Brigitte Gabriel

Brigitte Gabriel (also known as Hanan Tudor [1] 1965) is a Lebanese American journalist, author and speaker on Islam and the Middle East. She claims to voice "what many in America are thinking but afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, Islamophobic, or intolerant." She frequently lectures to American conservative-leaning organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, Christians United for Israel, Evangelicals and Jewish groups.

Gabriel comments that "anyone who voices his or her opinion contrary to 'politically correct think' is immediately tagged" a "racist" or "bigot" and that this has resulted in a "social paranoia which discourages free thought and expression." Moreover, she states that societies and cultures must be held accountable for their actions and that "by not judging others... we have helped create the monsters we are dealing with today."

In order to promote such views, Gabriel founded the American Congress For Truth and ACT! for America so that citizens may "Fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization."

Early life

Brigitte Gabriel was born in 1965 in Lebanon to a Christian family.

According to Gabriel, during the Lebanese Civil War, militants launched an assault on a Lebanese military base near her family's house and bombed her home during a national attempt to overrun the Lebanese government. In April 1975 and following the collapse of the Lebanese Army, many Lebanese Christian militiamen found themselves defending their own homes and were heavily engaged in street fights against the Palestinian militias and the Lebanese National Movement. Just ten years old at the time, Brigitte was severely injured and spent 2 1/2 months in a hospital recovering. Gabriel was the only child of elderly parents. Their life savings were destroyed in the bombings, as well as their money, their restaurant and their rental rooms.

Gabriel reports that she and her parents were forced to live in an 8'x10' bomb shelter underground for seven years with only a small kerosene heater, no sanitary systems, no electricity or running water and little food. To get water she states that she had to crawl in a ditch alongside a road to a spring in order to evade Muslim snipers.

Later, in 1978, Gabriel's says a man warned her family of an impending attack on Christians by militias. She says that her life was saved that night when Israelis invaded Lebanon in Operation Litani. Later, her mother was seriously injured and was taken to an Israeli hospital where Gabriel noted the humanity of the Israelis in contrast to the propaganda against the Jews she says she saw as a child.

Career

Gabriel is a former news anchor for “World News”, the Arabic evening news broadcast for Middle East Television a Christian television station seen throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. She covered the Israeli withdrawal from central Lebanon, the Israeli Security Zone and the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.

Gabriel emigrated to the United States in 1989 and founded a television production, marketing and advertising agency.

Gabriel is the founder of the conservative ACT! (American Congress for Truth) for America, a non-profit issues advocacy organization. ACT! for America has hundreds of chapters across America and members in 20 countries outside of America.

Gabriel is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Intelligence Summit and lectures nationally and internationally on Global Terrorism. She has addressed former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, Members of the U.S. Congress, The Joint Forces Staff College, The United States Special Operations Command, the FBI and members of the House of Commons in London.

She is the author of the New York Times Bestseller BECAUSE THEY HATE: A Survivor of Terror Warns America, and THEY MUST BE STOPPED: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. She is a regular guest analyst on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and various radio stations daily across America.

"Because They Hate" was put on the reading list at the FBI Academy and was assigned as mandatory reading for Navy SEALs heading to the Middle East.

Criticisms of Islam

Gabriel is critical of Islam and believes that "the degraded state of Arab societies is caused by Islam", and that Arab Muslims are "lagging behind" because of social and religious values.

Furthermore, she considers Islamic terrorists simply as devout followers of Islam, following an example set by Muhammad's behavior.

It is not politically correct to say that our Western societies are better than the Muslim Arab societies, but we are, we have been, and we always will be.

— Because They Hate

Gabriel is critical of Americans who "find all sorts of things wrong with America", who "badmouth and put down our culture, government, and country", while having "never experienced life in an oppressive culture or under an oppressive leadership such as is found in the Middle East." She believes that Americans should "acknowledge that our Western culture is.. better than others."

In viewing America as "a powerful and great nation" possessing "superior.. culture and values", Gabriel sees the entitlements that American Western culture has bestowed through "the Judeo-Christian value system" and the ideals of the Founding Fathers, who "worked to establish rights for the individual, rights that did not exist under other forms of government at that time."

Since Radical Islam views the destruction of Israel alongside the United States as "a parallel strategic objective", Gabriel therewith sees the survival of Israel as being of paramount importance as a vanguard of Western culture and as "the only Western-style nation in the Middle East, one that Arabs despise, feel threatened by, and vow to destroy."

Gabriel has been accused of engaging in Islamophobia by journalist Pierre Tristam, a Lebanese Christian who accuses her of making "a career out [of] vilifying Muslims".

The New York Times Magazine in a 2008 interview with Ms. Gabriel described Gabriel as a "radical Islamophobe". She has been criticized for making blanket statements about Muslims such as "By today's standards, the 21st-century standards, Muslim people have less to contribute than their counterparts in civilised nations."

In a symposium held in January 2009 titled "Homegrown Jihadis" by FrontPage Magazine, she stated Islam itself "promotes intolerance and violence", and that "Moderate Muslims must organize and engage those enlightened, educated and westernized Muslims in the community to begin a dialogue to discuss the possibility of reform in Islam just as Christianity and Judaism have been reformed."

Books by Brigitte Gabriel

Because They Hate

Because They Hate: A Survivor of Terror Warns America. St. Martin's Press. 2006-09-05. ISBN 0312358377. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |accessmonth=, |origdate=, and |coauthors= (help)

In her first book Gabriel discusses her experiences as a Maronite Christian living in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1970s. She describes the story of her family and her childhood, hiding in a bomb shelter. She details her opinions that her country's inherent multicultural acceptance of all faiths and cultures including the then dominant Lebanese Christian phalangists, led to Lebanon's ruin by the continuous attacks from indigenous Muslims, other Christian groups and migrant Palestinians.

The book made the The New York Times hardcover best seller list.

They Must Be Stopped

Gabriel, Brigitte (2008-08-19). They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312383633. Radical Islamists are telling us exactly where they stand and what are their intentions. We are refusing to understand their simple words and how serious they are in their faith and its commandments. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |accessmonth=, |origdate=, and |coauthors= (help)

See also

• Wafa Sultan
• Walid Shoebat
• Nonie Darwish

External links

• American Congress For Truth website
• Presentation to the Heritage Foundation
• "Polarized points of view", National Post
• Brigitte Gabriel's article about her lecture in Memphis: Muslims Muzzling Memphis
  • A response to Gabriel's account of the Memphis lecture incident
• Brigitte Gabriel speaking with Tamar Yonah, Israeli Journalist (confirms host suggestion to Israel to "bomb, bomb, bomb every inch" of Lebanon 10:00)

Video

• Because They Hate presentation to Heritage Foundation

Critical Views

• "Brigitte Gabriel, Radical Islamophobe - A Lebanese-American Marketing Hate from Hate" by Pierre Tristam
• Tragic Murder of Two Muslim Girls, FOX News, and the Hate Speech of Brigitte Gabriel
• The World According to Brigitte Gabriel (Australian Jewish News).
• Who is behind Relentless, Obsession and The Third Jihad? (The American Muslim)