“Pipes is quick to parrot that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution. That is all very well – until you realize that his raison d’etre is to claim that every Muslim individual or group of mentionable influence is a conveyer of radical Islam – particularly if they are outspoken against the illegal Israeli occupation. On the other hand, everyone upon whom he bestows the ‘moderate’ badge is either a lone wolf with no credibility in the Muslim mainstream, an apologist for Pipes’ own radical views on the Middle East, or both.”

Ahmed Rehab takes on Daniel Pipes at Media Monitors Network, 10 September 2007

“Here is a clue why, despite billions spent by Washington on its global public relations campaign, the image of ‘ugly Americans’ still persists in many part of the world, particularly the Muslim world.

“Just look at the vicious demonization of Iran and everything Iranian in Hollywood, the US media and, of course, the political rhetoric of American politicians.

“A distasteful odor of hate ideology, repelling rational thought, is discernible everywhere, with Iran-bashing in vogue and evincing the darker side of US political culture, ie, the imperialist, xenophobic, intolerant and repressive sentiment of politicians and media pundits toward Iran.

“… other than several Iran-bashing motion pictures by the Hollywood ‘culture industry’, perhaps the most flagrant, and ugliest, manifestation of this phenomenon in US politics and media has appeared in that vital compartment of opinion-making we call political cartoons.

“Notwithstanding the recent controversies swirling about European cartoons denigrating Islam’s Prophet, or a German cartoon showing the Iranian soccer team dressed as suicide bombers, the right-wing American cartoonists have been making their own contribution – by depicting Iranians variously as dogs, beasts and, in the case of one published last week, by Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez, as cockroaches.”

Kaveh L Afrasiabi in the Asia Times, 11 September 2007

Petition against the “cockroaches” cartoon here

Thousands of Muslims from across the New York region marched down Madison Avenue in Manhattan Sunday, waving flags and flashing peace signs to protesters.

The 22nd annual United American Muslim Day parade was a peaceful affair on a warm, bright day that drew hundreds of beaming children. Though few people gathered on the sidewalk to watch the parade, the street was filled with proud participants. A small but vocal contingent of hecklers taunted marchers at 41st Street, though police officers kept both groups apart.

A well-dressed elderly woman walking up Madison Avenue told a friend on a cell phone: “I’m the only one in the street without a schmata on my head,” using the Yiddish word for rag. A passerby who heard the remark muttered under his breath that she was also the only one with dyed hair.

Rita Thompson, 44, traveled with her boyfriend from their home in Redington Beach, Fla., to protest the parade. Thompson later shouted expletives at marchers and said, “They’re all going to be bin Ladens.” “I’m so appalled by this, two days before the anniversary of 9/11,” she said later in an interview, adding that she called City Hall earlier in the week to urge Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cancel the event.

Newsday, 10 September 2007

The organiser of the protest was Joe Kaufman of the laughably named group Americans Against Hate, who denounced the parade as “a pre-9/11 celebration” that posed “a threat to New York and a threat to national security”, and called for it to be banned.

This hysterical campaign was rejected by mayor Bloomberg who insisted that Muslims are a “vital part of our city” and that it would be “a terrible mistake for anyone to implicate a whole group of innocent individuals – no matter what their faith – with the terrible acts committed on September 11, 2001”.

See Newsday, 7 September 2007

See also Front Page Magazine, 17 August 2007

US comedian and political commentator Dennis Miller offers his take on racial profiling, in an interview with Fox News: “I’m going to say that I scope out the Norwegians on airliners when I get on. But I don’t. If there’s a shaky looking Islamic cat near me, I keep an eye on him. And it’s just like watching the in-house movie. I have all these scenarios running through my head where I’m James Bond and I come upside their right temple with a sugar block as they go up the aisle way. And I’m sorry. I’m a human being. You know, I do Islam a disservice when I don’t point out its failings to it. And the simple fact is, they’ve been blowing a lot of things up lately.”

Quoted by Abdiel, 7 September 2007

“That Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the leader of the Union of Reform Judaism, the country’s largest Jewish denomination, would not only speak to a conference of the Islamic Society, as he did last week, but do so specifically with the agenda of denouncing ‘Islamophobia’ rather than using it as an opportunity to denounce the rising tide of Jew-hatred in the Muslim world, is a development that is as astonishing as it is lamentable. ‘Islamophobia’ is a red herring, a false debating point which seeks to change the subject from the very real threat of the infiltration of Islamist extremism in the United States to a focus on the mythical discrimination to which American Muslims are supposedly being subjected.”

Jonathan Tobin in the Jewish World Review, 5 September 2007