This isn’t “offense,” this was incitement to violence. This Repugnant, Gavin Ellzey should know that there are more than a few that would put him in his place if he even dared to reach for a gun.
Gavin Ellzey, the vice chairman of the Kansas Republican 3rd Congressional District Committee, advised on Twitter in early July that “offending Muslims is the duty of any civilized person.”
Ellzey added, “Especially with a .45.”
In an interview with The Star, the Overland Park resident acknowledged writing the tweet in response to television news reports about Christians being “crucified” overseas.
“Sometimes you overreact,” Ellzey said.
“I’ve had folks call me,” he added. “I’m not trying to offend anybody. I sure wouldn’t shoot anybody. I don’t even own a gun.”
He said he later deleted the tweet.
Mahnaz Shabbir of the Crescent Peace Society said she was shocked when she saw the tweet.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work in the community to try to help others understand who we are,” she said. “When something like this comes across my computer, my first reaction is like, are you kidding me?”
She pointed out the tweet came just months after the shootings at the Jewish Community Center.
Shabbir said that Ellzey should be removed from his minor party office and that the Kansas GOP should apologize.
Clay Barker, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said the state party has “no responsibility for or connection to the public statements of private citizens who perform volunteer work for the party.”
He added that the “party in no way shares Ellzey’s sentiments on Muslims.”
Barker said new party officers would be selected in about two months in the wake of Tuesday night’s primary.
Told that the words were explosive, Ellzey said, “You’re right,” and said at another point, “I’m not trying to give offense to anybody.”
What about the millions of Native Americans killed by the White Man. Do I as a Native American have the right to greet every White Man with .45 in his face?
John Smith
Amazing how easily they believe that. There are Arabs with blond hair and Indians with blue eyes too.
Capt. Hennessy
“What I don’t get is calling anyone “subhuman”.”
It’s really not all that difficult to understand.
You have to look at the context and connotation of the statement. Subhuman is animal like in the psychology or behavior of a person. The connotation implies that Ellzey thinks like an animal because he wants to intimidate whom he thinks is encroaching on his territory. Ellzey doesn’t comprehend that pulling a 45. on person isn’t going to offend them its going to get them to defend themselves at all costs. He doesn’t understand the implications of his statement nor what he statement actually means. In other words he is subhuman. Lacks rational and critical thought process.
1DrM
Only thing that’s been substantiated is that you’re a delusional idiot with zero knowledge and a slipping grip on reality. I briefly looked into your ridiculous comment history(from supporting ISIS to citing Hadith(strange for a Hadith hater)), and what a delusional hypocrite you are. Proof positive you are not a Muslim.
Get offline, and back on your meds, loser.
Anonymous
of course we can’t deny that muslim terrorists exist and have killed many people, but if you think that attacking ordinary muslims and harassing them is going to solve anything, you are seriously mistaken.
I don’t think Gavin Ellzey was joking when he made that statement, there are people in this country who would like nothing better than to lynch muslims and “Lefties”.
Its like in the 19th century, how Irish and all catholics where blamed for all the troubles that happened in America.
Sam Seed
LOL!
1DrM
Recycling the same nonsense again? Get new material, troll.
Jekyll
What the…go read your comment again you delicate fool.
Your comments don’t add one singular point to the post or the conversation. Your comments give rise to a sense of severe delusion and being in a state of “pathetic-ness”. You give a sort of ageusia of the mind. Again, delicate hardly you have given not one iota of sensible commentary or shown a minutia of inquisitiveness in relation to the post. Just a fool rambling.
And you still haven’t answered, how do you pray?
1DrM
Yet another worthless reply. What a loss not having to deal with a pseudo intellectual troll. Your relentless misrepresentations indicate something very unhealthy about your mental life. Go back and read your own comments, idiot. The fact that you though I was advocating bringing a baseball bat marinated in humus and haleem to a gun fight tells how connected you are to reality. Laughable really. Your opinionated diatribes mean nothing, you are not a Muslim, but a shallow hypocrite with zero background in Islamic theology. A professional nobody, seeking attention from your betters.
1DrM
Your continued projection cognitive dissonance is getting old. Get your medication dosage adjusted.
George Carty
It’s not so unusual — takfiri barbarians like Islamic State murder people for being “the wrong kind of Muslim”, but Islam’s record here still isn’t as bad as Christianity’s.
In fact, much of the spread of Islam historically was achieved by exploiting the victims of Christian-on-Christian persecution (like the Ghassanids at Yarmuk, or the Orthodox Christians who never forgave the Catholics for 1204 and said “better the turban than the mitre”).
El Cid
I answered. I responded, even given the temerity of your question. Was it beyond your understanding?
Unlike some other Muslims who want to please the Faranghi and the ZioNazi, bending backwards till they fall over, I concede to no one but to Allah Alone.
Now do you understand?
El Cid
As I observed: You but digress to concrete thinking…if it can even be called that.
Jekyll
Answer my question, boy: How do you pray between you and your Creator, that is if you believe in him ?
Jekyll
Utter fool! As a descendant of Aqua man, I sink not in waters of deep. I doth be when Thinkers be you stupid little man.
1DrM
You’re projecting as usual like the ignorant troll that you are. Your own preposterous OPINIONS show that you are not a Muslim. Whining about judgement while judging others and lying about Islamic theology. Who did you learn Islam from, you silly muppet? Sheikh Google? In addition to functional illiteracy, your verbose attempts of trying to sound educated peppering your screed with medical terms is pitiful.
Get over yourself, and don’t miss whatever cocktail of medications you’re on.
El Cid
Not your business. It is between me and my Creator. And I doubt if you even know what that word means.
El Cid
The ‘Concretes’ They would sink, drown, be without buoy or bearings in the abstract depths the Thinkers relish and where the Doers do !
El Cid
I have noticed that you often tend to blurt out opinion and spew conclusions based on nothing but a dwindling number of grey cells, starving for oxygen on an atherosclerotic blood supply.
Now unless your are totally sclerotic and senile will you please care to elaborate on your reasoning and how you arrived at your conclusions?
Again: Unless you are a total fool or a rigid doddering old man, please do respond and share your knowledge and enlighten as to how you pontificate, reach such arbitrary judgments?
Please: How did you reach this god like judgment on me?
1DrM
What utter rubbish. Thanks for proving you’re not a Muslim, liar.
1DrM
YOU chill out, looney tune. If you weren’t acting out with silly nonsensical arguments in the first place, I wouldn’t be wasting my time with you.
Islam is restoring traditional British values such as shared responsibility and duty, a former archbishop has said.
Rowan Williams said that Muslims had brought back “open, honest and difficult public discussion” in one of their “greatest gifts” to Britain.
He used a speech yesterday to criticise sections of the press for portraying Muslims as “un-British” and complained of “illiteracy” about religion among figures in government.
Secularist groups accused Dr Williams of “foolishness”, but his remarks were welcomed by British Muslim organisations.
Keith Porteous Wood, the executive director of the National Secular Society, said: “I’m still smiling about the comments he made about Sharia law a few years ago. You’d think he’d have learnt his lesson.”
In 2008, when still Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Williams provoked controversy by stating that the application of some aspects of Islamic law in British courts was “unavoidable”. He also drew both praise and criticism after telling a literary festival in 2012 that the hijab gave some Muslim women strength.
Yesterday, Dr Williams, who stood down as the head of the Church of England to become master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 2012, told the Living Islam Festival in Lincolnshire that Christianity and Islam were shifting British values back towards the community.
He said that Britain was an “argumentative democracy” where “we are not just individual voters ticking boxes but individuals and communities engaging in open, honest and difficult public discussion. One of the greatest gifts of the Muslim community to the UK has been that they have brought that back to the people.”
Asked if he meant that Islam was rejuvenating British values, Dr Williams said: “Yes. I’m thinking of the way in which, for example, in Birmingham we have seen a local parish and a mosque combining together to provide family services and youth activities, both acting out of a very strong sense that this is what communities ought to do. ”
Earlier this year, David Cameron began a debate when he warned that a failure to be “muscular” in promoting British values had led to the rise of extremism.
Dr Williams appeared to offer a riposte yesterday. “It’s really important that we respect and try to understand diversity of conscience and belief and conviction in our environment,” he said. “These are not just about what makes us British, they’re about what makes us human.”
Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, warned that the speech could undermine the UK’s social cohesion.
“Narratives that promote the view that religious belonging is necessary for social responsibility may be comforting to those for whom the promotion of religion is a profession, but in the UK they are totally unsupported by evidence,” he said.
Muslim groups praised Dr Williams’s intervention. Dilwar Hussain, chairman of the Muslim charity New Horizons, said: “That is a sentiment we would agree with, very much. We would also be concerned about any of those values being taken to extremes, whether it’s communitarianism or individualism.”
See also “‘Muslim Glastonbury’ challenges perceptions of Islam in Britain”, Guardian, 1 August 2014
According to the Guardian report: “Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, one of a number of non-Muslim speakers, gave a talk entitled ‘What do British values look like and is there room for Muslims?’ He expressed his unease about focus on British values rather than values of human beings generally. ‘The setting-up therefore of British values against any kind of values, whether Muslim or Christian, just won’t do,’ he said.
I will teach my grandchildren not to hold a father a hero by showing loyalty to anyone by killing an innocent person, especially his own child. I will teach them that such a person, in the modern civilized world we live in now is mentally ill, and needs help.
Your utterly insane and forget Islam, your projected anger at everybody is really your anger at God, but for some reason you still believe in him/her. Nice shot at Abraham(p), what else you got, come on, vomit all the soling out…
Nur
Religion is a way to teach universal morality. Religion does not have universal morality exclusively. Conflating morals with religion is a way to justify a need for a god.
As you can see, not having a universal moral foundation justifies their god respectably to shoot rockets into population areas and drop 2000 pound bombs on city blocks to destroy what their religion teaches them are demons.
I was once a religious person. Then I look at my grandchildren and think how I could have been so stupid as to hold a man a hero who would kill his own son to show loyalty to some being you cant even comprehend. How foolish of me to be so damned stupid for so damned long.
My non religious universal morality says that both expressions of religion are not beneficial to them, or to me.
Nur: I agree that morality exists outside religion, and that morality is also a part of religion. But religion is wider than just a moral code, it is about the way in which we relate to God (or the universe, or mother nature or the environment, however you want to put it), how we relate to one another as individuals, how we create communities, and how communities relate to each other.
The majority of the founding Zionists were atheistic socialists. Zionism is a false, idolatrous religion that has replaced the worship of God by worship of the Jewish people, the Land of Israel, and the State of Israel. It is this false religion that has produced the pogrom in Gaza, not the monotheism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Nur
I beg to differ.
My statement isn’t about the individual. My statement is about where morals and ethics come from.
Religion doesn’t ‘own’ any foundation of morality. Religion is a way of teaching morality. Look at the pogrom happening in Gaza now, and see what Israeli Jews are being taught about the worth of other people.
I never learned those kinds of values.
99% of religious activity (any major religion) consists of ordinary people going quietly about the business of loving God and loving their neighbour. You don’t know about it, because good news rarely hits the headlines. Suggestion: go along to your nearest (mainstream) church or synagogue or mosque or temple. I guarantee you will not hear anything about hating or destroying other people.
YOU REBEL SCUM
And lo a former oil company exec replaced him :
HSkol
Cool! Uh, e-friends are cool. Be as polite or abrasive as you must – trust me, you are not void of friends.
Right-wing rabbi’s ruling: Israel may totally destroy Gaza if necessary
Dov Lior, the rabbi of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, has issued a religious ruling permitting the total destruction of Gaza if Israel’s military leaders deem it necessary.
Lior is considered one of the more extreme rabbis on the religious right. In his ruling, he wrote that the Torah also teaches Jews how to act during wartime. In any war in which the people are under attack they are permitted to fight back against the nation from which the attackers come, he wrote.
“Therefore, in a time of war, the attacked nation is permitted to punish the enemy population with whatever measures it deems proper, like blocking supplies or electricity. It may bomb the entire area based on the judgment of the war minister and not wantonly put soldiers at risk,” Lior wrote, adding that “deterrent measures to exterminate the enemy” were allowed.
“The defense minister may even order the destruction of Gaza so that the south should no longer suffer, and to prevent harm to members of our people who have long been suffering from the enemies surrounding us,” he wrote.
After the ruling was published, the head of a left-wing party, Meretz’s Zahava Gal-On, asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch an investigation.
“Rabbi Dov Lior’s racist comments long ago lost the protection of the right to free expression,” Gal-On wrote to Weinstein. “These remarks follow his racist comments through the years, among them his many comments before the murder of [Yitzhak] Rabin and support for Baruch Goldstein,” the man who gunned down 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron in 1994.
Okay, we agree to both agree and disagree. We’re making more progress than most rounds of I/P negotiations!
As for the Golda Meir remark, I said, “It made me wonder if I owe an apology to Golda Meir.” Note that I did not say I agreed with her in full, but rather that I had to wonder. I should probably have been clearer that I was wondering only about activists in their role as activists and not about anyone as a common person, so I’ll apologize for not making clear that I was considering only one portion of those covered by her statement.
I understand that Ilisha feels that as a moderator, it may be improper for her to recommend any particular charity, and I respect that view. But even excusing her from specific recommendations, if you count the number of recommendations on LW for boycotts or for purchasing products like Max Blumenthal’s Goliath, versus the calls for supporting charities for Palestinians or for purchasing Palestinian products whether generally or recommending specifics, whether by mods or commenters (and taking out the calls by Sarah Brown and me), it is actually rather depressing and completely the opposite of what I see on “the other side.” Of course Golda Meir’s remark is overstated, as are many political statements. Putting aside the overstatement, the kernel of her remarks was one of the “myths” I had learned that I hoped to see disproved in sites like this. I think that in terms of people’s personal lives, it is just false; but in terms of the way much policy and activism work, it seems to me to have more than a kernel of truth.
Take care as well.
Solid Snake
Yes, I agree.
[We can continue via email if youd like, as after posting I think it was out of line to bring the discussion here from another website.]
Just_Stopping_By
I think we’ll have to agree to agree on parts and disagree on parts.
Tanveer ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Khan
Yes, I know. But the average person probably doesn’t even know clearly about what’s happening right now, let alone what happened 50 years ago. All they probably see is Hamas firing rockets at Israel and then Israel responding, albeit brutally. But as you have said, Hamas has extremely limited options and as you have also said, this doesn’t mean we condone the attacks. Hamas are between a rock and a hard place
Solid Snake
No, no. I was not denying they were members of Hamas, I was in disagreement with the assertion that this was a plot concocted by the political entity Hamas and by its leaders which is the official line of the Israeli government and the sole reason for the collective punishment of the West Bank. There is a difference, if a lone group of members did this without orders or if the leaders themselves sanctioned this kidnapping. Much like the kidnapping and immolation of Muhammad Abu Kdheir by Israeli citizens, they were a lone group who most likely were followers of the ruling Likud party, it would make no sense to say that the Israeli leadership ordered that kidnapping and murder.
Well, it really isn’t a murky issue at all. Rounding up of 500+ (surely they all were part of kidnapping plot), demolishing houses, murdering innocents while suppressing information that the teens were already dead are clear violations of all and any form of civilized law.
You are correct, we will find instances on both sides, and I condemn any instances of Palestinians murdering civilians .But without context it will lead us to a flawed understanding of the conflict.
You see, it depends on what premise you base your analysis . If you somehow think that a tiny,poorly armed and equipped, besieged political resistance movement like Hamas is somehow equal to Israel a Nuclear-armed modern nation that enjoys the almost unanimous support of Western governments then I can see how you reach the conclusions that you do.
But if one views reality objectively we find that Hamas is a relatively new creation by Israel that was designed for the sole purpose of rebutting the secular PLO and the moderate strand of Palestinian resistance.
That Israel has been occupying and terrorizing a population for 60+ years way before Hamas was around.
That every time a round of peace talks begins Israel immediately begins stealing more land by building settlements. In fact that alone should make any reasonable person conclude that Israel has no interest in peace and as Netanyahu recently stated they will never accept a Palestinian State.
There is much more to be discussed and I stand with my previous statement, when the factual record is examined both present and past it stands as a stark indictment of Israel.
I dont say this lightly.
Tanveer ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Khan
Personally, I think that if Hamas gave up the rocket attacks and just focused on soldiers, more people would support them.
Just_Stopping_By
Did you see the clarification by a new statement Friday, after my post on Thursday?: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/22/world/meast/mideast-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 (“A Hamas official admitted Friday that militants from his group abducted three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June, but the official said the kidnappers did not tell their leaders about the action. … ‘At that time, the Hamas leadership had no knowledge about this group or the operation it had just carried,’ Aruri said, referring to the abductors. ‘It turned out later, however, that they were members of Hamas.’”) It seems as if Hamas did not know at first that “members of Hamas” acted on their own, explaining why the group’s leadership did not admit to the kidnappings/murders initially. I think that we now have little dispute that it was members of Hamas behind the kidnappings/murders.
I agree that Netanyahu saw the kidnappings/murders as an opportunity to try to root out Hamas in the West Bank. But, it becomes a murkier issue as to where arresting Hamas members there falls on the spectrum of a political action to a legitimate rounding up of likely suspects in a murder investigation. My guess is that Netanyahu saw the ambiguity and was happy to seize upon it.
Yes, the violence began before. You can also look up Hamas’ record of murdering Israelis and taking credit for those actions, admitting that they were planned operations aimed at civilians. Sadly, we could go back and forth on such history all day, and I think if we are honest, we will find instances of each side pushing the violence up another notch or more at various points, making it silly to blame just one side or the other.
Solid Snake
Hmm, seems quite fishy.
The 3 teens are kidnapped, killed immediately, the Israeli government knows that they are dead within the hour, the Israeli government issues a gag order on all media and suppresses the information, Hamas does not claim responsibility Khaled Meshaal even denies knowing anything about the kidnappings, later on Israeli Police said that the investigation turned up that the kidnappers were lone cell, and now this? So I did some looking around and it turns out that it was not an admission at all:
“All the Israeli papers stated that “Hamas admits to kidnapping three Israeli teens,” based on a recording from a Muslim scholars conference in Turkey. However, almost all of them used the translation given by Channel 2 News, which is not an admission: “There are those who say that it was your brothers in the al-Qassam Brigades, who carried it out for the sake of al-Qassam members who are in jails and who sit in a hunger strike,” al-Arouri was quoted saying. Times of Israel said that this quote was the strongest evidence yet of a Hamas link. [Which if true, means that there is little evidence until now despite Israel’s claims that Hamas was linked. – OH] Hamas has denied involvement in the plot. Haaretz+’s military affairs reporter Gili Cohen used the translation given by an anti-Hamas YouTube channel, which is very different and according to which, Arouri said Hamas’ military wing was responsible.”
The “there are those who say that..” has been cut off from the quote in many articles. the fact that Israeli military affairs reporters have to rely on Anti-Hamas Youtube Videos is telling.
Plus, even if true that they admit it, it makes no sense whatsoever. Why would they hide it? Its not like Israel would not have done any of this anyway, as it was reported the government knew about their deaths (and their non-decaying bodies were found later) and still went out to “search” for them by conducting a campaign of collective punishment to terrorize a subdued population.
Also, the violence did not begin with the kidnappings, the Israelis were murdering children frequently before that.
El Cid
So? Is not it a superior attrition slicing strategy? What is wrong with it? The Facebook likes suggest that it is democracy at work…as loved by the American Way. And backed by its formidable clout.
The Palestinians have long since been written off by the World powers and the democratic way. Democracy and the Capital system is at work here with some help from friends and armadas on the high seas.
All this is perfect logic if Israel has to fulfill its mandate. US and UK have just airlifted a huge amount of state of the art, newly designed ammo and weapons. US has just exponentially increased its military aid to Israel as Hamas seemed to have been getting the better of the Jews in close combat lately. It is expected this will improve the odds in the Zionists favor. American advisers have also arrived in Israel to install and upgrade these weapon systems.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait are also helping with fuel, finances and supplies and in suffocating the Palestinians, tightening the noose so to speak.
As soon as Islamic States insurgency has been crushed under the full load of American might the elimination of the Gaza and West Bank parasites can be accelerated.
Just to repeat, this, if true, would in no way justify or excuse either deliberate targeting of or reckless endangerment of civilians on either side. We have around 2,000 dead, mostly civilians, and many just young children, and that is a terrible tragedy no matter what the sequence of events that led up to that was.
Awesome
Except there is nothing in the Qur’an or the ahadith that is prescriptive about exterminating Jews, nor do Muslims routinely call for it. Regurgitating Zionist propaganda against Islam and Muslims proves nothing besides ignorance.
In addition, a Rabbi saying that the IOF can basically destroy all of Gaza if they feel like it, can only be regarded as “hatred” for the people living in Gaza. I’m not sure how you managed to construe that as him just saying to “kill those who routinely kill you”, but nothing you are saying makes much sense anyways.
Awesome
Palestinians have a right to vote for whoever they want to, and it is the responsibility of everyone else to try and work with those elected rather than against them. Israel rejects Hamas, and chooses to punish the Palestinians collectively over it. However, collective punishment is a war crime, and those who engage in it are war criminals. Israel engages in collective punishment as if it were a standard policy of theirs and that makes them war criminals.
It’s also hard to care much about rockets and mortars when they literally manage to do almost zero damage. Israel also doesn’t seem to care much about them either, otherwise they would have brought an end to them a long time ago.
julietsm
I really didn’t think you would post my comments. No big surprise there.
Awesome
In that case, maybe they are hiding in the Israeli Knesset too, so perhaps the IOF should do to the Israeli Knesset what they did to the rest of their targets.
Friend of Bosnia
I can only say to my Palestinian brothers and sisters (as well as to my Bosniak brothers and sisters) that despite all horrible things being done to them:
Defend your freedom with all your might. But don’t give in to the temptation of becoming genocidals yourselves if Allah swt should by His grace give you the upper hand.
Of course this is for most a hypothetic question now. Nevertheless, the notion of pushing the Jews into the sea (or the Bosnian Croats, or leaving just a handful of Serbs or none at all in Bosnia) is not right and not realistic. Neither is the idea of having them as second-class citizens. But I believe most people here as well as there, would not stand for it anyway.
For the sake of those whom John J. Mearsheimer calls the Righteous Jews (and for those non-Muslim Bosnians who love and cherish Bosnia-Herezegovina): A negotiated settlement which allows people to live in mutual respect is possible. It just needs the will of those involved.
It is written that God created Man into all those different peoples and nations so that they may learn to respect each other.
Too bad I don’t see the will on either side, but too much genocidal intent.
As it is, I believe only the victims of genocide will see Heaven. All others will go the other way.
And if somebody says that Muslims committed genocide that’s just an anti-Muslim propaganda lie. Even the Armenian Genocide was committed by ultranationalists, not by believing Muslims.
Sam Seed
Oh good as when I last checked it was 56% Yes. I ve been WhatsApp’ing my friends too.
Friend of Bosnia
They do. Nevertheless you’d be surprised how many of us are actually white. For those of us who are it’s actually worse for the islamophobes see them as “traitors” or “renegades.”
Friend of Bosnia
Rather, disgusting islamophobic war propaganda lies.
The serbo fascists had a similar one, I saw it in one bit of evening news around 1992. It was an interview with one of their bigwigs, Momcilo Krajisnik I think (or was it Karadzic himself? A bit difficult to remember after 22 years): anyway, on the wall behind him was a poster. Depicted on that poster was a bearded figure, supposedly a “jihadi”, pouring a can of green paint over a globe, and the caption read “This is not a paint commercial.”
This piece of garbage is as genocidal as th eone I just described.
Well, what a surprise. The Israeli right got cozy with Karadzic back then. Lieberman and Milorad Dodik are buddies too. Of course. As if the ones could teach the others a little bit more about wasting Muslims. As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.”
Friend of Bosnia
Like they did in the Western Balkans too.
And it saddens me to no end that I will not see the end of it either. Or that it might lead to a bad end, with the Bosniak people first being ghettoized and then exterminated. Like the Spanish Muslims once were.
You have said it right, and if there are Muslims who need to rally behind Turkey, or rathet that Turkey gives them their unreserved support, it’s the Balkan Muslims.
Boro have banned three fans for life for their part in a Koran ripping incident at an away match.
Six supporters were originally given temporary bans from The Riverside after the 2-2 draw at Birmingham City in December. West Midlands Police investigated claims pages of the Islamic text had been thrown in the air and three fans were later charged.
The club was unable to confirm which supporters it has banned for life.
A spokesman told The Gazette: “Middlesbrough Football Club has banned three fans for life following an incident at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s Stadium on December 7 2013 in which a copy of the Koran was ripped up. Another two supporters have been banned for 12 months and a sixth fan remains suspended while he remains out of the country.”
Julie Phillips, 50, and Gemma Parkin, 18, from Middlesbrough, were found guilty of committing a religiously aggravated public order offence by magistrates in May. Phillips, of Kenmore Road, Netherfields, and Parkin, of Kimberley Drive, Pallister Park, were both fined and ordered to pay costs. Boro season ticket holder Mark Stephenson, of Napoleon Drive, Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty to causing racial or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress and was fined £235.
The three were not issued with football banning orders by the court which would have prevented them from entering any ground in the country, but Boro have now taken their own action after reviewing evidence provided by Birmingham City.
Phillips, a Middlesbrough Council employee, told the court she only found out the book was the Koran when she was questioned by police after stewards saw what was happening. “I was mortified,” she said. “Very ashamed and disgusted in myself. It was just a book of some sort, I can’t remember if the cover was on. It was just white paper.”
Parkin said she took the Koran into St Andrew’s after she was handed it at Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market. She claimed not to have looked at the book, saying she had no idea it was the Koran. She said Stephenson, a purchasing manager, took the book from her bag before it was “turned into confetti”. “Everyone else was ripping it up so I just ripped it,” Parkin told the court.
Magistrates described her account as “unbelievable”.
A Birmingham steward told the court he heard chants about Muslims and the Koran as the book was passed around and ripped up. He later followed Phillips and Parkin and pointed them out to police officers after the match ended.
During his court case, Stephenson said he was “shocked and appalled” by his actions.
Unfortunately for some people and in some societies it does mean it. They think he who shouts the loudest is right. Pretty stupid in my opinion but there you have it.
That’s not some new thing which has Happened to England. Some form of blasphemy law has been in place there for centuries. The BBC used to (maybe still does) have to pay a fine whenever certain Monty Python films were broadcast.
abc
I think they should be punished.
EyeOnFashion
llishi and omar
This may help you understand the PROBLEM for those that need it spelled out!
Maybe you don’t burn Bibles but it has been done! where are you that you are not informed correctly? Omar same with you!
perhaps Joan can put it in a perspective you can understand?
But it’s ok to BURN the BIBLE, AMERICAN FLAG, JEWISH FLAG.
It’s ok to DESTROY PROPERTY, LOOT, CAUSE MAYHEM, DISRUPT BUSINESSES?
FIRE MISSILES INTO ISRAEL and NOT HAVE CONSEQUENCES?
How long would AMERICA put up with MEXICO FIRING MISSILES INTO TEXAS?
What if those MISSILES FELL INTO A PALESTINIAN/MUSLIM neighborhood here in Texas? Do you THINK those Palestinians or Muslims would stand by and do NOTHING before they DEMANDED AMERICA PROTECT THEM?
(Washington, DC) –The US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have targeted American Muslims in abusive counterterrorism “sting operations” based on religious and ethnic identity, Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute said in a report released today. Many of the more than 500 terrorism-related cases prosecuted in US federal courts since September 11, 2001, have alienated the very communities that can help prevent terrorist crimes.
The 214-page report, “Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions,” examines 27 federal terrorism cases from initiation of the investigations to sentencing and post-conviction conditions of confinement. It documents the significant human cost of certain counterterrorism practices, such as overly aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement.
“Americans have been told that their government is keeping them safe by preventing and prosecuting terrorism inside the US,” said Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch and one of the authors of the report. “But take a closer look and you realize that many of these people would never have committed a crime if not for law enforcement encouraging, pressuring, and sometimes paying them to commit terrorist acts.”
Many prosecutions have properly targeted individuals engaged in planning or financing terror attacks, the groups found. But many others have targeted people who do not appear to have been involved in terrorist plotting or financing at the time the government began to investigate them. And many of the cases involve due process violations and abusive conditions of confinement that have resulted in excessively long prison sentences.
The report is based on more than 215 interviews with people charged with or convicted of terrorism-related crimes, members of their families and their communities, criminal defense attorneys, judges, current and former federal prosecutors, government officials, academics, and other experts.
In some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act. Multiple studies have found that nearly 50 percent of the federal counterterrorism convictions since September 11, 2001, resulted from informant-based cases. Almost 30 percent were sting operations in which the informant played an active role in the underlying plot.
In the case of the “Newburgh Four,” for example, who were accused of planning to blow up synagogues and attack a US military base, a judge said the government “came up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles,” and had, in the process, made a terrorist out of a man “whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope.”
The FBI often targeted particularly vulnerable people, including those with intellectual and mental disabilities and the indigent. The government, often acting through informants, then actively developed the plot, persuading and sometimes pressuring the targets to participate, and provided the resources to carry it out.
“The US government should stop treating American Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting,” Prasow said. “The bar on entrapment in US law is so high that it’s almost impossible for a terrorism suspect to prove. Add that to law enforcement preying on the particularly vulnerable, such as those with mental or intellectual disabilities, and the very poor, and you have a recipe for rampant human rights abuses.”
Rezwan Ferdaus, for example, pled guilty to attempting to blow up a federal building and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Although an FBI agent even told Ferdaus’ father that his son “obviously” had mental health problems, the FBI targeted him for a sting operation, sending an informant into Ferdaus’ mosque. Together, the FBI informant and Ferdaus devised a plan to attack the Pentagon and US Capitol, with the FBI providing fake weaponry and funding Ferdaus’ travel. Yet Ferdaus was mentally and physically deteriorating as the fake plot unfolded, suffering depression and seizures so bad his father quit his job to care for him.
The US has also made overly broad use of material support charges, punishing behavior that did not demonstrate an intent to support terrorism. The courts have accepted prosecutorial tactics that may violate fair trial rights, such as introducing evidence obtained by coercion, classified evidence that cannot be fairly contested, and inflammatory evidence about terrorism in which defendants played no part – and asserting government secrecy claims to limit challenges to surveillance warrants.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is a US citizen who alleged that he was whipped and threatened with amputation while detained without charge in Saudi Arabia – after a roundup following the 2003 bombings of Western compounds in the Saudi capital of Riyadh – until he provided a confession to Saudi interrogators that he says was false. Later, when Ali went to trial in Virginia, the judge rejected Ali’s claims of torture and admitted his confession into evidence. He was convicted of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to assassinate the president. He received a life sentence, which he is serving in solitary confinement at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
The US has in terrorism cases used harsh and at times abusive conditions of confinement, which often appear excessive in relation to the security risk posed. This includes prolonged solitary confinement and severe restrictions on communicating in pretrial detention, possibly impeding defendants’ ability to assist in their own defense and contributing to their decisions to plead guilty. Judges have imposed excessively lengthy sentences, and some prisoners suffer draconian conditions post-conviction, including prolonged solitary confinement and severe restrictions on contact with families or others, sometimes without explanation or recourse.
Nine months after his arrest on charges of material support for terrorism and while he was refusing a plea deal, Uzair Paracha was moved to a harsh regime of solitary confinement. Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) – national security restrictions on his contact with others – permitted Paracha to speak only to prison guards.
“You could spend days to weeks without uttering anything significant beyond ‘Please cut my lights,’ ‘Can I get a legal call/toilet paper/a razor,’ etc., or just thanking them for shutting our light,” he wrote to the report’s researchers. After he was convicted, the SAMs were modified to permit him to communicate with other inmates. “I faced the harshest part of the SAMs while I was innocent in the eyes of American law,” he wrote.
These abuses have had an adverse impact on American Muslim communities. The government’s tactics to seek out terrorism suspects, at times before the target has demonstrated any intention to use violence, has undercut parallel efforts to build relationships with American Muslim community leaders and groups that may be critical sources of information to prevent terrorist attacks.
In some communities, these practices have deterred interaction with law enforcement. Some Muslim community members said that fears of government surveillance and informant infiltration have meant they must watch what they say, to whom, and how often they attend services.
“Far from protecting Americans, including American Muslims, from the threat of terrorism, the policies documented in this report have diverted law enforcement from pursuing real threats,” Prasow said. “It is possible to protect people’s rights and also prosecute terrorists, which increases the chances of catching genuine criminals.”
So what, they were killed for daring to want to remain what they were. And quite a few had honestly tried to become Christians yet they were burned at the stake or thrown in jail just for being their fathers’ sons. To instill fear in all other people. So, in a way all inquisition trials were show trials.
One must be nuts to defend the Inquisition. What is your motivation to defend them???
Feel free to identify where I claimed that they were humanitarians, or where I claimed that there were not horrible abuses. For that matter, feel free to extrapolate upon how the actions of members of an institution in one province in one century must exemplify the actions of an entire group over the course of several centuries.
Moreover, your original point was that these were “show trials.” In the case of the Moriscos, those prosecuted were prosecuted for being Muslims, which they were. That is the opposite of a show trial.
Friend of Bosnia
Oh c’mon. They weren’t humanitarians. I have a book with transcripts of Inquisitorial persecution of Moriscos in the province of Cuenca during the 16th century. Who were persecuted for daring to try and remain Muslims after being Christianized by force.
Doesn’t make a nice picture.
“WIth the Inquisition in the Middle Ages it was the same thing.”
Actually, it wasn’t. I encourage everyone of European ancestry or with an interest in European history to actually read transcripts from Inquisitorial trials. Extremely illuminating.
Of course horrible abuses took place, as with every human institution. But most of what people think they “know” about the Inquisition–and, interestingly, of the European Middle ages–is based on hearsay, innuendo, and cultural conditioning. There was an entire centuries-long propaganda war concerning this, whose effects are still far-reaching. Google “Black Legend” sometime.
Friend of Bosnia
“Miniluv”, to resume it in one word
Friend of Bosnia
I will from now on refer to the various American secret services as “Thought Police”; “Ministry of Love or Miniluv”; NKVD 2.0, Stasi 2.0, UDBA 2.0 and Securitate 2.0.
I might add, Gestapo 2.0.
I see their purpose is the same: intimidate people, keep them in line through fear.
Do in ordinary citizens for “crimethink” or “Thoughtcrime”.
Solid Snake
Well Israel is a great piece-maker when it comes to Palestinian women and children.
Yausari
So what if Israel did some peace agreements? they had to. that does not mean that the Zionist are the peacemaker when they made enemies with their neighbors in the first place.
The greenmantle
everyone else frankly . If I thought you could be trusted to deliver I would have a go myself . But I would not trust you even to define the boundries of Isreal .
Sir David
Friend of Bosnia
As Amie has stated in the article on the FBi informats documentary here, teh activities of the American secret services remind me of what the secret police of Communits Yugosoavia, the UDBA did: the same thing – infiltrate the religious communities, provoke people into talking foul of the authorities and presto – a counter-revolutionary who can be arrested, tortured, put before a show trial and thrown in jail or executed. To instill fear into the populace. WIth the Inquisition in the Middle Ages it was the same thing.
Another commenter said that all this proves one thing: a large proportion of the American leadership are sick, crazy, stark raving mad. Driven by paranoia, hysteria, cynicism and plain, cold-hearted inhumanity.
How far have they strayed from the Four Freedoms that FDR once postulated. Instead with all the possibilities that electronic surveillance offers this is on the best way to become a totalitarian state which will make Orwell’s 1984 or Stalinism with its NKVD and Gulags look like a kiddie camp in comparison.
Dark, indeed very dark ages are coming.
Nur
I would make the case…but reading the rhetoric makes me think that no matter what, the person offering the money does not see peace as a mutual agreement without caveat.
Bah, read Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”. If the description of the inquisitor, Bernard Gui, who really lived, is accurate, and I have no doubt it is, then the FBI, is like Bernrd Gui, not interested in who the culprit/the real terrorist is, but to “let the populace see the heretic burn”, no matter if he is really a heretic or just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing new under the sun.
Omar_the_Egyptian
More justification for the invasion of gaul and the “de-frenching” of The Maghreb, Sahel and the rest of Muslim West Africa.
Anonymous
WTF?
FUCKING DISGUSTING PIG
What the hell is he thinking
Yausari
Oh good coz I thought they were wasting their money… phew!
Reynardine
The real terrorists are staging insurrections in Nevada. The real terrorists are threatening to lynch the President. The real terrorists are causing government shutdowns, sending militias to our southern border to shoot little kids, attempting to bring about a coup by barricading Washington, DC…but the real terrorists are ril uhMericuhns and ril Chrischuns, so we don’t rilly even talk about them.
And meanwhile …
mindy1
Pathetic, they should use that money to track ACTUAL terrorists >:(
JD
Everyone has a budget to hit end of the year… if there is no terrorism then there is no need for a large budget and so no large staff ,no new FBI toys, no FBI suv that get 30 feet to the gallon. This is for your own good and save Current agents jobs and retired agents pensions.
Yausari
What a great way to waste time and money for a false threat. As a bonus, you violate human rights. I guess this Muslim Brotherhood that is taking over US, is really the FBI. What exactly are you trying to do? I got to update my status to bored s#itless.
Democrat Eliot Engel appears at pro-Israel rally featuring anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller
Anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller was a speaker (see the video above) at a pro-Israel rally in New York City Sunday that also featured Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat. Engel’s presence at a rally that invited Geller, a blogger and activist whose bread and butter is casting aspersions on Muslims, raised eyebrows on Twitter and elsewhere.
Engel is a liberal Congressional Democrat, though he is a hawk on foreign policy issues. Geller is a far-right anti-Muslim blogger whose organization Stop Islamization of America was labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Geller has called President Barack Obama “a muhammadan” and floated theories that Obama is the child of Malcolm X and was involved with a “crack whore.” And she is allied with Tea Party groups.
But those stark political differences melt away when it comes to showing up to support Israel’s assault on Gaza. Engel’s and Geller’s speeches were delivered to a rally featuring hundreds of people chanting things like “Israel wants peace, Hamas wants war” and “We are the Jews and we are not afraid.” The show of support for the Israeli assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 375 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, was reportedly organized by local New York Jews.
Here’s more footage of the rally from VIN News:
“I urge you to stand with Israel today,” Geller said at the rally. “But if you don’t, the devil will be at your doorstep tomorrow. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Geller is a staunch advocate for Israel, and has repeatedly created controversies by buying ad space in cities and putting up inflammatory anti-Muslim messages on them. One ad she has put up in New York and elsewhere reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” Below those words and in between two Stars of David, the advertisement read: “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” She repeated that message at the rally.
Engel’s ardent support for Israel has lead him to appear alongside right-wing figures in other venues. In 2008, Engel came under criticism from progressives for speaking at the Christians United for Israel conference.
Short and simple point: This story clearly points to the psychotic nature of a great many US politicians. I have quite a number of friends who vote solely along party lines. This is precisely why I personally cannot do so.
sasboy
The number of people attending this “rally” is rather piddling when compared to the tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands protesting in favour of Palestinian rights and freedoms.
Free Palestine !
Lithium2006
Not really surprised, especially after Obama’s disgusting actions at the white house iftar last week.
mindy1
Tragic :'(
golden izanagi
“the devil will be at your doorstep tomorrow” I’m pretty sure he is a little busy with other things but I think one should get out the jelly and toast handy just in case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iJ_G9cRGdE
*insert this is why aliens don’t talk to us joke* but in all seriousness, if it was just about supporting Israel they would not have invited a known hater like Geller. You can like Israel without associating with haters >:(
Solid Snake
“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.”
My last words to him were “slow down brother slow down” – but he wanted his family. He wanted his lost family, and the Israelis killed him for that….
We are all witnesses to this murder of an ordinary human being, a beautiful brother, who was merely looking for his family. He must have been about 20 years old, with piercing light eyes. We still do not know his name….
Then there was a third shot at him, and a fourth that missed him. The second shot to the brother was what killed him. Yet, they shot him again. Four shots in total…..
There were four shots in total, miss, hit, hit, miss. Shrapnel flying everywhere..
Correct, you’re so full of crap I fail to grasp what your point is. Slither away to Jihadwatch unwanted creature.
Ahmed
Your questions have been refuted multiple times, in different times, by different people. Nobody who asked these questions have accepted our answers out of sheer bigotry and bias. None whatsoever. So why should you be any different?
Sam Seed
You ok chap? You really are making quite spectacle of yourself you do realise that. How’s the Zionist magic mushrooms treating you?
Ahmed
A single celled organism with barely functioning light receptors can identify an obvious troll such as yourself immediately. Stop wasting our time.
Amboyduke
You, my dear, are unbelieveable…!
I should pity you more than laugh at you, but either way…do you not realize how dim-witted you appear to be?
You are a master at deflecting rational, intellectual discussion, I’ll give you that.
I was going to try and be a regular contributor to this loonwatch site, but I can see it would be fruitless.
Amboyduke
That’s my GIRL…!
I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me…
You simply can’t give me any answers to my legitimate questions.
Nothing new here.
Ilisha…can’t you see how pathetic you look by not answering any of my serious questions?
Anyone on here want to take a shot at it…help this girl out…
Like I said, I’ll keep an open mind…any takers?
Sam Seed
“Get your facts straight”. I reiterate for your benefit the fruits of Zionism is racism it’s not hard to digest unless you’re racist of course.
why do you call this the ‘fruit of Zionism’? It isn’t.
They support conservative policies and Israel although they are not
Zionist. They support Israel because they see it as an ally in the
Middle East. Israel enjoys cross party support. Democrat Zionists are usually Jewish but the Republican ones include arms and oil tycoons like the Koch Brothers. They are not Zionist but see Israel as a military ally.
Horowitz Foundation is funded by the Koch Brothers and the Scaife Foundations amongst others. They support small government and a strong America and see Israel as an ally. Building Israel’s military is one of their aims but they they are not Zionists. Gets your facts straight. Many people who are not Zionists support Israel because they see it as an ally against the Islamic fundamentalist threat against America.
Robert Spencer does not have a ‘sugar daddy’ but even if he does, then it sure is not Horowitz, because Horowitz himself is funded by the Koch brothers and other conservative tycoons.
Amboyduke
Hamas are just like the Nazis in their hatred of Jews!
What say all of you fools on here about the constant sending of rockets into Israel?
The fact that years ago Arafat had 95% of his “PLO” demands met by Israel and he STILL didn’t keep his end of the agreement?
None of you offer any real DEFENSE on the lunacy done world wide by your “Bros”…
Loonwatch is definitely one pathetic bunch.
Like Benjamin Netanyahu says, and it sums it up PERFECTLY…
“IF ISRAEL PUTS DOWN THEIR WEAPONS, THERE WOULD BE NO MORE ISRAEL, BUT IF THE ARABS PUT DOWN THEIR WEAPONS, THERE WOULD BE NO MORE WAR”
Bingo!
Sam Seed
Bill Maher…another fan of Zionism has this to tweet…
“Dealing w/ Hamas is like dealing w/ a crazy woman who’s trying to kill u – u can only hold her wrists so long before you have to slap her”
Should Israel find itself low on ammunition, it can tap into a stockpile of a billion dollars worth of
American weapons stored in Israel by the United States for emergencies.
So far, Israel has not requested access to the stockpile during the
current hostilities with Hamas in Gaza.
The
little-known stockpile is officially known as War Reserve Stockpile
Ammunition-Israel (WRSA-I) and has been maintained inside Israel since
the 1990s by United States European Command. It is a congressionally
approved program that has grown in scope in recent years.
The location of the stockpile as well as the types and quantities of ammunition it stores are classified. However, a Congressional Research Service report from April says “the United States stores missiles, armored vehicles and artillery ammunition” in the stockpile.
A
U.S. defense official says “this program consists of U.S. owned and
U.S. managed ammunition stockpiles in Israel for use by either U.S. or
Israeli forces.” Though the weapons in the stockpile belong to the
United States they are essentially for Israel’s use when they ask for it
should they run low on certain stocks of ammunition in emergency
situations.
The official said
Israel has not requested to use ammunition stored in this stockpile as
it did during the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Sam Seed
This is the fruit of Zionism, it really is repulsive.
Anonymous
When ever this idiot does another meeting or confrence, people should just hold signs showing this tweet so we can expose this vile monster for the piece of shit that he is
الله يلعنه
Anonymous
I thought horowitz’s IQ was in the negatives
Just_Stopping_By
Horowitz is absolutely repulsive on so many levels here, from calling for murder to comparing one set of people in this conflict to Nazis. Just utterly repulsive.
As for his “@horowitz39” handle, I did not realize that publicizing one’s IQ was such a fad on Twitter.
John Smith
What a joke. The man doesn’t even hide his hate. Whenever someone tries to bring up Horowitz as a relevant authority on anything, I am showing this tweet.
Typically, there isn’t a large police presence at a land-use hearing. But Wednesday night’s hearing was different. There was a palpable sense of concern by law enforcement. Why? Because Wednesday night, the board was deciding whether to approve the application of Muslims to convert an old church into a mosque.
The little town of Midland Park is a middle-class suburb of New York City, just north of my hometown of Paramus. It’s home to about 7,000 residents. And now this quiet township had also become the home of an ugly mosque controversy. Unlike the Ground Zero mosque protest of 2010, this fight didn’t make national headlines or become the lead story on the nightly news. Yet to the local residents and the Muslim-Americans who desperately wanted a place of worship, it was just as important, and emotions were just as high.
The small hearing room that accommodated 60 was packed with the faces of brown and white people, while others filled the hallways and adjacent conference rooms. For the next three hours, this hearing would be the big show in this small town. And it didn’t disappoint.
At the outset of the hearing, the attorney for the mosque, sensing that the room was filled with opponents, made a simple plea to the municipal board members: “This is not a public referendum, it’s a question of law.”
He was legally correct, but that didn’t prevent local officials in Bridgewater, New Jersey from improperly preventing the building of a mosque a few years ago. The result was a lawsuit in federal court that found in favor of the mosque, although it’s currently still engulfed in the appeals process.
And then came the parade of people testifying for and against the mosque. The board members would respectfully listen, but showed little signs of which way they would decide.
“I’ve been to nine Bon Jovi concerts…I love this country.” That was part of the emotional plea of a Muslim-American doctor in support of the mosque. When I was an attorney, I can assure you that I never heard anyone testify at a land-use hearing: “I love this country.” Such a declaration is obviously not required by law, but when you’re Muslim, you feel obligated to continually offer these types of assurances.
We heard from opponents who lived on the block of the proposed mosque. I sincerely believe they were simply concerned about traffic, not Muslims. Others opened by saying “I have nothing against Muslims,” but you could still sense apprehension—not based on malice, but more from a lack of personal exposure to Muslims.
And then something fascinating happened. Since this hearing was taking place during Ramadan, many of the Muslims had been fasting since sunrise. I’m talking 14 hours with no food. As we reached sunset at about 8:45 p.m., I could see some taking out snacks from their bags or passing around figs to break their fast. These people were celebrating their religion while at the same time fighting to exercise it.
Soon, however, the mask of civility was removed, revealing the ugly face of bigotry. As one Muslim man from a neighboring town testified, someone yelled out, “Build the mosque in your town!” Another commented: “I don’t care if they worship their God, just not in our town.” (All the Muslims who testified were from neighboring towns.)
There was a man holding up a sign that read “Stop Application” and “Keep R Kids Safe.” I was a bit confused about the second sign. Was he alleging that Muslims are a threat to children? Not sure, but it wasn’t long until he stormed out of the hearing, declaring: “There are 180 million [not billion?] radicalized Muslims!” [Yes, he was using the Islamaphobe’s BS line that not all Muslims are bad, but X percent are.]
The hearing soon reached a boiling point as a woman calmly, but intensely, testified from prepared notes about the alleged threats Islam posed to the people of the town. Parroting the crap we have heard from Islamophbes on Fox News, she claimed Muslims are “trained” to lie and that they don’t share the same values as we, Americans, do. When someone in the crowd objected, another in the audience said: “It’s the truth, you don’t know them.”
There was even a moment of surreal levity. Another woman sitting in the audience, and again this is small room where everyone could easily see one another, had been loudly voicing anti-Muslim comments. She then came up to testify, stating: “I don’t have any problems with Muslims, it’s about traffic.” Did she really think we couldn’t see she was the same person saying anti-Muslim crap minutes before?!
Don’t get me wrong, there were some bright spots, such as when a Jewish and a Christian leader testified in support of the Muslims’ freedom to worship like people of other faiths. However, every single resident of Midland Park who testified voiced opposition to the mosque. (I wonder how freaked out these mosque opponents, who were all white, will be when they realize that by 2045 they will be outnumbered by people of color?)
And now, after three hours of talking traffic, tax bases, and Muslims, it was time for the board to decide. If they followed the views of the local residents, the mosque would be soundly defeated.
The decision was unanimous. A new place of worship was coming to this small town. And it would bring with it people that don’t look or pray like most of the local residents.
But now comes the more challenging part for the Muslim community. It’s one thing to win a hearing, but it’s quite another to win “hearts and minds.” I did leave, though, with a sense of optimism after seeing the leader of the mosque walk up to as many of the opponents and as he could find and extend his hand. True, it’s a small step, but it’s a really good one to start with.
Glad to hear the mosque was approved..which makes this kind of a non-story.
Obeidallah would do better at helping “to win ‘hearts and minds’” if he wasn’t so busy beating off over peoples’ skin color when he writes an opinion piece.
Because, frankly, every time someone starts mentioning skin color, which the American Left thinks is the Holy Graal of arguments, my eyes glaze over.
Seriously, he’s a funny man–it is, after all, his livelihood–so he has the ability to speak and write without resorting to lowbrow ideological jabs. Whether he ever manifests that ability will determine his efficacy in reaching people who need to be reached, rather than preaching to those of us who are already in the choir.
golden izanagi
and don’t forget those assurances would most likely fall on deaf ears because of the bullcrap about taqiyya that islamaphobes love to pull out so that they can put any acts of good will or shows of patriotism by muslims into question.
Tanveer ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Khan
When I was an attorney, I can assure you that I never heard anyone
testify at a land-use hearing: “I love this country.” Such a declaration
is obviously not required by law, but when you’re Muslim, you feel
obligated to continually offer these types of assurances.
Stop pandering to nationalists, it will get you nowhere.
Amie
LOL traffic problem! OMG. People would say ridiculous things… You know, this reminds me of the ayat in the Noble Qur’an where Allah SWT says that the enemies of (then) Muslims feared Muslims more than they fear Him SWT. This timeless statement can be applied today. The islamophobes fear Muslims and Islam more than they fear God Almighty.
John Smith
Traffic problems? Please, it is ridiculous the measures people will take to look ‘reasonable’ when in reality they are seething with bigotry.
mindy1
Am glad that some Jews spoke on behalf of Muslims :))) I do wonder what people are so afraid of, just let people worship as they please
FBI’s Institutional Islamophobia And Racism: ‘Mohammed Raghead’ – the name the FBI were giving to Muslim-American ‘Joe Bloggs’
The leaked documents published by The Interceptinclude a list of 7,485 email addresses monitored between 2002 and 2008. Five of the emails identified by journalists have been described as leading “highly public, outwardly exemplary lives”.
A document dating from 2006 from the same cache of files instructed intelligence agency staff how to properly record the identity of those under surveillance and used the fake name of “Mohammed Raghead” as an example.
next time you get scrabble Double Word Score because of
dulcify i want half the points
Reynardine
I am a fairly literate person, and this is the first place I’ve seen “dulcify”, but it’s a real word.
JD
This also explains the
“The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails
of prominent Muslim-Americans under secretive procedures intended to
target terrorists and foreign spies.”
They want to spy on org like CAIR because they always call the FBI ,Republicans, and idiots out when they do stupid stuff like this. Find dirt discredit them and then you can do anything you want and the public wont say anything….
FFS, and they wonder why some people don’t trust authority >:(
Reynardine
Goes to show you don’t have to be poor, illiterate, or Southern to be “white trash”.
Just_Stopping_By
Someone creating a file using the term “Mohammed Raghead” shows that that individual is a bigot.
No one in the FBI protesting this, or else any such protests being ignored or denied at higher levels, allowing the document to continue its existence unchanged, shows a lot about the institutional culture. It is worth pondering what type of culture would allow bigoted terms to go unchallenged.
Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On
By Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain (The Intercept)
The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans—including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers—under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies.
According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the list of Americans monitored by their own government includes:
• Faisal Gill, a longtime Republican Party operative and one-time candidate for public office who held a top-secret security clearance and served in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush;
• Asim Ghafoor, a prominent attorney who has represented clients in terrorism-related cases;
• Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor of international relations at Rutgers University;
• Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights;
• Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country.
The individuals appear on an NSA spreadsheet in the Snowden archives called “FISA recap”—short for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Under that law, the Justice Department must convince a judge with the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that there is probable cause to believe that American targets are not only agents of an international terrorist organization or other foreign power, but also “are or may be” engaged in or abetting espionage, sabotage, or terrorism. The authorizations must be renewed by the court, usually every 90 days for U.S. citizens.
The spreadsheet shows 7,485 email addresses listed as monitored between 2002 and 2008. Many of the email addresses on the list appear to belong to foreigners whom the government believes are linked to Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Among the Americans on the list are individuals long accused of terrorist activity, including Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, who were killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.
But a three-month investigation by The Intercept—including interviews with more than a dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials involved in the FISA process—reveals that in practice, the system for authorizing NSA surveillance affords the government wide latitude in spying on U.S. citizens.
The five Americans whose email accounts were monitored by the NSA and FBI have all led highly public, outwardly exemplary lives. All five vehemently deny any involvement in terrorism or espionage, and none advocates violent jihad or is known to have been implicated in any crime, despite years of intense scrutiny by the government and the press. Some have even climbed the ranks of the U.S. national security and foreign policy establishments.
“I just don’t know why,” says Gill, whose AOL and Yahoo! email accounts were monitored while he was a Republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. “I’ve done everything in my life to be patriotic. I served in the Navy, served in the government, was active in my community—I’ve done everything that a good citizen, in my opinion, should do.”
Right. You have a proved your high class, and the intelligent and educated standards of this forum by childishly cursing a person who doesn’t share your opinions. Muslim tolerance I suppose? Or is it “western colonialism” that is to blame for your uncontrolled aggression?
