In the battle for who hates Islam more it seems the slightly less Islamophobic Diane Black has beaten the fanatical Lou Ann Zelenik:

Diane Black easily beats Lou Ann Zelenik in 6th District

U.S. Rep. Diane Black defeated rival Lou Ann Zelenik to win the Republican nomination for the 6th Congressional District in a race that could serve as a bellwether for the relationship between mainstream conservatives and tea party activists across Tennessee and the nation.

Black led Zelenik by a 2-to-1 margin with most precincts reported after a nasty campaign that one national commentator called “the craziest GOP House race of the year.”

“I am so honored to once again say thank you to the voters for giving me the confidence, giving me their confidence, to say I want to send you back to Washington to work for our Tennessee values,” Black told supporters in Hendersonville.

Zelenik conceded the race from her election night rally in Mt. Juliet shortly after 8:30 p.m.

The race was a rematch between two candidates who had fought it out for the Republican nomination two years ago, only for Black to prevail by fewer than 300 votes

Black pulled out to a sizable lead, even before results were reported from her stronghold of Sumner County, which she represented in the state legislature for 12 years until her election in 2010.

Zelenik started the race with a clear handicap. Redistricting removed fast-growing Rutherford County, where Zelenik had once served as party chair, from the 6th District. Those voters were replaced by a handful of rural counties, mainly on the Cumberland Plateau.

The race drew national attention as the depth of the animosity between Zelenik and Black became apparent. A frequent ad by the Black campaign described Zelenik, who has never held public office, as a “career politician” who had moved into the 6th District for the sole purpose of running against Black. The spot featured a moving van with Zelenik’s picture on the side.

Conservative activist Andy Miller led a $200,000 independent expenditure campaign on Zelenik’s behalf that included television spots, radio ads and push polling. Zelenik’s campaign, meanwhile, also said Black had been soft during her term on government spending and repeal of the federal health-care reform law.

Zelenik said repeatedly that Black had voted to fund “Obamacare,” a claim that the fact-checking organization PolitiFact labeled as false.

The bad blood between the two started during the 2010 Republican primary. That race ended in litigation over ads Zelenik’s side aired that accused Black of steering state government contracts to her husband’s drug testing firm, Aegis Sciences.

After that election, Zelenik continued to lay groundwork for another run. With Miller and others, Zelenik co-founded the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, a group dedicated to publicizing what they see as the impending threat of Islamic law.

Rep. Lou Gohmert is one of the looniest politicians in Congress. He regularly engages in strange and Islamophobic rhetoric about Islam and Muslims. The Young Turks take issue with Gohmert’s horrendous comments on the reasons for the shooting in Colorado.

Congressman Blames Shootings On Attack on Religious Beliefs

Louie Gohmert “I’m Hugging Muslims Around The World”

A very important piece from Sheila Musaji:

Is Congressional Christian Brotherhood Group Behind GOP Islamophobia?

by Sheila Musaji (TAM)

It is interesting how many of those in Congress who have an Islamophobia problem are members of the same group CAPITOL MINISTRIES which hosts regular Christian Bible studies for, and ministers to, members of Congress.  Capitol Ministries has a website at http://www.capmin.org/site/  They say about their purpose that The motto of Capitol Ministries is delivering the gospel to every political leader, in every capitol, every year. Since our founding in 1996, our vision has always been the same: to evangelize elected officials and lead them toward maturity in Christ. We stay away from politics altogether.

Who are the elected representatives active in this group?

On the Capitol Ministries page listing Congressional Sponsors here are those listed as of 7/20/12:

Todd Akin (MO), Michele Bachmann (MN), Spencer Bachus (AL), Marsha Blackburn (TN),Paul Broun, (GA), Dan Burton (IN), John Campbell (CA), John Carter (TX), Bill Cassidy (LA), Jeff Denham (CA), John Duncan (TN), Mary Fallin (Gov. OK), John Fleming (LA, Trent Franks (AZ), Scott Garrett (NJ), Louie Gohmert (TX), Tom Graves (GA), Ralph Hall (TX), Gregg Harper (MS), Pete Hoekstra (MI), Randy Hultgren (IL), Bill Johnson (OH), Jim Jordan (OH), Steve King (IA), James Lankford (OK), Doug Lamborn (CO), Mike McIntyre (NC), Gary Miller (CA), Sue Myrick (NC), Randy Neugebauer (TX), Steve Pearce (NM),Mike Pence (IN), Mike Pompeo (KS), Bill Posey (FL), Tom Price (GA), Ben Quayle (AZ), Tim Scott (SC), Lamar Smith (TX), Steve Southerland (FL), Marlin Stutzman (IN), Glenn Thompson (PA), Scott Tipton (CO), Joe Wilson (SC), Allen West (FL), Lynn Westmoreland (GA), Steve Womack (AK)

Here are some of the positions taken by members of the Capitol Ministries.  All of those members whose names are bold above are those that I am aware of who have taken bigoted anti-Muslim positions:

Representatives Trent Franks, John Shadegg, Paul Broun, and Sue Myrick objected to Muslim interns on Capitol Hill, calling them “infiltrators”.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL), invited Citizens for National Security to present its alarm of Islamic sedition in the basement of the Rayburn House office building.

When Gaffney’s anti-Sharia report was released, it was praised by Republican members of Congress Trent Franks (AZ), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Pete Hoekstra (MI).  I also posted a follow up report Frank Gaffney’s obsession with Sharia.

Last year, after the first reports about serious problems with anti-Muslim materials being included in training programs, the government said that it would conduct an inquiry into the problem.  In the article American Muslims welcome Senate inquiry into accuracy and effectiveness of counterterrorism training I note that The Westminster Institute reports that Rep. Mark Amodei (NV-02); Rep. Dan Burton (IN-05); Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03); Rep. Randy Forbes (VA-04); Rep. Trent Franks (AZ-02); Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01); Rep. Kay Granger (TX-12); Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14); Rep. Mike Kelly (PA-03); Rep. John Kline (MN-02); Rep. Bill Posey (FL-15); Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46); Rep. Allen West (FL-22); Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (GA-03); Rep. Frank Wolf (VA-10) all signed a letter sent to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder objecting to changes being made to training programs.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), Ralph Hall (R-TX) and State Rep. Jerry Madden (R-TX) were on the Honorary Host Committee for a Collin County Conservative Republicans 2009 evening with Pamela Geller of the hate group SIOA?  **

An Islamophobic site called Democracy Under Attack lists those in Congress who should be thanked for “leading the fight against Sharia in America”.  Their list of those who have worked to on anti-Sharia measures includes:  Trent Franks, Tom Price, Mike Pence, Dan Burton, Dennis Moore, Pete Hoekstra, Michele Bachmann, Sue Myrick, Zach Wamp.

James Lankford of Oklahoma has as on the issues page online, and one of those issues is Principles and Values, in which he proudly lists:  – Shariah law is major threat; Islam not like other religions. (Aug 2010) -
Council on American Islamic Relations is linked to terrorism. (Aug 2010) – Designate first weekend in May as Ten Commandments Weekend. (Apr 2011).

The Center for Security Policy, the 7th Amendment Advocate and The Legal Project of the Middle East Forum presented a discussion on Capitol Hill entitled, Shariah vs. the Constitution. Making opening remarks on that topic was the event’s sponsor, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO).**.  Speakers included Frank Gaffney and David Yerushalmi.

On his website Rep. Steve Pearce declares “The rise of radical Islam in recent years has brought a new threat to America. We must maintain a strong military that continues to be second to none. … Military engagement is always a decision with severe long-term consequences. In making that decision, we must be prepared to commit fully, or not at all.”

This year, Representatives Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland sent out the infamous letter demanding an investigation of Muslim Brotherhood “infiltration” of the U.S. Government.

In our TAM collection of anti-Muslim statements made by elected representatives the following members of Capitol Ministries are listed: Michele Bachmann, Paul Broun, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Steve King, Gary Miller, Sue Myrick, Lamar Smith, Allen West.

Looking through information on Capitol Ministries, it seems that they are not only anti-Muslim, but also anti-gay, and anti-Catholic.  However, they seem to focus more of their venom on Muslims.

What sort of “Christian” message are they receiving?  What Bible passages are they studying?  How is it that of the 46 Congressional sponsors on Capitol Ministries list, at least 23 of them have been involved in anti-Sharia, anti-Muslim, Islamophobic activities?  That’s at least 50% of the members of this group who seem to believe that it is a “Christian” value to bash Muslims.  Does this really represent “maturity in Christ”?

These are people who have political power, and are using it to demean and demonize members of a minority religion.  In the lengthy article Michele Bachmann Ups the Ante in the GOP War on American Muslims, I discuss at length why this most recent attack is so important.  Four out of the five representatives who sent out these letters regarding supposed Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government are members of the Capitol Ministries group.

As I said in that article:

Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland should all be ashamed of themselves.  And, Bachmann, Franks, Gohmert, and Westmoreland who are all members of Capitol Ministries that hosts regular Christian Bible studies for, and ministers to, Members of Congress, should pray on what they are doing.  They might also want to consider just how much their Islamophobic rantings sound like a previous generations anti-Semitism.

…  It would seem that some of our elected representatives had their fingers crossed when taking this oath.

All of these folks really need to study the Constitution of the United States to remember that the Congress represents “we the people”, all of us, not just some particular segments of the population.

American Muslims are a part of “we the people”.  We are Americans.  We are not going anywhere.  And, I believe that it is well past time that other Americans begin standing up against this demonization of Islam and Muslims.  It would be nice to know that this sort of bigotry is not shared by most of our fellow Americans.

As the MPAC statement on this incident said: The congressional leaders making these accusations along with Bachmann have breached the trust of the public they serve. These members must be held responsible by the media and their constituents. If there was any offense that would warrant a resignation from a member of Congress, it seems that we have reached that point.

 
UPDATE:

The National Catholic Reporter reports that:

Rabbi David Saperstein,Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement in response to the charge made my Cong. Michele Bachmann and other House Republicans, that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the U.S. government:

I am deeply troubled by the allegations made by Rep. Michelle Bachmann and other Members of Congress in letters to the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and State, asserting that respected government officials and religious organizations are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. The letters assert that Huma Abedin, Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Clinton, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and ISNA President Imam Mohammed Magid, are all connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, posing a potential security risk to the United States.

The Reform Movement, and I personally, have worked with Ms. Abedin, Imam Magid and ISNA for many years. All have worked on behalf of U.S. interests at home and abroad, built relationships across religious lines and affirmed U.S. constitutional values.

These letters reflect a general pattern of Islamophobia that touches too many areas of our society. Allegations such as these by Members of Congress add legitimacy to this distressing trend. I hope that Rep. Bachmann and the other signatories will either produce credible evidence that substantiates their claims or withdraw them and do no further damage to the level of public discourse through the dissemination of unsubstantiated and harmful claims.

And, Amanda Terkel reports that

WASHINGTON—A leading Jewish organization on Friday forcefully condemned the allegations made by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and four other members of Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the U.S. government.

“These sweeping accusations by members of Congress against American citizens who are Muslim are unfair and misguided,” Robert G. Sugarman and Abraham H. Foxman, the national chair and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. “Absent clear evidence of direct ties between these individuals and the Muslim Brotherhood, such allegations foment fear and cast the kind of suspicion that undermines rather than advances American counterterrorism efforts.”

…  The ADL wrote letters to these five members of Congress on Friday, expressing their displeasure with their charges.

“Members of Congress have an essential role to play in raising legitimate concerns about threats to America’s security from international terrorist groups,” ADL wrote. “Those efforts should not be tainted by the kind of stereotyping and prejudice that has too frequently accompanied the public debate. … We strongly urge you to reconsider your allegations and to refrain from promoting or trafficking in anti-Muslim conspiracy theories in the future.”

It is very encouraging that leaders in the Jewish community are speaking up on this issue.  The voices of leaders in the Christian community, are at this point silent.

SEE ALSO:

Capitol Ministries: Making disciples for Jesus Christ in state legislatureshttp://www.jewsonfirst.org/07b/capitol_ministries.html

Meet The Religious Right/Tea Party Ministry At The Heart Of Capitol Hillhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/capitol-ministries

Peter King

Rep. Peter King‘s anti-Muslim hearings have taken on their fifth incarnation today. This time the exercise in political theater and GOP driven bigotry revolved around the topic of “The American Muslim Response to Hearings on Radicalization in their Community.” Essentially, “hearings about the hearings.”

By now the hearings have taken on a predictable sequence. Rep. Peter King opens the hearings by defending the hearings, saying they are very important and necessary; how he never said “there are too many mosques“ in the USA; how American Muslims should welcome these hearings; how the “moderate” ones do welcome these hearings, etc. After a few words from his Democratic counterpart, we hear the testimonies of the carefully selected witnesses.

King’s witnesses all serve his purpose, they are usually non-specialists who provide anecdotal evidence and or emotional appeals couched in deep seated Islamophobic stereotypes and thinly-veiled anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Today was Zuhdi Jasser‘s second appearance at the King Hearings. This is not a coincidence, Jasser is friends with King, (King you will recall spoke at Jasser’s Pro-NYPD Spying/Profiling on Muslims rally), and of course Jasser is there to say what King wants to hear. His testimony essentially boiled down to blaming those who expose Islamophobia for creating a “climate of fear” not the Islamophobes themselves.

Not to be outdone by Jasser, faux liberal and useful tool Asra Nomani engages in blame shifting, putting the rise in Islamophobia directly on the shoulders of Muslims, saying “Islamophobia is a frustration with a community that won’t own its own problems.” I guess that explains the attempts at outlawing Islam, banning Sharia, rise in hate crimes, the disproportionate level of employment discrimination against Muslim, etc.?

The lone voice for reason was Faiza Patel, who reverted to those pesky things called FACTS in her testimony. Relying on empirical evidence and studies Patel highlighted the basic point that we have been arguing for quite some time on Loonwatch: “The so-called Homegrown Terrorism Threat is grossly exaggerated.” She also pointed out that the hearings have overwhelmingly been received negatively by the American Muslim community.

As occurred in the past there were courageous Congressmen and women who spoke out strongly against the hearings as casting a pall of suspicion over the whole American Muslim community, singling out Muslims and feeding Islamophobia while not serving any practical benefit at all.

The fighters for justice in this regard are the same as in the first hearing: Rep. Sheila J. Lee, Rep. Al Green, Rep. Laura Richardson, Rep. Clarke, Rep. Sanchez and more.

Highlights:

-Faiza Patel sounding off on the panelists’ interest in theologically debating Islam, pointing out that “debating Islam is not the Government’s business.”

-Rep. Green asking when we are going to have a hearing on radicalization amongst Christian Americans?

-Rep. Richardson pointing out that “this is not a talk show, this isn’t Oprah, this is a US Congressional Hearing; panelists should be professionals.”

-The strange attempt to link giving up of smoking/drinking, ”hip hop clothing”, and going to the mosque more often with the process of radicalization. Something tells me these are not indicators of “radicalization.”

In the meantime:

For our past coverage of the hearings see:

-Peter King’s “Muslim Hearings” are Political Theater to Target Muslims

-Peter King and “Prislam”: Round 2 of Muslim American Radicalization Hearings

-Peter King’s 4th anti-Muslim Hearing Focuses on “Threats” to US Military Communities

Members of Congress speak out and call for an investigation of the FBI’s so-called “outreach” events, that were really cover to spy on American Muslims. (h/t: Wilfredo A. Ruiz)

Members of Congress Urge Investigation of FBI Muslim Surveillance

We may have spoke to soon when we wrote that the Murfreesboro Mosque saga in Tennessee may be coming to an end.

Tennessee Congressional Race Gets 100 Percent More Anti-Shariah-y

By Tim Murphy (Mother Jones)

If you live in Middle Tennessee, get ready for another four months of overheated rhetoric about Islam. On Thursday, tea partier and anti-Shariah activist Lou Ann Zelenik announced that she’s challenging incumbent Rep. Diane Black (R), setting up a rematch of a 2010 GOP primary that focused heavily on the question of whether Muslims in Murfreesboro should be allowed to build a new mosque.

In that campaign, Zelenik lashed herself to the mosque issue, speaking at a march to protest the construction, and accusing Black of being soft on Shariah. As she told Talking Points Memo, “This isn’t a mosque. They’re building an Islamic center to teach Sharia law. That is what we stand in opposition to.” Zelenik feared that a new mosque in Murfreesboro would be a stepping stone to a more sinister end—the encroachment of radical Islam into Middle Tennessee. It wasn’t a winning issue, it turned out, but Zelenik’s argument resonated in the city. Later that year, a handful of residents filed a lawsuit to block the construction of the mosque, arguing that Muslims weren’t protected by the First Amendment because Islam is a totalitarian political system, not a religion (the Department of Justice was forced to file an amicus brief noting that, yes, Islam is a religion).

Although Black took a relatively moderate stance on the mosque when she ran for Congress, promising to respect Tennesseans’ freedom of religion, she has an anti-Islam history, too: as a state Senator, she sponsored Tennessee’s 2010 law designed to ban Islamic law from being enforced in state courts.

The added wrinkle here, which should give the primary an added degree of out-in-the-open animosity, is that until two weeks ago, Zelenik was being sued by Black’s husband. The suit centered on an ad Zelenik ran during the 2010 pointing out that then-state Sen. Black had steered contracts to her husband’s forensic science business. Black and his company, Aegis Sciences, considered this charge defamatory, but the court ruled that Zelenik’s spot was accurate, and in this case the truth was the only defense necessary. So: drama.

One quibble, though: The Murfreesboro News-Journal notes that Zelenik will step down from her job at the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, “a nonprofit 501(c)4 organization that has been instrumental in sounding the alarm over the growing Islamic movement in America and the threat of Sharia Law.” That’s not quite accurate, as there is no real threat from Shariah law in the United States. More accurately, TFC has been instrumental in running around stirring up fears over a phantom menace. This would be a small point, except that Murfreesboro isground-zero for the Islamophobia movement, so it’s something the local newspapers really ought to get right.

Tunisian Parliament--Nov 23, 2011

Whenever a Western power wants to invade and or bomb a Muslim nation one invariably hears about how the “women are oppressed in ________(insert Muslim nation of choice)” and “we must liberate them from the clutches of those evil, backward, misogynistic Muslim men.” That is one of the reasons we’ve termed the bombing, invasion and occupation of Muslim lands, the Greater Islamophobia.

Interestingly, when one analyzes say…the number of women in positions of power in countries across the world, we see the percentages of women in parliament to be higher in many majority Muslim nations than in parts of the West. [These statistics also buttress the fact that more Muslim nations have had female leaders, (Presidents, Prime Ministers) than the USA!]

Below we have a list of countries whose percentages of women in parliament is higher than the USA, which ranks a dismal 71st.

*Afghanistan (I have added an asterisk here because this nation is under foreign occupation and the results for many are not considered legitimate. However it is still interesting that Afghanis, some of the most vilified people in the world today when it comes to views of women vote for them at a higher percentage than Americans.)

Rank	Country	Lower or single House				Upper House or Senate
		Elections	Seats*	Women	% W	Elections	Seats*	Women	% W

30

Afghanistan

9 2010

249

69

27.7%

1 2011

102

28

27.5%

Tunisia is not a surprise to many who know the country, but lets put these numbers into perspective. The Islamist party Ennahda won elections, they are known as “moderates,” but within the media, especially the Right we see an effort to translate Ennahda’s victory into a harbinger for the repression of women’s rights and other usual hoopla associated with Right-wing anti-Islam rhetoric. As the Angry Arab, As’ad Abu Khalil remarks, “I just figured that Tunisian Islamists fielded more women as candidates than the percentage of women in the US Congress.”

32

Tunisia

10 2011

217

57

26.3%

*Iraq

36

Iraq

3 2010

325

82

25.2%

—

—

—

—

Sudan

37

Sudan

4 2010

346

87

25.1%

5 2010

28

5

17.9%

Kyrgyzstan

45

Kyrgyzstan

10 2010

120

28

23.3%

—

—

—

—

Senegal

46

Senegal

6 2007

150

34

22.7%

8 2007

100

40

40.0%

Pakistan

47

Pakistan

2 2008

342

76

22.2%

3 2009

100

17

17.0%

Mauritania

48

Mauritania

11 2006

95

21

22.1%

11 2009

56

8

14.3%

Uzbekistan

49

Uzbekistan

12 2009

150

33

22.0%

1 2010

100

15

15.0%

Tajikistan

60

Tajikistan

2 2010

63

12

19.0%

3 2010

34

5

14.7%

Bangladesh

63

Bangladesh

12 2008

345

64

18.6%

—

—

—

—

Indonesia

65

Indonesia

4 2009

560

101

18.0%

—

—

—

—

Kazakhstan

66

Kazakhstan

8 2007

107

19

17.8%

8 2011

47

?

?

United Arab Emirates

67

United Arab Emirates

9 2011

40

7

17.5%

—

—

—

—

All of the above nations did better than the USA.

Here are two Western nations who you’d think would have done better in the numbers and who wax eloquent about “women’s rights,” even using it as a pretext to bomb and invade nations:

61

France

6 2007

577

109

18.9%

9 2011

348

77

22.1%

71

United States of America 2

11 2010

434

73

16.8%

11 2010

100

17

17.0%

Of course some of the above Muslim nations still have low percentages, however my purpose here is not to draw conclusions but to add to the empirical evidence when it comes to the discussion of women, women’s role in Muslim societies and women’s rights.

As the battle over birth control, invasive procedures before abortion, etc. rages on in the USA, the above stats provide a healthy if sobering perspective to the belligerent discussion in the looniverse about Muslim women.

Joe Kaufman

Just when you thought Joe Kaufman couldn’t make more of a fool of himself he proves you wrong! Previously, Kaufman eulogized a dead terrorist and racist by the name of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and we thought “well he can’t top that!” Then he called for nuking Muslim countries, and we thought “OK, that’s it, no way he can surpass such lunacy.” Then it so happened we learned he’s been paying homeless people to join his pathetic anti-Muslim rallies to bolster their numbers, and we’re like “golly jee, he keeps setting the bar so low.”

Recently, Kaufman was at a rally to express love for anti-Muslim politician Allen West and condemn CAIR South Florida. I kid you not, Kaufman’s exact words at the rally were “I love Allen West.” But that’s not the real ludicrous bit.

The ridiculous portion is Kaufman’s response to a reporter who asked him about his infamous call to “nuke the Mooslims”:

Reporter: “Do you support the nuclear bombing of Iran?”

Joe Kaufman: “No…um, well, I would never say whether I would support that or not.”

Why is this so ridiculous? Well, Kaufman has had 10 years to reflect and ponder on how he would answer this inevitable question, and the above is the best he could do. Rather then coming right out and saying he “wouldn’t,” as most conscientious people would, he hesitated and dodged. By dodging however, he not-so-subtly implied he is open to supporting such horrific action. That’s wily Kaufman for you I guess.

Who is he?:

Joe Kaufman, has been on the Anti-Muslim scene for quite a while now and is dubbed by the far Right-Wing FrontPageMag as, you guessed it…another one of their ”Investigative Journalists.”  That he has been influenced by Meir Kahane and the Kahanist ideology is well documented, as is his love and angst for Kahane.

In the past he has been accused of contributing to the terrorist organization founded by Kahane known as JDL (Jewish Defense League) while others accuse Kaufman of at the very least holding views that parallel JDL positions.

Kaufman’s unsavory associations and views are quite real and they are only dangerous to America if you’re stupid enough to swallow his conspiracy theories but other than that he is simply a half-baked paranoid conspiracy theorist, some what along the lines of the “9/11 Truthers.”

In every nook and cranny there is a “Mooslim”…hiding and ready to get ya…so beware and be afraid. Be veryyyy afraid goes his story.

In this special LoonWatch series we will detail the exploits and punchlines that Krazy Kaufman throws out there and attempts to pass as serious journalism, commentary and investigation.

There goes IRA terror linked Peter King again. We will be live tweeting the shenanigans once again on our Twitter page.

Rep. Peter King Announces Third Islamic Radicalization Hearing Will Happen Next Week

(Huffington Post)

Peter King, the controversial Republican congressman from New York who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, announced Tuesday that he will hold a third hearing on radicalization among Muslim-Americans next week.

While King’s first hearing in March focused on Islamic radicalization in general and his secondfocused on radicalization in prisons, the July 27 hearing will be about al Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist organization that has made headlines for recruiting Somali-Americans in the Midwest.

In a press release released on Tuesday, King said:

“At this hearing, the third in a series, we will examine Somalia-based terrorist organization al-Shabaab’s ongoing recruitment, radicalization, and training of young Muslim-Americans and al-Shabaab’s linking up with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).“In Minnesota, Ohio, and other states, dozens of young Muslim males have been recruited, radicalized, and then taken from their communities for overseas terrorist training by al-Shabaab. In a number of cases, the men – including both Somali-Americans and other converts — have ended up carrying out suicide bombings or have otherwise been killed, often without their families even knowing where their sons have gone. There has not been sufficient cooperation from mosque leaders. In at least one instance, a Minnesota imam told the desperate family of a missing young man not to cooperate with the FBI.

“There are growing concerns that al-Shabaab in Somalia is linking up with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen to better train these radicalized young men in order to attack Americans around the world, or potentially shift their focus to attacking our homeland.

“This coordinated and ongoing recruitment and radicalization of young Muslim men in the U.S. is a serious and growing threat to our homeland security and simply cannot be ignored.”

King has been criticized by Islamic organizations for his prior hearings, which many Muslim groupshave said too broadly target their communities. Muslims groups have also criticized prior hearings for largely lacking Muslim witnesses. A witness list for next week’s hearing has not been released.

The surreal world of anti-Muslim Islamophobia knows no bounds. Islamophobes and the political class that panders to them have been caught with their pants down–figuratively for once. Since 9/11, these traffickers in hate have profited from the development of an industry of “terror expert professionals,” consisting of so-called: “ex-terrorists,” “ex-Muslims,” “scholars,” “think tank gurus,” pontificating on the incompatibility of Islam and Democracy, the danger of a growing Muslim populace in the West, the need to be suspicious of Muslims, Muslims’ susceptibility to terrorism, etc.

This narrative belies reality, Muslims who commit terrorism are an extreme minority, in fact what is most glaring in the face of this propaganda is what Charles Kurzman terms, The Missing Martyrs (book review to come soon). For all the hackneyed anti-Muslim diatribe and hypotheses of an omnipresent and ever dangerous “Islamic terrorism,” what is remarkable is the absence of “would-be martyrs,” let alone a threat level that is blown out of all proportion. The Arab Spring has, more than anything else, dealt a stinging, if not lethal blow to the harbingers of doom.

What is most irksome is that the real radicals, the ones who draw us into endless war, increase hostilities amongst communities, and hob nob with anti-freedom organizations are the same individuals projecting their worldview onto Muslims.

Where else (with the exception of perhaps a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel) could we witness a House Homeland Security Sub-committee Hearing being chaired by a Congressman who once was the most outspoken advocate of a terrorist organization. Rep. Peter King’s involvement with the IRA while they were targeting and murdering civilians is well known, and the hypocrisy and double standard of him chairing hearings on “American Muslim radicalization” is painfully evident.

This however is not the only, or even the most glaring example we can turn to of Congressmen or former high ranking government officials supporting or advocating on behalf of a terrorist organization.

Congressmen (including Democrats) and former government officials have met with the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an organization that was designated a terrorist group in 1997 when the list was first compiled, and is STILL ON THE LIST–for now.

MEK has a very aggressive and organized lobby effort in Washington D.C. According to one House staffer, the MEK is “the most mobilized grassroots advocacy effort in the country — AIPAC included.” Their mission is to be delisted as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), push the USA to foment war with Iran, i.e. “regime change,” and have themselves installed into power. Sound familiar?

They attempt to pass themselves off as the sole legitimate opposition to the Iranian regime, going so far as to claim that they are the Green Movement or the government in exile. Now there is a quiet push to have them delisted from the FTO list:

Members of Congress led by Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) have introduced a resolution calling on the Secretary of State and the President to throw the support of the United States behind an exiled Iranian terrorist group seeking to overthrow the Iranian regime and install themselves in power. Calling the exiled organization “Iran’s main opposition,” Filner is urging the State Department to end the blacklisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — a group listed by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The resolution currently has 83 cosponsors and is gaining significant ground.

Such a move would have disastrous repercussions for the USA, and would inevitably lead to blowback considering what the MEK is about:

[F]or the record, here are the facts about the MEK (you can find this and more at www.mekterror.com):

• The State Department reports the MEK is a terrorist group that has murdered innocent Americans and maintains “the will and capacity” to commit terrorist attacks within the U.S. and beyond. [1]
• The MEK claims to have renounced terrorism in 2001, but a 2004 FBI report states “the MEK is currently actively involved in planning and executing acts of terrorism.” [2]
• RAND and Human Rights Watch have reported that the MEK is a cult that abuses its own members. [3] [4]
• MEK has no popular support in Iran and has been denounced by the Green Movement, Iran’s peaceful democratic opposition movement.[5]

Iran’s Opposition Green Movement Rejects the MEK

• The leaders of the Green Movement, Iran’s true popular opposition movement, have denounced the MEK and warned that the Iranian government seeks to discredit Iran’s opposition by associating it with the MEK:
• “The Iranian Government is trying to connect those who truly love their country (the Greens) with the MEK to revive this hypocritical dead organization.” – Mehdi Karroubi, Green Movement leader. [6]
• “The MEK can’t be part of the Green Movement. This bankrupt political group is now making some laughable claims, but the Green Movement and the MEK have a wall between them and all of us, including myself, Mr. Mousavi, Mr. Khatami, and Mr. Karroubi.” – Zahra Rahnavard, Women’s rights activist and wife of Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi[7]

Iraqi National Congress Redux?

• The MEK claims it is “the main opposition in Iran,” yet similar to Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress that helped bring the United States into war with Iraq, the MEK is an exiled organization that has no popular support within Iran. [8]
• RAND reports that the MEK are “skilled manipulators of public opinion.” The MEK has a global support network with active lobbying and propaganda efforts in major Western capitals. [9]
• Members of Congress have been deceived and misinformed into supporting this terrorist  organization:
• In 2002, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen led efforts for the U.S. to support the group, prompting then-Chairman and the Ranking Member of the House International Affairs Committee, Henry Hyde and Tom Lantos, to send a Dear Colleague warning against supporting the MEK.  They cautioned that many Members had been “embarrassed when confronted with accurate information about the MEK.” [10]
• In the current Congress, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) have each introduced resolutions calling for MEK to be removed from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list.

A Capacity and Will to Commit Terrorist Acts in the U.S. & Beyond

• The Bush administration determined in 2007 that “MEK leadership and members across the world maintain the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and beyond.” [11]
• The Canadian and Australian governments have also designated the MEK as a terrorist organization. The Canadian government just reaffirmed its designation in December.[12] [13]
• An EU court removed the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations, but only due to procedural reasons.  According to a spokesperson for the Council of the European Union, the EU court “did not enter into the question of defining or not the PMOI [MEK] as a terrorist organization.” [14]

Saddam Hussein’s Terrorist Militia

• The MEK received all of its military assistance and most of its financial support from Saddam Hussein, including funds illegally siphoned from the UN Oil-for-Food Program, until 2003. [15]
• The MEK helped execute Saddam’s bloody crackdown on Iraqi Shia and Kurds. Maryam Rajavi, the MEK’s permanent leader, instructed her followers to “take the Kurds under your tanks.” [16]

A Cult That Abuses Its Own Members

• Human Rights Watch reports that MEK commits extensive human rights abuses against its own members at Camp Ashraf, including “torture that in two cases led to death.”[17]
• A RAND report commissioned by DOD found that the MEK is a cult that utilizes practices such as mandatory divorce, celibacy, authoritarian control, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, confiscation of assets, emotional isolation, and the imprisonment of dissident members. [18]
• RAND concluded that up to 70% of the MEK members at their Camp Ashraf headquarters were likely recruited through deception and are kept there against their will. [19]
• The FBI reports that the MEK’s “NLA [National Liberation Army] fighters are separated from their children who are sent to Europe and brought up by the MEK’s Support Network. […] These children are then returned to the NLA to be used as fighters upon coming of age.  Interviews also revealed that some of these children were told that their parents would be harmed if the children did not cooperate with the MEK. ”[20]

A History of Anti-Americanism

• One of the founding ideologies of the MEK is anti-Americanism—the MEK is responsible for murdering American businessmen, military personnel, and even a senior American diplomat. [21]
• The MEK strongly supported the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, vigorously opposed their eventual release, and chastised the government for not executing the hostages. [22]

The MEK was Not “Added” to the FTO List as a Goodwill Gesture to Iran

• The MEK has been a designated terrorist group since the State Department established the FTO list October 8, 1997. [23] MEK was also listed in the Patterns on Global Terrorism report prior to 1997. [24]

Delisting MEK: Disastrous Repercussions

The MEK is opposed by the Iranian people due to its history of terrorist attacks against civilians in Iran and its close alliance with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.

1. The greatest beneficiaries of delisting MEK would be Ahmadinejad and Iranian hardliners who seek to link the U.S. and the Green Movement to MEK.
2. U.S. support for MEK would be used as a propaganda tool by hardliners to delegitimize and destroy Iran’s true democracy movement.
3. American credibility among the Iranian people would be ruined if the U.S. supported this group.

This should all gives us pause. Do the elected and former government officials who support delisting the MEK know the troubling anti-American, terrorist history of the MEK? If they do, then how in good conscious can they actively push to delist them?

The scenario that keeps coming to mind is cover for war or a possible Israeli attack against Iran. A possibility that seems ever more likely as MJ Rosenburg wrote recently:

A longtime CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East is predicting that Israel will bomb Iran in the fall, dragging the United States into another major war and endangering US military and civilian personnel (and other interests) throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Earlier this week, Robert Baer appeared on the provocative KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing, hosted by Ian Masters. It was there that he predicted that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to ignite a war with Iran in the very near future.

Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Robert Spencer’s link to the MEK. Spencer frequently spews insults at Reza Aslan for being a board member of the NIAC. In his “expert” opinion true Iranian Freedom organizations oppose the NIAC, and view them as tools of the Mullahs.

A contemptuous claim if it wasn’t so laughable, considering that the NIAC has frequently spoken out against the Iranian regime and has thrown its weight completely behind the Green Movement.

Spencer comes to this conclusion based on the opinion of his friends in a group called the PDMI or Pro-Democracy Movement of Iran. No one really knows how many people are in the PDMI, all they have is a blogspot website which Spencer links. The website is quite strange, it has an image of former Iranian dictator Reza Shah, and also articles supporting the MEK. Is it another MEK front group? One recent article from July 15 is titled “Iran, Mujahedin-e Khalq, and the US State Department,” by Hamid Yazdanpanah, who writes:

[W]hat has consistently been a go-to practice in appeasing Tehran? The harassment and terrorist listing of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK)…the terrorist designation of the MEK arose purely out of appeasement of the Iranian regime…The terrorist designation of the MEK has not only failed to appease the Iranian regime, it has resulted in severe harm and restriction for an organization devoted to the liberation of the Iranian people. The State Department has a moral and legal obligation to undo this grave error and delist the MEK.

It looks as if on top of all the conspiracies, hatred, and anti-Freedom ideas that Spencer pushes he is also linked to the terrorist MEK. Human Events, another website Spencer writes for contains articles supporting the MEK, such as this one by James Zumwalt. Can we now begin every piece on Spencer with, “The MEK linked Robert Spencer…”?

Sadly, this chimera world in which the Islamophobes and their allies turn everything upside down or sweep it under the rug hoping no one will find the truth is real. We are confronted with an organized mechanism of propaganda seeking to profit from endless war, occupation, hatred, hypocrisy and double standards. We are in an age in which the Supreme Court has upheld a “criminal prohibition on advocacy performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization,” and yet our Congressmen, and their lobbyist friends can get away with doing exactly that when it suits their purposes!

*Update: There are more Islamophobes involved in the cynical nexus of bringing legitimacy to the MEK. One such longtime advocate has been neo-Conservative Daniel Pipes, who rather seems like a mild Islamophobe these days. For his support of the MEK see, Daniel Pipes: My Writings on the Mujahedeen-e Khalq. (hat tip: NassirH)