Category Archives: USA

Harvard students protest against Martin Peretz

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Martin Peretz protest2At an event on Saturday in Cambridge, Harvard University accepted a new research fund in honor of New Republic editor-in-chief and former Harvard teacherMarty Peretz.

A sizable group of students upset by Peretz’s writings over the years – most recently his assertion that Muslim life is cheap and that followers of Islam should not be protected by the First Amendment, for which he later partially apologized – was on hand to protest Peretz and the university.

Usefully, the protesters carried signs quoting Peretz’s own words as they followed him and his entourage through Harvard Yard.

Salon, 26 September 2010

See also MondoWeiss, 25 September 2010

Patriot Alliance takes stand against killing of Murfreesboro Muslims who leave Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Patriotic Alliance press conferenceA newly-formed group of local citizens concerned about teachings under Islam’s Shariah Law called for the imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to sign a Pledge of Friendship Friday.

The Patriot Alliance of Rutherford County called a press conference at Grace Baptist Church on Bradyville Pike, next door to the site of the Islamic Center’s new construction site.

The Pledge of Friendship asks local Imam Ossama Bahloul to declare, among other things, banning the teaching of Redda Law, the part of Shariah Law that “allows the killing of Muslims who leave Islam,” the killing of homosexuals, and not to allow the facility to be used for fundraising or teachings that contradict the U.S. Constitution and other national laws.

The pledge was based on a document presented to the imam in of the mosque in Temecula, Ca., earlier in the week, said Lou Ann Zelenik, the group’s spokesperson, who also ran in the Republican primary for the Congressional seat to be vacated Rep. Bart Gordon. “I think it’s important we remain unified across the nation,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of evangelical pastors affiliated with the group was Pastor Darryl Whaley of Kingdom Ministries Worship Center in Walter Hill. He said the group was invited to attend an event to promote peace and tolerance earlier this month at the Islamic Center, but that the clergy did not have time to consult with their congregation on a week’s notice.

He said that even though the pastors respect the rights of Muslims to pray and practice their religion, “we continue to have fundamental differences in faith and practice,” and did not want their congregations to be confused by “joining hands under the banner of tolerance and religious freedom.”

The Tennessean, 24 September 2010

See also the WGNS report which reproduces the Patriot Alliance’s list of demands.

Imam Bahloul is also required to renounce “Shariah doctrine which justifies violence and abuse of women and children” and to refrain from teaching the doctrine of jihad, on the grounds that it compels Muslims to “engage in war so that Islam will dominate the world”. And, as we all know, “when Islam becomes dominant, Non-Muslims are offered three options: to convert to Islam, to pay Jizya (a humiliating tax), or to be killed”. Who would want that fate to befall the citizens of Murfreesboro?

But don’t get the idea that the Patriot Alliance of Rutherford County is insensitive to the needs of minority ethno-religious communities. Not at all. They insist that Imam Bahloul should also recognise that “the Islamic teaching that Muslims must ‘fight and kill all Jews before the end of days’ is totally unacceptable”.

Update:  See also “Rutherford Co. religious leaders unite in support of mosque”, WKRN, 24 September 2010

Texas education board adopts anti-Islam resolution

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education adopted a resolution Friday that seeks to curtail references to Islam in Texas textbooks, as social conservative board members warned of what they describe as a creeping Middle Eastern influence in the nation’s publishing industry.

The board approved the one-page nonbinding resolution, which urges textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books, by a 7-5 vote.

Critics say it’s another example of the ideological board trying to politicize public education in the Lone Star State. Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom, questioned why the resolution came at a time when “anti-Muslim rhetoric in this country has reached fever pitch.”

“It’s hard not to conclude that the misleading claims in this resolution are either based on ignorance of what’s in the textbooks or, on the other hand, are an example of fear-mongering and playing politics,” Miller said.

Associated Press, 24 September 2010

See also Texas Tribune, 24 September 2010

Man in St Louis standoff wanted war with Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man who held federal agents at bay with fake explosives wanted to start a war between Christians and Muslims and kill President Barack Obama, according to charges filed against him Wednesday.

He also may have been driven by an order of protection issued in St. Clair County Circuit Court on Tuesday to bar him from contact with his grandchildren, officials said.

The eight-hour standoff Tuesday night began when FBI and Secret Service agents, accompanied by police, went to the home of Roman Otto Conaway, at 9030 Summit Drive, to question him about a report that he had been making threats. He eventually surrendered on the promise of getting a mental health evaluation.

Conaway was charged Wednesday in federal court in East St. Louis with making false threats to detonate an explosive device and threatening the president. If convicted, he might face five years in prison.

According to an FBI affidavit accompanying the charges, and federal officials, Conaway called someone associated with a St. Louis-area mosque about 1 p.m. Tuesday and said he would burn a Quran that night and provide a video of it to TV stations.

Conaway allegedly said that he thought that Obama had threatened the Rev. Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, into canceling his planned Quran burning on Sept. 11.

Conaway said that he wanted to start a war between Christians and Muslims, kill Obama and other government officials, end the war in Afghanistan “which (expletive) Bush started” and “start an Apocalypse,” court documents say.

The person who received Conaway’s call called the FBI with a phone number obtained from caller ID.

Three federal agents arrived around 6 p.m. Conaway’s door was open, but it slammed shut when he spotted them. A short time later, he emerged with his wife and son, wearing a wide mesh belt with two blocks of an “inert putty-like material designed and formed to replicate blocks of C-4 explosive” to a what was intended to look like a triggering device – a curling iron – FBI Special Agent Richard T. Box wrote in the affidavit.

Conaway told agents that the detonator was also wired to two 55-gallon drums full of combustible chemicals in the front yard and another in the rear. He also told agents that he had experience in ordinance disposal from the U.S. Army.

He eventually allowed his son and wife to leave the house, and surrendered at about 2:10 a.m., Box wrote. There were no real explosives. The standoff triggered an evacuation of the neighborhood that lasted into the early morning.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 23 September 2010

Obviously we are dealing here a man who is severely psychologically disturbed. But it is hardly accidental that Conaway’s threats of violence drew on the anti-Muslim narrative promoted by the US right. And you can imagine how different the media response would have been if Conaway had been a Muslim calling for a war against Christians. He wouldn’t have been dimissed as a single mentally ill individual but portrayed as a representative of his faith.

See also LoonWatch, 22 September 2010

St Louis mosque vandalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

St Louis mosque vandalismThe FBI is investigating an act of vandalism against a south St. Louis mosque, amid rising rhetoric against Muslims.

Two FBI agents took photographs and interviewed members of the Masjid Qooba at 1925 Allen, after someone spray painted the side of the building with a pentagram and the words “worship Satan.”

Mosque member Tim Kaminski says it’s no accident. “We know it’s directed at us, “Kaminski said, “because they know we’re a house of worship, a house of prayer.” Kaminski says the mosque has received no threats, and the graffiti appeared on the side of the building this weekend. “You never know if somebody means you harm,” Kaminski said.  ”This could be a kid who is bored. It could be somebody out of work and angry. We don’t know who it is.”

Meanwhile,  an attorney for the local chapter of the Council on American/Islamic Relations believes the graffiti attack is part of a pattern of escalating rhetoric against Muslims. Jim Hacking cites this summer’s tension over the New York City Mosque, the Florida pastor threatening to burn the Koran,  and this week’s Fairview Heights, Illinois standoff with the man accused of threatening Muslims.

“Nationally on things like FOX News, you have people like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis,” Hacking said, “Just really negative, stereotypical hatred that’s been spewing out, and it’s really at its worse level, even worse than after 911.”

KMOX, 23 September 2010

Posted in USA

US Muslims face increased discrimination at work

Posted on by Bob Pitt

At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.

Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, with Muslim workers filing a record 803 such claims in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. That was up 20 percent from the previous year and up nearly 60 percent from 2005, according to federal data.

The number of complaints filed since then will not be announced until January, but Islamic groups say they have received a surge in complaints recently, suggesting that 2010’s figure will set another record.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found enough merit in some of the complaints that it has filed several prominent lawsuits on behalf of Muslim workers.

“There’s a level of hatred and animosity that is shocking,” said Mary Jo O’Neill, regional attorney of the E.E.O.C.’s Phoenix office. “I’ve been doing this for 31 years, and I’ve never seen such antipathy toward Muslim workers.”

New York Times, 23 September 2010

Republican candidate attacks ‘victory mosque’ in campaign ad

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Republican House candidate claims in new ad that Muslims want to build a “victory mosque” near Ground Zero.

The building of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero has faded from the midterm campaign conversation over the past week, but here’s an ad that might change that. It’s the first offering from the campaign of Republican Renee Ellmers, who is challenging Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.), and the message is a provocative one.

“After the Muslims conquered Jerusalem and Cordoba and Constantinople, they built victory mosques,” the ad’s narrator says. “And now, they want to build a mosque by ground zero. Where does Bob Etheridge stand? He won’t say.”

The Hill, 21 September 2010

Daniel Pipes accuses Obama of enforcing Sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes 9-11Over at the Washington Times Daniel Pipes opines that he found Pastor Terry Jones’ plan to ban the Qur’an “distasteful”. But the actual object of his attack is the Obama administration, who Pipes claims capitulated to the threat of “Muslim violence” when they persuaded Jones to call off his book-burning stunt.

Pipes explains: “That violence stems from Islamic law, Shariah, which insists that Islam, and the Koran in particular, enjoy a privileged status. Islam ferociously punishes anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, who trespasses against Islam’s sanctity.”

Pipes concludes with the following charge against the Obama administration: “Its pressure on Mr. Jones further eroded freedom of speech about Islam and implicitly established Islam’s privileged status in the United States, whereby Muslims may insult others but not be insulted. This moves the country toward dhimmitude, a condition whereby non-Muslims acknowledge the superiority of Islam. Finally, Mr. Obama, in effect, enforced Islamic law, a precedent that could lead to other forms of compulsory Shariah compliance.”

Pipes has found himself rather sidelined recently by more newsworthy Islamophobes like Pamela Geller or Newt Gingrich. Maybe this is Pipes’ attempt to show he is still a major player when it comes to whipping up hysteria against the US Muslim community.