Michael Moore takes a stand on the Park51 controversy.
Rushdie backs Park51
“The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie is not a great fan of organized worship but believes an Islamic center and mosque should be permitted two blocks from ground zero.
Rushdie’s satirical novel led in the 1980s to worldwide riots by Muslims and calls for his death. He says he understands the “sensitivities” of building the site close to where thousands were killed during on Sept. 11, 2001.
But he says First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion should be honored. He adds that he is “not personally” a lover of mosques or any place of worship. But he says that if people “want a mosque, it seems absolutely right they should have it.”
Associated Press, 13 September 2010
See also the New York Post, which quotes Rushdie as saying of the Park51 controversy: “It’s just a stupid argument. Of course they should be able to build a mosque there.”
EDL burn Qur’an at London demonstration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I_kgw6fdGfY
The English Defence League proudly film themselves burning pages from the Qur’an during their demonstration in central London on Saturday.
They think the police officer who stopped them was a Muslim. I mean, why else would he intervene to prevent decent English patriots exercising their democratic right to incite hatred against Islam? The EDL have to content themselves with a tuneless chant of “Allah is a paedo”.
And the bizarre thing is, they post stuff like this on YouTube in the evident belief that it presents their cause in a favourable light.
SPD national executive votes to expel Sarrazin
Leaders of Germany’s opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) called Monday for the expulsion of Thilo Sarrazin, the author of a divisive book that claims immigration will be the downfall of German society.
The party’s general secretary, Andrea Nahles, said the SPD’s 40-member national executive had cast a “united” vote to begin proceedings against the 65-year-old.
However, opposition to Sarrazin from within the SPD has not been unanimous, with several senior figures expressing their support for him in recent weeks, saying they would resist moves to have him ejected from the party.
SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel confirmed Monday the decision to seek his removal was based on Sarrazin’s controversial remarks. A party tribunal in Sarrazin’s local district of Berlin must now decide whether he will be ejected.
Another EDL ‘flash mob’ – in Nuneaton
Police officers swooped to quell a racist confrontation which flared up shortly after soldiers had paraded through Nuneaton yesterday afternoon.
Members of the English Defence League attended the ceremony, which granted the Borough Council’s Freedom of Entry to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. As the march came to an end, the 60-strong EDL entourage headed towards the Edward Street area of the town, which is the heart of the local Muslim community.
“We were expecting some people connected with the EDL to be at the parade and after it had finished they congregated at The Crew bar in Queen’s Road,” said Chief Inspector Chris Lewis. “They positioned themselves outside and raised tensions with the Muslim community, which caused a few minor skirmishes but nothing of any consequence. We moved in to keep people at a distance and to calm things down. The EDL members were then escorted away from the scene and back to Nuneaton train station.”
The Warwickshire force commander, who was in charge of policing the parade, added: “We are constantly scanning for intelligence and knew that the EDL were planning to be in attendance for this occasion. Many of them had travelled from other parts of the country but they also had some local supporters.”
Around 200 people gathered around the Edward Street-Queen’s Road junction during a four-hour stand-off, as police officers, including dog handlers, kept the situation under control. All roads leading to the area were blocked for traffic and police reinforcements were also called in from the West Midlands.
Yaseen Ahmedabadi, assistant secretary of the Nuneaton Muslim Society, said: “The local community staged a peaceful protest against the unexpected and unwarranted presence of visitors from the English Defence League, who have no place in our society. We are very pleased with the way the police handled the situation.”
New Republic editor defends his claim that ‘Muslim life is cheap’
Under fire from prominent journalists, the top editor of the influential magazine New Republic on Monday apologized for suggesting that Muslim Americans be denied First Amendment rights, but stood by his broad claim that members of the Islamic faith don’t much value human life.
“[My] other sentence is: ‘Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.’ This is a statement of fact, not value. In his column, [the New York Times‘ Nick] Kristof made this seem like a statement of bigotry,” wrote Marty Peretz,TNR‘s editor-in-chief, in a blog post titled: “An Apology.”
“The idea that in remarking upon the cheapening of Muslim lives I was calling for the cheapening of Muslim lives, as some have suggested, is preposterous,” Peretz defended. “There is no hatred in my heart; there is deep anxiety about the dangers of Islamism.”
In his Times column Saturday, Kristof excoriated Peretz’s September 4 blog post, elevating the controversy over the TNReditor’s initial remarks. “Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews?” Kristof wrote. “How do America’s nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?”
“[A]t some point,” Kristof added on his Times blog, “criticisms morph into racist stereotypes and slurs, and the suggestion that Muslims don’t value human life and maybe don’t deserve First Amendment protections is just that, a slur. It should be offensive to all of us.”
The Raw Story, 13 September 2010
See also Salon.com, 13 September 2010
Update: And see Benjamin Sarlin, “Harvard’s Marty Peretz Problem”, Daily Best, 15 September 2010
‘Ground Zero mosque’ protest: Geller and Spencer will be ‘confiscating’ placards and banners
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have both announced that they “respectfully request that those of you who will be attending our protest against the Ground Zero mega mosque bring American flags, not signs…. Please get the word out now. We will be confiscating signs.”
“Confiscating signs”? Geller and Spencer have always portrayed themselves as uncompromising defenders of freedom of expression, notably in relation to Geert Wilders’s right to incite hatred against Muslims, yet here they are suppressing the freedom of their own supporters to express opposition to the Park51 development as they see fit.
Now, why do you suppose that might be? Well, it’s just a thought, but take a look at the signs above, which were brandished by participants at Stop Islamization of America’s last demonstration against Park51 in June – they rather expose Geller and Spencer’s pretence that SIOA’s events are anything other than an excuse to whip up fear and hatred against Muslims among ignorant racists, don’t they? To organise another such anti-Muslim hate-fest on the 11 September anniversary would be widely regarded as a sickening exploitation of a national tragedy, SIOA would be denounced by 9/11 families along with the mainstream media, and even Fox News might be less inclined to offer Geller a platform in future.
Of course, on the next SIOA demonstration it will no doubt be business as usual, and placards and banners bearing poisonous expressions of Islamophobic sentiment will once again be welcomed by Geller and Spencer.
It remains to be seen, however, how the mob of mindless bigots that Geller and Spencer have unleashed through their “Ground Zero mosque” campaign will react to the threat to confiscate placards and banners. I imagine that many of them won’t be too keen to go along with what they will see as a capitulation to political correctness.
Already some readers of Jihad Watch are expressing their incredulity at Geller and Spencer’s demand:
“WHY WILL YOU BE CONFISCATING SIGNS? Isn’t that another suppression of speech? … ISLAM MUST BE MET HEAD ON – lots of flags and ‘my feelings are hurt’ just won’t do the trick.”
“We will be confiscating signs? From my cold dead hands you will. This is America, Robert. We are not under sharia law nor are we under a police state. SHAME ON YOU for even proposing this!”
“Robert, I will bring the Dutch flag, Israeli flag or any other flag or sign I wish to bring to the 9/11 protest. This is not about you. I’m a avid reader and obviously support your and Pamela’s cause, but don’t ever tell us how to protest again.”
“Frankly, I’m not sure I care to defend a society where a mass demonstration by the people, which is their Constitutional and moral right, must walk on eggshells.”
“There is no legal authority to confiscate people’s property. End of story. It is America not Arabia…. The whole point of this demo surely is that it is about opposing Shariah ‘law’…. I think Robert and Pamela have maybe been spooked by CAIR. The most important thing is not to have an ‘offence-free’ demo but to have a demo with as many people present as possible.”
Park51 opponents at a protest on 26 August, not organised by SIOA but attracting the same mob of Islamophobes
– will Geller and Spencer be able to persuade them to leave their placards at home?
Right-wing Christians tear pages from Qur’an outside White House
A small group of conservative Christians tore some pages from a Koran in a protest outside the White House Saturday to denounce what they called the “charade of Islam” on the anniversary of 9/11.
“Part of why we’re doing that, please hear me: the charade that Islam is a peaceful religion must end,” said Randall Terry, a leading anti-abortion campaigner, and one of six people who took part in the protest.
Another activist, Andrew Beacham, read out a few Koran passages calling for hatred towards Christians and Jews, and then ripped those pages from an English paperback edition of the Islamic holy book.
He carefully put the torn pieces into a plastic bag, in order not to litter, and said: “The only reason I will not burn it at the White House is because to burn anything on the Capitol grounds is a felony.”
Beacham, who describes himself as a leader of the rightwing conservative Tea Party from Indiana, added: “The Twin Towers were taken down because of the Koran and other religious teachings.”
Eight arrests at EDL ‘flash demo’ in Oldham
Eight people have been arrested during an English Defence League (EDL) gathering in Greater Manchester.
About 120 members met in Oldham on Saturday. Some laid a wreath at the war memorial in Yorkshire Street.
Up to 50 supporters threw bottles at a police car at about 1315 BST, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said.
Four were arrested over public order offences. Another four were arrested, also on suspicion of public order offences, in the town centre.
See also Hope Not Hate, 12 September 2010
Update: See “No complacency over new EDL ‘flash mob’ tactics”, UAF 13 September 2010 and “EDL’s new tactic”, Indymedia, 13 September 2010
Ministers burn Qur’an in Tennessee backyard
A Florida pastor’s threat to burn Islam’s holy book on the anniversary of 9/11 set off a nationwide furor and incited Muslim anger as far away as Afghanistan, but the incendiary plan ended quietly in the backyard of a home in Springfield.
After a week that included warnings that burning the Quran would endanger American troops overseas, a personal phone call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and an appeal from President Barack Obama to listen to “those better angels,” the Rev. Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., relented and canceled his plans.
But the Rev. Bob Old vowed to stick with his plan to burn the Quran. On Saturday, despite the national tempest and opposition from conservative Christian leaders including Middle Tennessee pastors, Old carried out his plan. But for all the controversy and hype, his Quran burning took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.
Old and the Rev. Danny Allen stood together in Old’s backyard, answering what they say was a message from God. The pair soaked two copies of the Quran and one other Islamic text with lighter fluid, ignited them and watched the books disintegrate into ashes. “This is a book of hate, not a book of love,” Old said, holding the Quran, before setting it afire. “It’s a false book, it’s a false prophet (Muhammad) and it’s false Scripture.”
Three protesters stood across the street from Old’s home, holding signs that read “My husband fights terrorism and your actions perpetuate it” and “Proud of my country but ashamed of my neighbors.”