Long Before Trump, Kellyanne Conway Worked for Anti-Muslim and Anti-Immigrant Extremists

[dixiegrrrrl]

Snip:

Trump announced his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the United States until US leaders "can figure out what is going on."
To justify his proposal, he cited a flawed poll from June 2015 that portrayed American Muslims as increasingly radical. According to this poll, 51 percent of Muslims in the United States believe they should have the choice to be governed by Shariah law (Islamic religious law) instead of US laws, and nearly 20 percent believe "the use of violence in the United States is justified in order to make Shariah the law of the land in this country."
Conway's firm, The Polling Company, conducted this poll for the Center for Security Policy, a think tank run by Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan administration defense official. Gaffney is a right-wing extremist who frequently pushes wild conspiracy theories and has often been at odds with other conservative leaders. He's claimed there is "mounting evidence" that President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim; alleged that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (Gaffney's think tank claimed Abedin is one of six Muslim Brotherhood operatives working inside the Obama administration); and suggested the federal government, the media, and the financial sector have all been infiltrated by "Shariah-adherent" Muslims. (One of Gaffney's Islamophobic themes is conflating radicalism with adherence to Islamic religious law).

Gaffney has also been part of Groundswell, a DC-based group of conservative advocates, which included Bannon, that has plotted strategies for injecting far-right messages into the national political discourse. Before joining Trump's campaign, Bannon, as chairman of Breitbart News, hosted Gaffney on his daily radio show 29 times. Gaffney also has been a frequent columnist at Breitbart. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Gaffney "one of America's most notorious Islamophobes." Gaffney is not part of Trump's transition team, but he has expressed hope that his ideas will help guide the president-elect. He is a fringe figure, but his voice has been amplified in the age of Trump.

Snip:

But her poll had serious methodological problems. Most notably, it was an opt-in online poll, not a random sampling of Muslims in the United States. That means it was not scientific and wasn't a reliable indicator of American Muslims' attitudes as a whole. On its website, the American Association for Public Opinion Research cautions that opt-in polls "may not be reliable" and warns that "this type of sample is not based on the full target population." Regarding Conway's poll, Democratic pollster Mark Mellman wrote last year, "One cannot say that it represents the views of American Muslims. For many, that fact is sufficient to dismiss the poll." Mellman also took issue with how the poll questions were worded, contending that they were vague and misleading and designed to make American Muslims appear radical. "In short," he wrote, Conway's polling company and Gaffney's group "created an issue where none is apparent, except perhaps to a small minority."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/kellyanne-conway-immigration-islam-bannon-trump