Category Archives: USA

The Islamophobes that aren’t (if you believe Stephen Schwartz)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Schwartz complains that US Muslim organisations direct wild accusations of Islamophobia against people who are entirely blameless. Who are these persecuted innocents? Schwartz offers us an example:

“Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum has experienced more denunciation as an ‘Islamophobe’ than any other individual in the West. Yet Pipes has never once criticized the religion of Islam per se; he has never argued that the faith of Muhammad represents any problem, but has only censured its politicization and ideologization.”

Front Page Magazine, 28 April 2005

Anyone under the illusion that this represents an accurate summary of Pipes’ position would be advised to have look through the material on Daniel Pipes collected on our site.

Robert Spencer, however, takes issue with Schwartz for even accepting that Islamophobia exists:

“Does the labeling as ‘Islamophobic’ the practice of ‘attacking the entire religion of Islam as a problem for the world’ mean that it is Islamophobic to focus attention on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet as motivations for terrorist activity?”

Jihad Watch, 29 April 2005

Arab Americans sue Denny’s for discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Seven men of Middle Eastern descent have sued a Denny’s restaurant franchisee and one of its managers for $28 million, saying they were kicked out because of their ancestry and compared to Osama Bin Laden.

The men, who are all U.S. citizens, are seeking $4 million each from Restaurant Collection Inc., which owns the Denny’s franchise in South Florida, and shift manager Eduardo Ascano, whom they say compared them to the al Qaeda terrorist leader.

“This was a terrible act against Arab Americans,” Alan C. Kauffman, one of the attorneys for the group, said Wednesday.

The seven men are of Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian descent and include a doctor, a real estate agent, an insurance broker and a restaurant owner. They live in Broward and Palm Beach counties. They filed suit last week in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. No trial date has been set.

Associated Press, 28 April 2005

See also Palm Beach Post, 28 April 2005

US conference on Islam sheds light on dialogue

Posted on by Bob Pitt

For two days, an international conference on Islam opens Friday, April 29, in Madison, the United States, with an objective of clearing stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam, highlighting the merciful Islamic tenets and enhancing dialogue and understanding among the different faiths.

Under the theme “Islam and Dialogue”, the International Conference on Islam, held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brings together a cohort of senior academics, scholars and researchers from a number of leading US universities to discuss means of consolidating intercultural understanding and shedding more light on the aspects of Islam in American society.

“We need more intercultural, interfaith understanding. In our society we do lack knowledge about Islam and different aspects of it,” said Mustafa Gokcek, a UW-Madison graduate student and one of the conference’s organizers, The Capital Times reported.

Gokcek stressed that one of main goals of the two-day international conference is to show the diversity of the Muslim world and the Islamic cultures. “We tend to see a monolithic Islamic world. People mostly hear about Islam through terrorist events and suicide bombings,” he stressed.

Participants in the international event include professors and scholars from leading US universities such as UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Harvard, Notre Dame, Marquette, Emory, Northwestern, Boston College, Syracuse, Georgetown and Columbia.

Islam Online, 29 April 2005

Europe, radical Islam and secularism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Joe Katzman at Winds of Change expresses his admiration for Irshad Manji, who is quoted as saying: “I subscribe to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s point that ‘Islamic terrorism, both in the Netherlands and abroad, is able to thrive because it is embedded in a wider circle of fellow Muslims’. This is a reality that most Western security experts have yet to grasp.”

Winds of Change, 28 April 2005

For the full Aspen Institute interview, see here.

So, in circumstances where right-wingers are claiming that Islamic terrorists are not a small isolated minority but have roots in the wider Muslim community, Manji announces that this view is essentially correct. And at a time when many of her fellow Muslims are campaigning against increased state repression directed at people with no record of supporting terrorism, Manji suggests that the West’s security services have underestimated the true extent of the terrorist threat. Just brilliant.

Jailed candidate begins campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vote BabarAn alleged terror suspect yesterday launched his bid to become an MP from within the walls of Belmarsh high security prison. Babar Ahmad is fighting an attempt by the US government to extradite him to face charges that he raised money over the internet to support terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan.

The former IT worker, 30, is standing in the London seat of Brent North for Peace and Progress, the human rights party founded by the actors Corin and Vanessa Redgrave. His election literature calls for a tightening of extradition rules and an end to “police brutality and torture”.

At a press conference to launch Mr Ahmad’s campaign, Mr Redgrave said: “Electing Babar would be the most powerful message on human rights and justice that could be given. Just let the Americans try to say that an elected MP should be extradited.”

Guardian, 27 April 2005

For the Free Babar Ahmad website, see here.

American border secrets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“What steps should Western border agencies take to defend their homelands from harm by Islamists? In the case of non-citizens, the answer is simple: Don’t let Islamists in. Exclude not just potential terrorists but also anyone who supports the totalitarian goals of radical Islam. Just as civilized countries did not welcome fascists in the early 1940s (or communists a decade later), they need not welcome Islamists today.

“But what about one’s own citizens who cross the border? They could be leaving to fight for the Taliban or returning from a course on terrorism techniques. Or perhaps they studied with enemies of the West who incited them to sabotage or sedition….. America finds itself at war with radical Islam not just in Afghanistan but in Buffalo, Boston, Boca Raton, and Baltimore. Controlling the border flow, therefore, has paramount importance.”

Daniel Pipes, the man who applauded the exclusion of Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and Tariq Ramadan from the US, outlines his philosophy on border controls.

New York Sun, 26 April 2005

Fortunately, other US commentators take a different view of the suppression of Muslims’ civil liberties. See “Muslims’ lawsuit upholds liberties for all”, CAIR news brief, 26 April 2005

Or, for favourable coverage of democratic reformer Khaled Abou El Fadl, see “Are Islam and democracy compatible?”, CAIR news brief, 25 April 2005

Khaled Abou El Fadl has, of course, been denounced by Daniel Pipes as a “stealth Islamist” and is presumably exactly the sort of US citizen who deserves to suffer harassment when crossing the US border.

Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2004

‘The hypocrisy of Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Islam means peace and love and Muslims only want to be left alone to practice their beliefs – in peace. This is one of the greatest lies of the last century but many Muslims continue to say it, over and over, like a mantra, perhaps more to convince themselves than the rest of the world.”

FaithFreedom.org, 26 April 2005

Elsewhere on this revolting right-wing site an article can be found on Islam and women. It begins:

“The situation of women living in Islam-stricken societies and under Islamic laws is the outrage of the 21st century. Burqa-clad and veiled women and girls, beheadings, stoning to death, floggings, child sexual abuse in the name of marriage and sexual apartheid are only the most brutal and visible aspects of women’s rightlessness and third class status in the Middle East.

“Apologists for Islam state that the situation of women in Iran and in Islam-stricken countries is human folly; they say that Islamic rules and laws practiced in the Middle East are not following the true precepts of Islam. They state that we must separate Islam from the practice of Islamic governments and movements. In fact, however, the brutality and violence meted out against women and girls in nothing other than Islam itself.”

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Abu Ghraib only the ‘tip of the iceberg’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing prisoners at the Iraqi jail.

“Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch. “It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over – from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don’t even know about.”

Human Rights Watch called this week for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in cases of crimes against detainees. It rejected last week’s report by the Army Inspector General which was said to absolve Gen. Sanchez of responsibility.

“General Sanchez gave the troops at Abu Ghraib the green light to use dogs to terrorize detainees, and they did, and we know what happened, said Brody. “And while mayhem went on under his nose for three months, Sanchez didn’t step in to halt it.”

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‘Atomic Iran’ TV ad rejected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Atomic IranA TV commercial warning Americans that Iran intends to launch a nuclear terror attack in the U.S. has been rejected by several stations due to fears it might inflame Muslims.

Titled “An Atomic 9-11: When Evil is Appeased,” the spot, sponsored by the Iran Freedom Foundation, is based on a scenario described in the new WND Books release “Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians,” by Jerome R. Corsi, co-author of the best-selling “Unfit for Command.”

The ad, which can be viewed on the IFF website, began a month-long run last Tuesday in 17 markets nationwide. It was rejected, however, by independent stations in Chicago, Dallas and Roanoke, Va., according to the company that produced and distributed it, Fargo, N.D.-based TVAI, or Timeless Video Alternatives International.

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US tilts towards accepting Islamists’ political role

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A chorus of voices demanding the Bush administration to listen and talk with popular Islamists in Arab and Muslim countries has reached a crescendo with senior officials recognizing the faulty policy of giving the cold shoulder to a more representative current. Media reports have suggested that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will seek to meet with leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood during its upcoming visit to Egypt. The commission advises the US president, Congress and the State Department on international religious freedom worldwide.”

Islam Online, 26 April 2005

See also Islam Online, 13 April 2005 and 3 April 2005

Marc Lynch has also noted a rapprochement between the Bush administration and the Saudi monarchy, terming this “a pretty big setback for the neo-cons and hard-liners who have long identified Saudi Arabia and its export of Islamism as the premier threat to America in the region”.

Abu Aardvark, 26 April 2005

Or for a right-wing take on the change in US tactics, see David E. Kaplan’s article reporting that: “The White House has approved a classified new strategy, dubbed Muslim World Outreach, that for the first time states that the United States has a national security interest in influencing what happens within Islam. Because America is, as one official put it, ‘radioactive’ in the Islamic world, the plan calls for working through third parties – moderate Muslim nations, foundations, and reform groups – to promote shared values of democracy, women’s rights, and tolerance.”

US News, 25 April 2005

For an earlier indication of the shift in policy, see Condoleezza Rice’s speech to USIP on 19 August 2004, where she argued that the US government should “do everything that we can to support and encourage the voices of moderation and tolerance and pluralism within the Muslim world”.

US Consulate Mumbai press release, 20 August 2004

This prompted the question: “why is it that in the three years since 9/11 you haven’t given this kind of a speech to a Muslim audience in one of the five largest Muslim countries, nor has any senior administration official?” Rice replied: “That’s a very good question, maybe we should.”

Of course, this merely represents the adoption of a more pragmatic approach on the part of US imperialism. However, it does make things rather more difficult for the Islamophobes, right and left, who reject dialogue with any Islamists at all, or indeed with any Muslims less liberal than Irshad Manji.

Posted in USA