“The images of Muslims rampaging over rumors and unproven allegations of ‘Koran abuse’ are troubling – but not because of the behavior of the mobs. What else should we expect from fanatics whose religion justifies a toxic combination of arrogant superiority, spiritual entitlement, and corrosive resentment over history’s repudiation of their inflated estimation of their world-historical role?”
Bruce Thornton at Private Papers, 29 May 2005
Thousands of people across the Muslim world have rallied against the alleged abuse of the Koran by US personnel at the Guantánamo Bay military camp. Protesters in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Lebanon and Malaysia demanded the US apologise and punish those responsible.
The demonstrations came after the US military admitted some of its guards had mishandled the Muslim holy book. But the camp commander said no credible evidence had been found that the Koran had been flushed down a toilet.
“Oprah Winfrey’s popular print magazine – O – has an ongoing feature named ‘Rescuing the World’s Girls’. O‘s June 2005 edition focuses on the plight of an 18-year-old Palestinian who was tried, convicted and is currently serving time in an Israeli jail for conspiring to perform a suicide bombing. The author, David France, asks the question: ‘What would make a girl take such a radical and grisly step?’ France quotes an author and university professor who asserts that: ‘religion is not the cause [of Palestinian suicide terror]… these are people who define their situation as hopeless. They feel that they have no way to respond against what they see as Israeli military aggression.’
“Incredibly, the lengthy O article completely ignores a main factor behind Islamist terror – the incitement to violence that continually spews forth from Palestinian media and mosques …”
“In the first of its kind for an event organized by a major national Muslim organization, Kamal Nawash and the Free Muslims Coalition (FMC) recently held the Free Muslims March Against Terrorism. Not surprisingly, the leaders of every other major Muslim organization shunned the march and declined to take a public stand against terrorism and extremism.” So Joel Mowbray claims.
Front Page Magazine, 27 May 2005
According to one report of the 14 May demonstration, only 50 people turned up – see here. So if all the US Muslims who declined to participate in Kamal Nawash’s self-advertising stunt did so because they declined to take a stand against terrorism and extremism, then you can only conclude that virtually every Muslim in the US is a terrorist sympathiser. Which is basically Front Page Magazine’s line.
For some of the reasons why mainstream Muslim organisations didn’t support the “Free Muslims March Against Terrorism” see here and here.
Andrew G. Bostom offers a tribute to “a courageous Dutch Parliamentarian dedicated to the defense of the core Western values”.
The Pentagon admitted last night that it had uncovered five instances of mishandling of the Qur’an at Guantánamo Bay, but it claimed that there was “no credible evidence” that a copy had ever been flushed down the toilet.
“We have watched America attack us, destroy us, impose embargoes against our nations and then conquer our lands, imprison our people and generally deal with us as though we are savage animals whereby every single law be it international or even American is totally disregarded when it concerns the rights of Arab and Muslim individuals. Then they ask us why we hate them.”
Answering the question “Why do Muslims hate Americans?”, Reem Al-Faisal argues that a more appropriate question is “Why do Americans hate Muslims?”
A Muslim woman who was ordered by male prison guards to take off her headscarf before she could visit an inmate has filed a federal lawsuit alleging her constitutional right to practice religion had been violated.
Cynthia Rhouni, 43, of Madison, says the scarf, or hijab, that always covers her head and shoulders in the presence of men shows the world she is a devout Muslim.
Rhouni’s lawsuit claims that male prison guards at the maximum-security Columbia Correctional Facility north of Madison told her rules prohibited any head covering in the visiting room. They ordered her to take off her scarf before she could see her estranged husband in 2003, the suit alleges.
Further allegations that US interrogators at Guantánamo Bay flushed copies of the Qur’an down a toilet emerged yesterday, a week after the White House denounced reports of the incidents.
John Rosenthal boosts right-wing Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Transatlantic Intelligencer, 24 May 2005
Joe Katzman also applauds Ali’s attack on “the Left’s twisted version of multiculturalism”. As distinct from the true version of multiculturalism espoused by Mr Katzman, no doubt.
It can only be a matter of time before Peter Tatchell issues a press release promoting the virtues of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.