The problems facing young Scottish Muslims in a society in which chronic alcohol abuse and racism are a part of everyday life.
Mona McAlinden in the Sunday Herald, 5 June 2005
You can’t talk to an FBI agent that way, or can you?
Dressed in a navy suit and red tie, his hair parted neatly on the side, Special Agent Charles E. Frahm sat with practiced calm as Muslims rose, one after another, to hurl raw complaints at him. Mr. Frahm, who heads the counterterrorism division of the F.B.I. in New York, was at a banquet hall in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on Thursday night to listen, he had told the hundreds of residents gathered there.
And they responded. They were tired of being held for hours at airports when their names resembled those of suspected terrorists, they said. They were tired of seeing Muslims arrested on immigration charges. They were tired of having their mosques watched, their businesses scrutinized.
“America is our land!” Faruq Wadud, a Bangledeshi man, hollered hoarsely into the microphone as the room broke into a thunderous applause. “We are not foreigners! Our children, this is their motherland!”
‘Gitmo grovel: enough already’ – Charles Krauthammer
“Should the United States apologize? If there were mishandlings of the Koran, we should say so and express regret. And that should be in the context of our remarkably humane and tolerant treatment of the Guantanamo prisoners, and in the context of a global war on terrorism (for example, the campaign in Afghanistan) conducted with a discrimination and a concern for civilian safety rarely seen in the annals of warfare. Then we should get over it, stop whimpering and start defending ourselves.”
Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, 3 June 2005
Victor Davis Hanson agrees: “Like a parent with a naughty child, a maddening forbearance is the order of the day: They burn American flags, behead, murder, and promise death and ruin to Americans; we ignore it and instead find new ways of displaying our sensitivity to Islam.” His advice is to “press on. We apprise Syria to cease all sanctuary for al Qaedists and Iran to give up its nuclear program – or face surgical and punitive American air strikes.”
Melanie Phillips wholeheartedly endorses these “two tremendous articles” which “pinpoint the profound sickness of the west in turning upon itself over its defence against the war being waged against it rather than turning on its attackers”. She warns that “the war being waged with escalating ferocity within the west by its decadent elites, along with some alarming moral and intellectual confusion within the Bush administration – and, most crucially, a fundamental fear of confronting the religious ideology that is driving this monster – could yet be our undoing”.
US Guantánamo guard kicked Koran
The US has given details of how guards mishandled copies of the Koran at its Guantánamo Bay prison, including a case of one copy being deliberately kicked. The US listed five incidents of mishandling at the Cuban facility, including the splashing of urine and water on copies of the Koran.
The report said most of the cases were accidental or unintentional. It also said that there were a number of cases where detainees had desecrated the Koran by ripping pages, urinating on it and trying to flush it down a toilet.
Fire destroys mosque in Adelanto, California
ADELANTO — An early Friday morning blaze that destroyed a mosque in a cemetery has prompted the FBI to investigate whether the fire was started by someone motivated by hate.
Laura Bosley, an FBI spokeswoman, said the agency has not determined whether the fire that leveled the mosque at the United Islamic Youth Organization and Cemetery is a hate crime. She said an investigation into the blaze, which caused $225,000 in damage, is ongoing.
The cemetery’s caretakers, Ali and Michelle Khawaja, are hesitant to label the incident a hate crime. Michelle Khawaja said she doesn’t want to believe anyone in the community could be capable of something so cruel. “It stood for community; it stood for brotherhood,’ she said of the mosque. “I’m an American and a convert, and I would like to think that my American brothers and sisters believe in the rights of all people to freely worship.’
The 1,800-square-foot Muslim prayer hall was a place where people went to meditate and grieve over the loss of loved ones. The modest white building with two minarets was more than just a gathering place for the Muslim faithful in this High Desert town; it was a symbol of Islam and its fundamental beliefs, Michelle Khawaja said.
The blaze reduced the simple structure to a pile of smoldering ash and rubble. Authorities have not concluded whether it was started intentionally, said San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.
San Bernardino Sun, 3 June 2005
Se also “Muslim prayer hall burned to ground in California”, CAIR news release, 3 June 2005
If I see one more Koran ‘mishandling’ story…
“…I just might buy a few to kick around myself. The madness has gone far enough. The West is too darn ‘civilized’ for its own good. We’re teetering on the edge, ready to take a suicidal leap just to show the world how ‘compassionate’ and ‘tolerant’ we are.
“Despite what they may say, Muslims are and have always been on a mission to conquer and kill infidels. They’ve been doing it for centuries and will continue until we’re all dead, or they’re all dead, or the world ends, whichever comes first. We need to get over ourselves and focus on stopping the spread of Islamofacism. Period. Save civility and Koran ‘handling’ for less perilous times.”
A US right-wing Christian blogger joins Peter Tatchell in the struggle against Islamofascism.
Torture in the US gulag
“Guantánamo’s hundreds do not compare with Stalin’s millions, but the gulag is a fair analogy – how else to describe an international network of cells and interrogation centers holding prisoners without charge, for indeterminate terms, beyond reach of any court?”
Editorial in the Nation, 3 June 2005
Nazis denounce ‘soccer strip concession to Islamics’
“The influence of Islam on Britain continues apace and the latest news from a Glasgow football club should serve as a wake up call to those who fail to see the extent to which our Christian country is rapidly yielding to every concession demanded by those who follow this alien faith.”
Little Green Footballs joins the fascists in condemning this example of “Scottish dhimmitude”.
Liberals: applicants for Islamist domination
“In resurgent Islam the liberal West has met its fate. Islam is a non-Western religion set on conquering and converting non-Muslims, while liberalism is a Western ideology set ontolerating and including non-Westerners…. This complementarity spells the death of the West, unless there is a radical awakening on our part to the true nature of Islam and a willingness to oppose it.” Lawrence Auster warns that whingeing liberals are aiding and abetting Muslims in their evil plans to destroy Western civilisation.
Front Page Magazine, 2 June 2005
Filing Auster’s ravings under “USA” and “Right Wing” seems somehow inadequate. Perhaps we should introduce a new category for this sort of material – entitled “On Another Planet”.
Muslim firefighter may keep beard shock
A Philadelphia judge says a Muslim firefighter who refuses to shave his beard on religious grounds should keep his job for now while his legal case unfolds. Robert Spencer denounces this example of “political correctness and spurious tolerance”, and implies that an insistence on growing facial hair may not be the only threat this firefighter poses to public safety.