On June 25, the Chicago Leadership Forum will host Frank Gaffney and Andrew McCarthy for a session titled, “The Real Civil Rights Issue of our Time.” David Horowitz was also originally scheduled to participate, but no longer will.
McCarthy is a colleague of Gaffney’s and a frequent guest on the latter’s Secure Free Radio program. Additionally, both are strongly affiliated with the anti-Islam/-Muslim David Horowitz Freedom Center, having contributed to the Center’s FrontPage Mag web publication and attending events such as David Horowitz’s Texas Weekend earlier this month alongside numerous other figures in what prominent Islamophobic activists call the “counter-jihad” movement.
The duo – who both have ties to the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies – seems an unlikely choice for the Leadership Forum to host, given its aims to “provide the opportunity to deepen professional friendships and enhance spiritual solidarity among one’s peers.” On Gaffney’s program, both he and McCarthy frequently disparage Muslims by engaging conspiracy theories such as “creeping Sharia” supposedly destroying the United States.