Category Archives: USA

Chicago: burnt copy of Qur’an found outside Muslim community center

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chicago police are investigating the discovery of a burnt copy of the Quran found outside the Muslim Community Center on the Northwest Side to determine if the book was damaged in a hate crime.

Some youths found the burnt book on a sidewalk outside the community center at 4380 N. Elston Ave. in the Old Irving Parkneighborhood about 1 p.m. Sunday, a day after the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to police and the center’s officials.

The teenagers were on their way to the center for a prayer session, said Mohammed Kaiseruddin, who is on the community center’s board of directors. He said the youths quietly brought it into the building and turned it in.

“We feel like we’ve been victimized, that’s for sure,” Kaiseruddin said. “When we handle the Quran ourselves … we treat it with the utmost respect. We never put a copy of the Quran down on the floor.”

Chicago Tribune, 14 September 2010

See also Fox News Chicago, 14 September 2010

Update:  See “Hate mail follows burnt Quran at local mosque”, WBEZ, 15 September 2010

Posted in USA

Media coverage of SIOA anti-Park51 rally ‘worse than Pravda’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Well, so mad Pamela Geller believes. Geller’s basic gripe is that the media failed to buy her ludicrous claim that 40,000 people attended the hate-fest she and Robert Spencer organised in New York last Saturday – a claim that most of us would take as evidence that the most paranoid 9/11 truther has a better grip on reality than Geller does.

As proof of the “tens of thousands” who supported the Stop Islamization of America protest Geller posts the following photo, which to any neutral observer would appear to confirm media reports that the event drew a couple of thousand participants.

SIOA 9-11 demonstration

Geller is particularly indignant that the media gave coverage to what she calls “the anti-America, commie, leftist counter protest”, which she insists was a fraction of the size of her own mass rally. Evidently Pravda-style misreporting is fine when it’s Geller who’s doing it. In the interests of accuracy, therefore, here is a photo of the pro-Park51 demonstration.

New York pro-Park51 demonstrators

Soccer hooligans at Ground Zero

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in New York2

Over at his New York Times blog, Robert Mackey has posted an analysis of the English Defence League, who sent a delegation to New York last weekend to support the anti-Park51 rally. Hopefully this will be taken up more widely by the US media because, on the “by their friends ye shall know them” principle, it does shed some revealing light on the political character of Geller and Spencer’s campaign.

Ohio: Muslim storeowner victim of hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

9-11 graffitiCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Police were searching for the person or people who broke inside a north side market late Saturday night. Cash from the register and a laptop computer were stolen, and several display cases were vandalized, 10TV’s Glenn McEntyre reported.  Also, “9/11” was spray-painted on countertops and windows.

The owner of Jaffa Market, located in the 5200 block of Godown Road, said that he received a call from his alarm company on Saturday at about 11:15 p.m., notifying him of the break-in. “When I did come inside, I (saw) the glass everywhere,” said the storeowner, who requested anonymity.

The storeowner, who is Muslim, said it was clear he was targeted because of his religion.

A man who said he is a close family friend of the storeowner said that recent controversies about a mosque proposed near ground zero in New York and a Florida pastor who threatened to burn the Quran increased tensions.

WBNS-10TV, 13 September 2010

See also CAIR press release, 13 September 2010

Hate graffiti shows growth of Islamophobia in US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti_Islam graffiti

“Islamophobia is growing in the United States. Hate graffiti is now discoloring my own building here in New York City – calling for the Holy Quran to be burned. The publicity-hungry Terry Jones in Gainesville could be discounted if he did not have his finger on the pulse of America. But the protests near the World Trade Center confirm that he is not alone….

“Why should this hate graffiti be littering our hallway? How could someone – maybe someone I pass every day – have so much hatred in their heart? I have numerous Muslim neighbors, both from around the world and born here. How does this ‘Burn the Quran’make their children feel? How does ‘Islam is Evil’ impact my own son – to witness such ugliness so close to home? …

“I believe firmly that the honor of those many, many who died on 9/11 – including our Muslim brothers and sisters – will be diminished if the country they died in cannot protect the concept of religious pluralism that our great nation was founded on.”

Jim Luce at the Huffington Post, 14 September 2010

Burned, shot Qur’an found at Tennessee mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A burned and shot Qur’an was found Sunday afternoon at the Annoor Mosque Muslim Community of Knoxville. The holy book was found on the sidewalk near the building’s entrance. The damage to the Qur’an does not appear to have been done at the Mosque. The evidence was collected by police and the Knoxville Police Department will be working with the FBI on the continuing investigation.

WRCB-TV, 13 September 2010

See also CAIR press release, 13 September 2010

Posted in USA

GOP congressional candidate’s campaign manager resigns over bigoted tweets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Republican congressional candidate in Indianapolis said his campaign manager resigned after making disparaging comments about gays, Muslims and others on a social networking site.

GOP candidate and Butler University professor Marvin Scott said Tuesday that he knew Stan Solomon had controversial ideas because he once hosted a radio talk show, but he said he didn’t know Solomon was making such offensive comments on Twitter.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” said Scott, an underdog in the race against Democrat Rep. André Carson in the heavily Democratic 7th District. “I don’t know Twitter from litter.

Solomon’s recent tweets include “Gay stands for Got AIDS Yet,” ”Islam is the enemy you fools” and “Time to hurt these anti war sickos.” He also used the N-word (both Carson and Scott are black), called Carson a radical Muslim socialist, said Islam is evil and disgusting and said it was time to burn and “nuke” the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

NewsOK, 14 September 2010

You might have thought that Marvin Scott would sympathise with at least some of Solomon’s views, given his own record of whipping up Islamophobia in his campaign against André Carson, one of the only two Muslims in Congress (along with Keith Ellison).

US Appeals Court orders new hearing in hijab case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on Monday that a majority of its 27 judges voted to set aside the court’s earlier ruling in the case.

A federal appeals court has ordered a new hearing for a Muslim woman who was made to remove her religiously mandated headscarf by Orange County deputies in a courthouse holding cell.

A three-judge panel of the court decided in May that deputies had not violated Souhair Khatib’s rights when they ordered her to remove the head scarf for security reasons.

The incident occurred after a judge revoked Khatib’s probation for a conviction on a misdemeanor charge.

At issue is whether a courthouse holding cell qualifies as a pretrial detention facility under a federal law that protects inmates’ religious practices.

The case is scheduled for rehearing in December.

Associated Press, 14 September 2010