Category Archives: USA

Anti-Sharia bill dies in Florida Senate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ACLJ Shari'ah Law bookletAssailed by Muslim groups and quashed by Senate President Mike Haridopolos, an “anti-Sharia” law bill died in the Florida Legislature on Friday.

Senate Bill 1360 would have restricted state courts from considering foreign laws in most cases. Authored by Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, the bill was identical to HB 1209, which easily passed the House 92-24. But Hays’ bill became ensnared in a late-breaking political controversy when proponents distributed fliers and a pamphlet decrying the alleged intrusion of Islamic law into America’s courts.

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NYPD monitored groups based on religion, documents show

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NYPD secret report2The New York Police Department collected information on businesses owned by second- and third-generation Americans specifically because they were Muslims, according to newly obtained secret documents.

They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring people based on religion, despite claims from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary.

The NYPD has faced intense criticism from Muslims, lawmakers – and even the FBI – for widespread spying operations that put entire neighborhoods under surveillance. Police put the names of innocent people in secret files and monitored the mosques, student groups and businesses that make up the Muslim landscape of the northeastern U.S.

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SPLC reports growth of US hate groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SPLC Intelligence Report Spring 2012The Southern Poverty Law Center has published the Spring 2012 issue of its Intelligence Report, on “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2011”, which identifies a continued growth in the number of hate groups operating in the United States.

In “The ‘Patriot’ Movement Explodes” Mark Potok states: “The radical right grew explosively in 2011, the third such dramatic expansion in as many years.” Potok writes:

The number of anti-Muslim groups tripled in 2011, jumping from 10 groups in 2010 to 30 last year. That rapid growth in Islamophobia, marked by the vilification of Muslims by opportunistic politicians and anti-Muslim activists, began in August 2010, when controversy over a planned Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan reached a fever pitch. Things got worse later in the year, when Oklahoma residents voted to amend the state constitution to forbid the use of Islamic Shariah law in state courts – a completely unnecessary change, given that the U.S. Constitution rules that out. The overheated atmosphere generated by these events also helped spur a 50% jump in the FBI’s count of anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2010. Then, in March 2011, U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) held hearings on the radicalization of U.S. Muslims that seemed meant to demonize them. At the same time, there was a swelling of truly vicious propaganda like this remarkable Jan. 14, 2011, comment from columnist Debbie Schlussel: “They are animals, yes, but a lower form than the dog, as they won’t learn to change their behavior for a carrot or a reward.”

In connection with anti-gay groups Potok points out:

In another development, most of the religious right groups that started out opposing abortion but moved on to attacking LGBT people have recently begun to adopt anti-Muslim propaganda en masse. The gay-bashing Traditional Values Coalition, for instance, last year redesigned its website to emphasize a new section entitled “Islam vs. the Constitution,” published a report on Shariah law, and joined anti-Shariah conferences.

Muslims must counter bigotry and hatred online, says CAIR leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

According to the British Runnymede Trust, Islamophobia “is a useful shorthand way of referring to dread or hatred of Islam – and, therefore, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims.”

Islamophobia is a form of intolerance alongside xenophobia and anti-Semitism and these days it’s not difficult to find online. Hate mongers spout vitriol against Muslims on Facebook, YouTube and BlogSpot. Just returned from an internal OIC workshop held in Brussels to discuss Islamophobia, Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago Office, asserted that Muslims must do more to fight this scourge.

“Islamophobia is rampant online. There is almost a monopoly by the Islamophobes on Islam and Muslims online,” remarked Rehab. “What we’re trying to do is to encourage others to be more active online. People need to start blogs and have websites that engage in commenting on Islam and which link to positive material that is informative about Islam and Muslims. It is necessary to push back against this onslaught of Islamophobic attacks.”

Arab News, 8 March 2012

Provocative atheist billboard fails to provoke Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Paterson atheist billboardPaterson, New Jersey — A note of provocation was all too evident when an atheist group put up a huge billboard a block from the area’s largest mosque, saying in Arabic as well as English that religion is based on nothing more than myth.

The big green sign with white and gold lettering, mounted above a liquor store at Broadway and East 33rd Street, was put up by the group American Atheists. It says, “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice.” It appears about a block away from the Islamic Center of Passaic County, the city’s biggest mosque.

The message was not meant to anger Muslims, or even change anyone’s mind about religion, said David Silverman, president of American Atheists. He said instead that he’s calling out to that community’s “atheists and asking them to come out of the closet.”

“If pointing out there are atheists in a community is seen as provocative, that’s too bad.”

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PFAW report: The Mythical Martyrdom of Jerry Boykin

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mythical Martyrdom of Jerry BoykinA new People For the American Way Right Wing Watch: In Focusreport identifies the techniques used by Religious Right leaders to portray themselves as victims of an assault on religious liberty.

The report, The Mythical Martyrdom of Jerry Boykin, examines the anti-Muslim extremism of Retired Lt. Gen. Boykin that derailed an offer to speak at West Point Military Academy, as well as the tactics he employs to legitimize his own religious and political agenda.

“Lt. Gen. Boykin’s claim that Muslims have no First Amendment rights and that the United States is at war with Islam are contrary to basic American values,” said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way. “His attacks against Muslims are so extreme he was even publicly rebuked by President George W. Bush. It is ironic that a man who so fundamentally misunderstands our Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of worship to all Americans is playing the victim of religious oppression. In reality, Boykin is just a part of the far-right effort to use the banner of religious freedom as cover for spreading fear and intolerance.”

PFAW press release, 8 March 2012

Texas schools association discriminates against Muslims as well as Jews

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Houston Islamic academy was denied membership to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools after being grilled about the Koran and the mosque located at Ground Zero.

Iman Academy applied for membership to TAPPS in 2010, but the association denied the school’s request. After being rejected two years ago, Principal Cindy Steffens did not go public with the story, but The New York Times uncovered the Houston academy’s name last week and ran an article about the controversy.

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Posted in USA

CAIR asks Oklahoma church to drop anti-Islam agenda

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Fairview Baptist Church banner

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) today called on a church in that state to drop its anti-Islam agenda, citing the Islamophobic views of a church speaker who claims that President is an undercover Saudi Arabian “Muslim plant” in the White House.

The keynote speaker of tonight’s event at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., is Avi Lipkin, an infamous Islamophobe who alleges among other things that Muslims worship the devil and that all Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews.

“This kind of bigotry and hysteria only serves to fuel the growing chorus of anti-Muslim sentiment that is unfortunately spreading in the Heartland,” said CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad. “We respectfully request that the church drop this speaker and other hate-mongers, and offer its congregants a sincere opportunity for dialogue and information about Islam and Muslims.”

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‘The Jews have stopped the billboard’ – American Atheists’ leader complaints that ‘God is a myth’ ad near Hasidic neighbourhood has been blocked

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This time atheists found themselves answering to a higher power – a picky landlord. A Southside loft owner refused to allow a billboard questioning Judaism to be installed atop his S. Fifth Street building on Tuesday amid outrage in Williamsburg’s Hasidic community.

National atheist leaders tried to take out a month-long ad adjacent to Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish stronghold with text in English and Hebrew reading: “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice.” But at the last minute, landlord Kenny Stier refused to allow workers from the advertising company Clear Channel into his building, according to American Atheists president David Silverman.

Silverman claims powerful neighborhood rabbis convinced Stier to block the non-believing billboard and called the religious leaders and the landlord “anti-atheist bigots”. “The Jews have stopped the billboard,” said Silverman. “It’s really ugly bigotry. As a former Jew, it’s repugnant to see Jews act like this.

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