Gatestone Institute

History

The institute was founded in 2008 under the name "Hudson Institute New York" by Nina Rosenwald, who serves as its president, Briefly in 2012 it was renamed Stonegate Institute, before becoming Gatestone Institute in March 2012.

Mission

The organization describes itself as a "non-partisan, not-for-profit international policy council and think tank is dedicated to educating the public about what the mainstream media fails to report." The organization believes that traditional news outlets conduct insufficient and, as a result, misleading reporting on critical issues, and thus it distributes its own information about events in the Middle East and Muslim populations in other parts of the world. The organization has been described as right-wing.

Gatestone publicizes the writings of authors, such as Alan Dershowitz, Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, Khaled Abu Toameh, Harold Rhode, and Sebastian Gorka.

Funding

Gatestone Institute says it is funded by private donors and foundations.

Board of Governors

Board of Governors, Gatestone Europe

Board of Advisors

Distinguished Senior Fellows

The Gatestone Institute's website contains a list of "Distinguished Senior Fellows," which include Khaled Abu Toameh, Gordon G. Chang, Patrick Caddell, Ingrid Carlqvist, Con Coughlin, Charles Crawford, Salim Mansur, Douglas Murray, Fiamma Nirenstein, Raheel Raza, and Harold Rhode.

Criticism

The Gatestone Institute has been accused of being islamophobic, and of promoting falsehoods and paranoia. J. Dana Stuster, writing in The Hill, says Gatestone is fear-mongering when it warns of a “civilization jihad” consisting of a “Muslim invasion” of “illegal migrants” that will bring crime and exhaust the European welfare system. Carol Matlack, professor of sociology at the University of Bath, and Tom Mills, lecturer in sociology at Aston University, single out Soeren Kern's articles on Muslim no-go zones in Europe as examples of misinformation and Islamophobia.

In a 2012 article in the progressive weekly The Nation, Max Blumenthal criticized The Gatestone Institute’s founding president Nina Rosenwald for raising money for politician Geert Wilders, think tank Center for Security Policy, and writer Daniel Pipes. In this article he quoted Center for American Progress' report which claims that Rosenwald and her family have donated more than $2.8 million since 2000 to “organisations that fan the flames of Islamophobia”.

Muslim members of Gatestone Institute defended Nina Rosenwald, from criticism by CAIR that she donated to “groups that exist to make people fear and hate Islam”. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said, "It goes without saying, but to those who may not know Nina, and having known her now for many years, it is clear to me that she has the highest respect for Muslims who love their faith, love God, and take seriously our Islamic responsibility to defeat the global jihad and its Islamist inspiration." In response to anti-Muslim allegations made by the Council on American–Islamic Relations toward Rosenwald, writer and film maker Raheel Raza said, "If Muslims guided by CAIR could take the time to read and reflect on efforts of people like Nina, they would broaden their horizons and gain a lot of insights into the betterment of Muslims."