Breaking the Emgage Scamcycle.

It's time to stop coddling this

Emgage, the largely non-Muslim funded, Democratic Party-aligned astroturf organization operating in the Muslim community —while also promoting Department of Defense contracting—recently tried to organize a meeting in Orange County, California.

The meeting is, characteristically, not promoted on Emgage’s social media or listed on the organization’s calendar. However, individuals perceived as “centers of influence” within the local Muslim community are invited to meet with Emgage’s CEO or other staff at a local Muslim Institution. Once word spreads that the meeting has been organized and that a Muslim community institution is hosting it, concerned community members become aware. In response, the hosting institution—such as the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California or the Orange County Islamic Foundation—ultimately cancels the meeting.

Here are two facts that need to be reconciled:

1. Masajid like to be open to Muslims meeting and using their space.

2. Unscrupulous people want to use the Masjid platform to legitimize their scams or to spread nonsense.

Masjid leaders have an amanah (trust) to the community. Indeed all leadership is an amanah. Masjid leadership usually has the sense to not just let anyone deliver a Khubta or even a lecture. Unfortunately, it may happen that a charlatan, a con artist, a predator, or someone who spews righteous nonsense gets to become a khateeb or a youth group speaker. Eventually, folks will catch on. Though sadly, history is replete with exceptions.

Emgage is an astroturf organization reliant on institutional funders that are part of the Democratic party machine. It has been around for years, and many of its key figures—from founders to board members—have exhibited an unusual fixation on Muslim Zionism and defense contracting. As such, it is a profoundly strange presence in the Muslim community. Even so, they firmly fit into the category of “people who have no business holding a position of trust in Muslim spaces.”

Emgage is a scam against the Muslim community—not in the legal sense, like a Ponzi scheme, but in a moral and spiritual sense. Any organization that encourages Muslims to find ways to profit from the mass murder of other Muslims is a moral abomination. Muslim communities should take all necessary steps to eliminate its presence, particularly in our Masajid.

The Emgage Scamcycle

One of the things missing from the scamcycle graphic above are Muslim donors. Emgage does have them (and sadly, they were suckered), but they are not important since Emgage can survive—and even thrive—without any Muslim donations. That is how astroturf organizations work. What Emgage does need, likely to maintain its funding, is to demonstrate influence within the Muslim community and appear active in Muslim spaces. Much of that claimed influence may be fraudulent or perhaps misleading. Emgage has, in fact, published reports listing Muslim organizations as “partners”—including several that would never accept such an accusation.

The benefits to Emgage in Smearing the Name of “Partnering” with a Muslim organization

While it is possible that Emgage can name a “partner” based on nothing at all, this is unlikely. If a Muslim leader or scholar agrees to do almost anything with Emgage, then Emgage may reward them by smearing them as a “partner.” Emgage needs to collect partnerships with Muslim organizations as a totem to showcase in annual reports and funding applications. Unless you are in a Muslim organization dependent on the same Democratically aligned institutional funders that Emgage relies on, there is no point in bearing the moral, spiritual, and reputational cost to your organization. From my various discussions with people who have been victims of the Emgage smear, activities that can allow Emgage to claim credit include:

1. Allowing Emgage to table at your event for a fee.

2. Agreeing to meeting with Emgage staff that the organization solicited.

3. Adding Emgage’s name to political fundraising efforts, including private house fundraisers.

Partnership based on spurious facts

Based on my conversations within the Muslim community, Emgage has named as a “partner” an organization that did nothing more than allow the organization to table at their event. This is kind of like buying a coffee at Starbucks then telling people you married the barista. While it is possible Emgage can base its claims of “partnerships” on nothing at all, it usually needs something a bit more. But your back needn't be bent much before Emgage will ride it.

About Private Meetings

Private meetings are a common way Emgage tries to lure potential Muslim victims. They will present these meetings as opportunities to meet with their leadership and address concerns about the group. It may be under the guise of trying to “clarify” or “address critics.” While it sounds strange, the nonprofit funding racket works like this: If you are a Muslim institution, Emgage does not need your money. They would love it if you wrote them a check, but they don’t really care about that. They have plenty. They probably won’t ask. Many of their events are fundraisers for politicians.

They also don’t need your support, and by support I mean lifting a finger to help them. Of course, if you supported them and helped them in attacking detractors who have a problem with promoting defense contracting in the Muslim community by labeling them as merchants of “fitna” funded by unspecified, mysterious sources—great. Of course if you have the amana of running a Masjid, you want people to pray at the Masjid, for children to learn how to read the Quran, and to benefit the community. You probably don’t want to spend any time pinch hitting for Muslim Zionists and Department of Defense Contract pushers. They really don’t need you to do that. They know this is not your fight. But if you do try to help them and end up wrecking your reputation in the community, don’t expect them to rescue you either.

The smeared name of Muslim institutions and leaders is the coin in the nonprofit funding realm of the absurd.

Don’t Let Emgage Take Your Name

They want to take your name from you and use it to further their agenda as mercenaries of non-Muslim interests. You break the Emgage scamcycle by not letting them have it.

If you are a Muslim who hears about an Emgage event at a Muslim institution, make sure you do what you can to advise the leadership to cancel it. Protect Muslim leaders from being smeared or from becoming complicit in this scam. Least of all, you do not want to give false testimony supporting a fundamentally harmful organization.

Emgage is only doing their job. It’s up to Muslim leadership to understand what that job is, to drag the Muslim community through its toxic sludge.

Note: As Ramadan come in, I am preparing a few reports on zakat. Please let me know in the comments, what catches your attention (good and bad) about Muslim nonprofits.