Republican politicians’ attack on a Muslim State Department official echoes the Communist witch-hunts of an earlier era, argues former CIA station chief and GOP supporter Robert Grenier
Category Archives: Right wing
Michele Bachmann’s Muslim Brotherhood claims condemned by Catholic Bishops, 41 other groups
Forty-two religious and secular organizations united on Thursday in condemning conservative lawmakers’ allegations that Muslim-American individuals connected to the U.S. government may be trying to spread the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
They directed their criticisms at Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), who recently wrote to various government agencies and asked them to investigate the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In their letters, the lawmakers targeted top State Department official Huma Abedin and several advisers to the Department of Homeland Security.
Another blow for the anti-Warsi witch-hunters – she is cleared over parliamentary expenses allegations
The Conservative Party says its co-chairman Baroness Warsi has been cleared of allegations she wrongly claimed Parliamentary expenses.
Baroness Warsi’s claims were probed by the Lord Commissioner for Standards. It was alleged that in 2008 she claimed overnight expenses for staying in London while living rent-free.
Last month she was cleared of a breach of the ministerial code after being accompanied by a business associate on an official visit to Pakistan.
In a statement, Lady Warsi said she was “delighted” to draw a line under the matter.
Huma Abedin isn’t the only victim of Bachmann’s witch hunt
The Huffington Post examines the cases of Mohamed Elibiary, Mohamed Magid and Dalia Mogahed.
Elibiary, who serves as an advisor for the Department of Homeland Security, says of Michele Bachmann and her colleagues:
“They feel like there’s no consequences to what they’re doing, no negativity, and they just wrap themselves in the flag like they’re the only uber-patriots out there. There are real peoples’ lives that are affected. This is a witch hunt to just make sure that we ruin every Muslim who is serving in any capacity in the government, period.”
See also “Well paid Islamophobe Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy’s crusade against American Muslims”, Straight Record, 25 July 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy comes to Edmond, Oklahoma
EDMOND, Okla. — There is a controversy in Edmond involving the expansion of a local mosque. The small mosque, which has been in Edmond for 20 years, sits across from the University of Central Oklahoma. Officials have requested permits to expand the building to five times the size it is now.
When neighbors were notified about the expansion plan, letters of complaint began coming in. In a hand-written note the writer asked planning commissioners to look at recent events in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and “what our grandchildren are going to face.” In one letter the sender called the mosque near UCO, “a headquarters for terrorist affiliate organizations.”
Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: Republican senator facing election jumps on anti-mosque bandwagon
State Sen. David Storobin has joined the hopeless fight against a mosque being built in Sheepshead Bay – a battle that’s been repeatedly quashed in the courts and has left political insiders believing that the newly minted legislator is more concerned with winning votes than helping mosque opponents.
Storobin fired off a letter to Mayor Bloomberg last week, claiming that the house of worship is thumbing its nose at city laws and threatens its neighbors’ lives. “This may pose a danger to public safety,” Storobin (R–Brighton Beach) wrote as he bashed the city for allowing work on a house of worship continue.
Yet political insiders say Storobin is using the mosque fight to strengthen his image as a right-wing conservative – something that will help him in the race for a new Midwood district peopled with conservative Orthodox Jews. “He thinks being further to the right is more helpful to him in getting elected than being for diversity is,” said political analyst Hank Sheinkopf.
Phoenix tea party leader says all Muslims are ‘a threat to this country’, seeks recall of McCain, emails link to article from crazed hate site Bare Naked Islam
A prominent Phoenix tea party leader who believes Muslims cannot be trusted to be loyal to the United States and should not be working for the federal government is incensed with U.S. Sen. John McCain’s defense of a top State Department official and is eying a recall drive against Arizona’s senior senator.
Wes Harris, the founder and chairman of the Original North Phoenix Tea Party, said he plans to take out a recall petition against McCain. While Harris has many problems with McCain, a mass email he sent out focused solely on the senator’s recent defense of Huma Abedin, a top aide to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Harris accused Abedin of having ties to an Islamic extremist group, and he objected to the fact that a Muslim was working for the State Department in the first place.
Harris said he believes Muslims’ loyalty to the U.S. is questionable because their ultimate loyalty is to the Quran and Islam, which he described as “more a fascist type of organization.”
Daily Mail identifies the culprits behind Olympic travel problems
ENGAGE refers us to an article on the Political Scrapbook blog reporting the Daily Mail‘s attempt to blame travel problems during the Olympics on, yes you guessed, Muslims. Apparently they will cause chaos when they “squeeze into non-Games lanes to worship at the many mosques that surround the Olympic Park”.
Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy
“Gaffney has turned up so many ‘Muslim infiltrators’ in government or civic positions that it is difficult to keep track. If a Muslim runs for political office, or even wants to get involved in their local community, or establish any sort of institution, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, outrageous charges of ‘creeping Sharia prononent’, ‘stealth jihadist’, ‘Muslim Brotherhood plant’, etc. are made by Islamophobes.”
Sheila Musaji examines the record of the man who inspired Michele Bachmann’s Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theory.
The American Muslim, 21 July 2012
See also Matt Duss, “Frank Gaffney’s latest boogeyman inspired Bachmann’s witch hunt”, Think Progess, 19 July 2012
Judge upholds Geller’s right to describe Muslims as ‘savages’
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Friday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority violated the First Amendment rights of a pro-Israel group when it rejected an advertisement the group wanted to place on city buses on grounds that they contained demeaning language.
The group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, had proposed an ad that said, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” Then, between two Stars of David, the ad said: “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”