Category Archives: USA

Rehashing Orientalist cliches

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MHQ“Worse than classical Orientalists are modern American writers who rehash classical Orientalist cliches but who lack the rigor, erudition, knowledge, and language skills of classical Orientalists.

“This guy is a good example. So much of the treatment (especially on page 15) is so far off but have no time to elaborate. You read this article and you think that Zarqawi is the Prophet of Islam, and not Muhammad.”

As’ad AbuKhalil responds to the article “Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet” by one Richard A. Gabriel, in the military history magazine MHQ.

The Angry Arab, 17 May 2007

Venue withdrawn over line on Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mosques and MiraclesThe controversial Christian conference on the “threat” of Islam has lost its Christchurch venue after sponsors expressed unease at the tone of the seminars. The move has drawn scorn from some Christians who see it as kowtowing to political correctness and “Muslim outrage”.

The Mosques and Miracles conference was to be held at Spreydon Baptist church, but negative publicity surrounding the event had caused church management to reconsider. In March, Muslim leaders condemned Mosques and Miracles as “a conference of bigots” after the organiser, Murray Dillner, said Islam made a society “implode” and had a mind-set to “take over the world”.

Spreydon Baptist senior pastor Murray Robertson said sponsor pressure had triggered the decision. “A number of the people who support our community work said they weren’t comfortable with the position. Part of their brief is to not support groups that are intolerant. We had no control over the content of the conference and we felt we were taking a whole bunch of hits for something we had nothing to do with. Spreydon Baptist Church wishes to make it quite clear that we are not anti-Muslim in our attitudes.”

A Christchurch minister, who declined to be named, said he felt the church leaders who made the decision had “wimped out”. “Since when have Christians getting together in Christchurch to discuss world issues of religion and society been dictated to by Muslim outrage? I think it’s very sad and a bit sinister.”

The Press, 17 May 2007

Update:  See also coverage at Dhimmi Watch.

Muslims bent on world conquest (part 354)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“To Islam, a non-Muslim is a combatant against Allah and he is fair game to be subjugated and killed. When some billion and a half adhere to the pathological belief of Islam and use it as their marching order of life, the rest of humanity can ignore the threat only at its own peril. Once again, a resurgent Islam is on a campaign of conquest throughout the world. Hordes of life-in-hand foot-solider fanatical Muslims are striving to kill and get killed. All they want is the opportunity to discharge their homicidal-suicidal impulse, on their way to Allah’s promised glorious paradise…. Deluded by the threats and promises of Islam, Muslims, poor or rich, vie with one another in furthering the violent cause of Allah. Many non-Muslims are also victims of a different, yet just as deadly, delusion. They believe that Islam is a religion of peace, that only a small minority of Muslims are jihadists, and that Muslims can be reasoned with to abandon the Quran-mandated elimination of the non-believers.”

Global Politician, 14 May 2007

Madeleine Bunting interviews Ed Husain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It is as if, just as Husain once swallowed large chunks of Hizb ut-Tahrir propaganda, he now seems to have swallowed undigested the prevailing critique of British Muslims. He has no truck with the idea of Islamophobia, which he dismisses as the squeal of an Islamist leadership pleading special favours; he criticises Asian racism and castigates Muslims ‘who go back home to get married’ and produce ‘another generation confused about home’. On issues such as segregation, he is confident it is the fault of multiculturalism….

“One suspects the naivety which took him into Hizb-ut Tahrir has blinded him as to how his story will be used to buttress positions hostile to many things he holds dear – his own faith and racial tolerance, for example. A glance at the blog response to a Husain piece in the Telegraph reveals how rightwing racism and anti-Islamic sentiment are feasting on his testimony.”

Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian, 12 May 2007

For “left” support for Husain (from the AWL’s Jim Denham) see Shiraz Socialist, 12 May 2007

For right-wing support see Jihad Watch, 2 May 2007 and Melanie Phillips’s Diary, 13 May 2007

North Carolina church’s sign against Islam sparks controversy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

North Carolina church sign (1)

Words like “bomb” and “die” draw attention to the small sign in front of Good News Independent Baptist Church.

Rev. Gary Murrell put up the sign, which on one side claims the message of Islam is “submit, convert or die.” The other side reads: “When is the last time you heard of a Jew or Christian with a bomb strapped to their body?”

Despite some in the Islamic community who claim the sign is offensive, Murrell says it is not a hate sign. “It was not put up there with the purpose of showing that we hate those people,” he said. “It’s not the people, it’s the religion.”

Murrell says it is a violent religion compared to Christianity. But not everyone agrees.

“I would really say that the actions of one individual really do not represent the Islamic faith,” said Debbie Jaunich, with the Islamic Center of Raleigh. “The Islamic faith really calls for peace.”

“It’s sad to see that we still have this kind of ignorance in the community about the Islamic faith,” she added. Murrell says he is trying to make people think but Jaunich said she thinks it breeds discrimination and bigotry.

“The point is that their salvation is in Jesus Christ, not in the Islamic faith,” Murrell said. “I am not trying to be a bigot. I’m not. I don’t hate those people.”

Murrell says the sign has been up for about a week and that he plans to change it this weekend.

But discussion about the message will likely continue. The Islamic Center of Raleigh is inviting Murrell and his congregation for a visit to learn more about Islam.

WRAL, 11 May 2007

North Carolina church sign (2)

What is a ‘Muslim Reformer’? SANE explains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Victorious AmericaDavid Yerushalmi of the Society of Americans for National Existence (yes, that does produce the laughably inappropriate acronym SANE) explains why there are no moderate Muslims and why “Muslim Reformers” like Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be supported instead:

“The mythical ‘moderate’ Muslim … the Muslim who embraces traditional Islam but wants a peaceful coexistence with the West, is effectively non-existent … because he chooses to remain within traditional Shari’a-based Islam, where the Ulamā or Islamic legal scholars, and the Muftoon (singular: Mufti) who issue fatawa (singular: fatwa) or legal edicts, reign supreme together with the lesser mullahs, imams, and maulvis. A ‘moderate’ among these men will simply be shouted down, coerced into silence, or murdered. In contrast, the Muslim Reformer takes the proper position that Islam as it was created, as it has existed for 1,300 years, and as it exists now, is an evil political ideology the goal of which is a worldwide Islamic Caliphate.”

Intellectual Conservative, 10 May 2007

Years after 9-11, American Muslims increasingly targets of hate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Sometimes it takes a real yahoo to wake up a village. So, just wanted to say thanks to the person who sent Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a death threat last week. It carried the usual ‘Death to Islam’ rantings. But this one also had the chilling message: ‘Altaf Ali is a walking dead man.’

“Good job. We needed the wake-up call. Needed to remember that, six years after 9-11, Muslims in America continue to be the targets of violence and abuse. We especially need it now, with President Bush threatening a veto of legislation that would expand the national hate crime law.”

Ralph de la Cruz in the Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8 May 2007

‘In bed with the enemy’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Qaradawi and Mayor“Imagine if Mayor Bloomberg invited a Muslim cleric from Egypt known for his advocacy of female genital mutilation, wife-beating, ‘martyrdom’ bombings in Israel and Iraq, and the murder of homosexuals and converts from Islam to be an honored guest of the city. New Yorkers would naturally rebel against the mayor, who would certainly survive politically. But what if he did something even more brazen and perverse: invite the cleric back. Surely, it couldn’t happen here. But it did happen in London last year under the aegis of left-wing mayor, Ken Livingstone. Livingstone considers Yusuf al-Qaradawi (the cleric’s name) a huggable, ‘moderate’ liaison between East and West. Anyone arguing otherwise Livingstone accuses of xenophobia or – a ridiculous term now gaining traction in the United Kingdom – ‘Islamophobia’.”

Yet another right-wing boost for Nick Cohen’s book, What’s Left: How Liberals Lost Their Way, this one by Michael Weiss in the New York Daily Post, 6 May 2007

Of course, the visit by Dr Qaradawi actually took place in July 2004. But when you have such a lightminded attitude to the facts in general why bother getting the date right?