Via CAIR
Category Archives: Right wing
More Fox News fear mongering: Sharia law has invaded the US!
News Hounds has the details.
Defeating ‘universal jihad’ in Tennessee
What is it with Republicans in Tennessee? Lou Ann Zelenik, who is standing as a Republican candidate for Congress in Tennessee’s 6th District, has just denounced the plan to build a new Islamic centre in Murfreesboro as part of “a political movement designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee”. Another Republican candidate, Vijay Kumar, who has in the past been boosted by David Horowitz’s FrontPage Magazine, is standing in Tennessee’s 5th District – under the slogan “Defeat Universal Jihad Now!”.
In a recent interview, Kumar explained:
“My position is clear and unequivocal: Islam’s Universal Jihad and Sharia law pose a clear and present existential threat to the very existence of the United States, and to every liberty, freedom, and human right that this nation was founded upon.
“… if the American people do not awake to the nature and seriousness of this threat, if we do not take swift and effective action to protect our republic from it, if we do not openly and candidly name the enemies of freedom and human liberty – in short, if Islam is allowed to realize its goals – then one day there will be no 5th District of Tennessee, nor will there be any Tennessee, nor will there be a United States of America, and the Quran will be the only constitution ruling this land that we cherish.”
Prayer vigil in Murfreesboro
In the middle of the Rutherford County courthouse lobby, more than two dozen people formed a prayer circle in support of a controversial new mosque.
The prayer vigil was held one week after nearly 650 filled the same courthouse to make it known they did not want the Muslim community building a new Islamic Center on Veals Road.
“We most overcome this ignorance, this cloud of racial darkness that is over our community. We must overcome it,” said vigil organizer Darrell Bouldin.
Those who attended the vigil said they came to show there is tolerance within the Murfreesboro community for people of different religions. “Freedom of religion. That’s my basic reason for being here, my belief in freedom of religion,” Beverly Yousef Zadeh said after the vigil ended.
Pastor Mike Williams led the group in prayer and meditation Thursday night. “Be present as you meditate on peace, tolerance and compassion,” Williams told the crowd.
As they stood in silent meditation, someone who opposed the mosque broke that silence. “You folks can do all your meditating you’d like. These people are coming here to take over the United States,” the man said.
Tory MP to present Private Members Bill against veil
A Kettering MP who has led calls to ban Muslim women from wearing the burka in Britain is to ask Parliament to restrict its use.
Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, will present his Private Members Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday in the wake of a Council of Europe ruling saying no bans should be imposed. MPs from 47 countries voted that outlawing the hijab would deny women the right to cover their faces even if they genuinely want to.
Mr Hollobone, who previously likened wearing the garment to “going around with a paper bag over your head“, said: “The ruling clearly demonstrates that members of the council of the EU are out of touch with popular opinion.
“What they said does leave open the possibility of restrictions on the wearing of burkas for security and other reasons – it doesn’t forbid any measure. If motorcyclists have to take their helmet off when they go into shops and banks the same rules should apply to people wearing the burka.”
A private member’s bill is a proposed law introduced by a backbench MP for the House of Commons to debate but does not automatically become law if MPs vote in its favour.
Inam Khan, chairman of the Kettering Muslim Association, said: “This has never been an issue in Kettering. There are only two females in the entire population of 35,000 here who wear the hijab. I don’t understand why it has become an issue, especially when there are such serious other issues affecting the country.
“You will never, ever speak to anybody who works in a bank or a shop or a newsagent in Kettering who has had an issue with this.”
Religious hatred law once again shown to be useless
A local Dewsbury columnist who wrote that had the Cumbria mass-murderer been carrying the Qur’an he would have been celebrated by “so-called British Muslims” will not face prosecution, Dewsbury police announced.
Almost 300 demonstrators gathered outside Dewsbury Police Station on June 6 in protest at alleged inflammatory Islamophobic comments made in the The Press the previous Friday.
Writing just three days after Derrick Bird murdered 12 people in Cumbria and before the victims’ burials, the local paper’s columnist, Danny Lockwood, wrote that had Bird been carrying a copy of the Qur’an, “he would have been celebrated as a hero by tens of thousands, possibly more, of so-called ‘British’ Muslims.”
A CPS spokesman told The Muslim News: “According the legal guidance evidence would have had to be obtained revealing that Lockwood used ‘threatening’ language ‘to stir up religious hatred’. Threatening is the operative word, not abusive or insulting.
“So using abusive or insulting behaviour intended to stir up religious hatred does not constitute an offence, nor does using threatening words likely to stir up religious hatred.”
Republican candidate denounces Murfreesboro mosque proposal
A Tennessee Republican candidate for Congress says plans to build a mosque in a Nashville suburb pose a threat to her state’s moral and political foundation.
In a Thursday evening statement, 6th District candidate Lou Ann Zelenik said she stands with those who oppose building what she calls “an Islamic training center.” She says the center is not part of a religious movement, but a political one “designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee.”
“Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilization and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them,” Zelenik says in the statement.
Zelenik, who calls herself a leader in the Middle Tennessee tea party movement, hopes to replace U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, who is retiring after 13 terms.
Associated Press, 24 June 2010
See also Murfreesboro Post, 24 June 2010
Update: See “Ask GOP to repudiate anti-mosque Tenn. candidate”, CAIR action alert, 25 June 2010
The Muslims who support the ban on Zakir Naik
Inayat Bunglawala has the details.
A similar situation obtains in Canada, where the ban on Dr Naik was not only supported but actively promoted by Tarek Fatah and his so-called Muslim Canadian Congress. The National Post reports Fatah as boasting that he “sent a mass email to federal MPs last week, warning them of Dr. Naik’s views”. “We are very happy that government agencies, having been made aware of his statements, have taken this decision,” Fatah is quoted as saying. “We certainly don’t want hate-mongers to come here.”
South Carolina: anti-Islam billboard incites hate
Express attacks ‘Eurocrats’ for defending right to wear the veil
Europe backed the burkha yesterday by ruling that the controversial Muslim veils should not be banned.
MPs from 47 countries voted unanimously that outlawing the full-face veils would deny women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” the right to cover their faces.
The Council of Europe’s resolution is not binding on members of the group, which includes all European countries except Belarus, as well as Turkey. But the vote by the human rights group threatens to torpedo bans planned in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as it could open governments up to costly legal battles.
Last night the ruling was condemned as “out of touch”. UKIP leader Lord Pearson said: “This vote just highlights the disconnection between the appointed politicians of the Council of Europe and the peoples of Europe. They refused to represent the people’s wishes, preferring to hold them in contempt.”
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “It just goes to show how out of touch European politicians are with popular opinion. I have no doubt that the majority of the British public are against the wearing of the burkha and the full-face niqab veil.”
The Council of Europe also branded the Swiss bigots for their ban on the construction of Islamic minarets. Last year Switzerland banned the building of the minarets – towers used to call Muslims to prayer – after a nationwide referendum. Politicians claimed the minarets represent militant Islam.
See also ENGAGE, 24 June 2010