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KING 5's Ryan Takeo reports

Ryan Takeo, KING 10:51 PM. PDT June 06, 2017

(Photo: Ryan Takeo, KING)

Several local interfaith leaders stand united against this weekends planned March Against Sharia rally.

We stand with our Muslim neighbors, said Rev. Carol Jensen, co-chair of the Faith Action Network.

Rev. Jensen was joined by other pastors, rabbis, and local elected officials in denouncing the ACT for Americaevent Saturday in downtown Seattle.

The alt-right group canceled a rally in Portland the same day after its mayor accused the of hate speech and re-opening the emotional wounds from a fatal hate-crime last month.

We will speak out against hate speech, continued Jensen. We will speak out for a positive role that Muslims play in our community.

Rev. Terry Kyllo, Director of Neighbors In Faith, pointed out the Southern Poverty Law Center called ACT for America a hate group.

They use a lot of deceptive messaging that is simply not true, he said. Messaging that makes people fearful that Muslims are trying to take away the religious freedom of other people in this country, when that is in fact not true.

Last month in Westlake Park, a self-proclaimed pro-USA group held a rally on May Day. Now many of the same participants plan to return this weekend. Anthony Parish, a Kent man who is a member of ACT for America, is organizing the event. He insisted he is not anti-Muslim, just against some of the teachings of Islam.

Aneelah Afzali, director of the American Muslim Empowerment Network, said ACT for America twists what sharia law is to make it seem extreme to the American public.

Sharia simply means me practicing things like praying five times a day, me being kind to my parents, repelling evil with good, she said.

Some of the religious leaders plan to attend a counter-rally Saturday.

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Local religious leaders denounce upcoming alt-right rally - KING5.com

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For the last year, researchers and journalists have speculated about whether the mostly-online alt-right movement would ever coalesce with real world action. They excelled with memes and trolling, but was there more to it?

Its happening now, with the proliferation of street gangs inspired by the alt-right who are showing up at rallies across the country.

The New York Times recently described such groups as part of a growing movement that has injected a new element of violence into street demonstrations across the country.

One such group is the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, founded by Kyle Chapman, known online as Based Stickman. The name comes from a widely-circulated video in which Chapman hits a counter protestor with a stick. Based is slang for not caring about how you are perceived by others. The Proud Boys is another prominent group, spearheaded by Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes.

These alt-right inspired groups are part fight club, part Western-pride fraternity, the Times writes, which recruit battalions of mainly young white men for one-off confrontations with the left-wing anti-fascist protestors who have also become fixtures at protests in recent months.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

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'Alt-Right' Gangs Like Proud Boys Ramp Up Activity The Forward - Forward

Pro-Trump demonstrators at the rally on Sunday. The event sparked controversy in the wake of a racially charged killing. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Republicans have used a controversial alt-right rally in Portland, held in the wake of the the killing spree allegedly perpetrated by a local white supremacist, to recruit new members to the party.

The effort was led by James Buchal, chair of the Multnomah County Republican party, who urged attendees at the rally on Sunday to join to the GOP. Details of his efforts were uncovered in a recording from the rally.

I want to say, since I am involved in the Republican party, that the structure to change the government officials in a party, a political party, Buchal told the crowd . And we are looking for young conservatives to get active in the Multnomah County Republican party.

He added: Were looking for young conservatives to step up and run for local offices. We need to get control of local school boards and every other local district. We need people on the streets talking to people, knocking on doors, making phone calls. The party is there, the party is open. Come and help us win America back.

On Monday, Buchal confirmed to the Guardian that he used the controversial rally to recruit new GOP members, and said the effort paid off. I have had a handful of calls from people, but I do not know whether or not they are rally participants, and I did not ask them.

Buchal shared a platform at the event with Kyle Based Stickman Chapman, who became a cult figure in the far right movement after wielding a stick in a skirmish with anti-fascist protesters in Berkeley.

Not long after Buchal spoke, the leader of the militant Oath Keepers group, Stuart Rhodes, publicly swore Tusitala Tiny Toese into the organisation. Toese was filmed punching an anti-fascist demonstrator to the ground during a confrontation last month, later defending the move as an act of self-defense.

Buchal and the organisers of Sundays rally, which was ostensibly a protest over free speech, have distanced themselves from Jeremy Christian, who is accused of fatally stabbing two men in Portland when they tried to shield young women from his anti-Muslim tirade.

However the decision to press ahead with the rally, so soon after the racially-charged murders, has inflamed tensions in Portland.

Buchal is the same senior local Republican that the Guardian previously reported was considering using the Oath Keepers and a similar group called The Three Percenters as security, because of what he called belligerent, unstable people who are convinced that Republicans are like Nazis.

The same militant groups provided security for the Sundays rally in downtown Portland, where anti-fascist counter-protesters had tear gas and rubber bullets deployed against them by riot police.

Buchal praised the Oath Keepers in his speech on Sunday, comparing them to the two men who victims who were allegedly murdered by Christian.

Now, theres been a lot of attacks on people like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters. People say that theyre racist and theyre evil, well you know what? I think theyre acting from the same moral impulse that Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche had.

He continued: They are there to protect. They see that wolves are on the rise, and they step forward like sheep dogs to protect us. The people who cant see that, the people sitting in that office over there who cant see that? They are morally blind.

Buchal said he did not attend the event in any official capacity. His main purpose was to investigate whether some of the media claims concerning the event were correct: that the rally would consist of hate speech uttered by bigots and white supremacists.

Asked about the impression he formed following his investigation, Buchal said: I did not find that to be the truth.

Read more here:
Republicans use 'alt-right' Portland rally to recruit new members - The Guardian

A newDaily Beast report reveals that members of a European alt-right group aim to defend Europe by chasing down boats full of Libyan refugees off the coast of Italy.

After successfullyraising more than 50,000 poundsfor boats andequipment, the Defend Europe project led by a group who call themselves Identitarians wrote thatthey are on a mission to rescue Europe by defending the Mediterranean Sea by stopping illegal immigration.

The illegal immigrants they claim to be stopping are, according to theBeast, the thousands of migrants and refugees who arrive in Italy from Libya every week. Their methods include attacking humanitarian ships and they have claimed they will protect Europes borders at sea at any cost.

Although most of the Libyans who make the dangerous journey to Italy via the Mediteranneando not do so legally, many humanitarian groups aim to help them and according to the Beast,those groups are also the targets of Identitarian ire.

When the governments fail, we step in because this land is ours, the Identitarians said in a video describing their Defend Europe mission. It starts and has to end here.

Last month, Defend Europe members hit a humanitarian ship owned by a French organization calledSOS Mditerrene. The Identitarian ship reportedly bore Canadian activist Lauren Southern, a supporter of American President Donald Trump.

TheBeast report also suggests the tiny boat of fringe activists might have been gained access to the SOS Mditerrene due to either overt or implied help by Sicilian prosecutorCarmelo Zuccaro, an official well-known for his stance against immigrants and the nongovernmental organizations that aid them.

The Identitarian movement began in France in the early 2000s, but has spread through Europes wealthier nations where anti-immigration sentiments are strongest. They are reportedly close with the American alt-right so much so that they often fly the same flag bearing the Greek lambda.

Watch video of the attack on the SOSMditerrene below.

See the article here:
European alt-right activists 'protect Europe's borders' by chasing refugees away at sea: report - Raw Story

PORTLAND, Ore. Leading up to Sundays Trump Free Speech rally, Kyle Chapman, otherwise known as alt-right star Based Stickman, urgedhis followers to smash political opponents on sight. By the end ofthe Portland rally, the first potentially volatile event of its kind since a white supremacist killed two men defending young womenfrom hate speechlast month, Chapmanfled in humiliation after being vastly outnumbered, unheard and denied the opportunity for the kind of street violence he promotes against opponents of President Donald Trump.

More importantly, no one was killed or seriously injured at a heavily policed face-off between out-of-town, alt-right agitators and local anti-fascists known as the Antifa, who showed up to drown them out on Sunday.A few hundred Chapman fans filtered out of downtown Portlands Terry Shrunk Plaza with anxious looks on their faces, obviously lost, looking for where they parked their cars. Some were escorted by police and trailed by hecklers shouting, Nazis out!

Despite raw emotions and fears of further violence following a white supremacist double murder on May 26, Portlanders mobilized the largest anti-fascist demonstration in the United States in recent memory during Sundays Trump Free Speech Rally. They did so at a crucial time, nine days after the double murder, and about a month aftera free speech rally attended by the alleged murderer, Jeremy Joseph Christian, a known white supremacist.

Whilethe organizers of Sundays rally in Portlandpublicly disavowed Christian at every opportunity, not everyone who showed up for the event shared the view that Christian was a terrorist.A man with a sign tying Christian to VermontSen. Bernie Sanders found himself on the defensive, blaming the news media for misrepresenting the alt-right and adding that the alt-right movement did not condone hate.

Why doesnt your sign say, Empathy for the people of Portland? a counter-protester angrily demanded.

Another attendee, Brian Fife of Salem, Oregon, told the Guardian that Christian did everything right up until the point he started killing people, and praised Christian for calling out the changing elements of our culture by harassing those young women on the train, one of whom was Muslim.

With alt-right live-streamers boasting from their grassy safe space about the accomplishments of white men through history, the rally devolved into a pity party.

People with conservative beliefs are being oppressed, Chapman said when he took the stage, according to the Willamette Week.

It was impossible to hear the stage speakers remarks from the sidewalk outside. Instead, whatcame through were chants of Black Lives Matter and Racists, murderers, fascists out of Portland!

A pro-Trump group gathers during a free speech rally in Portland on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

One dubious aspect of these pro-Trump free speech rallies is that they demand unquestioned respect for their message. Pat Washington, an alt-right YouTube star known as Based Spartan, told reporters that our speakers have a right to say what they want, and not be exposed to this shit across the street. (Thats nothow free speech works.)

God, I hate them, Washington continued. I look over there and I just want to smash.

But Washingtondidnt get to smash any Portlanders, asthe Trumpists were vastly outnumbered and encircled throughout the day. Press accounts settled on a 10-to-1 ratio in favor of thecounter-protesters, but some attendees boasted that it was more like 20-to-1.

Not everyone felt safe enough to show up. Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Portland on Saturday tourge people not to show up to confront racists at the Trump rally. Acircle of Buddhists meditated around a monument two blocks from the Trump rally, sending protective vibes to the assembled antifa.

Many would like to join the anti-fascists, but theyre afraid, a spokeswoman for the Buddhist group said.

Anti-fascist protesters stand in front of a line of riot police during a free speech rally in Portland on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

Knowing that images of violence would be used against the counter-protesters to the benefit of the pro-Trump crowd, local Antifa were able to team with black bloc demonstratorsto demonstrate a measure of discipline and restraint relative to previous Portland protests. With this restraint in mind, the groupswere able to surround the Trump rally on three sides with counter-protesters, boxing them into a fourth side ofhedges.The black bloc demonstrators, somewhat uncharacteristically, confined themselves to a park across the street from the Trump rally, facing toward a line of riot police. On the next block over, an even larger rally gathered at Portland City Hall, organized by an array of demonstrators, including more than 70 activist groups, labor unions and religious congregations. Opposite the City Hall, a smaller group of union members calling themselves, Portland Labor Against the Fascists, stood with banners and bullhorns.

Groups opposing a free speech rally in Portland made their voices heard on Sunday.

Credit: Corey Pein

But even with the relative discipline, the police, citing unspecified criminal activity, charged the park held by the black bloc demonstrators. Riot police kettled perhaps 100 of the masked protesters, including a number of journalists. In total, 14 arrests were made, with police announcing that others might be charged with crimes in the future after prosecutors review video evidence.

While some activists criticized the Portland Police Bureaus response asprotecting fascists, law enforcement placingthemselves in between the two groups prevented a potential melee and what could have been a much uglier situation.

Sundays rallywas the latest example of the kind of brute force faced by people who publicly gather in opposition to Trump and those who feel emboldened because of him.

A small crew of burly Trump die-hards have been touring the country almostnonstop since April, physically confronting liberal and leftist dissidents, and acting as security at far-right rallies featuring Islamophobic, misogynistic, and white supremacist speakers. Its an open question whether these individuals are financed purely through their own crowdfunding campaigns, or through some other source. At least one member of these groups received a gift from a Trump campaign operative days after scuffling with protesters. Another filmed himself rolling in money, bragging about collecting $100 bounties for knocking out the teeth of Antifaprotesters.

In Berkeley, California, these far-right protesters mixed it up with students, using projectiles and sticks,which is how Chapman earned his Stickman nickname. In recent events in Portland and New York, they laid out a young man and a teenage girl, respectively.

Portland was lucky. While Christian had a few admirers in the free speech crowd on Sunday, he did not have any imitators.

Locals who toured the alt-right rally were struck by the sheer nerdiness of the attendees, with their Pepe paraphernalia, Kekistan referencesand beer guts. However, they were equally creeped out by the presence of surly bikers anrd militiamen, such as the Oath Keepers, an anti-government, far-right organization.

At one point, black bloc protesters pelted the police line with what appeared to be used tampons. A photographer even saw one of the Oath Keepers pick up a tampon from the ground and sniff it, as though he were tracking a deer on the hunt.

Smells like animal blood, the Oath Keepersaid.

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How Portland's Anti-Fascist Alliances Drove Out The 'Alt-Right' - Vocativ