Family That Made Millions on Opioids Gave to Anti-Muslim Groups

In March of 2018, a shower of pill bottles descended on The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, labeled, as Hyperallergic reported, “prescribed to you by the Sackler family, major donors of the Met.” The Sackler family are the owners of Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxy-Contin, often described as a key culprit in the opioid crisis, and the bottles were part of the first in a still-ongoing series of protests designed to raise awareness of how family members, who have donated millions to arts organizations across the world, have also benefited from the opioid crisis.

Last week, art museums including the Guggenheim in New York and the Tate in London, announced they would no longer accept gifts from the Sacklers. Efforts by family members to paint themselves as arts philanthropists are well-known, but the Sacklers’ philanthropy had another less prominent beneficiary: anti-Muslim organizations.

Richard Sackler first made his views known in 2008, Christopher Glazek pointed out in Esquire in 2017, when he “wrote a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal denouncing Muslim support for suicide bombing, a concern that seems to persist.” According to Esquire and Sludge’s reporting, the foundation donated to several anti-Muslim groups over a three-year period.

Alex Kotch in Sludge explains: “From 2014-16, the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation made donations to three nonprofits considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be anti-Muslim hate groups,” referencing Esquire’s earlier reporting.

Further research from Sludge reveals that during that same time period, the foundation donated to groups not on SPLC’s list, but still considered to be explicitly Islamophobic:

From 2014-16, the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation donated $7,700 to Middle East Forum, in addition to $150 in 2009. Middle East Forum is “at the center” of an Islamophobia network, according to the Center for American Progress. The forum “promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats” and “protects the freedoms of anti-Islamist authors,” according to its website.

Other anti-Muslim groups Sludge found the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation also gave to in that time period are Jihad Watch, American Freedom Defense Initiative and the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The American Freedom Defense Initiative, formerly known as Stop Islamization of America, was founded by Robert Spencer, who Kotch calls an “anti-Muslim hate figure” and “noted Islamophobe” Pamela Gellar.

The Middle East Forum’s activities include funding anti-Muslim rallies in London in 2018. Daniel Pipes, its founder, was previously on the board of the Clarion Project, which according to Kotch, produces “anti-Muslim propaganda films.”

The Middle East Forum’s board and fellows have included multiple other anti-Muslim figures, including Stephen Emerson, whose Investigative Project on Terrorism received $250 from the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation in 2012 and $7,000 in 2015. Emerson, as FAIR reported back in 1999 has said that Islam “sanctions genocide, planned genocide, as part of its religious doctrine.” Kotch adds that “He even submitted fake FBI documents to news outlets tying mainstream American Muslim groups to terrorist organizations.”

Even though the SPLC does not explicitly label Middle East Watch a hate group, it has monitored Pipes’ activities. “Pipes is one of the biggest purveyors of anti-Muslim ideas in the U.S.,” Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained to Sludge.

The foundation is not quoted in Sludge’s coverage. A family spokesperson told Esquire in 2017 “It was never Richard Sackler’s intention to donate to an anti-Muslim or hate group.”