Protests and Chaos at the Democratic National Convention: Plots to Disrupt the DNC Convention

Over 150 Extremist Groups Supporting Protests and Chaos at the Democratic National Convention (full series)
Findings | Leadership of the Anti-DNC Protests
Plots to Disrupt the DNC Convention
Appendix

Plots to Disrupt the DNC Convention

The Hamas-allied, Iran-backed PFLP terrorist group is strongly linked to an effort to disrupt or shut down the DNC convention by at least three extremist groups. More groups have signaled their approval of the plan, and others may be secretly involved.

The publicly named members of the coalition are Behind Enemy Lines, a chapter of Anti-Imperialist Resistance; Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Support Network), which is essentially a PFLP front; and the U.S. wing of Palestine Action, a pro-Hamas and pro-PFLP militant group headquartered in the U.K. that engages in and encourages acts of violence, property destruction, and economic sabotage.

Behind Enemy Lines published its schedule for the convention. The graphic includes imagery glorifying Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks. The accompanying text criticizes the Coalition to March on the DNC for being too passive. It declares “this convention must be shut down” and supporters should “get ready to throw down against the criminals who are invading Chicago to celebrate their genocide.” The Instagram post has been liked by New York City Labor for Palestine, the Detroit chapter of General Strike U.S. and Flyover Social Center, located in the Illinois city of Carbondale.

Behind Enemy Lines published its clearest incitement to violence on August 13. The post harshly criticizes those who are committed to safe protests at the convention and encourages demonstrators to physically endanger themselves and others. It cites the fiery rioting in Minneapolis in 2020 as proof that violence is more effective and then shows artwork symbolizing punching police officers in the face.

One of the nearly 1,000 Instagram accounts that liked the call to violence is the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, an extremist group that openly sides with the Iranian government, Hamas, and other Iran-linked terrorist groups and “support[s] the right to resist colonial imperialism by any means necessary, including armed struggle.” Of particular concern is that it defines the U.S. as one of the places where an oppressive “colonialist” system must be defeated.

The call for violence is also liked by the “abolitionist, anti-capitalist & anti-imperialist collective” based in Los Angeles that is called the People’s City Council and an organization named Mass Struggle in Boston.

An August 2 post reiterating its plans to “shut down the DNC for Gaza” is liked by the University of Illinois-Chicago chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that declared itself to be a literal part of Hamas; Unidos Por El Pueblo, a member of the Coalition to March on the DNC; Purple Up for Palestine; a Puerto Rican extremist group in Chicago named the Borikén Liberation Front; the Southern California chapter of Dare to Struggle; the Chicago chapter of READ (Revolutionary Education and Discussion) and Chi Food Sovereignty Coalition.

The Coalition’s Pro-Terrorism, Anti-American Website

The Coalition to March on the DNC is inarguably pro-Hamas and in favor of the October 7 terrorist attacks and atrocities. Every official member or supporter of the coalition either agrees with the sentiment or failed to give its website even the most cursory glance before joining it.

The webpage that lists the coalition members and supporters has a large image right at the top of protestors holding a USPCN-branded banner with the hashtag “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which is what Hamas calls its October 7 attacks to make it sound like a legitimate military operation. The banner has the words, “Palestinian resistance is justified when our people are occupied!”

The coalition’s statement blaming President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza blatantly justifies Hamas’s attacks and frames the Jew-hating terrorist group as a freedom-fighting self-defense force that is only seeking liberation from oppression.

It refers to the attacks as “Al Aqsa Flood,” using Hamas’s favored terminology, and describes the bloodshed as “when Palestinians broke out of the Gaza prison walls.” The coalition declares it “stands in unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.”

The coalition accuses the U.S. of backing Israel as part of its “imperialism in the region” and implies that the government and elites in power must be forcibly overthrown:

There is no crime against humanity the ruling class will not commit or allow to keep the exploitative and oppressive imperialist system intact. They will not independently grow a conscience and rescind their support for Israel’s genocide.

It also demands the release of “all Palestinian and Arab political prisoners,” which would include terrorists who pose a risk to innocent Israeli lives. The coalition’s proposed resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the creation of a single Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” meaning the complete erasure of the state of Israel.

Actions taken to entirely destroy Israel and wipe it off the map meet international law’s definition of genocide under the Geneva Conventions.

The coalition’s homepage features photos of protestors with signs with text like, “Amerikkka is sick,” “Guilty as hell the whole damn system” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,” which is, again, a slogan calling for the genocidal destruction of Israel.

Their far-reaching, fantastical demands paint China and Russia as the world’s good guys and the U.S., Ukraine, the Philippines, and other adversaries of the Chinese Communist Party–ruled regime as the bad guys.

The coalition also dedicates itself “to the fight to free political prisoners,” mentioning the “Uhuru Three” as among those that must be released. This refers to three extremely anti-American, pro-terrorism activists who are being prosecuted for their allegedly deliberate and illegal involvement in influence operations in the U.S. run by Russian intelligence.

The Plan to Trick and Then Conquer the Democratic Party

The anti-DNC convention protests are the culmination of the Abandon Biden campaign launched in December, mostly by activists who support Hamas or lead pro-Hamas organizations, to threaten the Democratic Party with a potential Republican presidential election victory if President Biden is nominated for re-election.

A review of mainstream media coverage of the Abandon Biden campaign did not find a single story that informed readers of the pro-Hamas motivations of some of its key leaders.

Abandon Biden still exists under that name and is listed as a member of the Coalition to March on the DNC. The movement has mostly transformed into an anti-Harris campaign.

The stated premise of its supporters is that forcing the Democrats to lose by not voting or voting for a third party is worth the burden of a second Trump presidency because it would show the Democratic Party that its future electoral prospects depend on their approval.

One of the founders of the Abandon Biden movement and former cochair of its Michigan chapter is Khalid Turaani, who became the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Ohio state chapter’s Columbus and Cincinatti offices in June.

CAIR, as documented in its InfluenceWatch profile, has long been credibly accused of having ties to Hamas and its parent organization, Muslim Brotherhood. The CAIR national executive director publicly cheered the October 7 attacks, prompting the Biden White House to condemn the group.

Turaani celebrated the October 7 attacks with a graphic that references Hamas’s name of its attacks as “Al-Aqsa Flood”), publicly takes joy in Hamas holding an Israeli brigadier-general hostage, and honors famous PFLP spokesman and author Ghassan Kanafani.

The website for the formal Abandon Biden campaign organized by the Civil Rights Alliance for America shows that another founder is Jaylani Hussein, the executive directors of CAIR’s Minnesota chapter. And another founder, Rabiul Chowdhury, is a member of CAIR Philadelphia’s executive committee.

Its director, Hassan Abdel Salam, says he was arrested and held by Israeli forces for 23 days in December 2022 and claims he was tortured. At least two official Abandon Biden “ambassadors,” Omar Suleiman and Tom Facchine, expressed support for Hamas after the October 7 attacks.

A third Abandon Biden ambassador, Mobeen Vaid, is one of the Muslim American community’s fiercest enemies of the LGBT community. He condemns religious communities that “have largely collapsed at the altar of homosexuality and are quickly proving incapable of resisting transgenderism, too.” One of the reasons he supports Hamas is because the group believes in executing those who engage in non-straight activities.

Faayani Aboma Mijana, a spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC and a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said, “We are the base that the Democratic Party claims to represent, but they have failed to represent us on this. So that’s the significance of this march.”

The strategy of the Abandon Biden/Harris movement and the overall network of about 280 groups that are in the Coalitions to March on the DNC and RNC and the broader anti-DNC protests is to:

1. Convince the Democratic Party that it is extremely unlikely to win the swing states necessary for presidential election victories in the future unless it surrenders to the network’s demands so it can deliver an election-deciding percentage of the Muslim, Arab, and “far-left” vote.
2. Present this mostly Marxist-Anarchist-Islamist constituency that is represented by the network not as an extremist bloc but a reasonable and winnable part of the Democratic Party base that has been alienated by the party’s failure to be sufficiently ideologically purist and to make good on its promises.
3. Attempt to entice the growing elements of the Republican Party that are less friendly or even hostile toward Israel that it can revive the days when Muslim and Arab Americans and the network associated with Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the like favored the Bush presidential campaign in 2000 and arguably delivered him the presidency.

Dealing with the Pro-Terrorism Constituency

Political strategists on both sides of the aisle would be wise to refer to our study and understand that the organizations in this bloc are mostly extremist supporters of terrorism with Marxist, anarchist and Islamist ideologies that are incompatible with progressive, liberal, centrist, conservative, or libertarian political philosophies or even patriotism and Western values.

All observable indications suggest that the majority of those in this constituency never voted for Democrats to begin with, instead choosing to decline participation in the system they hope to overthrow or choosing to vote third party.

Whatever portion of the voters in this pro-terrorism, anti-American Marxist-Anarchist-Islamist faction has actually voted Democratic cannot be won back without capitulating to their radical and politically unviable demands. Even attempting to accomplish that feat would alienate a far greater number of current supporters.

Our investigation shows that this disturbingly influential and capable extremist infrastructure should not be seen as swing voters or a conventional part of the country’s body politic. Instead, it should be seen more like a subversive, seditionist, and dangerous third party with the potential to do enormous damage to our national security and the health of our civil society.

See the Appendix for lists of the groups protesting the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention.