Campaign to Keep Syrian Refugees Out of US Fueled by Rich California Donor

Robert Shillman, founder and chairman of Cognex Corp., a company with a market value of $4 billion that produces manufacturing technology and that is well-known for sponsoring conservative and pro-Israel initiatives, finances FrontPage Magazine, a platform for anti-refugee propaganda, the Intercept reported.

In a series of anti-Islam articles published in FrontPage, writer Daniel Greenfield claims that the only “genuine” refugees from the Middle East are Christians, whereas Muslims fleeing conflicts in the war-torn region shouldn’t be given safe haven in the US, explaining they “are not victims, they are perpetrators.”

Another author reportedly funded by Shillman, Raymond Ibrahim, continues Greenfield’s line at FrontPage, claiming Muslim refugees are escaping “chaos created by the violent and supremacist teachings of their own religion, Islam.”

Shillman, according to the Intercept, also contributes funds to ACT! For America, a group working to block the settling of Syrian refugees across the US.

“They are coming to your neighborhood,” the organization’s leader Brigitte Gabriel said on Newsmax TV. “They are coming to your state, you need to know who’s coming and how many of them are coming and whether you can stop it.”

The Center for Security Policy, a think tank long criticised for islamophobic positions, has nominated Shillman for its Freedom Fighter Award in 2015.

Articles targeting refugees in Shillman-funded publications have gone viral recently, the Intercept reported. Shillman has also been known to support notoriously anti-Muslim initiatives by David Horowitz and Pamela Geller, Reuters reported.

Some 200 activists gathered outside a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona last weekend to protest the Islamic religion as part of a series of anti-Muslim manifestations nationwide.