Beyond the Headlines: The Controversial Legacy of the Boulder Highland City Club

The Highland City Club newsletter has been an open and comfortable space for its longtime founder, Sina Simantob, to express his views freely without backlash or reaction from the general public. The HCC website’s about page claims it is “a safe place for passionate and caring people to explore our differences, find our common ground, and make our world a better place while having fun.”

An essay published on August 16 on the HCC website by Simantob, titled “A Modern Crusade,” has been claimed by a local activist group, Front Range Antifascists, to have contained “Islamophobic” rhetoric. The HCC is known as a social club for wealthy residents in Boulder, and this isn’t the first time that racist allegations have been made against the country club.

Back in November of 2021, Boulder Weekly published an article titled, “The Highland City Club Has a Racism Problem,” where it was revealed that in an article published in 2019 on the HCC website titled “Racism,” Simantob reinforced racial stereotypes, claiming it is a natural reaction for people to stereotype minorities.

“Perhaps it simply means humans have a natural tendency to initially see each other in terms of stereotypes …. I stopped doing business with Hasidic Jews in NY because time after time they proved to be better businessmen than me,” Simantob elaborates further, “And I stopped playing sports if there were more black players on the other team. So am I a smart survivalist or a bigoted racist?”

In response to these allegations, the activist group FrontRange AntiFascists wrote a press release examining these claims against the HCC and its founder. According to CBS News, the Antifascist organization as a whole is nonviolent in its protests and dedicated to exposing racism and far-right extremists. The organization has been known to be a network of far-left revolutionaries, many of whom carry anarchist or communist views.

Crow, a long-standing member of the Front-Range Antifascists, says, “As antifascists, our primary goal is to empower communities to defend themselves against oppressive forces who wish them harm. As such, we have warned Islamic community centers about the HCC and distributed flyers and posters to community members neighboring the HCC. These flyers are available to print on our website,” Crow told YS.

The Front Range Antifascist’s values indicate they are dedicated to protecting and warning communities that may be harmed by “fascist” and “far-right activity,” as listed in their principles on their website, “An attack on one, is an attack on all!”

In “A Modern Crusade” by Sina Simantob, which was published on the HCC website, Simantob says, “…all Muslims embrace Jihad as a way of life to spread Islam throughout the world by any means.” The article dives further into the Neo-Nazi riots taking place in Europe. Simantob compares Muslims to the Crusades and encourages the false idea that Europe must “fight back” against the legal immigration that Muslims are using as a way to conquer Europe in the future.

“The Islamic crusades, having failed to conquer Europe by force outright, are now pursued in the form of legal immigration by taking advantage of Europe’s low native birth rate and its need for cheap labor to power their industrial production.”

Since October 7, Israel has butchered over 186,000 Palestinian citizens. This is a conservative estimate, as thousands are still under the rubble and missing. The destruction has left over 1.9 million Palestinians displaced, and countless human rights organizations and news outlets claim it’ll take decades to rebuild Gaza. In the past few months, footage has been circulating of Israeli soldiers kidnapping, rounding up, and stripping Palestinian men and boys 16 and older.

Since the genocide began, the outpour of Islamophobia and anti-arab sentiment has been rampant throughout the country, increasing exponentially. It has resulted in a list of deadly incidents: the stabbing of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al Fayoume in the City of Chicago, as well as the shooting of three Palestinian students, 20-year-old Hisham Awartini, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed, in the state of Vermont. Just a few weeks ago, a man slit the throat of a 7-year-old Muslim Yemeni American girl Saida Mashra, in Detroit, Michigan, one of the most prominent Arab American cities in America.

Could there be a connection between the HCC’s legacy of anti-arab sentiment and the genocide in Gaza?

A very recently published article by Simantob titled “War and Peace,” which was published on the HCC website on October 25, shows Simantob falsely attributing student protestors on college campuses to being “pro-Hamas,” rehashing allegations about October 7 that have been debunked, as well as claiming the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has been conducting the war (genocide) in Gaza pretty well, “Benjamin Netanyahu has weaknesses and shadow sides, but as Israel’s commander-in-chief, he is executing this war well on seven fronts.”

In another article published earlier this month by Simantob on October 4, titled “War In The Middle East,” Simantob falsely claims the death toll in Gaza is a mix of Hamas and Palestinian civilians, “over 40,000 Hamas soldiers and Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been killed by Israel,” however, multiple sources including the United Nations have stated that the death toll in Gaza has explicitly been civilian casualties. Simantob continues by saying that he resents the idea that Netanyahu and Israel are to blame for the genocide in Gaza.

“In a blatant act of victim-shaming, many throughout the world blame Israel and its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the brutal execution of this war and for its refusal to “compromise” to reach a “peaceful solution” with Hamas and Hezbollah. I am not in this camp.”

The FrontRange AntiFascists revealed in a now-deleted post on the HCC website that the HCC recently hired Yovel Peretz, an IDF soldier returning from Gaza. The HCC hired Peretz in July as their new Chief Operations Officer. In a progress report posted to the HCC website, which has since been deleted. Simantob writes about Yovel’s experience in the IDF: “Yovel has registered more miles than years, as evidenced by the fact that he has secured a degree in business, recently completed his four-year service in the Israeli army, and has proven himself to be a natural leader.”

Following this allegation, The FrontRange AntiFascists recently rumored that the Boulder Highland City Club had hosted a private event for Boulder’s new deputy police Chief, Stephen Redfearn, on September 26. Redfearn, who was captain of the Aurora police department, is infamous for overlooking and covering for the murder of Elijah McClain, furthering the problematic force Boulder has earned a reputation for.

“We don’t know what the [event] entailed as it was only available to paying members of the Highland City Club and their guests. The event was likely a way to build a relationship with Chief Redfearn and give the wealthy HCC members exclusive access to one of the most powerful people in the City.” Crow said.

The Highland City Club’s controversy has been an enormous topic in Boulder, and neither Simantob nor the HCC has spoken up about any of these allegations. YS reached out to the Highland City Club in Boulder for any commentary. They have not responded to our attempts to contact them.

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