Anti-Muslim Website Targets US Students

Local Editor

A secretive group called the "Canary Mission" had launched a website identifying pro-Palestinian activists on American college campuses in an effort to prevent those people from getting jobs.

The website which was launched in mid-May had compiled the profiles of more than 50 students, recent graduates, and faculty members with their names, photos, occupations, and sometimes universities and majors.

"It is your duty to ensure that today's radicals are not tomorrow's employees," a female narrator warns in a video posted to the site.

Further, among those listed on the Canary Mission website was Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement [BDS] founder Omar Barghouti.

The BDS movement encourages organizations and institutions to boycott and divest from "Israel" and respect the rights of the Palestinians. Nonetheless, it aims to increase economic and political pressure on "Israel".

The shadowy Canary Mission website was accused by Rebecca Pierce as using "McCarthyist tactics" and employing "open racism".

Rebecca Pierce is a filmmaker and anti-Islamophobia activist who attends the University of California at Santa Cruz; she first learned that she had been profiled on the site, when it highlighted her as "Radical of the Day".

"The website is filled with racist stereotypes about our activism, and intentionally tries to tie a diverse non-violent student movement to anti-Semitism and terror," Pierce said in an email to the Guardian.

She further added, "I do worry about future employers potentially seeing this and getting the wrong idea, but I stand behind my activism and won't allow racist extremists to intimidate me."

However, it remains unclear who is behind Canary Mission; despite its dedication to documenting the identities of pro-Palestinian activists, the group had kept the identities of its own members and backers completely hidden. There are no names of staff members, volunteers, donors or allies published on the website.

Accordingly, the group's MailChimp account identifies its ZIP code as 10458, a corner of the Bronx in New York City that includes Fordham University.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team