Hyatt Hotels Making ‘Active Choice’ to Host Anti-Muslim Hate Group’s Conference
Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, August 9, 2018
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As HuffPost first reported, the hate group Act for America is scheduled to hold its annual conference at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia, on Sept. 4 and 5. A spokesman for that hotel told HuffPost earlier that it “does not unlawfully discriminate against groups who wish to hold lawful meetings at the hotel.”
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The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, which monitor extremist groups, describe Act for America as the country’s largest anti-Muslim group. The SPLC labels Act for America a hate group.
Hyatt Hotels did not respond to a request for comment on how it would be unlawful for it to cancel on Act for America. Nor did it respond to a request for comment on whether it would host other hateful groups, such as white supremacist organizations.
“Hyatt claims to champion diversity and inclusion and all we are asking is that the company re-examine its own stated values and conclude that there will be no room for hate at Hyatt,” Simpson said in the statement. “If they choose to move forward, Hyatt Regency employees and guests should be aware that their hotel is enabling hate.”
Muslim Advocates launched a “No Room for Hate” petition on Thursday, calling on Hyatt Hotels to cancel on Act for America.
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Last year, Act for America held March Against Sharia rallies across the U.S. — thinly veiled anti-Muslim protests that attracted an assortment of bigots, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and armed anti-government militia members.
The group’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, once stated that Muslims are a “natural threat to civilized people of the world, particularly Western society.” {snip}
“The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism,” she told a crowd at a Christians United for Israel conference in 2007. “It’s the difference between goodness and evil. And this is what we’re witnessing in the Arabic world. They have no soul! They are dead set on killing and destruction.”
