LA Times asks, "Oh, for goodness' sake, will this never stop?"

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Friday July 19, 2013 · 5:32 PM PDT

2013/07/19 · 17:32

Originally published in Tikkun Daily |

The Los Angeles Times editorial board has finally had enough. Enough of what, you ask?

Enough of exemplary American citizens being falsely smeared for the crime of being Muslim or the temerity to be critical of Israel. It's had enough of so-called 'pro-Israel' groups trying to sabotage the professional lives and personal aspirations of upstanding Americans by slanderously tarring them with the "anti-Semite" label.

The Times has expressed this opinion beautifully in an op-ed congratulating, and defending, the first Muslim student ever to serve on the University of California Board of Regents, whose resume is impressive:

Congratulations to Sadia Saifuddin, who will be the first Muslim to serve as student representative to the University of California Board of Regents. Her resume for the post is a strong one: Since arriving at Berkeley, she has worked to increase the amount of financial aid available to students, to secure funding for the UC Berkeley Food Pantry and, as head of the student Senate's finance committee, to allocate money to student groups.
But there's one glitch. She is also a critic of Israel. Like many people, she opposes the occupation of the West Bank, the continued building of settlements and what she sees as the mistreatment of Palestinians. Earlier this year, she cosponsored a nonbinding resolution in the student Senate calling on the UC system to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli military.

The Times goes on to detail how Saifuddin, because of her progressive political views, has been attacked by numerous 'pro-Israel' groups, which attempted to reverse her appointment. Conservative activist David Horowitz wrote in an open letter, "If she were confirmed, it would set a dangerous precedent to encourage anti-Semitism on campus, which is already a big problem in the UC system."

Here is how the Times responded:

Oh, for goodness' sake, will this never stop? There's no indication that Saifuddin is an anti-Semite, despite her criticism of Israel, her involvement with the Muslim Students Assn. or her condemnation of anti-Islamic "hate speech." On the board, she says, she hopes to focus on financial aid reform and "bringing students together."

We are finally reaching a point in which attempts by American 'pro-Israel' groups to slander Muslims (and Jews) who critique Israel are being called out for what they are: extremist and tiresome.

Last week, New York Jet Oday Aboushi – the first Palestinian American to be drafted in the NFL – was wrongly smeared as anti-Semitic by a host of publications (including Yahoo! Sports), which wondered aloud whether the Jets or the NFL should allow him to play. In response, Dave Zirin wrote a forceful defense of Aboushi in The Nation that went viral.

Right-leaning 'pro-Israel' groups have diluted and cheapened a very real prejudice that exists: anti-Semitism. The term has been so misused that all it really means at this stage, when flung by right-wingers, is this: I don't agree with your politics.

As one who has also been smeared as anti-Semitic in print, I echo the Times' when it asks, "Will this never stop?"

Fortunately, growing pushback in America against such smears indicates that it may stop, or slow to a crawl, sooner rather than later.

Follow @David_EHG

Ramadan Love From A Christian

mntleo2

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Friday July 12, 2013 · 7:04 PM PDT

2013/07/12 · 19:04

In the weeks after 911, I was attending college and saw that my Muslim sisters were noticeably absent from school. So I began to wear a head scarf in solidarity with them. But I learned quickly about how brave these women must be. The 2nd day while waiting for the bus, a car whizzed by with a group of people jeering at me. They went around the block and came back, shouting hateful words. I tried to ignore them, and pretend I did not hear what they were saying when a rock whizzed by my head, and I heard the whoooosh as it passed my ear, missing my head by inches. It made a loud thud as it hit the back of the bus shelter and the car sped away, echoing with the sound of their "triumphant" laughter.

In that instant I realized I could have been killed by strangers who did not even know who I was. The rock was about the size of an adult fist and it was a graphic lesson as to how courageous these women are wearing their head scarf while keeping down the fear hanging over the heads that they endured every day. This subtle fear that was occurring every day in my country where freedom of religion was one of the reasons it began. What the hell?

More over the squiggly thingy ...

Clytemnestra

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Saturday June 22, 2013 · 10:29 AM PDT

2013/06/22 · 10:29

When I read this story two quotes came to mind. The first:

There's a sucker born every minute...and two to take 'em!
- maybe P.T. Barnum

It seems a few [ignorant] "patriots" (their self description, not mine) in Idaho County, Idaho decided it would be a great "push back" agin dem Islamic jeeeeehadist, to paint bullets with pork infused paint.

Their reasoning/logic (or what passes for it) is that this will make all dem damn Islamic jeeeeehadist peaceful. Becuz it'll keepem frum Paradise. Cuz evybuddy knows Muzlems can't git to Paradise iffen they'd comin ta contact with pork.

sigh

History of dealings with radical Islam from the days of Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates to actions of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing in the early 1900’s in the Philippines gave clarity to a modern day market solution-Jihawg Ammo. Our preference is peace first but if a fight is to be had we are determined and resolved to win. Thus came the beginning of the truest form of defensive ammunition ever created in history.
A natural deterrent that prevents violence just by owning it but will strike fear into the hearts of those bent upon hate, violence and murder. Jihawg Ammo is certified "Haraam" or unclean. According to the belief system of the radical Islamist becoming "unclean" during Jihad will prevent their attaining entrance into heaven. Jihawg Ammo is a natural deterrent to radical and suicidal acts of violence.
- Jihawg Ammo

I'm trying hard to rein in what I'm thinking.

Okay first off ~~fuckface~~ person who seems to only get your "Islam/Muslim" news from people like Pam Geller. If doing haram things like drinking alcohol and going to strip clubs prior to piloting planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, didn't deter the Al-Qeada operatives from committing acts of terrorism, believing that they'd get into Paradise - your porcine packed projectiles won't either.

And yes, when they did those things they were "on mission" which means, according to the "out" on your website, they were in jihad.

However, Shannon Dunn, assistant professor of religious studies at Gonzaga University, said South Fork’s concept is based on an inaccurate understanding of the Quran.
- Huffington Post

Boy, she's being nice.

“There is no penalty for coming into contact with pork given by the Quran,” she said . . . To my knowledge, Muslims, especially unknowingly, would not be banned from heaven for eating or getting hit by pork,” she said. “There are some interpreters who suggest that Muslims should eat pork rather than starve, if faced with that alternative.”
- Huffington Post

Embolden mine, but something one would know if one had Muslim American friends or family members, and not be an Islamaphobic asshat. Because sometimes it is hard to avoid pork in the states, even when you think you've done everything possible including question the serving staff at restaurants.

There are many people do not know that lard is pork, or that traditional pepperoni is too. So a Muslim American at a Mexican restaurant can ask the server about the re-fried beans; is there pork in them? Having been told they don't contain pork (lard) when in fact the do, the re-fried beans are eaten. Since the Muslim in question did so unknowingly it is not held against them.

Surprisingly some on the right are attempting to school those who created or would buy this product:

It is a nice, kitschy way to sell a product, of course, but the fact is Islam is quite a bit more flexible than that.
[snip]

And they have happened in the past. The British often used the “pork” issue against Muslims in wars in the dim, dark past. Dead Muslims were sometimes buried with parts of pigs thrown in the graves. It didn’t really deter anything back then, either.

Anyway, it is all rather pointless and does more harm than good.
-RightWing News

Loonwatch calls Jihawg Ammo, "Classic Islamophobic Fail."

The "out" I spoke of is this:

We, however, stress that the nullifying principle of our product is only effective if you are attacked by an Islamist in Jihad. Otherwise, our ammo functions just like any other ammunition so we obviously insist upon defensive use of our ammo only-not offensive.
-Jihawg Ammo

Get that? If you use their product you will only keep a Muslim out of Paradise if they are on Jihad. So don't go killin em jest cuz yer mad at em, cuz they'll go ta Paradise.

Jihawg Ammo has over 4,700 likes on Facebook.

What was the other quote I was reminded of when I read this story?

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
-- H. L. Mencken

Islam 101: Sawm

JDsg

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Thursday May 30, 2013 · 4:57 AM PDT

2013/05/30 · 04:57

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the Five Pillars of Islam. The first diary was about shahadah, the second about salat, and the third about zakat.

Sawm is the required fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan. During this lunar month, nothing may be eaten nor drunk from the break of dawn until sunset. Other prohibitions include no sexual activity nor any smoking. Sawm is the opposite of all the other pillars: with shahadah, salat, zakat and hajj, there is an activity to be performed; with sawm, no activity is done. Instead, while fasting during Ramadan, Muslims focus their day around spiritual matters, using the empty feeling in their stomachs to concentrate their minds.

Brit for Moose On The Loose

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Thursday May 30, 2013 · 4:57 AM PDT

2013/05/30 · 04:57

Following my diary on Saturday worrying about the depth of the Islamophobic backlash to the Woolwich attack which killed Drummer Rigby, Rupert Murdoch's chief lieutenant in the UK - the veteran political correspondent and former chief political correspondent of the best selling Sun - has stepped in with an article which boosts the morale of Islamophobes, and gives credence to the spate of attacks on Muslims and Mosques since last Friday

(For those who doubt this is a real nasty and dangerous backlash - 193 arrestable offences have now been reported, with attacks on ten mosques in the UK since Wednesday. The racist English Defence league is hold yet another rally in Trafalgar Square and Downing Street as I write.)

Kavanagh is either suffering from acute amnesia or is deliberately fanning the flames of hate and conflict. He wrote today:

It is all very well to say this ancient faith is being hijacked by crackpots.
But the unavoidable truth was voiced by Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, boss of the Saudi-owned news channel, Al Arabiya after 9/11.
“It is a fact that not all Muslims are terrorists,” he said.

“But it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.”

He has never been forgiven for his honesty.

This brave man spoke not just about the massacred Twin Towers victims, but almost every recent terror atrocity around the globe. Ministers are now consdering their options.

1. Has he forgotten that the biggest terror attack in Europe, which killed more people than the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005, was by Anders Breivik in Oslo and Otoya only two years ago?

2. Has he forgotten that Breivik was inspired by precisely this kind of uniformed, inflammatory hyperbole he's promoting?

3. Has he forgotten that (in the UK as well as the US) in the last seven years more people have been killed because of racist attacks on Muslims (or Sikhs) than in any Al Qaeda inspired attack?

(Convictions for Non Islamic Terrorism in UK - mainly targeting Muslims and other minorities: 99 David Copeland, 07 Robert cottage, 08 Martyn Gilleard, 08 Nathan Worell 09 Neil Lewington)

4. Does he know that Maoist 'terrorists' killed 6 Congress party leaders in Assam on Wednesday? Did he not read that a man was arrested last Wednesday for the IRA bombing of soldiers in Hyde Park which killed 8 service personnel? Does he know Mexican journalists and police officers are regularly beheaded by the narco terrorists around Juarez?

5. Is he not aware that the vast majority of peaceable law abiding Muslims - indeed anyone with a brown face or foreign looking veils or turbans - now live in fear of future indiscriminate attacks?

If he isn't, he shouldn't be the main commentator for Britain's biggest selling daily paper.

If he is, he's tantamount to sponsoring terror himself, by sowing misinformation and dread, and giving succour to extremism, bigotry, and violence

Or perhaps we should blame your boss for legitimising this particular spate of hate preaching - from the biggest possible pulpit

Many UK tweeters say no terror.Admirable, gutsy, but get real and go listen at some mosques. Admit most okay, but others really scary.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) May 25, 2013

The only logical way to read that tweet (assuming logic plays any part in it) is to deduce Rupert thinks we should say 'Yes' to terror.

Which is kind of what so many of Britain's papers and media have done in the last week, by channelling, endorsing and amplifying the lines of one of the attackers; "We want to create a war in London.

Talk about capitulation

Brit

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Saturday May 25, 2013 · 6:54 PM PDT

2013/05/25 · 18:54

My heart is in my throat. For the last few years (as I'll demonstrate below) I've seen real hatred take root in both Europe and the US. As I wrote a Daily Beast piece about the horrific killing of an off duty soldier in London last week, I was expecting it. But the hundreds of nasty, ignorant hateful comments underneath only confirmed something I've seen for years now - phrased less execrably on respectable blogs, by respectable oommentators:

The crass generalities and cultural stereotypes of Islamophobia have become a normal and acceptable form of current discourse in most public debate.

Words lead to actions. In the aftermath of the killing of Drummer Rigby by two Brits with Nigerian backgrounds - there have been over 200 attacks on Muslims, Mosques and threats of violence

There was nothing like this in 1982, when the IRA killed 16 soldiers in the Mall. There was nothing like this in France, when a lone gunman killed shot French soldiers a few years ago.

A politically acceptable form of bigotry, whipped up the the papers, and given validation by countless intellectuals is now spilling over in backlash much worse than the inciting incident.

Below the follow I'll link back and quote to some of the previous pieces I wrote on this terrifying phenomenon over the two years ago. I urge all responsible progressives to fight this new tide of hatred - combat its lies and exaggerations - before it's too late.

Egberto Willies

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Saturday May 11, 2013 · 1:36 PM PDT

2013/05/11 · 13:36

.I am not always in agreement with Glenn Greenwald simply because sometimes he takes the Liberal or Progressive viewpoint to the level of silliness like some on the Right. His analysis in general however is usually spot on.

The exchange he had with Bill Maher was a classic in that he used what he knew was going to be a short window to get several points across to counter act Maher’s rather ignorant perception of religion. Maher has lately been attacking the outward violence of the few Muslims that get inordinate coverage in our corporate controlled media, yet ignores all the violence that to this date is perpetrated in America and around the world in the name of Christianity. It is all in the slant given to the dissemination of news.

President Bush use of the word Crusade was no accident.

Glenn Greenwald: We were supporting and propping up Mubarak for thirty years even as we were cheering for the Tahrir Square demonstrators as if we were on their side. It was our government that kept Mubarak in power; just like we have done across the entire Muslim world. It’s amazing for you to say that look at all these Muslims, the minute you give them a little bit of freedom they go wild and start being all violent. How can you be a citizen of the United States, the country that has generated more violence and militarism in the world over the last five or six decades and say look at those people over there, they are incredibly violent. We play a significant role in what has been happening in the Middle East because we have been interfering and dominating that region in order to have access to their oil.

Bill Maher: I wasn’t talking about violence. I was taking about theocracy.

Glenn Greenwald: OK that doesn’t happen here but at the same time Iran isn’t invading lots of other countries and occupying them for a decade.

Bill Maher: That religion goes back a thousand years before our revolution so I don’t think we can take all the blame.

Glenn Greenwald: I don’t think we should. I think we should take a lot of it. And there are lots of bodies and corpses that have been piled up in the name of Christianity and Judaism as well.

Bill Maher: Not recently.

Glenn Greenwald: Have you heard about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza for the last fifty years motivated by extremist views of Judaism? Or the wars in Europe? Or the fact that there were generals in the United States saying we have to invade and destroy Iraq, a country of twenty six million people because our god is bigger? Lots of religions, not just Islam produce violence.

Bill Maher: Silly Liberal view that all religions are alike because it makes you feel good.

Glenn Greenwald: You get to ignore the responsibility that your own government has for the violence and instability in the world by saying look it’s that primitive religion over there that is to blame.

Also check out Joy Reid schooling Charles Cooke here on the same show.

LIKE My Facebook Page – Visit My Blog: EgbertoWillies.com
Follow @EgbertoWillies

HOW TO WINK AT A MUSLIM

David Harris Gershon for Writing by David Harris Gershon

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Saturday May 04, 2013 · 1:54 PM PDT

2013/05/04 · 13:54

A Tennessee commissioner's Facebook post, suggesting that Muslims are best viewed from behind a double-barreled shotgun, has frightened local residents and prompted calls for an apology.

However, Coffee County commissioner Barry West, who posted the image seen below, has refused to apologize, and fails to see what the big deal is all about.

West did not create this Islamophobic internet meme, but posted it to all of his constituents on his personal Facebook page. When critical calls came pouring in, he deleted the post, but refused to acknowledge the potential damage such a post could cause.

"It’s particularly troubling when elected officials post such Internet memes because they set the tone for how constituents should behave," said Drost Kokoye, an American Muslim Advisory Council board member. The statewide group was created to promote communication between Muslims and Tennessee law enforcement and government.
“This may just be a picture to him, but for us it is very threatening,” said Kokoye, an Antioch resident who has lived in Tennessee for 17 years. “Muslims in Coffee County should not feel safe to walk outside their homes.”

This post comes on the heels of numerous incidents of vandalism against mosques in Middle Tennessee in recent years, as well as opposition to a mosque that opened last year only after intervention from the Justice Department.

For Muslims living in Tennessee, it will take more than just intervention from the Justice Department. It will take a social uprising to combat those streams of Islamophibia running through American, making Muslim Americans feel anything but safe.

Follow @David_EHG

Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Right-Wing Power Couple

DowneastDem

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Saturday May 04, 2013 · 1:54 PM PDT

2013/05/04 · 13:54

Earlier today we learned about homophobic Harvard professor Niall Ferguson's blistering attack on John Maynard Keynes. Keynes was wrong, according to Professor Ferguson, because he was gay and talked about faggy things like poetry with his ballerina wife. Homosexual economists, according to Oxford-educated Ferguson, are naturally inclined to advise loading up on debt because they are, by definition, childless.

Several years ago Ferguson left his wife of 20 years and mother of his three children to marry the darling of the neoconservative right Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ferguson and the serial liar Hirsi Ali are a perfect match, since both have made brilliant careers pandering to right-wing think tanks (Hirsi Ali is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute). Now the "politically incorrect" historian Ferguson and the glamorous "Islam Expert" Hirsi Ali are a much sought-after power couple in the Washington dinner party circuit.

Ferguson's remarks on Keynes were ugly, but he was outdone by his wife last year when she accepted the Axel Springer Honorary Prize in Berlin.

treschicpolitics

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Thursday April 25, 2013 · 9:24 AM PDT

2013/04/25 · 09:24

Following the terror that occurred last week, I've seen so many despicable comments on the internet and on television that demonize Islam, Muslims, and the "liberals" that "defend Islam." When I was in college, I chose to conduct research on the roots of Xenophobia and Islamophobia in the United States. Since it's long, I've broken the research into five parts. I'm not a sociologist, nor am I a researcher. I hope you enjoy. I'll include my sources as well.

Floyd Elliot

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Monday April 22, 2013 · 7:06 PM PDT

2013/04/22 · 19:06

NOTE: I wrote this last Thursday, before the Boston Police Department and Massachusetts State Police had their standoff with the murderous Tsarnaev brothers. I've decided not to change it to reflect subsequent events, including today's announcement by the White House that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be tried in criminal court, not as an enemy combatant.

Muslims did not bomb the Boston Marathon. As I write this, the investigation continues. I don’t know who left those bombs. I do not have special information or a lead that the FBI has overlooked. I know no more than anyone else not involved in the investigation.

But I do know that Muslims did not bomb the Boston Marathon this past Monday, and know as well that Muslims not carry out the 9/11 attacks, nor did right-wing anti-government fanatics carry out the 1995 truck-bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Criminals carried out these attacks, criminals and sociopaths, people who believed their political and religious obsessions legitimated the murder of hundreds or thousands of people. In the infected fever-swamps of their minds, these criminals viewed the lives they took and traumatized as less significant than their ridiculous- or irrelevant-to-the-rest-of-us beliefs. Because they didn’t seek money, even died in committing their crimes, we tend to think of them more as soldiers, less as criminals, but thinking so glamorizes their crimes. Where a mugger takes your wallet, these psychopaths steal fame and exposure for their doomed and stupid causes; they steal lives and hope and a sense of order. They wish to create in us a feeling of terror, an idea that the world might not be as stable as we believe—might, in fact, be so unstable that the terrorists’ idiot fantasies of the world as they think it should be could come to pass.

Obamalover20122

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Friday April 05, 2013 · 6:07 PM PDT

2013/04/05 · 18:07

I am not merely an atheist, but an anti-theist. I believe that not only are all religions inherently flawed and destructive institutions, but that the concept of a god or gods limits human progress. Some may say that religion does some good but that is like excusing a serial killer's slayings because he volunteers at a soup kitchen. One does not excuse the other.

As you can see I am no apologizer for religion. However, I am also a Progressive and a secular humanist, and despite whatever ignorant beliefs a person may hold she/he should be respected as a human being.

It has become increasingly clear that famed atheist Richard Dawkins criticism of Islam has taken on a bigoted tone. His criticism have devolved into an ignorant bigotry that is factually and scientifically deficient. When you eschew knowledge in favor of ignorant hatred then you violate the very principles of what it means to be a secular humanist. This is what Dawkins has done.

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Pork laced bullets, for suckas

Islam 101: Sawm

Murdoch's Mouthpiece: "Almost All Terrorists are Muslims"

The Bigger Terror: the Islamophobic Backlash

Bill Maher Schooled By His Own Guest For His Ignorant Statements on Muslim Violence & Islam (VIDEO)

HOW TO WINK AT A MUSLIM

Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Right-Wing Power Couple

Examining Islamophobia and Xenophobia in American Society, Part 2: Cultural Stereotypes

Muslims Did Not Bomb The Boston Marathon

An Anti-Theist's Defense of Islam and Why Richard Dawkins is a Bigot