Ann Corcoran (activist)

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Ann Corcoran (born 1950 or 1951) is an American blogger and political activist known for the anti-refugee and anti-Muslim blogs Refugee Resettlement Watch and Fraud, Crooks, and Criminals.[1] She has worked with several far-right organizations and publications.[1]

Early life[edit]

Corcoran had her upbringing as a Democrat in a small town in central New Jersey,[specify] with an Irish father and a German mother.[2] She has a BS in wildlife biology from Rutgers University and an MS in environmental studies from Yale University.[2] She worked in Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist for the National Audubon Society from 1975 to 1980.[2] With her husband, she had two children of her own, and two adopted children from Vietnam.[2] In 1985, the family bought and moved to a farm near Hagerstown, Maryland.[2]

Views and activities[edit]

Corcoran's focus on Muslim immigration was sparked by plans to resettle refugees in her rural county in western Maryland, and she started her blog in 2007.[1] She has maintained that the Muslim concept of hijrah (migration) is a form of jihad to take over the Western world, and warned that the greatest threat to the United States is legal Muslim immigration.[1] She has stated that "Mohammed told his followers to migrate and spread Islam, in order to dominate all the lands of the world ... and that's exactly what they're doing now."[3]

In 2017, a YouTube video of her produced by the Center for Security Policy (CSP) went viral, receiving nearly 3 million views, in which she claimed that refugees are a Muslim plot to colonize the United States, asserting that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is "under the influence of a powerful Muslim supremacist group", the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).[3]

Corcoran has collaborated with Frank Gaffney and the CSP,[1] and ACT for America,[4] and been considered a part of the counter-jihad movement.[3] She has also been associated with white nationalist publications such as VDARE, Social Contract Press[1] and American Renaissance.[4] In 2015, she was cited as an "expert" by Donald Trump,[5] who was given a copy of her book[6] at a CSP national security summit in Iowa where the two briefly met.[2]

She has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League and others of promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.[7][8][9] Her description of hijrah as an Islamic doctrine of immigration has previously been seen in the book Modern Day Trojan Horse: The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration by Sam Solomon and Elias Al Maqdisi.[10]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America. Center for Security Policy Press. 2015. ISBN 978-1508820703.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Factsheet: Ann Corcoran". Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. February 16, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Goyette, Jared (April 1, 2016). "How an environmental lobbyist became an influential anti-refugee blogger". The World.
  3. ^ a b c Beauchamp, Zack (February 2, 2017). "A video claiming refugees are a Muslim plot to colonize America has nearly 3 million views". Vox.
  4. ^ a b "Lauded by Racist Groups, Refugee Resettlement Watch Founder Ann Corcoran Moves Further Right". Southern Poverty Law Center. July 13, 2015.
  5. ^ Beinart, Peter (November 29, 2017). "Trump's Anti-Muslim Political Strategy". The Atlantic.
  6. ^ Griswold, Eliza (January 20, 2016). "Why Is It So Difficult for Syrian Refugees to Get Into the U.S.?". The New York Times Magazine.
  7. ^ Dickrell, Stephanie (April 23, 2015). "Rhetoric professor analyzes refugee speaker". SC Times.
  8. ^ Hoffman, Meredith (July 13, 2015). "Why Are Republicans So Scared of Syrian Refugees?". Vice.
  9. ^ "Anti-Immigrant Groups Target Aid for Unaccompanied Minors". Anti-Defamation League. October 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Dickrell, Stephanie (April 23, 2015). "Fact-checking refugee resettlement activist". SC Times.
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