Muslims Claim Christian Group Defamed Them
The Muslims of America demands retractions and a gag order against further defamation. It also wants sales of the book “Twilight in America” enjoined.
The book was published in October 2012.
“Defendants repeatedly refer to plaintiff as a terrorist organization engaging in terrorist acts and running terrorist training camps in the United States,” the complaint states. “Defendants bolster their claims through the use of intentionally misleading documents and sources in order to deceive and mislead the public about plaintiff. … In committing the acts herein alleged, the defendants acted willfully with malice in conscious disregard of the plaintiff’s rights and with intent to cause injury to plaintiff.”
Mawyer, who founded the nonprofit Christian Action Network in 1990, once worked as editor-in-chief of the Moral Majority Report, published by the evangelical fundamentalist Rev. Jerry Falwell, according to CAN’s website.
Based in Lynchburg, Va., CAN describes itself as a public advocacy and education organization “based on biblical principles, values, traditions and American ideals.” The website says it uses documentaries, radio and TV interviews, books and alliances with other organizations “to impact change.”
The lawsuit claims that Mawyer has appeared on the Fox News shows “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity” as well “Entertainment Tonight” and NBC’s “Today” show, where “he continues spreading various sensational, erroneous theories and presents them as fact.”
The group claims that Mawyer and CAN have spent the past decade “waging excessive divisive and intolerable attacks against the plaintiff.”
The Muslims of America was organized in the mid-1980s around congregations that sought to escape big-city problems in the countryside, according to the complaint.
More: Courthouse News Service