ENGAGE has the details.
Category Archives: Right wing
US TV networks refuse to run right-wing mosque-bashing ad
A conservative political action committee blasted the CBS and NBC networks Wednesday for rejecting its ad imploring Americans to fight the mosque proposed for Ground Zero.
Titled “The Audacity of Jihad“, the commercial intersperses graphic footage of the 9/11 attacks with armed Muslim militants and the sounds of Muslims praying.
The narrator of the 60-second spot proposed by the National Republican Trust says, “On Sept. 11, they declared war against us. And to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous 13-story mosque at Ground Zero.”
In e-mails to the group, CBS and NBC officials said the ad did not meet the networks’ standards and guidelines for broadcast.
NRT executive director R. Scott Wheeler accused the networks of being two-faced, arguing they have run ads by such left-leaning groups as MoveOn.org.
Wheeler described the networks as “a very weak media that seems to be interested in only defending Muslims as poor victims.”
He said his group was planning to pay the networks more than $50,000 to run the ad.
CBS and NBC Universal corporate officials confirmed the ad was rejected by both networks.
Murfreesboro: anti-mosque demonstrators meet with counterprotest
Anti-mosque marchers proudly paraded their opposition for a mile along East Main Street to the Public Square on Murfreesboro Wednesday. They carried flags of America and Israel, sang, “God Bless America,” and carried many signs, including: “Mosque leaders support killing converts. Tell it!”
While the crowd from both protesters and counter protesters appeared to number 500 to 600 at its peak, protest march organizer Kevin Fisher estimated that several hundred marched in his group alone from Central Magnet School to the County Courthouse.
There, they encountered hundreds more of counter protesters carrying signs with messages such as, “All you need is love” and “Freedom for all religion” and “Tolerance.”
“Ignore their hate,” Fisher told his participants as they turned the east corner of the Square on their way to the west side of the County Courthouse.
The marchers included other people seeking public office, such as congressional candidates George Erdel, who calls himself “a tea party Democrat”, and Lou Ann Zelenik, a Republican. Many Zelenik supporters proudly displayed signs and T-shirts with her name on it.
Erdel also helped organize the march, using a bullhorn to give instructions before the parade began. He also handed the bullhorn to Dusty Ray, the pastor of Heartland Baptist Church at Walter Hill where Erdel attends.
Ray led the large group gathered on the Central Magnet School grounds in prayer about their march in opposition to the plans of local Muslims. “They are about oppression,” Ray said in his prayer. “Lord, we’re trying to stop a political movement.”
See also “Counter protesters turn out in force too”, DNJ.com, 15 July 2010
French parliament votes to ban veil
France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. There were 335 votes for the bill and only one against in the 557-seat National Assembly. It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.
Many of the opposition Socialists, who originally wanted the ban limited only to public buildings, abstained from voting after coming under pressure from feminist supporters of the bill.
After the vote, Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said it was a victory for democracy and for French values. “Values of freedom against all the oppressions which try to humiliate individuals; values of equality between men and women, against those who push for inequality and injustice.”
“Democracy thrives when it is open-faced,” Ms Alliot-Marie told the National Assembly when she presented the bill last week.
The Council of State, France’s highest administrative body, warned in March that the law could be found unconstitutional. If the bill passes the Senate in September, it will be sent immediately to France’s Constitutional Council watchdog for a ruling. Another challenge is possible at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where decisions are binding.
See also “France vote to ban full-face veils condemned by Amnesty”,Amnesty press release, 13 July 2010
Opponents and supporters of ‘Ground Zero mosque’ clash at hearing
A city hearing yesterday on the historical significance of the downtown Manhattan site of a proposed mosque quickly turned into a raucous – and at times ugly – debate about whether an Islamic center should be located so close to Ground Zero.
About 150 people crowded into the Hunter College Auditorium in Manhattan for the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing, held to see if the 152-year-old building at 45-47 Park Place in lower Manhattan had the cultural or architectural consequence worthy of being landmarked.
Those who opposed the construction of the 13-story mosque and community center, called the Cordoba House, accused their opponents of being unpatriotic and insensitive to the thousands who died on 9/11. But attendees who want to see the $100 million project completed accused their challengers of being racist and encouraging conflict with Muslims.
One protester, shouting, “Down with this McCarthyistic witch hunt against Muslims,” was escorted out after interrupting speakers against the mosque.
Joseph Reichling of Ridgewood, Queens, said, “Our forefathers are turning in their graves. Have we forgotten what happened on 9/11? We must never forget 9/11.” Andrea Quinn echoed his sentiments. “The plan to build a 13-story mosque on that site is ludicrous,” said Quinn of Queens. “Not to preserve this building is to allow for a citadel of Islamic supremacy to be built in its place.”
Zead Ramadan – who said his wife was a first responder on 9/11 – testified for the mosque. “We are picking and choosing which houses of worship can open at which streets and we are opening a can of worms,” he said, adding, “It’s called Islamophobia.”
Rozanne Delgado said, “I’m ashamed of the racism. There’s lots of hatred here.”
Express repeats call for veil ban
Demands to ban the burkha in Britain were growing last night after France voted to outlaw the wearing of Islamic full-face veils in public.
The Government was urged to follow Paris’s example and stand up against the face and body coverings which have been condemned for creating a divided Britain.
In France, where the burkha has been described as a “walking coffin”, the new law means women will be fined or jailed for hiding their faces in public. And men who force their wives to wear a full Islamic veil will face tougher fines and up to a year behind bars.
Spain and the Netherlands are considering similar legislation and there are calls for Britain to follow suit as the veils become an increasingly common sight on our streets.
Tory MP Philip Hollobone, who has launched a Private Member’s Bill to ban “facial coverings”, said: “It is unnatural for someone to cover their face and it not a religious requirement. We are never going to have a fully integrated society if an increasing proportion of the population cover their faces.”
A ban on burkhas is supported by 99 per cent of Britons, a Daily Express poll found last month.
See also “Brits say banning the burkha is not anti-Muslim”, Daily Star, 14 July 2010
Another repulsive anti-Muslim stunt from Geller and Spencer
Following on from the “Leaving Islam?” bus ads in Miami and New York, this new campaign by Stop the Islamization of America involves adverts on Chicago taxis. As you can see, its message is that Islam inspires Muslim families to murder their daughters.
French parliament set to vote on veil ban Tuesday
As France’s parliament debates whether to ban burqa-like Muslim veils, one lawmaker compares them to muzzles, or “walking coffins.” Another proclaims that women who wear them must be liberated, even against their will.
Amid little resistance, France’s lower house of parliament will likely approve a ban on face-covering veils Tuesday, and the Senate will probably follow suit in September.
Polls show voters overwhelmingly support a ban. In parliament, criticism was mostly timid, and relatively few dissenters spoke out about civil liberties or fears of fanning anti-Islam sentiment in a country where there are an estimated 5 million Muslims, and where mainstream society has struggled to integrate generations of immigrants.
One obstacle, however, may still stand in the way of a ban: the courts. Law scholars say the ban could be shot down by France’s constitutional watchdog or the European Court of Human Rights. That could dampen efforts under way in other European countries toward banning the veils.
Legislator Berengere Poletti, of Sarkozy’s conservative party, argued that women in such garb “wear a sign of alienation on their faces” and “must be liberated,” even if they say the apparel is their own choice.
Communist Andre Gerin, who also supports a ban, said that “talking about liberty to defend the wearing of the full veil is totally cynical – for me, the full veil is a walking coffin, a muzzle.”
Socialist Jean Glavany, one of the few lawmakers to offer stinging criticism of a ban, said dwelling on questions of French identity and whether burqas are welcome in France “is nothing more than the fear of those who are different, who come from abroad, who aren’t like us, who don’t share our values.” He was also one of several lawmakers to question the bill’s “judicial fragility.”
Associated Press, 12 July 2010
See also “French National Assembly debates burqa ban”, WSWS, 12 July 2010 and “French entrepreneur offers to pay veil fines”,Reuters, 12 July 2010
Council doesn’t ‘force’ schools to do anything about Ramadan
Tabloid Watch has the details. See also Liberal Conspiracy.
Update: See also “UK papers incite anti-Muslim hatred over Stoke council’s Ramadan guidance”, ENGAGE, 13 July 2010
Houston store still suffers abuse over ‘9/11 martyr’ photo that went viral
Sajid Master wants the phone calls and angry letters to stop. He wants people to quit coming into Perfume Planet in west Houston to yell at his workers. He’d especially like folks to stop castigating his landlord.
Nearly a year after the Internet painted Master as an Al Qaida sympathizer, outrage toward the store at the Harwin Central Mart shows no sign of waning. “They’ve threatened to kill me; sometimes they’re cursing when they call,” a resigned Master said Thursday in his shop.
Trouble is, all the indignation is the product of a massive misunderstanding, illustrating the awesome – and sometimes damaging – power of the Internet. Master, who describes himself as a proud American citizen, isn’t a terrorist sympathizer. He’s just a shopkeeper who inadvertently touched a very raw nerve.
It started when the Muslim merchant posted a sign at his shop during Ramadan explaining the store would be closed Sept. 11 to remember the death of Imam Ali, a sacred Muslim figure. Master failed, however, to explain that Ali, who is remembered on a different date each year during Ramadan, died in 661 A.D. and was in no way related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Someone snapped a picture of the sign and started sending it around online, claiming Imam Ali was one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. Before long the photo went viral, showing up on countless conservative Internet forums and prompting statements like this one that appeared at 2Aforum.com: “Picket, protest, and through lawful means, strangle their business.”
Soon the phone calls started, befuddling and overwhelming store manager Hasan Kolsawala, who tried to explain that no offense was intended. People also called Master’s cell phone to denounce him.
He probably could have shrugged off the incident as a temporary annoyance, but 10 months later the consequences of that sign still reverberate. Phone calls to Perfume Planet often come in waves as people send around new e-mail chains urging recipients to voice their anger.