Islamophobia in the US, August 11, 2010
Islamophobia Today:
* Partner of Group Opposing NY Islamic
Center Says Kill All Muslims
* CAIR: Conn. Muslims Requesting
Protection from Protests
* Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet
Opposition (NY Times)
* Mosques in America: Faith and Anger (Photo
Essay)
* 'Museum Of Tolerance' Director Opposes Mosque But Built
Museum on Muslim Cemetery
---------
SIOA
Co-Founder: Kill Your Liberal Relatives and All Muslims
Loon Watch, 8/6/10
A great post by Daisy Cutter over at Daily Kos. It exposes one of the
co-founders of SIOA, John Joseph Jay, who if I am not mistaken is also a
frequent commenter on AtlasShrugs. . .
The recent controversy over the not-actually-"at"-Ground-Zero
not-actually-a-mosque is sure to heat up now that the first piece of red
tape was shredded away. One of the key leaders of the movement to
demonize the project, along with every other mosque being constructed in
the country, is well-known wingnut blogger Pamela Geller. Along with
Robert Spencer, she incorporated a nonprofit known as the American
Freedom Defense Initiative. This organization seems to be the umbrella
group that operates the more familiarly known SIOA (Stop the
Islamisation of America). It is this group that provided the funding for
legal counsel in its lawsuit to allow for anti-Islamic bus ads.
The articles of agreement for the non-profit corporation was
registered in New Hampshire and can be found here (PDF). One of the
founding members of the board is named John Joseph Jay.
A Google search for his name comes up with multiple accounts on
right-wing anti-Muslim pro-Zionist web sites. One of which is Israel
Insider. This profile further links us to his blog.To put it lightly,
this man is clearly very disturbed. . .
Here, he gives his rationale for viewing every single solitary Muslim
as a reasonable target for murder.
(More)
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Conn. Muslims Requesting Protection from
Protests
Luther Turmelle,
New Haven Register, 10/9/10
Connecticut Muslim leaders are
urging public officials and police to assure they can worship without
being harassed after members of a Dallas-based group showed up outside a
Bridgeport mosque Friday chanting what have been described as
hate-filled slogans.
The call for action is in the wake of an
appearance by members of Operation Save America outside the Masjid An-Noor
mosque on Fairfield Avenue.
The Rev. Flip Benham, director of
Operation Save America, was at the scene of the Bridgeport mosque
protest, but was not available for comment Sunday. . .
The
organization involved in the Bridgeport incident, Operation Save
America, is primarily an anti-abortion group that was once known as
Operation Rescue.
But members of the group stood outside the
mosque as worshippers prepared for the upcoming observance of Ramadan,
according to Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of Connecticut office of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and chanted hate-filled
slogans. Dhaouadi said the protesters said things like, "Islam is a lie"
and "Jesus hates Muslims."
"Our observance of Ramadan starts
next week and that means there will be an increase of people coming to
Connecticut mosques on a daily basis," said Dhaouadi. "We don't want to
get caught in a situation where things might escalate, either by people
protesting outside the mosques or Muslims who might become angry at the
protests." (More)
-----
Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition
By
Laurie Goodstein,
New York Times, 8/8/10
[NOTE: Prof. Ihsan Bagby is a CAIR
board member.]
While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque
near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken
out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far
less hallowed locations.
In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican
candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near
a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march
and a county meeting.
In late June, in Temecula, Calif.,
members of a local Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to Friday
prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a
vacant lot nearby.
In Sheboygan, Wis., a few Christian
ministers led a noisy fight against a Muslim group that sought
permission to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a
Muslim doctor.
At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques
in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and
noise - the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue.
But now the gloves are off.
In all of the recent conflicts,
opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages
from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly
wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.
These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate
about whether the best way to uphold America's democratic values is to
allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or
to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.
"What's different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility,"
said Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the
University of Kentucky. "It's one thing to oppose a mosque because
traffic might increase, but it's different when you say these mosques
are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading,
that civilization is being undermined by Muslims."
Feeding the
resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and bloggers - some
of them former Muslims - who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their
books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently
violent and incompatible with America.
But they have not gone
unanswered. In each community, interfaith groups led by Protestant
ministers, Catholic priests, rabbis and clergy members of other faiths
have defended the mosques. Often, they have been slower to organize than
the mosque opponents, but their numbers have usually been larger. (More)
-----
Mosques in America: Faith and Anger (Photo Essay)
By David A. Graham,
Newsweek
The latest front in America's culture wars: a
planned Islamic culture center and mosque in lower Manhattan, a couple
of blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. The ado over the
center--dubbed the "Ground Zero mosque"--has been particularly loud,
drawing protests from Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and others. But the
New York case is just one of several controversies about new mosques
around the country this year. Since 9/11, American mosques have been the
subject of protests, arguments, and attacks, from Manhattan to Milwaukee
and Tennessee to Temecula, Calif. In this photo, protesters demonstrate
against the planned New York facility. . .
-----
'Museum Of Tolerance' Director Opposes Mosque But Built Museum on Muslim
Cemetery
Rachel Slajda,
TPMMuckraker, 8/6/10
The group behind the recently opened "Museum
of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic
community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.
"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi
Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New
York.
"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why
create pain in the name of religion?"
It's a topic he knows
something about. The Wiesenthal Center caused an uproar in for building
one of its Museums of Tolerance on top of an old Muslim burial ground in
Jerusalem.
The building of that museum has "resulted in digging
up the remains of people who had been buried in a Muslim cemetery for
generations," according to City University professor Marnia Lazreg.
Indeed, in 2006, workers dug up bones, and an Arab group sued to stop
the project from going forward. (More)
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