Saul Anuzis, the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, and on the shortlist to make RNC Chairman, has been caught up in the recent scandal involving Ali Jawad, an alleged Hezbollah supporter that was removed from the John McCain campaign.
Debbie Schlussel has called out Anuzis. She claims Anuzis reaches out to anyone willing to vote Republican.
And it's a trend Michigan Republican Chair Saul Anuzis shows no willingness to stop. . .
He would only answer that he would appeal to whomever will vote Republican.
I can't speak on the allegations against Mr. Jawad, but Anuzis has reached out to support anti-Semitic and white supremacist groups within Michigan.
Saul Anuzis has called the leader of the nation's first university recognized hate group "Exactly the type of kid we want."
The "kid" is question is Kyle Bristow, former Chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom, Michigan State University Chapter.
Bristow, picture from his Facebook profile
YAF was named a hate group in 2007 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights law firm located in Montgomery, Alabama. An in-depth report on the group and its activities was published in its Winter 2008 issue of Hatewatch, a periodical that is read by 60,000 law enforcement agents.
YAF, under the leadership of Kyle Bristow, has established hateful positions against African Americans, Episcopal Christians, Hindus, Homosexuals and Transgenders, Immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, and Yankees .
Before Saul Anuzis put the weight of the Michigan Republican Party behind the organization, (which YAF still enjoys to this day), YAF had already established its radical right positions. In September 2006 YAF chapters at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan announced plans to host "Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day", and event in which people would play vigilante and captured someone marked as an illegal immigrant. Under pressure from Latino groups and the event being condemned by MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon, MSU-YAF canceled the event. The event was also condemned by ASMSU, the student government for Michigan State University.
As a result of "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" students in James Madison College recalled Kyle Bristow as their representative to ASMSU.
YAF's next event was to protest a human rights ordinance in Lansing, Michigan. The ordinance, the intent of which was to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in employment and housing, was being considered by the City Council. YAF responded by holding a protest, bearing signs that said "Straight Power" and "End Faggotry".
On November 2006 YAF was one of the groups hosting Tom Tancredo, an notorious anti-immigrant Congressman from Colorado.
After the announcement by the Southern Poverty Law Center to list the MSU chapter of Young Americans for Freedom as a hate group, and Saul Anuzis throwing the support of the Michigan Republican Party behind them, the group continued to host more controversial and outright racist speakers on campus.
In April, 2007 they brought Minuteman Founder Chris Simcox to speak on campus. The event resulted in the removal of protesters from the room and the arrest of five individuals.
In September 2007 YAF brought Ryan Sorba, an anti-gay activist who presented a speech called "The Born Gay Hoax" which sought to disprove the theory held by most psychologists that homosexuality is an inborn trait and not an immoral choice. The evidence given was shoddy at best and would not likely stand up to academic rigor. Sorba claimed to be writing a book on the subject, despite having only a B.A. in psychology. He declined to give the name of the publisher, though a draft copy of the book has been posted online
October brought MSU-YAF's most controversial speaker to date. YAF invited Nick Griffin, a Holocaust Denier and racist, to speak on campus to speak about the dangers of Islamo-Fascism. The event brought out a call for an "entourage" on the racist and Neo-Nazi website Stormfront.org. The event was arranged by a skinhead who had set up other hate speeches at campus in Texas and South Carolina.
The event was jointly condemned by Jewish and Muslim students, as well the Director of Jewish Studies Ken Waltzer, and MSU Trustee member Faylene Owen.
Since YAF brought in Nick Griffin they have seen their fortunes turn.
They announced they would be hosting Indrek Wichman, an infamous anti-Muslim professor at Michigan State University, to speak at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. After media inquiries were made the Holocaust Memorial Center canceled the speech, and the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs, listed as a sponsor, denied knowledge of the event.
When they announced they were bringing in Jared Taylor, an advocate of scientific racism, they face opposition from the national Young Americans for Freedom. Under the threat of having it's charter revoked, MSU-YAF canceled the event.
Saul Anuzis has not pulled back his support of MSU-YAF or Kyle Bristow, even after the activities YAF has engaged in since he gave that support. This continued support for the hate group stands in contrast to the history of his family. Anuzis' parents and paternal grandparents were honored with the Righteous Among Nations award for helping save the life of Jews during the Holocaust. According to his bio on the Michigan Republican Party Website:
Anuzis is particularly proud of his family's history. He speaks with pride of the Righteous Among the Nations award his parents and paternal grandparents received from Israel's national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, for helping three young girls escape from a Jewish ghetto and make their way from Lithuania to Estonia during World War II. One of those girls, now grown, nominated them for the award.
Since granting YAF his support, YAF has invited Holocaust Denier Nick Griffin (which was arranged by a anti-semitic skinhead), attempted to host an event at a Holocaust Memorial Center under false pretenses while falsely associating a pro-Israel group with that event, and said George W. Bush was "going crazy" for wearing a yarmulke during a visit to a Holocaust Memorial in Israel.
More recently, YAF has pushed their anti-Semitism further. On their blog they hosted a poll asking whether Islamofascism or Judeo-Bolshevism. The post was removed, but is still viewable in Google cache. Judeo-Bolshevism is a conspiracy theory alleging Jewish control of communist movements. The Southern Poverty Law Center addressed the post, and it's being linked to Kevin MacDonald, and anti-Semitic psychology professor from California.
Bristow wrote that perhaps MSU-YAF “should start a Judeo-Bolshevism Awareness Month,” and encouraged readers to click through a link to a video of a lecture by California State University-Long Beach professor of psychology Kevin MacDonald. MacDonald, who argues that Jews are impelled by genetic factors to undermine the majority populations of societies in which they live, is a favorite academic of neo-Nazis and anti-Semitic white nationalists. “Jews do not act in the best interest of society,” MacDonald is quoted as saying in journalist Jon Entine’s new book, Abraham’s Children. “We need to systematically put in place some controls, call it discrimination if you will, to restore parity with other groups.”
Despite this slew of anti-Semitic actions by YAF, Saul Anuzis has remained silent about YAF, and has not withdrawn his support for the group.
As a final note, in fairness to Senator McCain, Kyle Bristow is not a supporter of his and should not be directly linked to McCain. This photo from Bristow's Facebook profile pictures shows Bristow is not a McCain supporter.
