Category Archives: USA

Dearborn anti-Islam protest today

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man whose rock band sings songs describing violence against Muslims is leading a rally against Islamic law at 3 p.m. today on the steps of Dearborn City Hall. Frank Fiorello, 35, of Marlette is with a band called Crude Legacy and a group called Order of the Dragon. “We’re a peaceful group,” Fiorello said.

Originally, he planned to rally with Quran-burning Pastor Terry Jones in front of a mosque in April, but backed off after meeting with Dearborn officials. Fiorello said today’s rally is “an assembly against radical Islam and shari’a,” which is Islamic law. In the past two years, Dearborn has dealt with accusations that the city is under shari’a, a claim city officials say is ludicrous.

Detroit Free Press, 28 May 2011

Update:  The Detroit News reports that only three members of the Order of the Dragon showed up.

California mosque fire was arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid Al-Emaan fire 2Federal investigators have determined a fire that destroyed a mosque in Stockton last month was arson.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced its findings Wednesday. The ATF had opened an investigation into the fire at the Masjid Al-Emaan Mosque after it was gutted on April 23.

The mosque was located in a strip mall. A church next door, Living Well Ministries and Christian Center, was also damaged in the blaze. Damage from the fire was estimated to be about $400,000. There were no injuries.

No arrests have been made, but authorities are hoping a $10,000 reward for information will lead them to a suspect, or suspects.

Associated Press, 25 May 2011

See also “Mosque fire called arson; surveillance images released”, KCRA, 25 May 2011

Masjid al-Emaan has launched an appeal to finance the rebuilding of their mosque. Details here.

University of California: Muslims and Jews unite to oppose David Horowitz

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David_HorowitzThe 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”.

Hate message left on US Muslim family’s car

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We don't want Muslims in AmericaA hate message was left on the car of a Muslim family while they were inside a business in Redmond, the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) said Tuesday.

CAIR-WA said a Muslim mother reported that she found the message, which said, “We don’t [want] Muslims in America” in English and “We don’t want Muslims in our country, go away”, in Arabic, stuck to the family’s vehicle when she returned to it Monday afternoon after visiting a Redmond Starbucks.

“I can’t believe someone could hate me because of my religious beliefs,” the victim told KIRO 7. She asked us not to use her name or show her face.

The Muslim mother, who was with her 9-year-old daughter at the time of the incident, wears an Islamic head scarf.

Earlier this month, CAIR’s Michigan chapter called on state and national law enforcement authorities to investigate an incident in which a vehicle was vandalized and defaced with a racially-derogatory phrase and profanity.

CAIR-WA Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari said a coalition of some 60 interfaith and community leaders recently asked Everett Community College to drop an “Islamophobic” speaker scheduled to appear Thursday as part of an “Islam in America” lecture series.

Bukhari said that a growing number of hate incidents targeting American Muslims, those perceived to be Muslim and Muslim institutions have occurred in the days since the death of Osama bin Laden.

“Some of the issues we see happening are an increase in rhetoric against Muslims and an increase in mainstreaming of anti-Muslim speech,” Bukhari said.

CAIR-WA held a news conference Tuesday afternoon with the Muslim mother and her daughter to talk about the incident.

The victim said she isn’t angry about the note, but she’s shocked that it would happen in a community she’s grown to love. “We are just regular people, and I hope this person realizes that they can’t make us afraid to go out and live our lives regularly,” she said.

KIRO TV, 24 May 2011

Posted in USA

Another anti-Islam protest comes to Dearborn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OOTDAnother 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.

Detroit News, 25 May 2011

Amir Khan: ‘They took the p*** because I’m a Muslim’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Boxing star Amir Khan has hit out at US customs for keeping him in a holding room for more than two hours.

Amir flew out to Los Angeles on Saturday to start training for his next fight. But the Bolton boxer was not happy at being held in a holding room and being asked about his relatives. He tweeted:

“They took the £!@%*£ because I’m a Muslim. Kept me in some holding room for over 2hours asking y my uncles with me. They where so arrogant and unprofessional. Didn’t know how to talk to pple, well I’m out now an it can’t get any worse.”

Asian Image, 23 May 2011

Mail gives more free publicity to irrelevant nutter

Posted on by Bob Pitt

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.

Walid Shoebat was paid $5000 from public purse to tell security conference that Islam is inherently violent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

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