My step by step review of Emgage detailed some severe ethics problems. But going into ethics (part of my standard process) was probably the wrong way to frame it for this kind of organization.
Politics can be about good things. It can also be about personal and business benefit. Trump (see the New York Times article on his profiting from the Presidency if you did not already know this was happening) is an excellent example of this. However, the Democratic party is also a profoundly corrupt institution. If you want to engage with this party, you can do it with the public interest in mind or personal interest if you prefer.
For many politicians and moneyed interests in the Democratic machine, the best "community leaders" like to mix in personal interests while claiming to represent a constituency. It's generally easier to dole out patronage to community leaders than to move through systemic change that benefits those communities. Since some "community leaders" care more about political endorsements, paid and unpaid positions, White House visits and government contracts than issues of interest to the community they claim to represent, this system works for those in power.
Donald Trump mocks Evangelical Christians while admiring their leaders for being world-class grifters. He does not need to do much for Christians, at least in comparison to their enormous electoral power. Much of what happens with prosperity preachers, in particular, could lead to tax problems, Instead of getting arrested, leaders get photos at the White House.
There is a long and storied history of corruption among black leaders, Latino leaders, Native American leaders, Union bosses and so on, often to the great damage of those they claim to serve. Legal corruption in Democratic Machine Politics helped Donald Trump’s election in the first place. A corrupt system designed to benefit the few suppresses the vote better than anything else.
Farooq Mitha, a co-founder and board member of Emgage, served in the Department of Defense and is focused on military procurement. The Co-Chair of Emgage has discussed being a military and Homeland Security contractor.
Many Muslims wondered how Emgage got the inside track on access to Joe Biden. Did Joe Biden see genuine community leaders with their fingers on the pulse of the Muslim community? Did his advisors see real grassroots support from the (only recently updated) $45,000 they raised in their PAC? So why would some non-Muslim foundation in the Democratic establishment give them a seven-figure grant?
The best philanthropic funders like to support real community organizations and don't just bankroll AstroTurf operations. Emgage's funders did not seem to have concerns about this. So why do groups in the Democratic party machine want to elevate Emgage? We don’t know definitively as Emgage won’t share vital information about its funding. However, we can evaluate the facts we have in front of us.
A good reason may be that Emgage does not want anything substantive that politicians and funders were not already on board with. There is no pushing here, only compliance. The five-question questionnaire by Emgage sent to politicians had only yes or no questions and asked nothing about the war on terrorism and the oppression of Muslims by the United States government, with the exception of ending the Muslim ban, which the Democratic party supported without any help from Emgage.
Many activists (with notable exceptions) and organizations who have worked in the Muslim community (of varying reputations) were happy to play second-fiddle to Emgage when it comes to access to politicians, especially Biden. Why would they do this? A leader at the USCMO, before Emgage left it, communicated the belief that Emgage had "exclusive vetting authority" for Muslims in the Biden Administration. Now maybe this was nonsense, but many Muslim leaders believed it. And Emgage has been collecting Muslim resumes for Biden.
AstroTurf Entrepreneurship
In Democratic politics, box-checking for Muslims is more useful than genuine engagement. It is more important to appear to include Muslims in your coalition than actually having an honest conversation with them. American elections are fertile ground for AstroTurf entrepreneurship, which is a substantial industry in the United States.
To be an Astroturf political outlet among American Muslims, you follow these three simple steps:
The Political Affinity Buffer Cycle
STEP 1: Build Trust with the Machine and Build an Astroturf
Offer up your AstroTurf outfit as a representative of the Muslim community. Get it funded by people outside the Muslim community from within the Democratic machine. Be sure your special interests in government are obvious, say DOD and DHS contracts, or an interest in future administration jobs. You can always trust nakedly self-interested people to act in their own self-interest on policy and they can get money for getting out the vote. Go beyond your own self-interest and into say, community interest beyond an acceptable range, and you risk becoming a bore and would have outlived your usefulness. Your money will stop and you won’t get to step three. Don’t be a bore.
Congratulations. You are now the Muslim community’s “influence buffer.”
STEP 2: Get Social Proof
Since you are an AstroTurf outlet posing as the voice of the community, it will help if you can get ordinary Muslims, at least enough of them, to think you are legitimate. You need prominent Muslim groups and organizations to furnish your AstroTurf operation with social proof.
This is essential to any affinity confidence scam (think Madoff, but with politics so people don’t lose money, only their political voice). For Emgage, people and organizations brought into this scam were impressive: CAIR, MPOWER Change (Linda Sarsour) USMCO, ISNA, MPAC, and of course many elected officials). These groups are vital to the enterprise since they can slap their logos or pictures on event flyers, engage in "adab policing," or tell dissidents how criticism of a Muslim organization is voter suppression.
Many won't actively defend your organization if the heat ever starts, but it helps that you have their silence.
Step 3: Get Rewarded
You keep your funders happy, be as vague as possible, and hew as closely as it can to the party line. Hopefully, after the elections, you will get your patronage, jobs, contracts, or whatever you wanted.
Affinity Scams Work Because We Let Them
The problem here is not Emgage. An affinity confidence scam will often go nowhere without social proof. Muslim organizations and leaders who should know better, publicly collaborating with a bad faith actor in the Muslim community, are real problems.
For example, if you are a Muslim who likes Linda Sarsour (and that is a lot of people, including me), and she provides social proof to Emgage by showing up at their events and collaborating with them, that may be all you need to think Emgage is legit. You're probably not going to read their 990s and look into their leadership to learn the founder's ties with DOD and DHS, their money is dark, but they are transparent and even proud of their Zionism normalization. You will trust Linda, CAIR, ISNA,ISGH, Mehdi Hasan, and everyone else stuck in this mud. You trust others to do their due diligence before they attach their names to something. Unfortunately it does not usually work this way.
The organizers of the Drop Emgage Petition saw through Emgage. Azad Essa in his Middle East Eye report did an excellent investigation as well. Unfortunately, too many Muslim leaders won't listen. They are in too deep. An affinity scam relies on social proof from victims of the fraud, pushing it on other people. Since these influencers spent so much time steering people wrong, they are often the last to admit their role in this. Fortunately, USCMO had its fill of enabling this. It’s time other Muslim organizations and leaders did the same.