Videos courtesy of LoonWatch.
Category Archives: Right wing
University of California: Muslims and Jews unite to oppose David Horowitz
The announcement earlier this month by College Republicans at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) that they would be hosting as talk this evening by David Horowitz of FrontPage Magazine and Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week notoriety provoked the no doubt intended furore.
College Republicans applied for a grant of $1,770 from Associated Students Finance Board to subsidise the costs of the event. However, the AS rejected the application following objections from the newly-formed UCSB Respect Coalition, which brought together over 60 student groups including the Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine, American Students for Israel and Queer Student Union (although the university’s Legislative Council did allocate $800 for the event’s security costs).
Predictably, Horowitz denounced the decision as an outrageous attack on free speech, although all that had really happened was that College Republicans had been denied the use of their fellow students’ money to finance Horowitz’s hatemongering.
UCSB American Students for Israel, UCSB Students for Justice in Palestine, UCSB Muslim Student Association and a UCSB Jewish community centre, Santa Barbara Hillel, have issued a joint statement replying to Horowitz’s complaints. They write:
David Horowitz has claimed that opposition to A.S. funding for his upcoming speech is rooted in a desire to silence him and curtail his right to free speech. The truth is that we merely oppose the use of student funds to subsidize bigotry and prejudice. Students must be exposed to a wide variety of intellectual perspectives on all issues, but Horowitz goes far beyond providing an alternative perspective.
We and many other students on this campus are deeply offended by his claim that “there is a movement for a second Holocaust of the Jews that is being supported [at UCSB] by the Muslim Student Association.” The UCSB MSA is an incredibly valuable member of our campus, has been involved in numerous interfaith dialogues and provides a cultural and religious home to a large segment of the UCSB Muslim community. The accusation that the UCSB MSA has ties to terrorism is not only baseless and inaccurate, but it also propagates stereotypes and misconceptions that far too often have led to deadly consequences.
We stand unified with our Muslim friends in repudiating these grossly inaccurate stereotypes and call upon the UCSB community at large to stand by their fellow students.
Rather than stage a protest against the Horowitz meeting, now billed as “Infantile Disorders at UC Santa Barbara: Why the Muslim Student Association is Afraid of David Horowitz”, the UCSB Respect Coalition have organised an alternative event under the title “The Alternative: Empowering Our Voices”.
Another anti-Islam protest comes to Dearborn
Another protest over what organizers call “radical strains” of Islam is planned on Saturday in front of Dearborn City Hall.
The Order of the Dragon, a pro-Israeli group, is planning the 3 p.m. demonstration to call attention to the “implementation of Sharia” or Islamic law in some court rulings, said Frank Fiorello, the head of the group’s Michigan chapter.
“We have a lot of people worried about Sharia creeping into family court,” said Fiorello, a Marlette resident. “There are 23 different jurisdictions where Sharia is being implemented in family court.” Fiorello did not provide specifics, but said there are recent cases in Ann Arbor District Court.
Other groups participating in the rally include the American Defense League, ACT! For America and David Horowitz’s Freedom Center’s Palestinian Wall of Lies, Fiorello said.
Fiorello, a Detroit native, was scheduled to host controversial Florida Pastor Terry Jones’ protest in Dearborn on April 22 but Fiorello backed off his protest after meeting with Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly and a member of an interfaith group.
Jones ended up protesting a week later after being ordered by a Dearborn district judge that he would have to post a peace bond if he wanted to protest outside the Islamic Center of America on Good Friday.
Fiorello also said he backed away from Jones after a difference of option about how the protest should be handled. “We’re not wanting to be involved in shock tactics,” said Fiorello. “That is not our route.”
Jones, meanwhile, has planned to protest against “radical Islam” at the Arab American International Festival in Dearborn next month.
Islamophobia and the media
Press TV reports on the launch of Pointing the Finger: Islam and Muslims in the Contemporary UK Media, the collection of articles edited by Julian Petley and Robin Richardson.
Julian Petley, who is a professor of Screen Media and Journalism at London’s Brunel University, said that newspapers in Britain are more inclined toward right-wing perspectives than TV and radio.
Petley said among the British newspapers only the Guardian and the Independent are “to some extent” liberal though the two have a tiny circulation compared with right-wing papers.
Petley added that while TV and radio are generally more liberal than the print media the situation is changing as the private sector – especially media linked to Rupert Murdock – takes hold in the industry.
He said that even the BBC is joining the rightists as TV and radio networks are rapidly moving toward Islamophobic content in line with the shift in the media atmosphere.
He stated that based on their findings, published as part of Pointing the Finger, the Islamophobic content in British media centres on four common clichés about Muslims.
Petley said the four beliefs are: all Muslims are the same, all Muslims are under the influence of religious teachings, all of them are lower than other people in moral, human, cultural and political terms and “all of them are considered a threat”.
The launch meeting also featured a speech by AbdoolKarim Vakil, joint editor of Thinking Through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives, who described Islamophobia as effectively a new form of racism that tries to reduce Muslims to a race. He added that such attitudes are to be expected from right-wingers yet even leftists in Britain hold racist anti-Islamic views.
Mail gives more free publicity to irrelevant nutter
The Daily Mail continues its campaign to boost the profile of Anjem Choudary’s tiny group of supporters and provide ammunition for far-right racists like the EDL. The latest report is headlined: “The Bin Laden backlash: Angry Muslims demonstrate outside Downing Street as Obama visits Britain.”
The original version of the report began: “Today a handful of protesters from Muslims Against Crusades demonstrated outside 10 Downing Street in London during Barack Obama’s visit.”
But that obviously wasn’t good enough for the Mail‘s editor. The amended version now begins: “Muslim activists descended on Downing Street today in protest at Barack Obama’s state visit to London.”
And the report has been beefed up with a collection of photos that have been carefully cropped to avoid revealing how few MAC supporters actually participated in the Downing Street protest.
(For another recent example of the right-wing press’s irresponsible coverage of Choudary and MAC, see ENGAGE.)
Update: The Mail‘s report has been reproduced on mad Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog. This the sort of vile anti-Muslim propaganda that the UK media’s promotion of Anjem Choudary is assisting.
Berlusconi accuses opposition of wanting to turn Milan into an Islamic city
Less than a week ahead of a run-off vote in a bitterly contested mayoral race in Milan, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday accused the opposition centre-left of wanting to turn the northern Italian city “Islamic”, overrun by Roma and foreigners.
“Milan … cannot become, at the eve of the Expo 2015, an Islamic city, a city of gypsies, full of Roma camps and besieged by foreigners to whom (the left) wants to give voting rights,” Berlusconi said. The premier’s remarks were contained in a message posted on the online site of his People of Freedom (PDL) party.
Berlusconi appealed to voters to choose Milan’s outgoing Mayor Letizia Moratti instead of the centre-left’s candidate Giuliano Pisapia – who the premier has branded an leftist extremist – in run-offs scheduled for May 28-29.
Appearing confident of victory, earlier this month Berlusconi had said that Italy’s local elections were a test of his government’s popularity two years before its mandate is due to end. However, last week in a surprise first-round result in Milan, Pisapia a former Communist forced Moratti into a run-off after capturing some 48 per cent of the vote compared to her 42 per cent.
Milan has been a stronghold for the centre-right for almost two-decades and the city is currently governed by a coalition between the PDL and the federalist and anti-immigration Northern League – a party which is also Berlusconi’s junior partner in the national government.
Moratti, a former national education minister from the PDL, says she opposes the construction of a mosque in Milan as requested by the city’s mostly migrant Muslim community. A mosque in Italy’s financial capital would “create a centre of attraction for Islamic groups from all over Italy who then would not be controllable,” Moratti said.
But Pisapia has criticised Moratti’s stance, saying that the city should cater for its Muslim community whose members are currently forced to pray in “informal” venues such as schools and garages.
Walid Shoebat was paid $5000 from public purse to tell security conference that Islam is inherently violent
A speaker at a Homeland Security conference in Rapid City whose remarks about Muslims sparked controversy earlier this month was paid $5,000 plus expenses for his appearance.
The Rapid City Journal originally requested the fee amount immediately after the May 11 event, but Alexa White, assistant coordinator of Rapid City-Pennington County Emergency Management, denied the request. The Journal subsequently filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act with White, who released the fee information May 19.
The speaker, Walid Shoebat, is an author and professional speaker who says he is a former terrorist in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Now converted to Christianity, Shoebat says that terrorism is inherent in Islam.
His appearance at a state-sponsored conference attended by law enforcement was criticized by local Muslims and by national organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Shoebat spoke at the 2011 South Dakota Homeland Security Conference in Rapid City on May 11. He also spoke at the South Dakota Homeland Security Conference the previous year.
Rapid City Journal, 21 May 2011
Update: See “CAIR asks Napolitano to probe use of Islamophobic trainers”, CAIR press release 23 May 2011
Further update: See Justin Elliott, “Dubious Muslim-bashing ‘expert’ hired to train cops”, Salon, 24 May 2011
Debunking the mythical ‘sharia threat’
The ACLU has published a new report entitled Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical “Sharia Threat” to Our Judicial System.
Ketron distributes anti-Muslim DVD to win backing for bill
Sen. Bill Ketron has distributed a DVD to his fellow senators that claims Nashville Muslims radicalized a Memphis man who shot an Army recruiter after converting to Islam.
Ketron said the video shows why his Material Support for Designated Entities Act, which gives law enforcement officials in Tennessee the power to declare a person or group a terrorist organization, is needed.
The video makes many claims that are vague or misleading, and local Muslims say it shows that Ketron’s bill is targeted at them, despite his statements to the contrary.
The 16-minute video titled “Losing our Community” was produced by the Boston-based Americans for Peace and Tolerance and the Tennessee Freedom Coalition.
It focuses on members of the Islamic Center of Nashville, where Abdulhakim Muhammad, who was born Carlos Bledsoe, worshipped for a time while he was a student at Tennessee State University. Muhammad later shot and killed a soldier at a military recruiting center in Arkansas, saying his actions were justified because U.S. soldiers were killing Muslims in the Middle East.
See also “Smear tactics behind terror bill”, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 19 May 2011
Judge rules against Murfreesboro mosque opponents
A judge has ruled that construction of a new mosque in Rutherford County does not harm the residents who sued the county to stop it. The judge did allow plaintiffs to pursue claims the county violated an open meetings law in approving the site plan for the mosque.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Brandon Jr. had argued that the mosque violated his clients’ constitutional rights, claiming that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s members were compelled by their religion to subdue non-Muslims.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Chancellor Robert Corlew dismissed most of the complaints raised by the 17 plaintiffs, except for claims that the county violated the state Open Meetings Act by not providing proper notice for the meeting at which the mosque site plan was approved. The court has not set a date to hear the open meetings complaint.
“Our families and children have gone through a lot,” said the mosque’s spiritual leader, Imam Ossama M. Bahloul. “I think we can all agree that we should concentrate on common goals, and we’ve tried to be friends with everyone, even with those opposed to the project. It’s obvious this Muslim community did not harm anyone.”
Design plans for the mosque are being finalized, and building permits are being sought, Islamic Center spokesman Saleh Sbenaty said.
See also “Mosque foes dealt setback”, Daily News Journal, 20 May 2011
And “Fighting mosques in the name of freedom”, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2011