Category Archives: USA

Threats, intimidation part of investigation of arson at Murfreesboro Islamic Center site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Not WelcomeThreats and intimidation are part of a widening investigation into the vandalism at the site of the planned new Islamic Center in Murfreesboro.

“We are not going to stand for these intimidation tactics in our community,” said Claire Rogers of Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom.

Sheriff’s deputies are now patrolling the mosque construction site every hour, 24 hours a day.

This increase in scrutiny came after a piece of heavy equipment owned by Ole South Excavating of Murfreesboro was set on fire Saturday. The company is clearing land for the new Islamic Center.

NewsChannel 5 has learned that the vandalism happened after the center received an ugly, threatening voicemail earlier in the week. The caller disparaged Islam and then said, “You need to get out of the country now.”

There’s also evidence outlined in a police report that someone vandalized two back loaders also owned by Ole South at an entirely different location. That incident also happened early Saturday morning. Some believe this is an effort to try to intimidate contractors into not working on the project. Ole South’s owner says he will continue to honor the contract.

News Channel 5, 30 August 2010

See also TPM, 31 August 2010

Via Michael Tomasky

Vigil in support of Murfreesboro Islamic Center meets opposition

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Murfreesoboro vigilMark West believes in freedom of religion. That belief brought West out Monday night to a candle light vigil in support of local Muslims in front of the Rutherford County Courthouse. It also inspired the lifelong Baptist to make a donation to the building fund for a new mosque near Murfreesboro.

West was among about 150 people who attended Monday’s night’s vigil, organized in response to the recent fire at the construction site for the new mosque. Many in the crowd held candles or signs proclaiming such messages as “We’re all in this together” and “My God is not a bigot.” They also joined in singing “We Shall Overcome.”

The gathering came two days after a fire of suspicious origin damaged construction equipment at the site of the planned mosque. Organizers said the vigil was intended to encourage mosque supporters and opponents to demonstrate for a community free of violence, arson and other such activities.

On the outskirts a small but vocal group of mosque opponents made their presence known. Collier Hopson drove his pickup to the vigil. In the back was a plywood sign bearing the spray-painted words “No Mosque.” He said that local Christians have a right to build churches. But mosques should be banned, he said. “I don’t support their beliefs,” he said. “No one wants them here.”

Kimberly Kelly agreed. She said that she is afraid of Muslims and that the violence from Iraq and other countries could come to Murfreesboro. She said if the fire at the mosque site was arson, as many suspect, Muslims deserved it. “I think it was a piece of their own medicine,” she said. “They bombed our country.”

Mosque opponents and supporters squared off for some heated debate during the vigil. Rachel Weese told Hopson and two of his friends that their views were un-American.

The Tennessean, 31 August 2010

See also Nashville City Paper, 31 August 2010

And Gail Kerr’s column in The Tennessean, 31 August 2010

Bloomberg rejects investigation into Park51 financing, says it would set ‘a terrible precedent’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo should not investigate the financing of the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Tuesday, reiterating his support for the project.

“I think it’s a terrible precedent,” he said. “You don’t want them investigating donations to religious organizations, and there’s no reason for the government to do so.”

Mr. Bloomberg made his remarks about the controversial development project, known as Park51, in response to questions about a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday that found voters in New York State deeply divided, with more than 70 percent of them wanting Mr. Cuomo to investigate the project’s financing.

New York Times, 31 August 2010

But Bloomberg would say that, wouldn’t he? After all, according to Robert Spencer, the Mayor’s stand against Islamophobic hysteria over the “Ground Zero mosque” is motivated exclusively by concern for his own business interests in the Middle East.

Memphis: Baptist church welcomes new Islamic Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Heartsong churchWhen pastor Steve Stone initially heard of the mosque and Islamic center being erected on the sprawling land adjacent his church, his stomach tightened. Then he raised a 6-foot sign reading, “Welcome to the Neighborhood.”

The issue for Stone and the 550-person Heartsong Church in Cordova, came down to one question: “What would Jesus do if He were us? He would welcome the neighbor,” Stone said.

The Memphis Islamic Center, a nonprofit organization formed three years ago, is two weeks from breaking ground on the first phase of a multimillion-dollar complex.

While the 4,000-square-foot worship hall is being completed, Heartsong has opened its doors to its neighbors throughout the monthlong observance of Ramadan. Under a gigantic cross constructed of salvaged wood, nearly 200 area Muslims have been gathering each night to pray. “I think it’s helped break down a lot of barriers in both congregations,” said Islamic center board member Danish Siddiqui.

“People in Memphis appreciate faith, even if it’s not their faith,” said Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, the Islamic center’s scholar in residence and a Rhodes College professor.

The peaceful tone in the Bluff City has been refreshing for Qadhi, 35, who recently moved to Memphis from Connecticut, where early this month his Bridgeport mosque was descended on by angry protestors yelling slurs at families as they arrived for evening prayer. “We’re living in a climate of Islamophobia,” he said.

Commercial Appeal, 28 August 2010

Ahmed Sharif, stabbed cab driver, gets $30,000 in donations

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ahmed Sharif hoped he could garner more than sympathy after he was stabbed by a passenger last week.

The long-time cabbie asked the New York Taxi Workers Alliance to collect donations that would help keep his family afloat while he recovers from the injuries he suffered in an alleged anti-Islam attack. Sharif will miss at least four months of work while his wounds heal.

Donations were slow to trickle in at first. Bhairavi Desai, executive director for the Alliance, said initial donations could “barely cover baby formula.” But CNN came to the rescue. Once the network picked up the story, more than $30,000 flooded in.

“This outpouring is the most joyous thing his family could ever hope for,” Desai said. “This will help them survive.”

To donate to Sharif, go here.

Huffington Post, 30 August 2010

Geller defends EDL’s actions in Bradford

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL Bradford3

Newsweek‘s Declassified blog reports an email exchange with Pamela Geller, who sees no reason to withdraw her backing for the far-right EDL despite its supporters’ widely reported racism and hooliganism at the demonstration in Bradford on Saturday,

Geller told Declassified: “The media has been defamatory and libelous towards any and all counter jihad activists, including the EDL, which far from being neo-Nazi and racist, is pro-Israel and has Sikh and other non-white members and spokesmen. The EDL’s own explanation of what happened in Bradford is here. As you can see from that statement, a group of Islamic supremacists and Communists actually began the violence by throwing rocks at EDL members.”

In response Declassified points out that reports by the police and even the right-wing press contradict the EDL’s fantasy account of a peaceful, patriotic event that came under attack from the Left and was otherwise only slightly marred by the unrepresentative actions of a handful of “Combat 18 boneheads”:

“The Telegraph said that as EDL protesters got off buses that had taken them to the site, they shouted slogans at locals, including ‘Allah-Pedophile’, ‘We want our country back’, and ‘We love the floods’ – a reference, the paper said, to flooding that’s now devastating much of Pakistan.

“The Daily Mail, a newspaper perhaps even more conservative than The Telegraph, also reported on the violence. The paper’s website carries photos of what it says are EDL protesters, with one caption reading, ‘Crossing the line: EDL supporters in hats, hoods and balaclavas hurl missiles at police in Bradford today’.”

But Geller will have none of it. In reply she acknowledges that some of the slogans the Telegraph attributed to EDL protesters were “in bad taste, although in saying that I am not accepting the accuracy of The Telegraph account, and also understand that words said in anger are not always words the speakers would endorse in moments of reflection”.

Indeed, according to Geller, if racist chants and violence occur at EDL rallies this is very probably part of a conspiracy to undermine the “counter jihad” movement:

“The Left and real neo-Nazis frequently attempt to infiltrate EDL rallies in order to discredit the EDL. This is amply documented. Both have an interest in seeing the EDL fail: the Left so that there will be no serious resistance to its agenda, and the neo-Nazis so that there exists no respectable alternative to them in opposing the British elite, and also because the neo-Nazis have generally aligned with the Islamic jihad that the EDL resists.”

But then, Geller also believes that the attack on New York taxi driver Ahmed Sharif was a leftist plot to discredit her campaign against the “Ground Zero mosque”.

The truly bizarre thing is that this woman is regularly featured in the US media as if she has some rational ideas to contribute to a discussion of Islam. As for the UK, faced with the example of Pamela Geller you do feel that in all fairness Melanie Phillips should perhaps now be renamed “relatively sane Mel”.

Postscript:  For more on the common ground Geller finds with the far Right, see the recent article by Heidi Beirich at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog.

‘No mosque in NYC’ pig left at Islamic centre in California

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pig1

Pig2

The Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) today called on law enforcement authorities to initiate a hate crime investigation of an incident in which a mock pig inscribed with “No Mosque in NYC” was left at a California Islamic center.

CAIR-SV said the pig, which was left earlier this month in the mailbox of the mosque, was also inscribed with “Remember 9-11” and “MO HAM MED the Pig.”

Representatives of the local Muslim community have contacted law enforcement authorities, but have asked that the name of the facility not be made public due to security concerns.

“This incident is a further symptom of the growing anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide sparked by the hysterical smear campaign targeting the planned Islamic community center in Manhattan,” said CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra. “We again ask mainstream religious and political leaders to speak out against such un-American intolerance.”

CAIR press release, 29 August 2010

Arson at Murfreesboro Islamic Center site

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Murfreesboro arsonOne piece of construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was set afire in the overnight hours while others had gasoline poured on them, according to a spokesperson for the ICM.

Carmie Ayash, spokeswoman for the ICM, told The DNJ Islamic Center officials were contacted by the sheriff’s department around 1:30 a.m. Saturday in reference to the damaged equipment. It appeared gasoline had been poured on several pieces of equipment at the site and one was lit afire. Ayash said it appeared the responsible arsonist was spooked during the act and fled the scene before other equipment could be set on fire.

“We were contacted by police department around 1:30 a.m,” Ayash said Saturday afternoon. “They said someone had caught fire to some of the equipment. I think they lifted the hood and poured gas into the hood and set it on fire.”

Ayash said the most recent vandalism to the site “takes it to a whole new level.” The site has already been the target of two other vandalisms, both aimed at a sign marking the future site.

“Everyone in our community no longer feels safe,” she said. “To set a fire that could have blown up equipment and, God forbid, spread and caused damage to the neighbors there … we really feel like this is something that we and the neighbors don’t deserve. When they (ICM officials) called me this morning I started crying.”

DNJ, 28 August 2010

See also CBS News, 28 August 2010

And “CAIR seeks hate crime probe of arson at Tenn. mosque site”, CAIR press release, 28 August 2010

New York: Mayor Bloomberg welcomes Ahmed Sharif to City Hall

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday at City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg met with Ahmed Sharif, the cab driver who was stabbed by a drunken passenger because of his religion. Despite the harrowing experience, and the lingering trauma from the attack, Sharif affirmed his love for NYC: “I feel like I belong here. This is the city actually [for] all colors, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully.”

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