CAIR asks DOJ to probe threat, powder sent to Iowa Muslim lawmaker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Iowa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-IA) today called on the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate a letter with “very threatening” language and containing a mysterious powder that was sent to a Muslim representative in the Iowa House yesterday.

The letter, sent to Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad Des Moines), was opened by his clerk Tuesday afternoon on the House floor. When a white powder “billowed out” from the envelope, a hazardous materials team was called and the Statehouse was locked down for several hours. The powder was ultimately deemed harmless.

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Is Britain too complacent about the far right?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

This was one of the issues addressed on last Sunday’s edition of the BBC television discussion programme The Big Questions.

Writing on his Demos blog, one of the participants in the programme, Jamie Bartlett, says the answer to the question is “no”. In particular he is dismissive of the idea that the English Defence League represents any serious threat and asserts that the police and media are “probably giving them too much attention”.

I take the opposite view. Despite its relatively small numbers – a Demos study co-authored by Bartlett estimates that it has between 25,000 and 35,000 supporters – the EDL exercises a disproportionate influence in encouraging acts of aggression against the Muslim community. This worrying development is in fact almost entirely ignored by the national media.

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Geller’s anti-Muslim campaign is ‘abhorrent and morally repugnant’, says ADL national chair

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geller should not be allowed to get away with playing the victim and hiding behind the mask of a “patriot and proud Zionist.”

Geller’s self-righteous campaign to show the world the “true face” of Islam is abhorrent and morally repugnant. Geller, in views she outlines in her blog, has linked Islam to bestiality and rape of minors, compared Muslims to Nazis and asserted that Islam inspired Hitler. The Anti-Defamation League has closely followed her anti-Muslim scapegoating and that of Stop Islamization of America, the organization she leads, and has posted additional examples of her comments on its website.

Terrorism inspired by fundamentalist Islam is indeed a true threat to America, Israel and democracies around the world. But in directing her rhetoric at the entire Islamic faith – indeed, in supporting campaigns to suggest that Muslims should abandon their faith entirely – Geller fuels and fosters anti-Muslim bigotry in society.

Robert G. Sugarman, national chair of the Anti-Defamation League, writes in the The Jewish Week, 3 April 2012

Sugarman was responding to a letter from Geller in which she claimed that the ADL’s national director Abe Foxman “demonizes proud Jews who love Israel and fight for freedom, while he kowtows to the Islamic jihad”. She really is completely off her head, isn’t she?

Why the US Right promotes Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims Are Coming cartoon

It seems that the Republican presidential aspirants’ fervor to confront Islam has receded a bit with the decline and fall of Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, but one can likely still count on Rick Santorum to come up with some bon mots on the threat posed by Shariah law. Those who fear that hands will soon be lopped off shoplifters caught in Cleveland appear to be making much ado about nothing, but there is a much broader and more insidious agenda that is really playing out behind the scenes. Perry, Gingrich, and Santorum are all smart enough to know that Islamic law is hardly poised to dominate the U.S. legal system, but they are using it as the wedge issue to deny the patriotism of Muslims in general and fuel the demands to exercise a military option against Iran.

Philip Giraldi on why the US Right promotes fear and hatred of Muslims.

AntiWar.com, 4 April 2012

Infidels threaten George Galloway

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SYI Galloway threat

Via Expose, here is the response of the South Yorkshire Infidels, a breakaway faction from the EDL, to George Galloway’s by-election victory in Bradford West.

Given that West Yorkshire Police recently arrested and charged a young Muslim over an offensive Facebook comment about British soldiers in Afghanistan, will their colleagues in South Yorkshire be taking any action over this Facebook post?

Swiss court: No minaret in Langenthal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Islamic cultural center in the canton of Bern cannot build a minaret, despite having received permission to do so before the controversial ban on minarets.

The Bern Administrative Court ruled today that the minaret in Langenthal was an iconic structure that didn’t comply with municipal regulation on rooftop structures. A complaint against the center’s dome was dismissed.

The challenge to the minaret came from the group “Stopp Minnarett Langenthal,” which said it was satisfied with the ruling.

An appeal can be filed to a higher court within 30 days.

WRS, 3 April 2012

See also SDA-ATS, 3 April 2012

Sydney Islamophobes confronted over ‘burqa’ stunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sydney burqa stunt

Ugly scenes erupted between a group of burqa-clad protesters and a Muslim man outside NSW State Parliament in Sydney today.

A group of men dressed in the veiled female garb as a publicity stunt to try and get the outfit banned. Members of the group Faceless ventured into a Sydney CBD courthouse, pub and bank without drawing much reaction, but faced a stronger backlash later outside parliament. “It’s got no place in Australia – it’s an affront to a civilised country like Australia,” Faceless member Nicholas Folkes said of the burqa.

Nine News filmed a man outraged by the protesters, shouting in their faces and pulling off their veils. “That’s what I think of you,” the man said after spitting on the ground. The argument became more heated when a man connected to Faceless referred to the prophet Mohammed as “a rat”.

9 News, 2 April 2012

Folkes (who lost his veil during the confrontation) is the Sydney organiser of the far-right Australian Protectionist Party. Another of the “burqa” demonstrators was APP supporter Sergio Redegalli, the man responsible for the notorious “Say No to Burqas“/”Say No to Fiona Byrne” mural.

See also 7 News, 2 April 2012