Louisiana Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Watson, is retracting her support for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher program, after realizing the money could be applied to Muslim schools, Livingston Parish News reports.
Category Archives: Right wing
Canberra: key figure in anti-mosque campaign is Christian Zionist who lives miles away from site
A key figure in the opposition to the Gungahlin mosque is a Christian fundamentalist activist who lives at least 15 kilometres away from the proposed site.
The secretive participants in the campaign against the mosque have consistently told media and government that they are concerned with local planning issues including traffic and noise.
But The Canberra Times has established that the spokesman for the group “Concerned Citizens of Canberra” describes himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries and hosts fortnightly meetings at a prayer house in Yarralumla.
Irwin Ross, a Higgins resident who lives a 20-minute drive from the proposed mosque site, hosted last Sunday’s closed meeting at Gungahlin Library, but it is unclear whether or not he organised the meeting. The meeting was held after the Concerned Citizens of Canberra distributed anonymous anti-mosque flyers to homes in the northern suburb.
Is Jesus Christ reaching out to Muslims through their dreams?
Well, according to a report posted at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze he is. Apparently there’s even a book about it – Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World? by Pastor Tom Doyle – and a DVD entitled More Than Dreams.
The Blaze reveals that one Muslim had set out for Mecca to perform Hajj when Christ appeared in a dream and persuaded him of the error of his ways. Happily, he has now converted to Christianity. And there is the case of a “radical Egyptian terrorist” who also accepted Jesus as his saviour after a similar visitation. Indeed The Blaze directs us to “a number of other examples” that are featured in the More Than Dreams DVD.
I have to say, I don’t find this entirely convincing as a weapon in the struggle against Islamisation. According to a Pew report, the world Muslim population stood at 1.6 billion in 2010 and the number is expected to rise to 2.2 billion in 2030. If Christ is going to make a serious dent into those figures he needs to put a bit more effort into this.
Jews, Christians and Muslims back bar on Geller
As Jews, Christians and Muslims united together to find paths to peace, we the participants and friends who are part of the Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative, are grateful for The Jewish Federation’s decision to cancel the speaking engagement of Pamela Geller (“Federation Bars Anti-Muslim Activist From Speaking“, June 29). The last thing this or any other community needs is a hate and fear promoter “shouting fire in a crowded theater” in the name of “free speech” or “balanced debate.” Ms. Geller’s record of vitriol and venom speaks for itself, and her appearance, like her other talks, would have been a deliberate, hate-filled provocation. Her words of anger and panic would not have contributed to an honest, respectful expression of a contested viewpoint, but instead would have inflicted significant damage upon any fragile bridges of true understanding that we and others have been trying to build for years.
Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Rabbi Steve Jacobs
The Rev. Ed Bacon
The Rev. Carissa Baldwin-McGuiness
The Rev. Paige Eaves
Pastor Ryan Bell
Hussam Ayloush
The Rev. Dr. Art Cribbs
The Rev. Frank Alton
Father Chris Ponnet
Dr. Steve Wiebe
Letter in the Jewish Journal, 5 July 2012
The ‘Olympic terror plot’ that wasn’t
Last week the right-wing press made a big splash over the arrest of two Muslims who had been reported to the police for “acting suspiciously” while sailing a dinghy on the River Lea at Waltham Abbey in Hertfordshire, near to the Olympic canoeing venue.
While articles in the Guardian and the Evening Standard were quite measured, the Daily Telegraph reported this under the shock-horror headline “London 2012: Two Muslim converts arrested over Olympic terror plot”.
The Daily Mail did at least refer to the plot in inverted commas (“Muslim converts who ‘plotted to attack Olympic canoeing venue’ arrested after police see them acting suspiciously in a dinghy”), but as you can see, the Telegraph didn’t even bother with that formality. In any case, the two individuals had been arrested on suspicion and had not been charged with an offence. So, in the absence of actual evidence, talk of any kind of plot was premature to say the least.
Fox News host can’t get enough of guest’s inflammatory anti-Muslim comments
Fox News’ Eric Bolling continued his campaign against American Muslims today, endorsing the views of a filmmaker who claimed Islam is “the worst, most deadly idea in the history of the world.” Bolling’s guest was Eric Bell, a filmmaker who produced a documentary on a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Bell claimed he originally saw “the Muslim community as victims” and that he had an “inclination to stick up for them.” Bell further claimed that after doing “some serious research about Islam” he found that Islam is “a radical, savage religion” and “the worst, most deadliest idea in the history of the world.” Not only did Bolling not push back on Bell’s inflammatory rhetoric, he responded to Bell by saying he would “[l]ove to have you back and maybe expand on it a little bit more.”
Muslims stoning Christians in Michigan? Not quite…
Last month a right-wing Christian group called Bible Believers demonstrated at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn, brandishing anti-Islam banners and shouting abuse at those attending the event. Some of the younger attendees responded to this abuse by throwing water bottles and pop cans at the protestors.
The Islamophobic Right, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer prominent among them, have been promoting the sensationalist story that Christians were “stoned” by Muslims. This accusation is backed up by a dishonestly edited YouTube video produced by a group called The United West, which is “dedicated to defending and advancing Western Civilization against the kinetic and cultural onslaught of Shariah Islam”.
Loonwatch has a piece debunking the story.
Update: See also “Tensions at Dearborn festival written up as attack on Christians”, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 3 July 2012
Labour lifts Lord Ahmed’s suspension
A peer suspended by the Labour Party for allegedly offering a £10m bounty on the head of US President Barack Obama has had the suspension lifted.
Lord Ahmed, who denied the accusations published in a Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune, thanked Chief Whip Lord Bassam for a “fair” investigation. Lord Ahmed said he was “delighted” the suspension had been lifted as he had been a member of the Labour Party for 34 years.
He told BBC Asian Network said his colleagues in the Lords had been “very sympathetic” while the suspension was in place. The story was “lies” and he said he was considering taking legal action against the Express Tribune newspaper, he added.
Canberra: ‘racist’ mosque pamphlet probed
The ACT government will refer a pamphlet opposing the construction of a mosque in Gungahlin to the Human Rights Commission for investigation amid concerns that the flyer was racially motivated.
The flyer was distributed to Gungahlin residents this week, urging them to oppose the development on The Valley Avenue because of its “social impact” and raising concerns about traffic and noise, “public interest” and size.
In a multi-party post-budget estimates hearing yesterday, Labor backbencher John Hargreaves said the pamphlet should be “condemned by the entire community of Canberra as a KKK attack on the Muslim community”.
The flyer, by an anonymous group called the Concerned Citizens of Canberra, asks recipients to attend a secret, closed-door meeting tomorrow about the development. The pamphlet says the address and time of the meeting will only be given to residents who register by email to attend.
Right-wing Christian bigots still trying to block Newham ‘mega-mosque’
Islamic leaders hoping to push through plans to build a permanent ‘mega-mosque’ in West Ham have denied claims they could be thrown off the site.
Tablighi Jama’at already occupies an area of Canning Road and has proposed erecting a 9,500 capacity religious building with 40m high minarets, a library, and a visitors centre. But it has emerged that the group signed a deed of unilateral undertaking with Newham Council in February.
A document released last week appears to state that the group agreed to submit a valid planning application within 12 months or face removal from the site. But a spokesman insisted a basic application has been lodged with the council and was going through the “validation process”. “I’m surprised to hear this,” she said. “Our basic application was submitted by the end of the February. As you can imagine, it was an enormous application.”