Washburn: "River City ain't in any trouble."

Professor Hill: "Then I'll have to create some…"

In the 1962 film version of The Music Man, Robert Preston plays Professor Harold Hill, a turn-of-the-century confidence man who poses as a boys' band organizer to sell musical instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping out with the cash. While staking out victims in the fictional town of River City, Iowa, Hill contemplates ways of convincing parents that a boy's marching band is the only way to keep their sons pure and out of trouble. After noticing children peeking into the local billiards parlour to catch a glimpse of the town's first pool table, Hill get's an idea. He grabs the neighboring grocery store owner by the arm and begins his pitch:

"Friend, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do now wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya' got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City."

Soon, Hill is surrounded by curious townsfolk who gasp in fear as he sells them on the idea that the new pool table will somehow seduce their young boys into a world of sin and vice. It's a classic case of Problem-Reaction-Solution.

In modern day America, the words "pool table" have been replaced by the word "mosque," and the new Harold Hill's have found a convenient home in the anti-Sharia movement.

And what is the anti-Sharia movement? It's a song and dance…a theatrical production…a traveling band of carnival barkers and snake-oil salesmen peddling their wares to gullible audiences across the nation.

To call them Islamophobes is an insult to Islamophobes. Unlike the genuinely (though unjustifiably) fearful, the key players in this movement are well aware that there is no "creeping Sharia," no effort to replace Islamic law with the U.S. Constitution, and no powerful political influence that Muslims wield in the realm of public or foreign policy. They're in it for the money, and they use lies and disinformation to prey upon the fears and ignorance of those they intend to fleece.

The campaign to demonize Muslims originally began as a way to garner support for the countless wars being waged on behalf of Israel. While that dynamic most certainly still exists, it has also given birth to a cottage industry that has put millions of dollars into the pockets of opportunists, scam artists and other despicable characters of ill repute.

I witnessed this first hand while on assignment for American Free Press (AFP). On Veterans Day, 2011, I attended the first annual "Constitution or Sharia? —Preserving Freedom Conference," in Nashville, Tennessee, where a cadre of rabid Zionists and disinformation artists gathered to propagate myths, arouse fears, and set the stage for a "clash of civilizations" between American Christians and Muslims.

It was hard to keep my composure as I watched the naïve audience (of mostly middle aged suburbanites) being coaxed into believing that radical Islamists had seized control of the U.S. government, were planning to circumvent the Constitution with Sharia Law, and had engaged local Mosques to train violent jihadists for imminent attacks on non-Muslims.

Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote for AFP concerning some of the speakers who spoke at that event:

    "The enemy is right here in your neighborhood," said John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI agent who now makes his living on the Islamophobic speaking circuit.
    Though he provides no credible proof, Guandolo goes on to claim that most Mosques, and practically every Muslim organization in America, are under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood—and are therefore not entitled to any Constitutional protections. "They do not have a First Amendment right to do anything," says John Guandolo. "They exist to break the law."
    Guandolo also claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the Federal government's "national security loop" and is now in control of the FBI and DHS. He tells the audience that these agencies can no longer be trusted or relied upon, and that police chiefs, county sheriffs and city council members must now be recruited to confront the encroaching Muslim threat. "Counterinsurgency [begins] at the local level," insists Guandolo. "We are going to win or lose this war based on what you do."
    It just so happens that Guandolo is the Vice President of the Strategic Engagement Group, Inc., an organization that trains law enforcement agencies on the so-called "Islamic threat" and relies on local governments for much of its revenue.
    As AFP's Michael Collins Piper reported in a September 2 article, entitled Anti-Sharia Hysteria: Neocon Hatemongers Peddle Disinfo, the anti-Sharia campaign that is sweeping the country is anything but a grassroots movement, and can trace it's origins to David Yerushalmi, a Hasidic Jewish attorney in Brooklyn who is responsible for drafting much of the anti-Sharia legislation that has become a cause célèbre for more than a few state representatives these past few years.
    Early into the conference, Yerushalmi was featured in a pre-recorded video and revealed the true motivation behind the incessant fear mongering about Sharia Law. During his brief presentation, he discussed a strategy referred to as "Lawfare" that encourages individuals and groups to sue the government and banking institutions in order to stop the spread of Sharia compliant finance.
    Though Yerushalmi would like to be perceived as a great defender of traditional American values, what he's really defending is the Jewish system of usury that currently dominates the western banking establishment and can be largely blamed for creating America's overindulgent culture of debt.
    Sharia is the anti-thesis of usury, and forbids penalties and compound interest to be charged on loans. One of the main tenets of Sharia is the condemnation of economic exploitation, and prohibits its followers from falling victim to financial schemes that deplete their property and cause them to fall into poverty through excessive debt.
    This is something that Yerushalmi and those of his ilk do not want their followers to know about, and therefore go out of their way to characterize Sharia compliant finance as nothing more than a funding mechanism for terrorism.

In August of 2011, the Center for American Progress Action Fund released a 138-page report, "Fear Inc: Exposing the Islamophobia Network in America", which reveals that seven foundations have provided more than $42 million in funding to anti-Muslim organizations and think tanks. This is in addition to the millions paid out each year by Christian Zionists and grassroots organizations on books, seminars and donations to various media outlets.

It will be interesting to see how history treats these gullible fools. I suspect future generations will regard them to be just as pathetic as the townsfolk who bought into Harold Hill's ridiculous fear mongering:

"Mothers of River City! Heed the warning before it's too late! Watch for the telltale sign of corruption! The moment your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corncrib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang? Are certain words creeping into his conversation? Words like ‘swell?' And ‘so's your old man? Well, if so my friends…"

Yeah, I know…We've got trouble.