News/Commentary

DHS accused of funding university program linking Christians, Republicans to Nazis under ‘anti-terror’ initiative

May 25, 2023 | | Print Article

President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using Americans’ tax dollars to fund a university program that explicitly groups Christians, Republicans, and conservative organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) and PragerU in with literal Nazis.

Documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by conservative watchdog group, the Media Research Center (MRC), and shared with Fox News Digital, reveal that the DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) awarded $352,109 to the University of Dayton for its PREVENTS-OH program.

According to its website, the PREVENTS-OH program “aims to develop a proactive, informed and resilient network of organizations, coalitions and civic entities aware and capable of collaborating to prevent domestic violent extremism in Southwest Ohio.”

The money was granted to “draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty” to fight “domestic violence extremism and hate movements,” Fox News Digital reports.

Featured on the university’s grant application to the DHS was a footnote that linked to a Dayton conference where the “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” was presented.

At the base of the pyramid was Fox News, the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Republican Party, the American Conservative Union Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, Tea Party Patriots, the John Birch Society, and the NRA.

Going up a step, the pyramid features, among others, Breitbart News, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, PragerUniversity, Turning Point USA, and the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement.

As the size of the group decreases, the slide explains, the “level of extremism” increases, until you end up with neo-Nazi paramilitary groups like The Base and pro-Nazi publications such as the Daily Stormer.

“This terrorism task force is engaged in an active effort to demonize and eliminate Christian, conservative, and Republican organizations using federal taxpayer dollars,” Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, told Fox News Digital. “What we have uncovered calls for criminal prosecution. The American people need to know those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for their criminal behavior.”

DHS Agent Joseph Masztalics took part in one of the University of Dayton’s first grant-winning seminars, suggesting “those DHS chooses to fund are compatible with their vision of leading on ‘anti-terrorism,'” the Heritage Foundation tweeted.

Reports Fox News Digital: “In 2021, the University of Dayton held a seminar called ‘Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity’ featuring several experts on extremism who compared mainstream conservatives to genocidal extremists.”

A genocide expert from Rutgers University compared at the seminar the Trump administration to Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge which killed roughly 1.5 – 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s.

The following year, the University of Dayton received a TVTP grant, meaning the DHS knew exactly what the controversial seminar had claimed.

But according to a university spokesperson, the seminar was separate from the PREVENTS-OH program.

“The speakers at the programs referred to in the Media Research Center’s report are from the University of Dayton Human Rights Center’s Social Practice of Human Rights Conference in the fall of 2021, which had no affiliation with and predates PREVENTS-OH,” the university said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The University of Dayton Human Rights Center received its PREVENTS-OH grant in the fall of 2022 and, to date, its community awareness events and dialogues have focused on all forms of domestic terrorism, targeted violence, and extremism. As we stated when awarded the grant, ‘We look forward to partnering with Ohioans throughout the Miami Valley across all political and social affiliations and sectors of the community.'”

Apparently, the spokesperson forgot to read the University’s own fine print. The statement failed to acknowledge its link to the seminar in its grant application.

The DHS also claimed the seminar had nothing to do with the grant.

“This seminar was not funded, organized, or hosted by the Department of Homeland Security,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Similarly, the presented chart was not developed, presented, or endorsed by the Department of Homeland Security, and was not part of any successful grant application to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS does not profile, target, or discriminate against any individual for exercising their constitutional rights protected by the First Amendment.”

The Heritage Foundation is not convinced.

“Whether it’s the FBI, DOJ, IRS, or DHS,” the organization tweeted, “it seems the Biden admin will weaponize any part of the federal government against its political opponents, including by conflating them with terrorists.”

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Melissa Fine
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