Anders Gravers Pedersen (born 13 May 1960) is a Danish anti-Islam activist. [1] [2] He is the chairman and founder of Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD), and leader of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE). [3] [4] He also established transatlantic connections with Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) [5] and Stop Islamization of Nations (SION). [6]
Gravers Pedersen has been instrumental in forming the street-based activist parts of the counter-jihad movement since he founded Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD) in 2005. [7] He founded the organisation in response to seeing television images of Muslims burning the Danish flag as part of to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. [8] He was formerly a member of the anti-immigration policy-focused Danish Association, but founded SIAD as he wanted more action. [9] With SIAD, he helped organise the first international counter-jihad conference in Copenhagen in 2007 along with the Center for Vigilant Freedom (CVF). [9] [10]
Gravers Pedersen founded Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) following the 2007 conference together with English activist Stephen Gash. [8] [9] In the capacity of leading SIOE, SIAD and Gravers Pedersen were each sentenced to pay fines of 10,000 kr in 2008 for violating a court order against using Kurt Westergaard's Muhammad cartoon at a rally. [11] [12]
In 2010, he helped form Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) with the bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. [8] The same year, Gravers Pedersen was assaulted at a rally in Aalborg. [13] He participated in staging a rally and arranging a counter-jihad demonstration along with the English Defence League (EDL), including Tommy Robinson, and numerous other international activists in Aarhus in March 2012. [4] [14] In August 2012, he participated in an international counter-jihad rally in Stockholm along with Robinson, the EDL, Geller, Spencer, and the newly founded Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) among others. [8] [15]
Gravers Pedersen said in 2013, that due to his criticism of Islam, he has to live on a secret address, and that he has to have bodyguards when appearing in public. [16]
Gravers Pedersen contested the municipal election in Aalborg in 2005, in which SIAD received a total of 1,172 votes. [14] In the 2007 Danish general election Pedersen stood in Jutland and gained 73 votes. [17] He attempted to run for a seat in the Danish parliament in 2009 [18] and in 2012. [19]
"Eurabia" is a far-right, anti-Muslim conspiracy theory that posits that globalist entities, led by French and Arab powers, aim to Islamize and Arabize Europe, thereby weakening its existing culture and undermining its previous alliances with the United States and Israel.
Robert Bruce Spencer is an American anti-Muslim author and blogger, and one of the key figures of the counter-jihad movement. Spencer founded and has directed the blog Jihad Watch since 2003. In 2010 he co-founded the organization Stop Islamization of America with Pamela Geller.
The Brussels Journal is a conservative blog, founded by the Flemish journalist Paul Beliën. It is consistently named as one of the counter-jihad movement's main channels. It was founded in 2005, and has both an English language section with various international contributions, and a Dutch section.
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted Muhammad, a principal figure of the religion of Islam. The newspaper announced that this was an attempt to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship. Muslim groups in Denmark complained, and the issue eventually led to protests around the world, including violence and riots in some Muslim countries.
Ali Sina is the pseudonym of an Iranian-born Canadian ex-Muslim activist and critic of Islam. Sina is the founder of the anti-Muslim website WikiIslam and maintains a number of websites promoting what he refers to as "the truth" about Islam. He is associated with the counter-jihad movement.
The International Free Press Society (IFPS), founded in 2009, is a creation of the Danish Free Press Society. The stated purpose of IFPS "is to defend freedom of expression wherever and by whomever it is threatened". It has been described as a key component of the counter-jihad movement.
The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in England. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement opposed to Islamism and Islamic extremism, although its rhetoric and actions target Islam and Muslims more widely. Founded in 2009, its heyday lasted until 2011, after which it entered a decline.
Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) is a pan-European counter-jihad organisation with the stated goal of "preventing Islam from becoming a dominant political force in Europe". It is a political interest group which has been active in Denmark and has conducted anti-Islamic protests in the United Kingdom. The group originated out of the joining of the Danish group Stop Islamisation of Denmark with English anti-Islam activists.
Stop Islamisation of Norway is a Norwegian anti-Muslim group that was originally established in 2000. Its stated aim is to work against Islam, which it defines as a totalitarian political ideology that violates the Norwegian Constitution as well as democratic and human values. The organisation was formerly led by Arne Tumyr, and is now led by Lars Thorsen.
Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), is an anti-Muslim, pro-Israel American counter-jihad organization known primarily for its controversial, Islamophobic advertising campaigns. The group has been described as extremist and far-right. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists SIOA as an anti-Muslim hate group.
Document.no is a Norwegian far-right anti-immigration online newspaper. Academics have identified Document.no as an anti-Muslim website permeated by the Eurabia conspiracy theory. The website received global media attention in connection with the 2011 Norway attacks due to its association with perpetrator Anders Behring Breivik, a former comment section poster on the website.
Pamela Geller is an American anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim. She has denied genocides where Muslims were victims, including the Bosnian genocide and the Rohingya genocide.
Counter-jihad, also known as the counter-jihad movement, is a self-titled political current loosely consisting of authors, bloggers, think tanks, street movements and so on linked by beliefs that view Islam not as a religion but as an ideology that constitutes an existential threat to Western civilization. Consequently, counter-jihadists consider all Muslims as a potential threat, especially when they are already living within Western boundaries. Western Muslims accordingly are portrayed as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries. The counter-jihad movement has been variously described as anti-Islamic, Islamophobic, inciting hatred against Muslims, and far-right. Influential figures in the movement include the bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer in the US, and Geert Wilders and Tommy Robinson in Europe.
Alan Ayling, known by the pseudonym Alan Lake, is a computer expert from Highgate, London, who was involved in the English Defence League (EDL). Until 2011, he was a director of Pacific Capital Investment Management.
Stop Islamisation of Denmark is a Danish anti-Islam organisation founded in 2005. The group was founded by Anders Gravers Pedersen who began the development of the activist part of the counter-jihad movement.
The European Defence League (EDL) is a largely UK-based offshoot of the English Defence League founded by Tommy Robinson which campaigns against what it considers sharia law and itself has various offshoots. The group was set up in October 2010 and held its first demonstration that month in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the trial of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.
Gates of Vienna is a far-right blog established in 2004 by Edward S. May and his wife. The website has featured the writings of international hardline anti-Muslim writers such as Fjordman and Paul Weston, and "is a central player in the counter-jihad movement within the United States and across Europe".
Michael Stürzenberger is a German far-right activist and blogger. He was the leader of the German Freedom Party from 2013 to 2016, and has been active for many years with his anti-Islam public speaking and protests with groups such as the Citizens' Movement Pax Europa and Pegida. He is an active contributor to the counter-jihad blog Politically Incorrect, and has been observed by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2013.
The counter-jihad movement in France consists of various organisations and individuals such as Riposte Laïque and Republican Resistance, led by Pierre Cassen and Christine Tasin respectively, Observatory on Islamisation, and other groups such as those founded by Alain Wagner. The movement has cooperated with the Bloc Identitaire, Daniel Pipes and the Middle East Forum, Stop Islamisation of Europe, and has organised events such as the "Apéro Géant: saucisson et pinard", a happy hour gathering of wine and deli meat cold cuts whose ingredients include pork.
The International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) is an international counter-jihad organization that was originally founded in 2006, and which has spanned over twenty countries. Central to the organization has been Edward S. May of the Gates of Vienna blog, Alain Wagner and Christine Brim.