Category Archives: USA

‘A mosque at Ground Zero? A sick joke’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NY mosque protestThus Douglas Murray’s take on the proposal to build a new mosque and community centre in New York, not far from the site of the former World Trade Center.

Meanwhile, over in the USA, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have written a piece entitled “The 9/11 mosque’s peace charade“. They dismiss the anti-extremist credentials of the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the organisations proposing to build the mosque:

“How will a mosque, the place where jihadis go for spiritual sustenance, at Ground Zero help stop jihad terrorism? … Whom does a mosque at 9/11 really honor: the Americans who lost their lives, or the jihadis who murdered them?”

Geller and Spencer are organising a protest rally on 6 June through their organisation Stop Islamization of America.

And one Mark Williams, a leading figure in the Tea Party movement, has written on his blog:

“The animals of allah for whom any day is a great day for a massacre are drooling over the positive response that they are getting from New York City officials over a proposal to build a 13 story monument to the 9/11 Muslims who hijacked those 4 airliners. The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god and a ‘cultural center’ to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult.”

CAIR calls on Tea Party Convention to exclude Geller

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CAIR is calling on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact the organizers of the inaugural Tennessee Tea Party Convention to be held this weekend in Gatlinburg and ask that they drop an anti-Islam speaker who claims that “Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam” and that Islam “mandates” lies and deception.

The extremist anti-Islam speaker, far-right blogger Pamela Geller, is also head of the hate group Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA). At the convention, Geller is scheduled to speak about “The Threat of Islam.”

Today, Geller posted images on her blog purporting to depict Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Several of those images show the prophet as a pig. Another image, headlined “Piss Be Upon Him,” shows one of the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet covered in urine. (“Piss Be Upon Him” is designed to mock the traditional phrase “Peace Be Upon Him” that Muslims use when mentioning any prophet of God.)

CAIR’s request comes just a day after the Washington-based civil rights and advocacy organization called on the Tea Party to repudiate “ignorant” comments made by one of its leaders, who wrote that Muslims worship a “monkey-god.” Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, also wrote on his blog that Muslims are “animals of allah [sic].”

“The Tea Party needs to decide whether it is a legitimate national political movement or just a safe haven for bigots and extremists,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We ask that convention organizers not legitimize Geller’s extremist anti-Muslim rhetoric by offering her an official platform.”

CAIR press release, 20 May 2010

What has provoked CAIR, Geller claims, is her campaign against the plan to build a mosque and community centre near the former site of the World Trade Center in New York: “The grand jihadist Muslim Brotherhood at CAIR know what that means. It will be the icon, the rally call for every devout Muslim and jihadist across the world. They must have their symbol of conquest.”

Miss USA controversy: ‘It is simply Muslims that they hate’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rima Fakih“Personally, I’m not fond of either extreme in feminine clothing – burkas or bikinis. I believe that beauty contests exploit women, and I’m pleased that they seem to be less and less popular with each passing year, and will not be at all sad when they are no more.

“Nevertheless, women have the right to express themselves however they see fit, and the reaction of some Americans to Rima Fakih’s winning the Miss USA beauty pageant should be enough to prove once and for all that Islamophobia does exist, and that it has nothing to do with ‘political Islam’, ‘radical Islamists’, ‘Islamism’, or any of the other carefully crafted terms used to attempt to hide their hatred of Muslims as actually being a defense of western civilization against extremist or ‘radical’ Muslims.

“The truth is out there now for everyone to see. It is simply Muslims that they hate.”

Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 18 May 2010

See also Khaled Diab, “Miss USA 2010 and a confused conspiracy theory”, Comment is Free, 18 May 2010

Hysterical right-wing Islamophobes oppose new mosque and community centre in New York

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Outraged family members and community groups are accusing a Muslim group of trying to rewrite history with its plans to build a 13-story mosque and cultural center just two blocks from Ground Zero, where Islamic extremists flew two planes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

“This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother died in the attack on the Pentagon that day. “I think that it is incredibly insensitive and audacious really for them to build a mosque, not only on that site, but to do it specifically so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened,” said Burlingame, who is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

The 13-story mosque and cultural center will be built on the site of a four-story building that was a Burlington Coat Factory retail store until 9/11, when part of a plane’s landing gear crashed through the roof. The building, which will be razed, currently houses a mosque. The New York City Mayor’s office says “It’s private property, and the area is zoned for uses that include this one.”

Pamela Gellar, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, blasted the organization behind the plans, Cordoba Initiative, and its leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, saying the project is “an insulting flag of conquest of Islamic supremacism.”

“How can you build a shrine to the very ideology that brought down the World Trade Center?” asked Geller, whose group is planning a June 6 rally to protest the project. “We have to do everything we can to stop this … a huge Muslim monument, a stone’s throw from Ground Zero, with a mosque pointing toward Mecca.”

She called it an act of deception that the group has been able to get the green light from the Lower Manhattan Community Board, whose finance committee gave it a thumbs-up last week.

Though the Cordoba Initiative’s website calls part of the $100 million-plus project a mosque, its founder, Imam Rauf, says the project is not a mosque but a community center for all faiths that will include recreational facilities, a prayer space and a 500-seat theater that can be a part of the neighborhood’s trendy Tribeca Film Festival.

Rauf insists the effort is meant to help heal the wounds of 9/11, “We’ve approached the community because we want this to be an example of how we are cooperating with the members of the community, not only to provide services but also to build a new discourse on how Muslims and non-Muslims can cooperate together to push back against the voices of extremism.”

Fox News, 14 May 2010

Arson attack on Florida mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center JacksonvilleJACKSONVILLE, Fla. — People going in and out of a mosque on the Southside are having to pass through police.

The Islamic Center of Northeast Florida is under tighter security Tuesday morning following an explosion and fire the night before. The incident is under investigation as a possible hate crime.

Worshipers at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida heard a loud noise outside the mosque shortly before evening prayers Monday night. “There was a blast outside and a couple of gentlemen got up, they opened the back door and there was fire,” said Ashraf Shaikh of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida. “I think we need to be more tolerant and understanding of each other.”

Witnesses went outside and found some type of incendiary device started a fire. The fire was put out with a fire extinguisher. No one was hurt.

First Coast News, 11 May 2010

See also CAIR news release, 11 May 2010

Update:  See “FBI: explosion caused by pipe bomb”, WJXT Jacksonville, 12 May 2010

Franklin Graham prays outside Pentagon, says ‘Islam got a pass’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Franklin GrahamEvangelist Franklin Graham prayed on a sidewalk outside the Pentagon Thursday after his invitation to a prayer service inside was withdrawn because of comments that insulted Muslims.

“It looks like Islam has gotten a pass,” he told reporters. “They are able to have their services, but just because I disagree … I’m excluded.”

In 2001, Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, described Islam as evil. More recently, he said he finds Islam offensive and wants Muslims to know that Jesus Christ died for their sins. The Pentagon’s chaplain office called those comments inappropriate and, at the request of the Army, withdrew Graham’s invitation to attend a multi-denominational “National Day of Prayer” service that was held in the Defense Department auditorium.

He came anyway, arriving in the Pentagon parking lot just before 8 a.m. EDT – his party of a half dozen people forming a circle on the sidewalk and praying.

Asked why he had come, Graham said it was to pray for the men and women serving at the warfront, including his son, who he said had already been wounded in Iraq and now serves in Afghanistan.

He said he doesn’t believe “all religions are equal” but does believe there is only “one way to God” – and that is through Jesus.

Asked if he still believes Islam is evil, he said: “I believe the way they treat women is evil, yes I do.” And, can he understand how some of his comments would be offensive to Muslims? “Oh, I’m sure,” he said. “But I find what they teach and what they preach and what’s on the Internet – I find that to be offensive, too.”

Associated Press, 7 May 2010

Who’s Afraid of Tariq Ramadan?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Ramadan, it is true, is neither a Hirsi Ali nor a Salman Rushdie, who are both self-declared apostates. They have left the community and call to those trapped within. In contrast, Ramadan is an internal critic, to use Michael Walzer’s term. Internal critics push their community to change, but they do so from within it, out of love. To follow Berman is to say that Muslims in their mainstream intellectual and religious traditions do not deserve internal critics. They deserve only apostates. As communism in another era had its Arthur Koestlers and Leszek Kolakowskis, so Islamic orthodoxy must have its Rushdies and Hirsi Alis.”

Andrew March responds to Paul Berman’s book The Flight of the Intellectuals.

American Prospect, 3 May 2010

Anti-Muslim backlash will not be tolerated in New York says Mayor Bloomberg

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael_BloombergNew York Mayor Michael Bloomberg  said Tuesday that the arrest of a Pakistan-born US citizen in connection with the attempted car bombing in Times Square should not be as used as an excuse for actions against Pakistanis or Muslims.

“We will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers,” he said in a television interview.

In fact, the mayor praised the Pakistani community for its contribution to the development of New York. Bloomberg said there are “a few bad apples” among any group. He also cited New York’s long history of accepting cultures from around the world.

Associated Press of Pakistan, 4 May 2010