Debbie Schlussel
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Debbie Schlussel (born 1969) is a Detroit-based attorney, radio talk show host, columnist, and blogger.
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[edit] Early life
Schlussel was born in 1969 to a family of Polish Jewish descent. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors, her mother born in a concentration camp, and her father a Vietnam War veteran, which helped form her views.
Her teenage activities included representing the United States in the Maccabiah Games, where she won a number of medals. She got her political start, however, as a Young Republican, winning the title of "Outstanding Teen Age Republican in the Nation" in 1987. She later became the youngest female and youngest Jewish delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1988 and worked on many campaigns, including her failed run for the Michigan House of Representatives, which she lost by one vote (had she won, she would've been the youngest person to win the post).
[edit] Professional life
Aside from her political campaigning and actions, Schlussel has been published in the New York Post as well as The Wall Street Journal. Her most notable reporting occurred while with the Detroit Free Press, where she went undercover into a mosque and reported on her findings, many of which angered the Muslim community as she presented examples of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. She often targets the Detroit regional office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; especially its head, Brian Moskowitz, accusing him of overlooking obvious terrorist ties within the metro area's large Arab/Muslim community as well as disproportionately arresting/deporting Asian and Hispanic immigrants vs. those from the Middle East, while praising politicians like Arab-American mayor Allan Mansoor of Costa Mesa, California for examining similar ties (which she cites to support her position that she is confronting terrorist-related concerns, not advocating "racism" against people from the Middle East).
Her journalistic endeavors also made waves with columns she wrote about Russell Simmons, the "radical Islamic ownership" of Caribou Coffee, and the awarding of an American citizen with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, causing then-FBI Director Robert Mueller to revoke the award.
Unlike many of her like-minded associates, it is questionable whether she can be considered "neoconservative" in the true ideological sense of the term. Though sharply critical of Pat Buchanan's attitude toward Israel, she has written that she agrees with his view that bringing democracy to Muslim countries only exacerbates the problem of terrorism because hardliners enjoy popular support in such countries. She is also a frequent critic of the Bush Administration, much preferring Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo.
She also hosted a radio program, "The Debbie Schlussel Show" in 2002 and 2003. She became a regular guest on other radio programs as well, ranging from Howard Stern to Sean Hannity.
[edit] Controversy and criticism
Schlussel receives criticism from a variety of areas, partly because of her views and partly because of her rhetorical style.
- Schlussel often targets Muslims for her political columns, causing many to view her as anti-Muslim. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee considers her work racist hate speech and has a section on her in its 2002 Hate Crime report (see "Media Bias and Defamation: Hostile Commentary in Print"). In a similar example on her blog, she associated being a fan of Michael Jackson or soccer with "hating America and loving terror."[1]
- In a column in the Arab American News, Attorney Ihsan Alkhatib, President of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Detroit Chapter, compared Schlussel to Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who gunned down Muslim worshippers in Hebron. (http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=2945)
- Schlussel achieved some notoriety because of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal accusing Morgan Spurlock of the documentary series "30 Days" and film Super Size Me of unbalanced practices and faulty methods in achieving the results for the television show, mirroring many criticisms that some people have of his movie.[2] [3] Spurlock has not responded.
- Schlussel has also attacked what she refers to as the "Holocaust Industry." In her writings, she has criticized attorneys and others who did not suffer under the Holocaust, yet financially gain from it, while many Holocaust survivors continue to live in poverty. [4] The idea of a "Holocaust Industry" has provoked some controversy in history fields. [5]
- Allegedly, the late Irv Rubin, former head of the Jewish Defense League, was inspired to add the office of congressman Darrell Issa to a list of intended bombing targets [6] after reading a commentary by Schlussel. [7]
- During the captivity of American journalist Jill Carroll [8] and again shortly after she was freed [9], Schlussel attacked Carroll personally, alleging that Carroll hated Israel and America, and implying that she sympathized with her captors. When other, mostly conservative writers and bloggers objected [10], [11], she attacked them as well, deriding them as "blind worshippers of Jill Carroll" in need of "LASIK." [12]
- Schlussel wrote [13] derogatory remarks [14], [15] about Marla Ruzicka, the founder of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, when Ruzicka was killed in Iraq on a humanitarian mission helping the civilian victims of the war.
