Some of the conspiracy theories that are being stoked in Sri Lanka have a genocidal bent:

The anti-Muslim campaign has been led by Buddhist monks and is fast gaining ground among youth through raging speeches and ludicrous conspiracy theories spread on social media.

The leaders of the campaign complain that Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who make up almost 75 percent of the country’s 20 million people and control the government and the military, are under threat from the 9 percent of the country that is Muslim. They say Muslims dominate the nation’s businesses, are fomenting religious fundamentalism and are conspiring to demographically take over the country by increasing their birthrate while secretly sterilizing the Sinhalese.

Anti-Muslim campaign threatens renewed tensions in war-torn Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka –  A red-robbed Buddhist monk calmly picked up stones and hurled them at a security camera. Then, as police looked on, his followers smashed up a popular, Muslim-owned clothing store.

Last month’s attack on the Fashion Bug chain near Colombo, filmed by a local television station whose cameraman was attacked by the mob, was the most public outburst in a growing anti-Muslim campaign by Sri Lanka’s Buddhist nationalist groups.

The escalation in attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric has caused fears of a new wave of ethnic violence in a country still recovering from a quarter-century civil war between the government, controlled by ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, and a mainly Hindu ethnic Tamil rebel group.

“They just finished hunting the Tamils, without solving any of the issues, and now they are starting on the Muslim hunt. Virtually all minority communities are being threatened,” said Muslim political leader Azad Salley.

The anti-Muslim campaign has been led by Buddhist monks and is fast gaining ground among youth through raging speeches and ludicrous conspiracy theories spread on social media.

The leaders of the campaign complain that Sri Lanka’s ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who make up almost 75 percent of the country’s 20 million people and control the government and the military, are under threat from the 9 percent of the country that is Muslim. They say Muslims dominate the nation’s businesses, are fomenting religious fundamentalism and are conspiring to demographically take over the country by increasing their birthrate while secretly sterilizing the Sinhalese.

A Muslim volunteer group, which does not wish to be identified for fear of reprisals, has documented 33 anti-Muslim incidents since September 2011. They include at least five attacks on Muslim places of worship, attacks on businesses and an episode where Muslim students at a government agriculture school were served pork, which their religion forbids them from eating.

Buddhist nationalists demanded Muslim religious leaders stop issuing “Halal” certificates — which certify that local products comply with Islamic tenets — charging that the fees paid for certification were passed onto unwitting — often non-Muslim — consumers and used to construct mosques. Certification was made free of cost last month.

They have also campaigned for laws aimed at the Muslim community. One would stop women from wearing a veil.

“I have a fundamental right when I go in the street to see the face of a person,” said Dilantha Withanage an official of the prominent Buddhist nationalist group, Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force.

Another proposed law would stop Muslim men from being able to marry up to four women.

“What we are fighting for is a single legal system in this country. If a Muslim has the right to marry four wives let the Buddhists also have that,” he said.

Sri Lanka allows citizens to marry according to the customs of the four main religions — Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.

Withanage denied having an anti-Islam agenda, saying his group wanted only for Buddhism to get the credit for building up Sri Lankan civilization. Other religions can still be practiced, he said.

The attack on Fashion Bug came a week after a monk accused the company and other Muslim businesses of committing “sexual crimes” against Sinhalese female employees and converting them to Islam by marrying them to Muslim employees. The mob stormed the store on the pretext that a 15-year-old girl had been raped inside, an accusation that proved to be false.

Another monk told a rally that another Muslim-owned clothing store was giving free candy to Sinhalese women customers with ingredients that caused miscarriages and infertility. He said men’s belts sold by these companies caused kidney diseases and damaged customers’ testicles.

Text messages were sent en masse accusing another Muslim company of manufacturing sanitary napkins that turned women barren. The claims were passed around on Facebook and Twitter as well.

The campaign has frightened Muslims, who suspect the government is not just refusing to protect them, but is actively fomenting the tension, a charge the government denies.

Sri Lanka’s national telecom provider started selling the Buddhist Force theme song as a ring tone to help raise funds for the group. Following protests, the company apologized for any “emotional distress” any community might feel — but refused to withdraw the tone.

Suspicion that authorities were complicit grew after the police stood by and watched the Fashion Bug attack.

Amid criticism of police inaction, 17 suspects, including three monks, were brought to court. The court later released them, saying the parties arrived at an amicable settlement. The injured cameraman also withdrew his complaint, saying fighting his case might create social unrest.

The powerful defense secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the president’s brother, was recently a chief guest at a Buddhist Force event, where he defended the group.

“The venerable monks always came forward to protect our country, race, religion and culture. This effort is to bring them to a correct course, not to spread hatred,” he said.

Mohamed Saleem, a Muslim community worker in Colombo, called the defense secretary’s endorsement of an extremist group “worrying.”

“Are the Muslims equal citizens of this country or not?” he asked.

Presidential spokesman Mohan Samaranayake dismissed accusations the government was involved in an anti-Muslim campaign as the “usual finger pointing” by the opposition.

“I need to emphasize the fact that from the beginning, the government has treated every community equally,” he said.

He said the government would not restrain anyone’s freedom of expression, but would take action if they violated the law

The Muslims, descended from Arab traders who came to the island more than a millenium ago, are considered a separate ethnic group. But they have had a relatively amicable history with the Sinhalese majority and were persecuted by Tamil rebels for siding with the state during the war.

Kusal Perera, a Sinhalese political analyst, said he believes the anti-Muslim campaign is aimed at distracting Sri Lankans from the rising cost of living and other contentious issues. Sinhalese traders have also seen an opportunity to “grab the market” dominated by Muslim businesses, he said.

Mohammed Thanis, a resident of the eastern town of Kantalai, says the government is more concerned about retaining the votes of its Sinhalese base rather than taking action against anti-Muslim forces.

Opposition politician Mujeebur Rahman said the Muslim community has so far been restrained in responding, but he feared what would happen when that patience ran out.

“If they try to react, it can flare up into a major clash,” he said.

The founder of rightwing portal Blaze.com and full time apocalyptic nativist Glenn Beck still peddling “Radical Islam” take over of America conspiracy theories to sheeple.

Glenn Beck: Michele Bachmann Under Investigation Because She’s Against Radical Islam

Glenn Beck suggested Tuesday that the ethics investigation into the erstwhile presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is retribution for the congresswoman’s outspoken crusade against what she has called the threat of radical Islam.

“We have been sold to radical Islam,” Beck said matter-of-factly on his Internet show. “It has infiltrated and we have documented it.”

Beck continued, claiming that radical Islam is so powerful it affected the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics, which, according to a Daily Beast report, is questioning former Bachmann staffers regarding “allegations of improper transfer of funds and under-the-table payments actions by Bachmann’s presidential campaign.”

“You see what they’re doing to Michele Bachmann?” Beck asked. “Michele Bachmann is under all kinds of ethics investigations now. Why do you suppose that is? … She is uber-clear on what’s going on. Uber-clear.”

Bachmann drew widespread criticism last year for spearheading a campaign alleging that high-profile aides in President Barack Obama’s administration had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Other Republican representatives and conservative pundits,including Beck, backed the discredited claims.

But Beck suggested there were other reasons for a supposed radical Islamic-linked backlash against Bachmann. According to him, she’d demonstrated her clarity on what was “going on” because she’d asked the State Department for answers on why it was sending Somali refugees to her district.

“She hasn’t gotten any answers and now she’s under investigation,” Beck concluded.

(Click over to Right Wing Watch for video of Beck’s claims.)

Beck is right about one thing. Many Somalis do live in Minnesota – more than 32,000according to census data. But the State Department’s decision to select Minnesota and Bachmann’s district as a destination for Somali refugees far predates the controversial congresswoman’s entrance into politics.

It began in the early 1990s, when civil war broke out in Somalia, forcing refugees to flee to neighboring countries. Many eventually ended up in the U.S., and the State Department sent them to Minnesota, confident that the region’s voluntary agencies, or VOLAGS — groups that partner with the federal government — could provide a strong infrastructure for their resettlement.

As Minnesota’s WCCO reported in 2011:

But the Somalis have largely stayed, somewhere around 30,000 of them, partially because of the strength of the non-governmental VOLAGS, and partially because of the strength of governmental programs to help refugees begin a new life …After the first wave is assigned here, the second wave of relatives and friends soon followed.

What any of this has to do with the mounting investigations and legal problems Bachmann now faces, only Beck knows.

This year round it seems Islamophobes have dropped the whole Stealth Jihad on Thanksgiving conspiracy theory they so fervently pushed last year.

Instead, this Thanksgiving 2012, the self-described “fearless, defenders of civilization and freedom” have their hats out, asking for “donations” from the sheeple and gullible.

Robert Spencer begs on behalf of AFDI,

In other words, give thanks today for champions of the freedom of speech, for women who have achieved great things, for those who have moved our souls with music or representational art — anything outlawed under Islamic law. For it may be that there will not be many more who join those singular individuals, as Sharia continues to advance in the West. The time to celebrate them is now.

And remember the fight is by no means over. As you give thanks for the blessings you have received, resolve to give thanks for them. Now is the time for new approaches that bypass the mainstream media straitjacket and force the public debate onto issues they want to ignore. That is what we do at the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Help AFDI keep fighting. Every dollar you contribute to us goes to the fight. We don’t draw salaries. We don’t have expensive offices or a huge staff (in fact, we don’t have an office or a staff at all).

DONATE NOW TO THE MOST EFFECTIVE FREEDOM FIGHTERS IN THE WAR OF IDEAS. Donate via Paypal to writeatlas@aol.com or tax-deductible to director@jihadwatch.org.

Really Spencer?

Robert made 133k alone from the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation in 2009 for “directing JihadWatch,” and he has the gall to ask for more and claim no “huge salaries,” or “offices.”

A case involving New Jersey’s contentious laws regarding alimony payments has been sidetracked by the insistence of a father’s rights group leader, Bruce Eden in highlighting the religion of a Muslim judge who was simply doing his duty and applying New Jersey law.

Eden considers what he is doing a “crusade.”

Mr. Eden we understand you’re a pissed off dad who wants alimony reform but playing the Islamophobia card just makes you look like a jackass here and doesn’t do your cause any favors.

Muslim N.J. judge accused of imposing Sharia law on Family Court

FLEMINGTON — The legal battle over alimony payments in New Jersey has turned into a clash of civilizations with an activist group accusing an Arab Muslim judge of imposing Sharia, or Islamic law, on Family Court cases.

Family Court Judge Hany Mawla first made headlines in 2010 when then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine made him the first Muslim-American appointed to state Superior Court.

UPDATE: Alimony reformers distance themselves from ‘anti-Muslim’ attack

Mawla lately has drawn renewed attention for his rulings on alimony payments. In one case, which is being championed by advocates of alimony reform, Pennsylvania resident John Waldorf remains in Hunterdon County Jail after a month because he was unable to pay his ex-wife the $8,000 monthly payments Mawla ordered.

“It is obvious what Judge Mawla is doing is a ‘jihad’ against men in general and fathers specifically,” Bruce Eden, civil rights director of the state chapter of Dads Against Discrimination, said in a statement this week. “Therefore, as a fathers’ rights group we intend to initiate a ‘crusade’ to remove this vermin from the bench.”

In an interview, Eden said Mawla, whose parents moved to Egypt when he was a boy, is following the Sharia practice of throwing debtors in jail.

“(His religion) is compounding the issue,” he said.

Mawla could not be reached for comment, but Gadeir Abbas, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called Eden’s statement “an anti-Muslim rant that relies on the same type of slanders that have been used in the past to attack Catholics and Jews.”

Eden doesn’t relate how any of this has to do with Shariah or Jihad except to say he “believes” it’s a form of some nonsensical concept that only he knows called “reverse Wahabbism.”

Eden commented on the Central Jersey article,

Judge Mawla was born in the US, and as a toddler, moved to the Mideast where he grew up and had his religious beliefs ingrained into him. These religious beliefs just don’t go away into a vacuum while he’s sitting on the bench. He came back to the US and became an advocate for women based on his observations as a child in the Mideast that he and his mother were forced to sit in the back of the car and his mother could not drive. Is this some-type of reverse Wahabist type of Sharia or is the Judge overcompensating on behalf of women?

Shaking my head at this conspiracy.

Typical Geller hysteria. This is what we can expect over the next four years, more of the same. (h/t:CriticalDragon):

Loony Pamela Geller: Petraeus Resignation Is an Obama Plot to Put a Muslim in Charge of the CIA

by Charles Johnson (LGF)

The right wing universe is now in full-bore conspiracy theory mode over the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, just as I predicted. It’s a case study in the conservative movement’s decline into bad craziness; they’re all muttering darkly about cover-ups and hidden connections and “questioning the timing.”

One of the most brain-dead of the wingnuts, loony hateblogger Pamela Geller, has a typical post on the subject; for her it’s all part of the Islamic supremacist stealth shariah takeover of America, of course:

GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS RESIGNS – Atlas Shrugs.

I do not believe it was the real reason was [sic] an extramarital affair. I believe it was Benghazi. He refused to be the fall guy. When did an affair ever stop a Democrat. If anything….

Perhaps one of Obama’s many Muslim Brotherhood advisors are on the shortlist to replace him.

(h/t: JD)

Randall Terry Airs Graphic, Anti-Muslim Ad Against Obama In Pennsylvania

(HuffingtonPost)

A gruesome, anti-Muslim television ad aired Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, insinuating that President Barack Obama is sympathetic to violent extremism in the Middle East.

The ad, first flagged by the liberal groupAmerican Bridge 21st Century, was paid for by fringe write-in presidential candidate Randall Terry and aired around the popular 11 p.m. time slot on Pittsburgh’s local FOX affiliate WPHG.

It features a sleeping woman who is struggling through a nightmare. It intersperses graphic images of bloodied corpses and a man being decapitated. A portion of President Obama’s speech in Cairo about bridging the gap between the Muslim and western worlds, and chants of “Allahu Akbar” serve as the background audio in the ad. The woman ultimately wakes up from the nightmare and says, “I can’t vote for Obama again.” The ad ends with Terry on screen saying, “A vote for Obama helps Muslims murder Christians and Jews. I’m Randall Terry and I approve this message.”

A request for comment from WPGH as to why the station agreed to air the ad was not returned.

Terry, who is an anti-abortion rights activist and founder of Operation Rescue, announced his write-in candidacy for president in Jan. 2011 in front of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He’s mounted a number of unsuccessful runs for Congress and state legislature seats in the past.

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones reported last year on how Terry and his cohorts are able to air such explicit ads.

Together, they aim to exploit a Federal Communications Commission loophole and saturate major media markets with graphic anti-abortion images. What the ads lack in production values, they more than make up for in shock value. As he explained in an interview with Catholic Online last November, Terry, who is himself running for president as a Democrat, explained: “By running campaign ads in the top 25 media markets, we can reach one-third of the nation with a message about the truth and horror of abortion.”

Terry attracted attention earlier this year when he attempted to air a graphic ad depicting aborted fetuses during the Super Bowl on NBC’s Chicago station, WMAQ. The station ultimately refused to sell Terry the time slot.

The anti-Muslim ad that aired last night was pulled from YouTube for violating its policy regarding “shocking and disgusting content.” It can still be viewed on Terry’swebsite.

Excellent breakdown by Sheila Musaji of the nonsensical conspiracies created by the Islamophobia movement.

She writes that false stories, no matter how absurd do have a negative effect on the perception of Muslims. (h/t: CriticalDragon):

Arlington, Virginia Mall Bombing and “sudden jihad syndrome”

by Sheila Musaji (TheAmericanMuslim)

Leon Alphans Traille, Jr. was arrested this week for an attempted mall bombing in Arlington, Virginia.

It is puzzling how Islamophobes have so little memory about our own recent history.  Debbie Schlussel is suspicious because the facts that we know so far don’t add up (in her mind).  She wonders how Leon Traille can be a crazy or homeless person and also well educated (M.S. from Georgia Tech).

But, she is on the case.  She says

And you can’t help but notice that the once shaven Traille now sports a beard, like many Muslims do when they commit violent jihad. Did Traille convert to Islam? Why did he try to bomb a shopping mall? And why–given his tech expertise–were his bombs so crude and ineffective? A lot of questions.

Brilliant people are not immune from mental problems, or from carrying out senseless acts of violence.

How about the brilliant science student James Holmes, the Aurora Colorado shooter who was getting his PhD at the time of the shooting.

How about the brilliant, and crazy mathemetician Ted Kaczynski who was even better educated than this fellow (with a PhD from Harvard) and carried out a nation-wide mail bombing campaign.  Kaczynski lived in a shack in Montana, off the grid, and also grew a beard.

This ridiculous allegation based on nothing except a beard is right up there with the claims by the Islamophobes that Joel Hinrichs and Seung-Hui Cho were probably Muslims.

Joel Hinrichs was the individual who detonated a large bomb made of TATP outside of a packed football stadium in Oklahoma.  He was described as an example of “sudden jihad syndrome”.  In that case, the “facts” that the Islamophobes used were that there is an Islamic Center near the campus which Hinrich’s roommate attended (the roommate was a Muslim), and Hinrichs was seen walking through the parking lot of this mosque.  This is not too surprising for a student whose on-campus apartment was only a block away from the mosque.

Seung-Hui Cho, was the individual responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre.  He was considered by the Islamophobes to be possibly another case of “sudden jihad syndrome” because his father had worked in Saudi Arabia before Cho was even born.

It appears that the Islamophobes are engaged in a disinformation campaign that involves throwing out as many crazy charges as possible in the hopes that even one out of a hundred will turn out to be true.  In the meantime, whether the charge is totally baseless or not doesn’t matter, because the sheer volume of “crazy Muslim” stories has an effect on the perception of ordinary people who have heard many of these stories.

Read the rest…

Let the loony Islamophobic conspiracies about a war on Halloween begin. (h/t: CriticalDragon)

Robert Spencer discovers Halloween Jihad

by Sheila Musaji

Robert Spencer finds it noteworthy enough to note on Jihad Watch that Seattle elementary school bans Halloween costumes: they could offend students from “other cultures”.

He engages in his typical snarky innuendo:

Gee, I wonder which culture would have students in the Seattle elementary schools who would be offended by Halloween costumes. Still, there is no indication that any Islamic supremacist group demanded this ban; the school officials are just playing the dhimmi on their own initiative. Please write them, politely and respectfully, and ask them why American culture always takes a back seat to others, and why they’re pandering to an imaginary offense.

And, of course, his partner Pamela Geller also posted an article on this non-story, sayingDismantling America, piece by cultural piece, law by American law …… the parents ought to protest en masse – in costume.

The article Spencer and Geller refer to says only that a Seattle school has banned students from dressing up in costume for Halloween this year at school.  One district representative said that costumes “could offend and upset students who come from other cultures”.  The principal of the school said that “This decision was made by the entire staff after two deep and detailed discussions. The initial conversation was initiated by staff members who suggested that since Halloween falls this year on a half day of school, we not allow costumes. It takes students a while to change into their costumes, and students are distracted taking away from the already limited instructional time.

That’s it, the whole story that is known from this.  We don’t know whether or not any parent made any request or complaint to the district or to the school.  We don’t know what is the demographic of the community where this school is located.  Blaming this decision on some sort of Muslim plot, or a self-imposed fear of a possible Muslim reaction, to take away an American holiday is absolute nonsense.

To jump to the conclusion that Spencer does from this very limited information is a clear sign of his deeply held Islamophobia.  We know that Spencer is blaming Muslims for this school decision because he says the school officials are “playing dhimmi” on their own initiative.  Is it only some Muslims who don’t celebrate Halloween?

Here is a quote from one such “dhimmi” who refuses to participate in American culture:

“I think we ought to close Halloween down. Do you want your children to dress up as witches? The Druids used to dress up like this when they were doing human sacrifice…[The children] are acting out Satanic rituals and participating in it, and don’t even realize it.”—Pat Robertson, “The 700 Club,” 1982-OCT-29

Robertson is not exactly known for his fondness for Islam or Muslims.  I wonder is Spencer will ask his followers to write letters to The 700 Club to complain about Robertson’s attempts to “dismantle America”.

If any parents did say something to the school or district administration, they might have been parents from just about any religious or cultural background.

Yes, there are some Muslims who are opposed to celebrating Halloween, for a variety of reasons.  The reasons given are pretty much identical with the reasons that many Christians and Jews are opposed to celebrating the holiday.  There is a wide range of opinion within all of these communities about the holiday, what it means, and why it should not be celebrated, or can be celebrated as simply a cultural event.

Read the rest…

The laughable “Muslim Demographics” scare video that purports to show “empirical evidence” of Muslims demographically taking over Europe was debunked by the BBC and other sites back in 2009. For some reason Cardinal Peter Turkson thought it was a good idea to screen it at an international gathering of bishops on Monday.:

Cardinal causes uproar with ‘Muslim scare’ video at Vatican

A Roman Catholic cardinal has caused an uproar at the Vatican by screening a spurious YouTube video that makes alarmist predictions about the growth of Islam in Europe.

The seven-minute clip, called “Muslim Demographics,” was the talk of an international gathering of bishops on Monday, two days after Cardinal Peter Turkson screened it during a free discussion period.

Turkson, a Ghanaian who is based in the Vatican and is president of its Council for Justice and Peace, sparked consternation among his fellow bishops over the clip.

“As we were arriving this morning I was asked several times ‘Who planned it? Whose was it? Who is behind it?” Father Thomas Rosica said at a briefing for journalists, who are not allowed to attend the synod sessions, the first since the screening.

He said the clip had sparked “the most animated” discussion so far at the three-week conference, and one bishop said he would rebut Turkson by presenting a report with contrary data. The clip has brought Islam to the top of the agenda at the synod, attended by 262 bishops. “Islam is the buzzword,” Rosica said.

Turkson could not be reached for comment on why he chose to screen the video during the Vatican meeting, where the bishops are discussing ways of winning back lapsed Roman Catholics in developed countries.

The clip, which has been viewed over 13 million times on YouTube since it was uploaded by an anonymous user in 2009, combines dramatic music with skewed population statistics to make claims about various European countries such as “In just 39 years France will be an Islamic republic.”

Critics have pointed out that the fertility figures used in the video, which claim French women have an average of 1.8 children while French Muslim women have 8.1 children, cannot be genuine as France does not collect statistics by religion.

Reuters, 15 October 2012

Madonna recently manufactured controversy by calling on her fans to vote for the “Black Muslim President Barack Obama,”

Monday’s audience got a three-minute Madonnalogue (captured on video) about the martyrdom of Lincolnand MLK Jr., culminating in a tribute to the incumbent. “Those kind human beings did not die for nothing! They fought for our freedoms! So y’all better vote for [expletive] Obama, okay?”

And then: “For better or for worse, all right, we have a black Muslim in the White House, okay?”

To me it was clear that Madonna’s statement was more a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the larger stupidity in the USA, where many Americans think that Obama is a “Muslim”, and that it is a problem,

Madonna has explained why she said we have a “black Muslim in the White House” in reference to President Obama during her Monday night concert at Washington’s Verizon Center. It’s called being ironic. “I was being ironic on stage,” she said in a statement issued via her spokeswoman. “Yes, I know Obama is not a Muslim — though I know that plenty of people in this country think he is. And what if he were? The point I was making is that a good man is a good man, no matter who he prays to. I don’t care what religion Obama is — nor should anyone else in America.” And with that, yet another Madonna controversy has been laid to rest. (Reuters via Yahoo!)

Hurray for irony!