Category Archives: USA

CNN editor sacked over Fadlallah tweet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Octavia Nasr tweet

A senior Middle East editor at the US cable news channel CNN has been fired after she wrote on Twitter that she “respected” a late Lebanese Shia Muslim leader with links to Hezbollah.

Octavia Nasr lost her job after the 140-character tweet sparked fierce online debate and the channel’s management decided that her credibility had been compromised.

CNN management decided that Nasr, who had worked at the company for 20 years in mainly off-screen roles, should leave her job. “We have decided that she will be leaving the company,” said a company memo circulated on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera, 8 July 2010

See also Roy Greenslade, “CNN fires journalist for tweeting her praise for Islamic cleric”, Guardian, 8 July 2010

Irrationality and anti-Muslim stereotyping

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The demonization of Islam as a religion and of its adherents as individuals has reached the level of hysteria within the United States.

Although the fear of Muslims is usually cloaked in condescension or indignation, the source of this most recent version of bigotry is transparent and utterly predictable. There must be a nameless, faceless, sinister “other” upon whom we can hang our deepest anxieties and frustrations as a people. This kind of paranoia is not unique, but as its perpetrators on right-wing radio, FOX “News” and the far-right blogosphere can attest, it still works like a charm.

I would offer to Americans that if you’ve come to believe that it’s Islam that’s the source of our problems, you might as well pack it up and go home because the terrorists have already won.

Cynthia Boaz at the Huffington Post, 6 July 2010

Republican candidate jumps on ‘Ground Zero mosque’ bandwagon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rick Lazio press conference

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio challenged his Democratic opponent Wednesday morning to examine the legality of the funding for the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. “New Yorkers have a right to feel safe and be safe,” Lazio told reporters in Lower Manhattan. “There are serious security questions about the appropriateness of this mosque.”

Lazio demanded Attorney General Cuomo figure out where the backers of the Cordoba Mosque expect to get $100 million to build it. “Anyone who has evidence of wrongdoing should send it to us and we will review it,” Cuomo replied in a statement released later Wednesday.

In a letter he sent to Cuomo, Lazio cited press accounts that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who’s spearheading the mosque’s construction, is a “key figure” in an organization that funded the flotilla that sought to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was a pilot on the plane terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, said the Imam has written about his hopes of bringing strict Islamic Shariah law to the United States. “He means to use the Ground Zero location of the mosque to ‘leverage’ people to Islam,” said Burlingame, the co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

New York Daily News, 7 July 2010

Text of Lazio’s letter here.

See also New York Magazine, 7 July 2010

Update:  See Debra Burlingame’s contribution to Lazio’s press conference on YouTube.

Demonstration in support of Staten Island mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Staten Island mosque demo

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Asking that they be treated like believers of other religions, about 50 supporters of a proposed mosque in Midland Beach today rallied support for the project on the steps of Borough Hall in St. George.

“The reaction to the sale of the convent hurt us,” said New Springville resident Heshm El-Meligy, speaking on behalf of the Arab Muslim American Federation. “We are Staten Islanders. We have the right to have a house of worship anywhere of our choosing according to the law of the land.”

The rally was organized by the Muslim American Society (MAS).

There has been fierce debate across the borough about whether MAS should convert an empty former convent, owned by St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church in Midland Beach, into a mosque and community center.

But Muslims have argued that they have as much right to be there as Catholics or Jews. “We don’t want a privilege that no one else has,” said El-Meligy, one of several speakers who addressed the crowd.

SILive, 7 July 2010

Update:  See “A move on Staten Island to broker mosque peace”, SILive, 8 July 2010

New Jersey: ‘progressive and multicultural’ town chooses Muslim mayor and Jewish deputy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than half a century ago, Teaneck, New Jersey, which sits in the shadow of New York City just across the Hudson River, became one of the first American communities to voluntarily integrate its public schools. Now, the town that residents describe as a “progressive and multicultural” suburb once again has forged a new path, selecting a practicing Muslim as mayor – and a devout Orthodox Jew to be his deputy.

“No where else is this possible,” said Mohammed Hameeduddin, Teaneck’s first Muslim mayor and one of only a handful of Muslims to lead cities across the country. “The opportunity to bring two communities together and break down stereotypes that have belittled our nation is both monumental and humbling.”

Teaneck’s non-partisan Township Council last week voted to appoint Hameeduddin and Adam Gussen, both current council members, to their respective posts, which they will hold for two years. Together, they will govern what is Bergen County’s second largest municipality and home to significant African American, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim populations.

ABC News, 6 July 2010

‘Islam is of the devil’ church stages protest against Islamic centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Florida anti-Islam protestA Gainesville church known for wearing its opinion on its shirts protested an Islamic Center on Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center, which touts the saying “Islam is of the devil,” portrayed that message outside the Islamic Center of Gainesville at its protest, which lasted about two hours. Protesters said what they were doing is the role of Christians to bring their message to the public.

“They’re not going to change,” Pastor Wayne Sapp said of other churches. “Half of our message is how evil Islam is. The other half of our message is the only reason it has grown in the capacity that it has grown – it’s because the church is so cowardly, it will not stand up for simply what the Bible says, not an interpretation of the Bible, but what it says word for word.”

“How can something like this continue to go on?” Sapp said of Islam. “We have to stand up.”

Members of the Islamic Center referred to the group as a “30-member cult.” Channel 4 talked to a member of the Islamic Center on the phone, but he did not want to go on camera because he said he did not want to give the church any credibility. “There are only 30 of them, meaning they don’t have a lot of support,” the spokesperson said. “If they’re studying the word of Jesus, they’re way off.”

News4Jax, 5 July 2010

Another political campaign based on religious hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_DGNu6dI_ZE

INDIANAPOLIS — Congressman André Carson’s Republican opponent, Marvin Scott, is now calling on Carson (D-7th District), who is Muslim, to “stand up against Muslim extremism.” It’s a tactic that has local Islamic leaders condemning Scott’s actions.

It’s a normal Friday at Al-Fajr, a mosque on the northwest side of town, where Muslims gather for Jumu’a, the Friday prayer service. Before the service we asked the Chairman of the board, Dr. Haroon Qazi and another leader, Tim Palmer, to give us their reaction to the website created this week by GOP Congressional candidate Marvin Scott, drmarvinscottforcongress.com.

On it, Scott lists “fight Muslim extremism” as one of his guiding principles. Click on the words and you will find an image from 9/11 and ten reasons why radical Islam is a threat. They include “Islam commands homosexuals must be executed.” “Islam allows husbands to hit their wives.” And “Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.”

Dr. Haroon Qazi, Chairman of the Board at the Al-Fajr Mosque says, “You can take anything out of context and make a peaceful religion into something which is demonic.”

Scott is trying to unseat Carson, one of two Muslims in Congress but, at the mosque there is a belief that in the process he is smearing, not just Carson, but all Muslims. Al-Fajr Mosque public relations chair Tim Palmer points to website saying, “The change in word phrase, ‘Muslim extremism’ transitioning into just “Muslims”, is painting all Muslims as extremists.”

Wish TV, 2 July 2010

See also Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 2 July 2010

‘Flying while Muslim’: ACLU challenges no fly list

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Halime SatAt the Long Beach, California, airport, a 28 year-old married student, Halime Sat, tried to board a plane to Oakland. She was denied access. Ms. Sat, a resident of Corona, California, has suddenly been put on the government’s no-fly list. She has no criminal record nor affiliation with any outlawed organization anywhere in the world. The only crime committed by this young German citizen, who is married to an American: Flying while Muslim.

Ms. Sat is one of a ten plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleging that thousands of people have been added to the no-fly list and barred from commercial travel, without any opportunity to learn about or refute the basis for their inclusion on the list. Plaintiffs in the case include a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran stranded in Egypt and a U.S. Army veteran stuck in Colombia.

Ms. Sat was only trying to fly from one place to another in the state where she is a permanent resident. Denying people such fundamental rights in complete secrecy and without due process is unconstitutional and un-American. They become pariahs, deemed unworthy to fly – but no one says why.

ACLU blog, 2 July 2010

See also “Too scary to fly, not scary enough to arrest”, Wired, 30 June 2010

Another political campaign based on religious hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_DGNu6dI_ZE

INDIANAPOLIS — Congressman André Carson’s Republican opponent, Marvin Scott, is now calling on Carson (D-7th District), who is Muslim, to “stand up against Muslim extremism.” It’s a tactic that has local Islamic leaders condemning Scott’s actions.

It’s a normal Friday at Al-Fajr, a mosque on the northwest side of town, where Muslims gather for Jumu’a, the Friday prayer service. Before the service we asked the Chairman of the board, Dr. Haroon Qazi and another leader, Tim Palmer, to give us their reaction to the website created this week by GOP Congressional candidate Marvin Scott, drmarvinscottforcongress.com.

On it, Scott lists “fight Muslim extremism” as one of his guiding principles. Click on the words and you will find an image from 9/11 and ten reasons why radical Islam is a threat. They include “Islam commands homosexuals must be executed.” “Islam allows husbands to hit their wives.” And “Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.”

Dr. Haroon Qazi, Chairman of the Board at the Al-Fajr Mosque says, “You can take anything out of context and make a peaceful religion into something which is demonic.”

Scott is trying to unseat Carson, one of two Muslims in Congress but, at the mosque there is a belief that in the process he is smearing, not just Carson, but all Muslims. Al-Fajr Mosque public relations chair Tim Palmer points to website saying, “The change in word phrase, ‘Muslim extremism’ transitioning into just “Muslims”, is painting all Muslims as extremists.”

Wish TV, 2 July 2010

See also Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 2 July 2010

New Yorkers oppose mosque near Ground Zero … but Manhattanites support it

Posted on by Bob Pitt

New York City voters, by an almost 2-to-1 ratio, oppose a plan by a Muslim group to build a mosque and cultural center two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

New Yorkers, by 52 percent to 31 percent, don’t want the Cordoba Initiative, a group that seeks to improve Muslim relations with Western societies, to build a community center near Ground Zero in Manhattan, the survey said. Opposition was strongest on Staten Island, where respondents were against the plan by 73 percent to 14 percent in favor.

In Manhattan, support for the project led, with 46 percent to 36 percent opposed.

Bloomberg, 1 July 2010

Read the results of the poll here.

Cf. “Contrary to popular opinion, Muslims and mosques okay in Downtown”, Downtown Express, 2-8 July 2010

Posted in USA