“Since the Ft Hood atrocity, I’ve seen a meme going around that it somehow exposed a contradiction between ‘political correctness’ and ‘security’. The avoidance of Nidal Hassan’s religion out of fear of offending anyone, goes the argument, created the conditions which allowed him to go undetected and unsanctioned in the months and years leading up to his rampage. American security, therefore, demands dropping the ‘political correctness’ of avoiding a confrontation with Islamist ideas and asking the ‘tough questions’ about Islam as a religion and the loyalty of Muslim-Americans. This framing of the issue is almost 100% wrong.”
Category Archives: USA
Islam ‘not a religion’ but a ‘violent political system’ says Pat Robertson
US right-wing evangelist Pat Robertson offers his views on the Fort Hood killings:
“Islam is a violent – I was gonna say religion, but it’s not a religion, it’s a political system, a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination. That is the ultimate aim…. So you’re dealing with a – not a religion, you’re dealing with a political system. And I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such, as we would members of the Communist Party or members of some fascist group.”
Muslim Mafia author calls for ‘backlash’ against US Muslims
A conservative author whose book was touted just last month by four Republican members of Congress is explicitly calling for a “backlash” against American Muslims in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings.
Dave Gaubatz, author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America, made the comment in a semi-coherent interview with the group Family Security Matters.
In assigning collective blame for the Fort Hood killings, Gaubatz said:
“Politicians, Muslims, and law enforcement are concerned about a ‘backlash’ against Muslims. Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders. Muslims know what materials are being taught in their mosques and they know many of the materials instruct young Muslims to kill innocent people who do not adhere to Sharia law. If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a ‘house cleaning’. Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.”
All of this might be dismissed as the ranting of a fringe lunatic, but for the fact that Gaubatz’s work has been circulated and endorsed by prominent Republican officials.
Update: Cf. this interview with one Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who rejects a backlash against Muslims “just because they’re Muslims” but adds: “We should not allow Muslims to serve in the US military and we have got to raise questions about whether we can afford to allow Muslims to immigrate into the United States at all.”
Fort Hood tragedy, Islam, and America
Sheila Musaji on the shocking killings at the Fort Hood army base.
‘Jihad at Fort Hood’ – according to Robert Spencer
“Major Hasan’s motive was perfectly clear – but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened – and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.”
Robert Spencer at Front Page Magazine, 6 November 2009
See Mehdi Hasan’s comments at the New Statesman, 6 November 2009
Update: See also Sunny Hundal, “Double standards over Fort Hood attack”, at Pickled Politics, 6 November 2009
CAIR: Islamophobia machine targets American Muslims
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today distributed an editorial, entitled “Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims,” outlining what the Washington-based Muslim civil rights group says is a campaign by “extremists of all stripes who coordinate and cooperate in a relentless effort to demonize Islam and deprive American Muslims of their civil rights.”
‘Flying while Muslim’ is no reason to detain or remove passengers
“The recent settlement in the case of the six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, who said their rights were violated in 2006 when they were removed from a US Airways flight in Minnesota should not prevent anyone from acting on legitimate security concerns. But reports based solely on anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias and hysteria should not be used as the basis for a ‘flying while Muslim’ incident.
“Absent actual suspicious behavior, merely offering one of the five-daily Islamic prayers in a terminal, speaking Arabic to a fellow passenger, wearing a head scarf, or ‘looking Muslim’ is insufficient justification to detain passengers or remove them from a flight.”
Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR at USA Today, 26 October 2009
See also “Flying imams in the rear-view mirror: What was the evidence against them?”, MinnPost, 26 October 2009
Boris Johnson promotes Islamist extremism
If you thought the Sunday Times‘ recent attacks on Jack Straw for consorting with Islamist extremists were bizarre, the Sunday Express has gone one better by levelling the same accusation against Boris Johnson, under the jaw-dropping headine “Boris’s terror link”! In Johnson’s case, the charge is that Mohamed Ali Harrath, CEO of the Islam Channel, spoke at Eid in the Square last month, where the Islam Channel was one of the GLA’s media partners along with the BBC Radio Asian Network.
Step forward Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens of the Centre for Social Cohesion, who tells the Express: “The invitation shows a worrying inconsistency in what the Tories have said about Islamic extremism recently.” It was notable that Meleagrou-Hitchens was one of the few people to treat the Sunday Times attack on Jack Straw seriously (“the noose is tightening around both the MCB’s extremist connections and government ministers who have been championing them. It’s about time…”). Even Harry’s Place baulked at reproducing that particular rant, though their co-thinkers at the Spittoon evidently had no problems with it.
The parallels between the present wave of Islamophobia in the UK and the 1950s Red Scare in the US are increasingly striking. In both cases the campaign began as an attack on the Left but then broadened out into a general assault on anyone who failed to join in the hysterical witch-hunt against Communism/Islamism. This was what eventually discredited and destroyed McCarthy. Surely it can only be a matter of time before Meleagrou-Hitchens announces that the British Army has been infiltrated at the highest level by Islamist fellow travellers who pose a threat to national security.
Update: See also Meleagrou-Hitchens’ piece, “Boris fails to tackle Islamic extremism”, ConservativeHome, 27 October 2009
Philadelphia university allows Wilders to preach hate
Amid tight security and a large turnout of protesters, Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders told an assembly of Temple University students that Europe and America must fight an ongoing “stealth jihad” that threatens democracy and free speech.
“Where Islam sets roots, freedom dies,” Geert Wilders told the students during his 30-minute address organized by a new student group called Temple University Purpose and funded by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
If the spread of Islam continues unabated in the Western world, “you might at the end of the day lose your Constitution,” he told the assembly. “Wake up, defend your freedom.” He also touched on common themes in his speeches, including calling for an end to Muslim immigration and referring to the Muslim holy book, the Quran, as “an evil book” that promotes violence and intolerance.
A question-and-answer session was cut short after the tone of the event began to turn nasty, when some in the crowd of several hundred students began shouting jeers. Wilders’ security detail quickly ushered him from the room.
Before his remarks at Temple, a public university serving about 34,000 students, Wilders showed his 15-minute anti-Islam film, “Fitna,” which juxtaposes passages from the suras, or chapters, of the Quran with images of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, beheadings, shootings and speeches from clerics advocating violence against non-Muslims.
Temple officials issued a statement saying the university “is a community of scholars in which freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression are valued. We respect the right of our student organizations to invite people who express a wide variety of views and ideas.”
See also the Philadelphia Daily News which reports:
Before the speech, held in Anderson Hall, more than 50 protesters had denounced the appearance of Wilders at the school. Members of All Sides, an organization that seeks to promote peace between Israel and Palestinians, held pink pom-poms and shouted, “Hey Hey, HO, HO, this racist bull—-‘s got to go.” Standing next to them with signs decrying Wilders’ views were members of the Student Senate, Democratic Socialists and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance.
“Wilders speaks out about free speech while at the same time banning the Quran,” said Megan Chialastri, vice president of All Sides. “Banned books are not free speech and there is no way around that,” Chialastri said. “This is hate speech at its core,” said Monira Gamal-Eldin, president of the Muslim Students Association.
And over at Jihad Watch Robert Spencer reports the protest under the headline “Heavily indoctrinated student thugs shout down Wilders at Temple University”.
US Airways pays damages to ‘flying imams’
US Airways has agreed to pay “undisclosed damages” to six imams it kicked off a flight in 2006 because of alleged suspicious activity, a prominent rights group said Tuesday.
The men were removed from a Minneapolis to Phoenix flight on November 20 and questioned for five hours, sparking a protracted legal battle between the six and the airline, airport authority, US Airways, the crew and several passengers.
Four of the religious leaders prayed in the airport before boarding the flight, apparently prompting suspicions on the part of staff and passengers. In a statement, the imams said they were guilty only of performing “normal evening prayers.” After questioning US Airways refused to allow them to take another flight home.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hailed the settlement as “victory for justice and civil rights.”
See also CAIR press release, 20 October 2009