See also Salon, 15 October 2010
Category Archives: USA
Majority of Tennesseans don’t oppose Murfreesboro mosque
A new poll finds a majority of Tennesseans are not opposed to a mosque in Murfreesboro and would not oppose one near their homes, but a majority does oppose a planned mosque in New York City near Ground Zero.
The telephone poll of 614 randomly selected Tennesseans aged 18 and over found that 42 percent neither support nor oppose the planned construction of an Islamic community center near Murfreesboro and 24 percent either “support” or “strongly support” the center’s construction.
Results were similar when people were presented with the prospect of a hypothetical mosque near their homes, with 66 percent saying they would either support or not oppose the proposition.
However, 63 percent of those polled said they were opposed to the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. Another 20 percent said they neither support nor oppose the mosque’s construction. Only 15 percent said they support its construction.
Two-thirds of those polled said they “agree” or “strongly agree” that Muslims should have the same religious rights as other Americans. The poll also found that 44 percent of Tennesseans do not believe American Muslims heighten the risk of terrorism, while 28 percent believe they do.
Associated Press, 14 October 2010
See also The Tennessean, 15 October 2010
Bacon strips spelling out ‘PIG’ left outside South Carolina Islamic Centre
Slices of bacon were laid down on a brink walkway to the Florence Islamic Center in Florence, S.C. on Sunday in a manner that spelled out “PIG CHOPS.” The incident – evidently aimed the center because of the Islamic dietary restrictions against pork – is just the latest in a string of anti-Muslim episodes around the country.
In fact this isn’t the first time even this particular mosque has been hit – earlier this year vandals broke windows in the facility, according to local news station ABC 15.
A conflicting Associated Press report said the bacon slices were arranged to spell out “PIG CHUMP.” The bacon slices were placed on the sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Florence Police Major Carlos Raines told the AP. “There’s absolutely nothing that identifies it as a mosque,” Raines told the AP. “It’s an insult, and I’m sure that’s what it was intended for.”
Protest against Geller and Spencer speaking at Philadelphia’s Temple University
“Off of our campus, out of our state! We say no to racist hate!” was the chant that rang out October 7 from some 50 antiracist protesters. They could be heard inside Howard Gittis Student Center as two professional Islamophobes, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, prepared to speak.
North Philadelphia’s Temple University prides itself on being diverse. As University President Ann Weaver Hart said in a 2008 Associated Press interview, “You’ll see the world walking about on the Temple campus.”
With this is mind, why was blogger and “birther” Pamela Geller – who believes that the 9/11 hijackers were practicing “pure Islam, original Islam” – and her equally anti-Muslim confidant, right-wing author Robert Spencer, given an audience at such an institution?
Geller and Spencer’s group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) has been instrumental in drumming up the controversy over the Park51 Islamic community center in Manhattan, which they labeled the “Ground Zero Mosque.” The two led a protest near the site of the future community center on September 11. Park51 was to be the topic of the event at Temple.
The group that brought this duo to Temple is a student organization called Temple University (TU) Purpose. This organization requests funding from the university and has close ties with the David Horowitz Freedom Center, whose namesake is a prominent New-Leftist-turned-right-winger.
TU Purpose claims to be on a mission to “create a dialogue where discussion needs to be had” and to “eradicate obstacles – like political correctness … which deprive us of information that is both essential and critical to our analytical and social development.”
Despite its humanistic claptrap about promoting “dialogue” and supposedly defending “free speech,” TU Purpose has proven to be little more than a right-wing front group – primarily interested in providing a stage for racist hate speech. For instance, last year, TU Purpose hosted an event with Dutch right-winger Geert Wilders, an individual so Islamophobic that he has literally called for the banning of the Koran.
Many were outraged by TU Purpose’s plans to bring Islamophobic speakers to campus for the second year in a row. However, Temple’s chapter of the Muslim Student Association chose not to encourage a demonstration, fearing that protesting the speakers would give Geller and Spencer too much publicity, thus doing more harm than good. Despite this, many activists chose to turn out in opposition to the racist speakers.
Members of the International Socialist Organization, Delaware Valley Veterans Against the War, Socialist Action and various student activists held a demonstration of about 50 people as Geller and Spencer spoke.
Protester and Muslim student Sahar Abdullah noted that she has been the victim of anti-Muslim ostracism several times since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Speaking “as a person of the Islamic faith,” she said in an interview, hate speech is “not what the Koran tells us to stand for.”
Noting the contradiction between Temple’s celebrated diversity and the views of Geller and Spencer, freshman Julia Murphy remarked, “Temple claims to be one of the most diverse campuses,” and “it’s wrong to host these speakers.”
Since the beginning of this year, we have witnessed the bombing of a Florida mosque, arson at a Tennessee mosque construction site and the stabbing of a Muslim taxi driver in New York. In this climate of anti-Muslim hate crimes and Islamophobia, hate speech is ignored at our peril.
It is imperative that those who stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters against racism turn out in full opposition to hate speech whenever possible, and show that such vitriol is not welcome in our communities.
‘Surfing rabbi’ will join EDL demonstration
An American rabbi will join an extreme right-wing anti-Islamic-fundamentalist group in a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London next week. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, from California, said he was supporting the English Defence League because he opposed multiculturalism, and promised to act with “full force” against shariah law. But his plans have been roundly criticised by Jewish community organisations.
Bill O’Reilly says ‘Muslims killed us on 9/11’ and Whoopi Goldberg walks off set in protest
Update: See also Hollywood Reporter, 15 October 2010
‘City closes schools for extra day a year so Muslims can celebrate religious holiday’
Schools in the city of Cambridge, in Massachusetts, will close for one Muslim holiday a year, local officials have announced. Authorities in the U.S. city said the new scheme, which will be introduced from 2011-2012, is the first of its kind in the state. The schools will close for either Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, depending on which falls within the school year.
Cambridge School Committee member Marc McGovern said schools in the city currently close for Christian and Jewish holidays and Muslims should be treated no different. Officials voted unanimously in favour of the idea back in December and it was officially announced on Sunday that the change would be introduced from next year.
“At a time when I think the Muslim population is being characterised with a broad brush in a negative way, I think it’s important for us to say we’re not going to do that here,” Mr McGovern said. “The issue that sort of came up was should we celebrate any religious holidays, but there was not the will to take away Good Friday or one of the Jewish holidays. So I said, if that is the case, I think we have an obligation to celebrate one of the Muslim holidays, as well.”
Update: You’ll note the provocative headline to the story, which is obviously intended to appeal to the anti-Muslim prejudices of Daily Mail readers. It did so only too successfully, and further online comments on the article have now been blocked and existing comments removed.
Muslim teen beaten, called a ‘terrorist’ by classmates
A Muslim boy says four bullies made his life a living hell in the halls of a Staten Island public school, calling him a “terrorist” and beating him every chance they got.
The victim, a 16-year-old high school freshman, told his father and the police of the constant abuse he endured, prompting the arrests Sunday of his teen tormenters on suspicion of hate crimes.
“[They] punched me in my groin, and I fell to the floor. They started kicking me, and calling me ‘You f—in’ terrorist,’ ‘You f—in’ Muslim,'” the victim, Kristian, told the Daily News.
English Defence League forges links with America’s Tea Party
The Observer has the details.
So what happened to the ‘sacred ground’ argument?
“A new survey from the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling finds that more Republicans support constructing a strip club than a mosque near Ground Zero. Just four percent of Republican respondents said they support building a mosque two blocks from the site, whereas 21 percent said they would be fine with a strip club. ”
Huffington Post, 9 October 2010
The PPP poll can be consulted here.