Herman Cain says he would not appoint a Muslim to his administration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

As the Republican presidential nomination process begins, one GOP candidate is making a name for himself as the Islamophobia candidate: Herman Cain.

Earlier this week, Cain gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he declared that, “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

ThinkProgress caught up with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza today at the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his comments further. We asked him, in light of his statements on Islam, would he be comfortable appointing any Muslims in his administration. Rather than skirting the question or hedging his answer, as most presidential aspirants are wont to do, Cain was definitive: “No, I would not”:

KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?

CAIN: No, I would not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.

The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.

Cain’s apparent rationale for refusing to even consider a Muslim nominee for any position in his administration is as simple as it is abhorrent: he believes all Muslims would try to “force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.” This type of bigotry has been promoted by conservative figures like Frank Gaffney and Brigitte Gabriel for years. Now, it appears to be seeping into the presidential race via Herman Cain.

Think Progress, 26 March 2011

Brigitte Gabriel warns Texans of Islamic takeover

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brigitte Gabriel on Fox“The Obama adminstration is focused on how to run and manage our lives. They are refusing to protect us from Al-Qaeda and radical Islam.”

That was part of the message that counterterrorism speaker Brigitte Gabriel delivered Saturday at the Taylor County Expo Center on behalf of the Abilene 912 project. Gabriel is co-founder of Act! for America, a grass-roots organization whose goal is to “effectively inform, educate and mobilize Americans regarding the multiple threats of radical Islam,” according to its website.

“Al-Qaeda is run under American management,” Gabriel said. She noted cases such as American born-cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who allegedly inspired Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan and that Al-Qaeda’s current chief operations officer grew up in Florida. Citing these and other examples, she then touched on events imbedded with controversy.

“How can people complain about Peter King holding hearings?” Gabriel said, referring to the hearings being held by the congressman in Washington, D.C., on the radicalization of American Muslims that have drawn heavy criticism from Muslim groups and other politicians. “Throw political correctness in the garbage, where it belongs!” she said emphatically, drawing a standing ovation from the audience.

She went even further, telling the audience that radical Islam, in the form of the Middle East-born organization the Muslim Brotherhood, was infiltrating the United States.

“They have a 100-year plan for Islam to dominate the United States and take over the rest of the world,” Gabriel said, referring to an document from the Muslim Brotherhood that she said came to light in the trial of an Islamic charity after the 2001 attack.

She cited mainstream Muslim organizations such as CAIR (Council on Islamic Relations), the Muslim Students Association and ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) as being fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood.

“CAIR works with groups like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union),” she said. “What could they possibly have in common? They are useful idiots in the hands of our enemies.”

“There are more chapters of the Muslim Students Association then there are of Democratic or Republican organizations on college campuses in the U.S.,” she said, drawing gasps from the crowd.

Gabriel then discussed how Saudi Arabia had spent more than $85 million funding universities across America, and also told the audience of an instance in a California middle school where students were, in her words, “forced to become Muslims for two weeks.”

After the speech, audience members reacted positively. “I really didn’t know how bad the infiltration was in America,” said Wes Hamilton, whose boss had given him free tickets to the event. “I don’t know how dangerous it will become if we don’t do something about it.”

Stan Keen came from Mertzon, near San Angelo, to see Gabriel. “I agree with pretty much everything she had to say,” Keen said. “She’s against everything the left stands for.”

Abiline Reporter-News, 26 March 2011

The failure of multiculturalism and how to turn the tide – according to Geert Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistGeert Wilders was invited to deliver the annual lecture at the Magna Carta Foundation in Rome on 25 March. His speech can be found on the PVV website, and has been enthusiastically reproduced at Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, Winds of Jihad and other rabidly Islamophobic blogs. The British National Party in London are fans too, as indeed is the BNP’s former legal adviser Lee Barnes.

Most of the content of Wilders’ speech is predictable. You know the sort of thing. Islam is plotting to conquer Europe (“Islam strives for world domination. The koran commands Muslims to exercise jihad and impose shariah law”) and the left has made a conscious decision to facilitate this takeover through its embrace of multiculturalism. According to Wilders:

“Leftist multiculturalists are cheering for every new shariah bank, for every new islamic school, for every new mosque. Multiculturalists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.”

And not just the left. According to Wilders, “the establishment parties of the Right still harbour their belief that Islam is a religion of peace on a par with peaceful religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and others”. Whereas, in Wilders’ opinion, “the truth is that Islam is evil, and the reality is that Islam is a threat to us”.

Wilders offers his solutions. “First, we will have to defend freedom of speech” (except of course when freedom of speech is used to attack Wilders himself). We must abandon cultural relativism, resist the encroachment of sharia law, “forbid the construction of new mosques” and strengthen the powers of the nation state in order to “stop immigration from Islamic countries”, while existing communities of recent migrant origin “must assimilate and adapt to our values”.

One proposal that hasn’t been heard from Wilders before, so far as we know, is to support and celebrate Muslims who decide to renounce their faith. Wilders states:

“An International Women’s Day is useless in the Arab world if there is no International Leave Islam Day. I propose the introduction of such a day in which we can honor the courageous men and women who want to leave Islam. Perhaps we can pick a symbolic date for such a day and establish an annual prize for an individual who has turned his back on Islam or an organization which helps people to liberate themselves from Islam.”

You might wonder whether this opens up the possibility of co-operation between Wilders and Maryam Namazie, who has played a prominent role in the campaign to encourage Muslims to abandon their faith. At any rate, it looks to me like Namazie and her Council of Ex-Muslims would be worthy recipients of Wilders’ prize. Wilders could also consider approaching Johann Hari, who might well be interested supporting this initiative – particularly if it involves his hero Ehsan Jami, who was expelled from the Dutch Labour Party for co-authoring an anti-Islam article with Wilders and has since joined the PVV.

Hans-Peter Friedrich now says Muslims do belong in German society

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In an interview with German public radio, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich distanced himself from previous remarks that had upset some Muslims in Germany and said Muslims do indeed belong in German society.

Friedrich took over the interior minister portfolio earlier this month in a cabinet shuffle and promptly stirred up resentment with comment on the integration of Germany’s Muslims, which make up 5 percent of the population.

At the time, he said there was no historical evidence to support the idea that Islam belonged in Germany. However, during Sunday’s interview he seemed to soften this tone. “The decisive thing for me is that these people belong to this society here,” Friedrich said.

The comments come ahead of the annual conference of Islam leaders on Tuesday, which Friedrich will chair. The conference was created in 2006 by Friedrich’s predecessor, Wolfgang Schäuble, to foster the integration of Germany’s Muslims.

“I am here to unite. I would like to make that plain at the Islam Conference,” Friedrich added. He also accused his political opponents of using his previous statements to drive a wedge between him and the country’s Muslims.

Deutsche Welle, 27 March 2011

Detroit congressman calls for investigation into border harassment of US Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, is asking for a federal investigation into allegations that border control agents are unfairly targeting Muslim Americans traveling between the United States and Canada. In a statement today, Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he was “contacting the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to initiate an investigation of these allegations.”

Conyers called for an investigation after the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations said Thursday it had received a rash of complaints from American Muslims about their treatment at border crossings. “We welcome Congressman Conyers’ concern regarding reported violations of American Muslims’ civil liberties and look forward to his leadership in addressing this issue in the Congress,” said a statement Friday evening from Dawud Walid, executive director, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan

The travelers said they were detained for questioning for unreasonable amounts of time and asked if they knew terrorists. “I had an American passport, and I was put in a cell for four hours,” Ann Arbor teacher Kheireddine Bouzid, who is of Algerian descent, told reporters at a CAIR-Michigan press event on Thursday. “They asked me if I could give them the names of any terrorists.”

Detroit News, 25 March 2011

Update:  “CAIR applauds Rep. Conyers’ call for probe of border harassment”, CAIR press release, 26 March 2011

Ketron amends anti-sharia bill

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bill_KetronTennessee lawmakers are rewriting a bill that described Islamic law as a threat to U.S. security and seemed to equate peaceful Muslim practices with terrorism.

State Sen. Bill Ketron and House Speaker Pro Tempore Judd Matheny, both Republicans, offered the revision after questions arose about the proposed bill’s constitutionality. “The revision reflects our original intention to prevent or deter violent or terrorist acts, but does so without any room for misinterpretation regarding the language’s affect on peaceful religious practices,” said Ketron.

Muslim and civil liberty organizations strongly criticized the original bill, saying its focus on Shariah law unfairly targeted Muslims and equated religious rituals such as dietary restrictions with terrorism. The bill now contains no references to Islam, but will allow Tennessee to prosecute those who offer financial or material support to known terrorist entities.

“I think it’s a victory for common sense and legislative restraint,” Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Tennessean. “This is a win for Tennessee’s Muslim community.”

Religion News Service, 25 March 2011

See also John Esposito and Sheila Lalwani, “Fear of sharia in Tennessee”, Comment is Free, 25 March 2011

Update:  See “Ketron Shariah bill not fixable”, Daily News Journal, 27 March 2011

Muslim leader says Flintshire mosque still a priority

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The man behind proposals for an Islamic Cultural Centre at a disused social club destroyed by fire says he is uncertain what the site’s future holds.

Mohammed Munchab Ali, chairman of the Flintshire Muslim Cultural Society, told the Leader that plans to establish a centre with a mosque in Flintshire remain in place despite Shotton Lane Social Club being burned to the ground early on February 4.

But he said any possibility of developing on the former social club land is out of the group’s hands and they remain in the dark over what the likely future of the site is.

Police yesterday confirmed they are continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, although they have said they are treating it as suspicious.

Mr Ali, who reached an agreement for the society to move into the social club shortly before the fire, said: “What happens with the site in Shotton is beyond our control. We are still waiting to hear from the police about the fire. The situation has not really changed since the fire but we still want to create an Islamic Cultural Centre in Flintshire.”

The group is continuing to use Queensferry Community Centre but retain hopes they can expand by moving into a larger facility despite the fire and protests against the proposed development. Their hopes for a new centre include inviting all members of the Flintshire community to come and learn more about Islamic culture and to provide more facilities for women and children.

“Although we are still able to use the community centre, it is a limited facility,” added Mr Ali, owner of the Bengal Dynasty chain of restaurants.  “We are finding difficulties because of the small space available and we wanted to expand our activities. “The reasons why we wanted to move are still in place.”

The site is now in the hands of receivers, with the remains of the building having been demolished. Community leaders earlier this week called for action to be taken quickly over the future of the land and clear up the “eyesore” of rubble that remains.

Mr Ali said he felt people had stopped talking about the fire during the past seven weeks but added there has been plenty of support for his organisation’s aims. He said: “A lot of people have written to us since the fire.  We have had people wiring and saying they were very sorry about what had happened. If there is a positive over what happened, it has been the support we have received from people.”

The Leader, 25 March 2011

Sarkozy’s UMP competes with Front National to win anti-Muslim vote, Socialists reject Tariq Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islam has emerged as a central issue in the campaign for French local elections Sunday that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party hopes to win by taking a tough line on the integration of France’s large Muslim minority.

Sarkozy, who faces an uphill battle for reelection next year, has set the tone by blurring the border between his UMP party and the National Front, the once-shunned anti-immigrant party that recently overtook him in opinion polls.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant, until recently Sarkozy’s chief of staff in the Elysee Palace, has fleshed this out with a series of statements flirting with the anti-Muslim rhetoric that has made National Front leader Marine Le Pen so popular.

“The French don’t feel like they’re at home here anymore,” Gueant said this month in a verbal wink and nod at voters upset by the large numbers of Muslims in the country. “They want France to remain France.” The minister has called the Western-led air strikes against Libya a “crusade,” evoking Christian-Muslim conflict, and suggested that patients in public hospitals must avoid wearing religious symbols – another issue concerning mainly Muslims.

This rhetorical escalation came as France neared a runoff vote Sunday in local council elections. Le Pen’s National Front surged to win 15 percent of votes in the first round on March 20, just two points behind Sarkozy’s UMP party.

Both the centre-right government and Le Pen declare their aim is to defend “laicite” – the aggressive French secularism that strives to keep religion out of the public sector.

But amid debate about offering halal food in school canteens and Muslims praying in the street because their mosques are too small, the term “laicite” is clearly code for the problems France has adjusting to its 5-million strong Muslim minority.

The debate has alienated many Muslims, even such moderate figures as Grand Mosque of Paris Rector Dalil Boubakeur, who announced Wednesday he would not take part in a public debate on secularism that the UMP plans to hold on April 5. He said the debate about Islam “has greatly upset and worried Muslims who feel stigmatised because of their faith.”

The debate has carved deep rifts in the UMP leadership, even pitting Prime Minister Francois Fillon against Sarkozy and the UMP secretary general Jean-Francois Cope.

The debate has also sown confusion on the left because of a petition against the Islam debate launched by Respect Mag, a magazine that aims to promote intercultural understanding. The UMP rounded on opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry and former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius for supporting the text when it emerged that Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Muslim activist, had also signed it.

Both quickly withdrew their support because of Ramadan, who is vilified here as a covert Islamist out to subvert France. “If these two (parties) had wanted to agree to open the door wide to Marine Le Pen, they would not have done anything differently,” said Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies at Britain’s Oxford University.

Reuters, 25 March 2011

EDL supporter jailed for causing criminal damage

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Mansfield man has been jailed for eight weeks for causing criminal damage during English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism protests in the Leicester. John Kavanagh, 22, of Fritchley Court, pleaded guilty at Leicester Magistrates’ Court to two charges of criminal damage.

The incidents happened on October 9 last year, when damage was caused to windows at Fabrika Bar at the Arts Centre in Humberstone Gate East. Damage was also caused to police barriers placed on Humberstone Gate.

Nottingham Post, 15 March 2011