"There's no text that is entitled The Shariah," Wheeler said. "It's not a code of law. It's not like you could go to the library and get the 12 volumes of Shariah law."
Instead, Shariah is flexible, and applies differently in different contexts. It comes from clerics' and scholars' interpretations of the Quran and other holy books.
The SPLC included French in its 2011 The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle:
BILL FRENCH
ORGANIZATION Heads the for-profit Center for the Study of Political Islam in Nashville.CREDENTIALS Former Tennessee State University physics professor; author of Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (2010; under the pen name Bill Warner).
SUMMARY French has no formal training or background in law, Islam or Shariah law — which in any case is not an established legal code, as the book title implies, but a fluid concept subject to a wide range of interpretations and applications. He garnered attention recently by leading the opposition to a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn. . . .
Here's a scan of the document:
Branstner Baxter Handout: Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, Chapter 5
Judging from many of the comments on the Understanding the Impact of Refugee Resettlement Facebook event page, those who uncritically accept Branstner's "facts" without reviewing the sources from which he draws his opinion want more of this vast conspiracy. We're sure he'll step up to the table and offer more helpings.
For more analysis, see our post, Ron Branstner "decries Hillary Clinton, Democrats, socialism, the United Nations, Forum Communications, the Blandin Foundation, the American Red Cross, the popular vote. . ."
Photo: Branstner in Brainerd; photo by Kelly Humphrey, Brainerd Dispatch, via a tweet by @BrainerdMinnes
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