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Christian Action Network
Formation1990; 34 years ago (1990)
FounderMartin Mawyer
Type501(c)(3) non-profit organization
54-1756470
HeadquartersLynchburg, Virginia
Key people
Martin Mawyer, President
David Carroll, Chairman
Websitechristianaction.org Edit this at Wikidata

Christian Action Network (CAN) is a Christian activist organization founded by Martin Mawyer in 1990. The organization states that its "primary goals are to protect America's religious and moral heritage through educational efforts."[1]

The group has advocated on a number of issues, including actions against the National Endowment for the Arts,[2] battles regarding First Amendment to the United States Constitution issues,[3] and the Islamic community center to be built near the World Trade Center site in New York. The group has been described as part of the counter-jihad movement,[4] and has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim hate group.[5]

History

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A billboard truck deployed by CAN in New York, November 2020.

The Christian Action Network was founded in 1990 with the goal to inform the public about issues which it believes affect "traditional Christian family values."[6]

According to the company's website, founder Martin Mawyer began a journalism career in 1979 in Washington D.C. covering religious issues for the daily news service Religion Today and as a correspondent for Moody Monthly, an American religious magazine published by the Moody Bible Institute. Mawyer went on to become the editor of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority Report, a news publication of the Moral Majority, where he served from 1980 to 1988.[7][better source needed]

Action against the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

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In 1993 CAN conducted several protests of the funding of what it called obscenity by the NEA. In July Mawyer's group hand-delivered letters to 114 freshman members of Congress and Republican congressional leaders urging them to abolish the NEA on the basis of a concurrent art exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. The show "Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire" featured images of excrement and homoerotic acts.[8]

On July 29 the group set up a photography show at the U.S. Capitol that featured sexually explicit photographs by Joel-Peter Witkin, an artist funded by NEA grants. The exhibit was abruptly banned from the Capitol before it could publicly open and was then closed down by House Speaker Tom Foley after 15 minutes at a second location.[9]

The following September, CAN distributed 15-minute video tapes to President Bill Clinton and members of Congress that contained clips of pornographic films that the group said had the "stamp of approval" of the NEA. The 15-minute tapes contained excerpts from three films shown at the Pittsburgh International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in July 1991, which Mawyer said had been funded by NEA grants. An NEA spokeswoman disputed that the funding had supported those specific films.[10]

Defense of lawsuit by Federal Election Commission

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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) accused CAN in 1995 of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act by running television commercials prior to the 1992 presidential election that asserted Democratic candidate Bill Clinton supported job quotas for homosexuals as a kind of Affirmative Action. The commercials aired in 25 cities. In 1995 the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia granted CAN's motion to dismiss the complaint.[11] In 1996 the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, finding that because the commercials did not expressly advocate for the election or defeat of the candidate, they were not a violation of the Act.[12]

Action against Gay Days at Walt Disney World

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In June 1999, Mawyer and an accomplice went into nightclub at Downtown Disney during Gay Days at Walt Disney World, obtaining hidden-camera video of men simulating sex acts as they danced onstage. CAN cut the footage into a video, showing it at a news conference at the National Press Club. CAN threatened to boycott Disney unless the company agreed to warn families entering its parks and booking hotel rooms during the annual Gay Days event.[13]

Although Disney did not change any of its policies after the expose, a spokesman did acknowledge that the dancing men in the video were Disney employees and that whoever was responsible for the dance routine would be disciplined.[13]

Campaign against the “Ground Zero Mosque”

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Main article: Ground Zero mosque controversy

The organization had a nationwide screening tour that included stops near speaking engagements by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the former spokesman for Park51. The group's campaign received wide press coverage.[14][15]

CAN and American Center for Law and Justice threatened the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation with legal action after it was unable to get permits to show its film in several public parks around the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Department said the parks were unavailable.[16] The organization then announced that they were granted permits to show its film in several parks.[17]

On September 7, 2011, congressman Allen West (R-FL) hosted a screening of the film in the Rayburn House Office Building in Congress, where he reiterated his opposition to Park51 alongside several people who lost family members in the September 11th attacks.[18]

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) responded by sponsoring an event on September 13, 2011, to publicize a report about the "Islamophobia network" in the U.S.[19] The report criticized Rep. Allen West for spreading anti-Muslim sentiment and for his involvement in the event at which the work was screened. It also criticized the Christian Action Network and other participants.[20]

In August 2011, CAN announced a "Counter-Jihad Summit", which stated that "Our public schools are sneaking into their curricula pro-Islamic teachings that actually promote Sharia law. An entire generation of our children is being brainwashed!"[21] Mawyer is also connected to the counter-jihad movement by being on the advisory board of the International Free Press Society.[22]

Media and litigation regarding Muslims of America

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In 2009, CAN released a video titled Homegrown Jihad: The terrorist camps around U.S.,[23] which was followed in 2012 by the book Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.[24][25] Both the book and film described the activities of the group Muslims of America, which set up religious hamlets, such as Islamberg in New York and Holy Islamville in South Carolina. Muslims of America was portrayed as the creation of Sufi Cleric Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric[26] who was alleged by the U.S. Government to be associated with the terrorist organization Jamaat ul-Fuqra.[27]

In 2013, The Muslims of America, based in Hancock, N.Y., sued Mawyer, a co-author and the Christian Action Network for $3 million in federal court in Syracuse, N.Y., seeking also to halt the continued publication of Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Training Camps in America.[24] In 2014 the suit was dismissed by a federal judge on the grounds that the Muslims of America lacked standing to sue, since the allegations in the book on which its claims were based pertained to a different organization, Muslims of the Americas Inc., which had dissolved in March 2013.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Christian Action Network: about. Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Palm Beach Post, December 12, 1993.
  3. ^ WABI TV 5: Christian Action Network Sues Maine. October 6th 2009.
  4. ^ Bale, Jeffrey M. (October 2013). "Denying the Link between Islamist Ideology and Jihadist Terrorism "Political Correctness" and the Undermining of Counterterrorism". Perspectives on Terrorism. 7 (5). Terrorism Research Institute: 37. JSTOR 26297006.
  5. ^ "Virginia".
  6. ^ "Federal Election Com'n v. Christian Action Network, 894 F. Supp. 946 (W.D. Va. 1995)". Justia.com. June 28, 1995.
  7. ^ "About The Christian Action Network". September 3, 2023.
  8. ^ The Washington Times, July 6, 1993.
  9. ^ The Toronto Star, Aug.1, 1993.
  10. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 10, 1993.
  11. ^ "Federal Election Com'n v. Christian Action Network, 894 F. Supp. 946 (W.D. Va. 1995)". Justia Law. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  12. ^ "Notice: Fourth Circuit Local Rule 36(c) States That Citation of Unpublished Dispositions is Disfavored Except for Establishing Res Judicata, Estoppel, or the Law of the Case and Requires Service of Copies of Cited Unpublished Dispositions of the Fourth Circuit.federal Election Commission, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Christian Action Network, Incorporated; Martin Mawyer,defendants-appellees.democratic National Committee; American Civil Libertiesunion of Virginia, Amici Curiae, 92 F.3d 1178 (4th Cir. 1996)". Justia Law. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  13. ^ a b "CHRISTIAN GROUP MAY BOYCOTT DISNEY". Orlando Sentinel. July 9, 1999. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  14. ^ "Imam criticized for New York mosque embarks on speaking tour". Reuters. January 13, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  15. ^ Vitello, Paul (December 24, 2010). "Imam Behind Islamic Center Plans U.S. Tour". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  16. ^ ”NYC Denies 9/11 Documentary Showings,” http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/July/NYC-Denies-911-Documentary-Showings/ Archived 2011-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, CBN News, July 29, 2011
  17. ^ ”CAN Succeeds in Getting Permits in NYC Parks!” http://www.christianaction.org/node/297 Archived 2011-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, ChristianAction.org, August 12, 2011
  18. ^ Bolstad, Erika, “West Promotes Film About Controversial Ground Zero Mosque". http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/07/2395271/west-promotes-film-about-controversial.html, Miami Herald, September 7, 2011
  19. ^ "'Fear, Inc.' driving anti-Islam views in U.S." www.finalcall.com. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  20. ^ Center for American Progress, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf Archived 2011-11-11 at the Wayback Machine, “Fear Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” August 2011
  21. ^ Steinback, Robert (August 24, 2011). "One More Enemy". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center.
  22. ^ "International counter-jihad organisations". Hope not hate. January 11, 2018.
  23. ^ Steinbach, Robert (August 2011). "One More Enemy". Southern Poverty Law Center.
  24. ^ a b O'Brien, John (February 16, 2013). "NY-based Muslim group asks court to halt publication of accusatory book". syracuse. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  25. ^ Mawyer, Martin; Pierucci, Patti (2012). Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America. Christian Action Network. ISBN 9780985026707.
  26. ^ Thomas, Jo; Blumenthal, Ralph (January 3, 2002). "Rural Muslims Draw New, Unwanted Attention". The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  27. ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Daily Press Briefing for March 27 - Transcript". 2001-2009.state.gov. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  28. ^ O'Brien, John (April 24, 2014). "Judge dismisses libel suit filed by NY-based Muslim group over Christian organization's book". syracuse. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
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