David Horowitz of FrontPage Magazine gave a speech last week at Brooklyn College under the title “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Myths and Facts”. Horowitz informed his audience that “no people have shown themselves as so morally sick as the Palestinians”, that Islam is a religion possessed by “hate, violence and racism”, and that “Muslims are treated with kid gloves in America and are a protected species”.
Category Archives: USA
Protest against Sheepshead Bay mosque faces counter-demonstration
About 120 demonstrators gathered in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, to protest a proposed mosque that opponents argue will dramatically alter the quality of life in the neighborhood. The protest was within shouting distance of a counter-protest, organized by about 80 supporters of the mosque, and drew locals and nationally prominent critics of Islam.
“These people are entitled to their neighborhood!” thundered Pamela Geller, founder of Stop the Islamization of America and the leading organizer against the Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero known as Park 51. “Why put it here? There are hundreds of mosques in this city, there are thousands of mosques in this country. Why here?”
The competing, often raucous protests, were closely monitored by police. Geller was joined by her partner, JihadWatch.org blogger Robert Spencer, who responded to the mosque supporters’ cries of “Shame on you!” from across the street by raising doubts about the project’s backers. “Yes, shame on you! You are carrying water for the most repressive ideology on earth,” said Spencer.
The demonstration was organized by a local group, Bay People, which argues that a mosque would create traffic congestion in the neighborhood. The group also worries that the mosque would broadcast the call to prayer outside.
But Allowey Ahmed, who is developing the mosque, said that the call would not be broadcast outside, out of sensitivity to neighbors, most of whom are non-Muslim. And he has argued that the congregation of about 150 families will not generate much traffic, in part because most worshipers would arrive on foot.
The counter-protest, attended by dozens of young Muslim children and sign-toting teenagers, was organized by the NYC Coalition to Stop Islamophobia, a group that formed last summer in response to the controversy over Park 51. In promoting the demonstration online, organizers argued that opposition to the mosque “comes at a time when the Peter King hearings have caused more fear-mongering throughout the country!”
Indicating that mosque opponents weren’t the only ones with prominent allies, Imam Shamsi Ali, one of the city’s most well-known Muslim leaders, spoke up for the Muslim American Society, saying it encourages its youth to integrate into the mainstream and avoid going down the extremist path.
“Their activities are very much American,” said Ali. “Culturally, it’s very much American. Probably the girls are covering their head, but they’re Americans. They want to lead their lives as Americans, and this is what Americans should understand.”
Although Bay People has sued to stop construction of the mosque, supporters are confident the project will go forward.
Jewish Council ‘alarmed’ by anti-Muslim hearings
The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) has expressed concern over the hearings on so-called radicalization of Muslims in the United States spearheaded by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. JCUA says the anti-Muslim hearings “go against American values of religious freedom, diversity and equality”.
“We are disturbed by the narrow scope of the hearings, which are singling out and stereotyping an entire community. We oppose using a discriminatory lens of religion and race to investigate threats to national security,” JCUA said in a statement posted on its website.
The group said that the Muslim community in the United States is the victim of “injustices being perpetrated on a daily basis which is not just a threat to that community, but a threat to all people striving for equality in our diverse society.” JCUA described the hearings as “troubling” adding that they could further fan the flame of anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States.
Peter King finds the right sort of Muslim
Standing before a throng of cameras after his high-profile hearing on Muslim radicalization, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) once again attacked major Muslim American organizations and their leaders, whom King described as soft on extremism.
Asked to identify better leaders, the Long Island Republican pointed to the wavy-haired man beside him, Arizona physician Zuhdi Jasser. Jasser, the head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, had just been his star witness at Thursday’s hearing. “To me, a group like Dr. Jasser’s would be ideal,” King said, calling the forum “the most compatible” with American values.
CAIR-LA seeks hate crime charges for vandalism with desecrated Qur’an
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today announced that it has called on the Anaheim Police Department to investigate a recent incident involving desecration of a Quran, Islam’s revealed text, as a hate crime.
Earlier this week, a Muslim woman returning to her car after shopping for groceries noticed a piece of paper taped to her car. She then saw that it was a partial page torn from a copy of the Quran with “F*ck it” written across it in red. The woman also noticed foam sprayed on the driver’s side of the car. The vandal or vandals had also “keyed” the car’s doors.
The woman, a 68-year-old Egyptian-American grandmother who wears an Islamic head scarf, told CAIR-LA she was “shocked and terrified.”
“Our family is extremely disturbed by the incident,” said the woman’s son. “It’s sad that some individuals can justify attacking other Americans’ faith just because they do not know or understand that faith. We are all Americans, and we all share a love for our great country.”
US TV host Bill Maher says Qur’an is ‘hate-filled book’
Interviewing Musim Congressman Keith Ellison on his “Real Time” show on Friday, the US TV host Bill Maher offers his take on the problem of “radicalized Muslims: “it’s been going on a thousand years this problem between Islam and the west. We are dealing with a culture that is in its medieval era. It comes from a hate-filled holy book, the Koran, which is taken very literally by its people.”
Pew poll finds continuing divide in Americans’ views of Islam and violence
The public remains divided over whether Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers. Currently, 40% say the Islamic religion is more likely than others to encourage violence while 42% say it is not. These opinions have changed little in recent years. But in March 2002, just 25% saw Islam as more likely to encourage violence while twice as many (51%) disagreed.
The national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 22-March 1 among 1,504 adults, finds that most young people reject the idea that Islam is more likely than other religions to promote violence. Nearly six-in-ten (58%) of those younger than 30 say Islam does not encourage violence more than other religions; 31% say it does. By contrast, a plurality of those 50 and older (45%) say Islam is more likely to encourage violence.
Political and ideological divisions are even wider: By roughly three-to-one (66% to 21%), conservative Republicans say Islam encourages violence more than other religions. Moderate and liberal Republicans are divided – 46% say Islam is more likely to encourage violence, 47% say it is not. By more than two-to-one (61% to 29%), liberal Democrats say that Islam is not more likely than other religions to promote violence. Conservative and moderate Democrats, by a smaller margin (48% to 31%), agree.
Fully 67% of those who agree with the Tea Party movement say Islam is more associated with violence than other religions. Among those who disagree with the Tea Party, the balance of opinion is nearly reversed – 62% say Islam is no more likely than other religions to promote violence while 24% say it is. Among the large share of the public that offers no opinion of the Tea Party, 38% say Islam is more likely to promote violence while about the same number (41%) disagrees.
A clear majority of white evangelical Protestants (60%) say that Islam is more likely to encourage violence than are other religions. Far fewer white mainline Protestants (42%) and white Catholics (39%) express this view. And by nearly two-to-one (56% to 30%), the religiously unaffiliated say that the Islamic religion does not encourage violence more than others.
Pew survey report, 9 March 2011
See also TPM, 10 March 2011
Read the report here.
California man charged with firebombing reproductive health clinic also vandalised Islamic centre
A Chowchilla school bus driver has been charged with firebombing a Planned Parenthood office here last September, and authorities said Thursday he also is responsible for vandalism and menacing signs left at the city’s Islamic center.
Donny Eugene Mower, 37, of Madera, was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of attacking a reproductive health clinic. If convicted, he faces a minimum of five years in prison.
The September firebombing came several weeks after someone threw a brick at the Madera Islamic Center and left signs there, including one that read, “Wake up America, the enemy is here.”
An entity calling itself the “American Nationalist Brotherhood” took credit for both incidents, but U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner said Mower is its only member.
See also Associated Press, 10 March 2011
Orleans County, New York: men accused of harassing worshippers at mosque offered plea deals
Five Holley teens accused of harassing worshippers at an Orleans County mosque in August were offered plea deals after appearing in court Monday night.
Authorities allege the teens drove past the World Sufi Foundation Mosque in Carlton, firing a gun, shouting obscenities and beeping the horn. One worshipper was allegedly struck by the vehicle at the mosque.
Jeff Donahue, Anthony Ogden and Dylan Phillips, all 18; and Mark Vendetti and Tim Weader, both 17, were charged with harassment and disrupting a religious service, a misdemeanor. Vendetti was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.
Florida congressman stokes Islamophobia
Tea party-backed freshman congressman Allen West, R-Fla., became unhinged at a recent town hall meeting in South Florida when he told a Muslim questioner who defended Islam, “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt!”
The questioner was Nezar Hamze, Executive Director of the South Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.
When Mr. Hamze responded that he was ashamed to hear a U.S. congressman launching such crude attacks against Islam, West, an Iraq War veteran, shouted back above a storm of whooping and hollering from the largely pro-Rep. West audience, “You attacked us! You attacked us! I went to Muslim countries to defend the freedom of Muslim people. Don’t come up here and try to criticize me. Put the microphone down and go home!”
The exchange began when Hamze asked West if he could cite any passages from the Quran that instruct Muslims to kill innocent people, attack America or kill Americans. West claimed that there is a “verse of the sword” that incites Muslims to violence against “infidels” but he did not elaborate, and neither West nor the noisy and indignant crowd allowed Hamze to comment further.
Hamze’s question was in reference to a statement West had made in January at the “Reclaim American Liberty Conference” that Islam “is not a religion … it’s a theo-political belief system that’s been doing this [promoting terrorism] since 622 AD.” West claims that Muslim terrorists are not following a warped version of Islam; they are following genuine Islamic teachings and the instructions of the Quran to promote world domination through terrorist acts.
“You need to get into the Qur’an,” West advises, “then you can really understand this [terrorism] is not a perversion. . . . They are doing exactly what this book says.”