A satirical US attack on a questionable conference has been taken seriously, a sad reflection on that country’s ability to debate Islam, argues Brian Whitaker.
Category Archives: USA
Bakersfield mosque attack investigated as hate crime
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Kern County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a mosque attack as a possible hate crime. Authorities say Saturday’s incident left windows broken, cars smashed and worshippers frightened.
Witnesses reported that two men entered the women’s section of the mosque early Saturday morning. When the women called for help, the suspects left, allegedly yelling slurs such as “Arab terrorists” and “terrorists go home” as they ran out.
Later that night, witnesses said about 10 people returned to the mosque. They allegedly smashed the windows and damaged the cars that remained in the parking lot.
A spokesman with the sheriff’s department says when deputies arrived, they saw some people throwing rocks at the mosque. No arrests have been made in the case.
‘Islam is Peace for Britain?’ Robert Spencer thinks not
The Islam is Peace campaign has failed to impress the proprietor of Jihad Watch. Robert Spencer complains:
“There is not one word about fighting against the jihadist ideology of Islamic supremacism within English mosques and Islamic schools. Instead, point one of the campaign is to fight against undefined Islamophobia, as if the only reason why anyone regarded Muslims with suspicion was because of bigotry and hatred by non-Muslims. Well, I’ve got news for you. If ‘Islamophobia’ actually exists at all, it is a result of the over nine thousand violent attacks committed by Muslims in the name of Islam since 9/11.”
See Jihad Watch video here.
Note Spencer’s use of an interview with Anjem Choudary to illustrate the mainstream Muslim view concerning attacks on innocent people. Spencer does not of course mention that Choudary is the leader of a tiny group of extremist nutters who represent next to nothing within Islam in the UK. But, to take the charitable view, it may well be that he doesn’t even know that. After all, this is the same Robert Spencer who once assured his readers that Al-Muhajiroun was “Britain’s largest Muslim group“.
Robert Spencer and Phyllis Chesler join forces
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and US feminist Phyllis Chesler have co-authored a pamphlet, The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam, as their contribution to “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week“.
What with Julie Bindel’s Sunday Times article endorsing fascist myths about “Asian grooming”, an Islamophobic alliance between the racist Right and a warped version of feminism would appear to be a theme of anti-Muslim bigotry this week.
See Front Page Magazine, 5 October 2007
Download the pamphlet (pdf) here.
The cover of the pamphlet reproduces the notorious illustration which, as Spencer and Chesler are forced to admit in their article, also featured in the Front Page Magazine press release announcing Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week. It is in fact fictional, having been taken from a 1944 Dutch film called De Steen. Yet the press release assured readers: “The photo accompanying this article, which shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.”
‘Embracing foreign gods’ – George Bush capitulates to Islam
Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network expresses concern at the “Islamification” of the White House:
“President Bush is hosting a controversial event at the White House Thursday evening, with an invitation to Muslim officials and clerics to join him for prayer and dinner in observance of the holy month of Ramadan. Many Christians question the president’s decision to make the Islamic celebration of ‘iftar’ into a standard religious observance for the White House….
“Islam, referred to by some politicians as a religion of peace, is viewed by many conservative Americans as a faith rooted in violence and hostility toward non-Muslims, collectively referred to as ‘infidels’…. The Bible teaches that leaders who embraced, tolerated or celebrated foreign gods brought suffering and disaster upon their nation.”
Hate week comes to campus
“If you wanted to know what Sen. Joe McCarthy would sound like if he came back from the dead, read David Horowitz’s explanation for ‘Islamofascism Awareness Week’, an event he is sponsoring on college campuses across the country from October 22-26.”
Aaron Hess reveals the veteran witch-hunter behind a new round of Islamophobia coming to US campuses.
Ohio radio host says Islam’s ‘goal’ is ‘sex with children’
CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio chapter (CAIR-Ohio) today called on a local radio station to reprimand a talk show host who claimed that the goal of Islam is “sex with children for eternity.”
Yesterday, WLW-AM host Bill “Willie” Cunningham said on air: “The great war of this generation’s time is the war against Islamic fascists…. They do not live for life, they live for death. Only through death can they believe they can be with those 72 virgins in heaven and have sex with children for eternity, which is the goal of that religion.”
“These outrageous and inflammatory remarks can only serve to promote the kind of anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry that have such a negative impact on our society and on our nation’s international image,” said CAIR-Cincinnati Executive Director Karen Dabdoub. “Unfortunately, this troubling incident is further evidence of the growing level of rhetorical attacks on Muslims and Islam in the public arena.”
Dabdoub added that hate-filled words can and do lead to violent actions against Muslims. She said there have been several recent apparently bias-related incidents targeting Muslims in Ohio, including Nazi swastikas and the phrase “white power” spray-painted on a Toledo Islamic school and rocks thrown at worshipers outside a Columbus mosque.
Other recent incidents nationwide include a shot fired into a Texas mosque, a Muslim woman in New York being badly beaten in a bias attack, arsonists torching a mosque in Northern California, and vandals slashing the tires of vehicles owned by a Maryland Muslim activist.
McCain casts Muslims as less fit to lead
Senator John McCain said in an interview posted on the Internet on Saturday that the Constitution established the United States as a Christian nation and that his faith is probably of better spiritual guidance than that of a Muslim candidate for president.
“I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, that’s a decision the American people would have to make, but personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith,” Mr. McCain said in response to a question about the possibility of a Muslim running for president.
New York Times, 30 September 2007
See also Sepia Mutiny, 30 September 2007
Joe Kaufman: Don Quixote meets Meir Kahane
“While Kaufman makes his living out of calling for the expunging of Muslim nations and the shutting down of all American Muslim organizations, the American Muslim leaders he maligns are too busy to heed his desperate antics for attention; they are out there building bridges between communities and leading much-needed conversations that chisel away at misunderstanding and stereotypes.”
M.T. Akbar takes on US right-wing anti-Muslim blogger Joe Kaufman.
Greens join Muslims to launch EU Guantánamo campaign
Green MEPs and the British Muslim Initiative called on the government on Thursday to step up efforts to bring Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Deghayes back home to Brighton.
Speaking at the launch of a new campaign for European Union countries to offer homes to Guantánamo detainees, Sussex MEP Caroline Lucas pointed out that it’s been almost two months since the Foreign Office asked for Mr Deghayes’s release, “but he’s still being held captive unlawfully and we are all left waiting”. “The government must use the occasion of the current UN talks to press the urgency of Omar’s case,” Ms Lucas insisted.
Dr Lucas made her comments as she joined other Green Party MEPs in calling for EU governments to grant refugee status to other innocent men who are currently being held without charge at the concentration camp.
The MEPs have thrown their support behind a campaign spearheaded by French human rights group FIDH for asylum be to be offered to those Guantánamo detainees who are being held, on the grounds that they could face torture or persecution if returned to their home country. There are thought to be about 45 such prisoners.
British Muslim Initiative spokesman Anas Al-Tikriti also called on ministers to intensify their efforts to get Mr Deghayes back home. Mr al-Tikriti hailed the FIDH initiative, noting that at least one Tunisian detainee has pleaded to be allowed to remain in Guantánamo rather than face torture in Tunisia.
And he insisted that “those who masterminded Guantánamo, those who worked out its form and manner of functioning, should face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Mr Al-Tikriti warned that, if they were to get away scot-free, “other countries will feel that it is OK for them to commit the same crimes.”
Morning Star, 28 September 2007