Two more incidents, one in upstate New York and one in Tennessee.
If history is any indication, it could be a problem for anyone who looks like they might be a Muslim. An East Indian friend of my families, who was Hindu, was chased by crazies in an incident during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Similar confusion took place in the days following 9/11.
I hope the conservatives whipping all this up for election purposes feel good about themselves. As they’ve done in the past with abortion clinic bombings and killings, I expect statements to begin with, “I don’t condone violence under any circumstances, but…” And the what will follow is an an Islamophobic rant.
53 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 1, 2010 at 9:12 am
Anonymous
The term “sand nigger” is increasing in popularity.
September 1, 2010 at 9:22 am
Plain Jane
“A national CBS poll from last month showed that 40 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of Islam. More than 70 percent of respondents said building a mosque near Ground Zero was not appropriate. And only 62 percent of Americans think Muslims should have the same right as other groups to build places of worship in their communities, a Pew Research poll found.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100901/pl_yblog_upshot/muslim-americans-launch-pr-initiaive-promote-911-as-day-of-national-service
I wonder if there are any polls about how the people of Nazi Germany felt about Jews before they started rounding them up for elimination.
September 1, 2010 at 9:37 am
Joe Blow
Eric, What do you expect when no one, not many anyway, are willing to address or even think about the serious issues facing all of us. As soon as I mention some possible causes behind some of these things everyone’s eyes glaze over or they comeback with some uninformed irrelevant opinion. If you want to see what’s coming to America, just take a good look at what happened to Iraq since 1990. Isolating sanctions are acts of war. Take a look at this, that was on Democracy Now this morning: Invisible War: How Thirteen Years of US-Imposed Economic Sanctions Devastated Iraq Before the 2003 Invasion and you’ll understand why Bush and all his cronies invaded Iraq – they had to. To do this to another people for whatever reasons, is to do it to yourselves. A lesson Americans are going to learn the hard way.
September 1, 2010 at 9:51 am
Joe Blow
Eric, Sorry for the double post, but this kind of crap hits rather close to home.
“Feel good about themselves.” You bet they do! Ever think about what motivates a bully? Their totally justified blaming their victims. The question is, how many good Americans are going to stand aside and wring their hands when their bully “conservative” neighbors are attacking these people? Which is already going on with Mexicans and Latin Americans or anyone else they want to brand as an unpatriotic or unAmerican.
September 1, 2010 at 10:49 am
connect the dots
Of course this is all conservative neighbors cause progressive liberal folks are closer to what ever is kind and good
September 1, 2010 at 11:19 am
Honoria Glossop
Hey Erik, which has the higher death toll in America, “hate crimes” against
muslims, or
honor killings (oh, wait, honor killings ARE hate crimes against muslims. Guess
muslim women killed by muslim men don’t count).
Please pontificate in 500 words or less. Be sure to note the great outcry in the “muslim community” against hate crimes. For extra credit, recite the
pleas for tolerance by muslims in response to the Great Cartoon Caper.
September 1, 2010 at 11:58 am
Mitch
The evil genius of this is that anything the Obama administration does to stick up for American ideals (the grade school textbook kind) and denounce anti-Islamic bigots just boomerangs against the conservative’s “Obama is a Muslim” lie.
Decent patriotic conservatives owe it to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to speak out against this disgusting new example of how low the “right” will now stoop.
September 1, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Anonymous
What are the numbers on “honor killings?”
September 1, 2010 at 12:23 pm
stats
http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/latest/honor-killings-in-america
just google honor killings. England, Germany, Holland, Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
Theo Van Gogh ……….
September 1, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Anonymous
The article cites 5000 worldwide. I didn’t see the figures for the US.
Here are some figures on anti-Muslim hate crimes.
http://www.jannah.org/resources/muslimvictims.html
September 1, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Rose
Yeah. Just ask Salman Rushdie. And the Danish cartoonists. And the – well, you can’t ask the wives and daughters who are the victims of Sharia Law honor killings.
Or ask yourself why there are “no gays in Iran.” Ask Neda (ooopsie, you can’t) where it is scarier. Somewhere where your own government sanctions killing young people in the streets? Or here.
C’mon, Eric. This is real life.
September 1, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Jim Buoy
Connect the dots, above, has a point. Here is an article in the NYT from 2005 about rising Islamic fears in Europe two years into the Iraq invasion. This is a more recent outline of how that has progressed. Notice what has happened in “liberally secular” Switzerland. Minarets? It is not just right wingers who are involved with this anti -Islamic trend. Oh would it be so simple. That is the real problem here in the USA too. Except for us Enlightened.
Living up here in,”God’s country”, as former editor, Bill Rody, used to phrase it, is a sheltering experience which begets an arrogant, simplistic, yet, sooo knowledgeable downlook on the rest of the world. For example, the closest thing we have to a ghetto in our midst is the homeless camps down by the river. And from that we know all about poverty and race relations. Yup, sure we do.
I am not condoning what is going on, just taking a broader view. There was an excellent letter in one of the papers this week about our pot growing back to the landers perhaps being closet Republicans? I recognized that connection 35 years ago. Notice how fast some of our beloved successful hippie businesses sold out when Wall St came a-courting. A better affirmation of that pot patch republican mentality is how much bellyaching goes on about how our NP’s and schools can’t survive without ROR or SAMF. Really? So how does that omnipotent pot growing industry of ours get away with not figuring in to any of it? It’s just not the rich and powerful of the corporate set who keep their cash waiting for the fire sales. Suck on that mom and poppers.
September 1, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Plain Jane
And then there are the “good little Ger, er Christians” who justify the hate by comparing the supposed shining light of liberty to dictatorial theocracies. If it wasn’t so mind numbingly ignorant and scary, it would be entertaining.
September 1, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Sweets
Anyone here bothered to read Hirsi Ali?
September 1, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Cozy Powell
FBI: Hate crimes against Muslims rare
This is why they have to fabricate them. Remember: the thuggish Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has actually trumpeted fake anti-Muslim hate crimes in the past, in order to use them to score political points. They did this again just weeks ago in Georgia.
CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case, has claimed that “anti-Muslim hate crimes” have risen sharply in the U.S. since 9/11. In fact, the rate of such crimes has actually dropped. CAIR knows well that victimhood is big business: insofar as they can claim protected victim status for Muslims in the U.S., they can deflect unwanted scrutiny and any critical examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism.
That’s most likely why CAIR and others have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating “hate crimes.” They want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.
“FBI data: Hate crimes against Muslims rare,” by Michael Doyle in the Sacramento Bee, August 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
WASHINGTON — Hate crimes directed against Muslims remain relatively rare, notwithstanding the notoriety gained by incidents such as recent vandalism at the Madera Islamic Center.
Jews, lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“We see hate crimes generally go in spurts, and are often in relation to international or domestic events,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Friday.
In 2008, 105 hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during the same year, the most recent for which figures are available….
September 1, 2010 at 6:40 pm
mresquan
“Rose
Yeah. Just ask Salman Rushdie. And the Danish cartoonists. And the – well, you can’t ask the wives and daughters who are the victims of Sharia Law honor killings.
Or ask yourself why there are “no gays in Iran.” Ask Neda (ooopsie, you can’t) where it is scarier. Somewhere where your own government sanctions killing young people in the streets? Or here.
C’mon, Eric. This is real life.”
What does any of that have to do with the attacks against Muslims pointed out here?Are you saying they are validated because the religion has a few extremists,even though the people wishing to use the mosque are as peaceful and respectful as both you and I?
September 1, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Attacks?
Mr. Squamous, how many folks got killed in the two TWO Holy Mackerel, it’s an epidemic “attacks” that are bunching your knickers?
September 1, 2010 at 7:03 pm
scary time
to be Muslim.
In Pakistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/world/asia/02pstan.html?_r=1&hp
And should we mention schoolgirls in Saudi Arabia? Or Afghanistan?
September 1, 2010 at 7:09 pm
PAN
I was wondering the exact same thing Rose?? Wtf, are you really that ignorant? I had a higher opinion of you until that post… please explain.
September 1, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Rose
I’m saying that it is disingenuous to promote the notion that WE – the US – is intolerant. Muslims, as Salman Rushdie can tell you, have more to fear from Muslim intolerance than they have to fear from anyone here. We do not riot in the streets because of a stupid Mohammed cartoon. We do not issue a lifelong death sentence to a man who writes a book. We do not butcher women on soccer fields. We do not bury our daughters in sand and then crush their skulls with cinder blocks while then young men of the town jockey for position for a good cellphone camera shot. We do not kill our wives and call it “honor killing.” We do not force our women to cover every square inch because our men cannot control their urges, nor kill our women for showing some skin… to kill our men for listening to music, with our musicians forced to bury their instruments in the sand rather than be butchered themselves…. (detailed in Time magazine, hardly a right wing source) there are countless more ways to detail, mresquan, the barbarity and dangers facing Muslims – and nothing that happens here even comes close to approaching it.
You think Kent State was bad? Look at what happened to the students in Iran.
It’s fine to condemn attacks and murders – “hate crimes” but do not imply that this is an intolerant nation. It is not.
Wake up.
September 1, 2010 at 8:18 pm
anon
so because one millionth of one per cent of a certain religion are murderers then no mosques should be built for the 99.9 % of the peaceful people?
this reminds me how its always a Very Small activist percentage of a culture that starts and organizes a war…
September 1, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Anonymous
We
September 1, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Plain Jane
Approximately 70% of Americans polled don’t think Muslims should have the same property and religious freedoms that the rest of us have. 38% don’t think they should be allowed to build mosques PERIOD. Those are pretty sizable chunks of America who admit they are intolerant of Islam. We don’t allow murder by families or of authors who write books criticizing our beliefs because we are a country of secular laws, not a theocracy; but a sizable chunk of people, the vast majority of whom are Christians, want to replace some of our secular laws with biblical edicts and to allow our government to deny some groups full rights. They may not want to gas Muslims (yet) but they certainly have anti-American sentiments about them and that’s not what we’re supposed to be about.
September 1, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Joel Mielke
“We do not riot in the streets because of a stupid Mohammed cartoon.”
Evidently Rose believes that bigotry is justified because she can cite examples of worse behavior.
September 1, 2010 at 10:02 pm
T. Baggin
This guy has a lot in common with Rose.
September 1, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Plain Jane
I’d be willing to bet big money that they use the same source for their views (it isn’t news).
September 2, 2010 at 7:35 am
moviedad
Let’s see what kind of slanted picture we could paint of our beloved country if the propagandists took unrelated criminal events, and used them in a suggestive manner to show that we here are intolerant, ignorant and racist.
They could start with police/military actions in Katrina, and work their way up to abortion activist murderers. What hypocrisy.
September 2, 2010 at 9:01 am
Eric Kirk
To answer your question Rose, I would say that we are considerably more tolerant than Iran, and somewhat less tolerant (with regard to Muslims) than certain countries in Europe.
I am not talking about out country in general however, but rather certain right wing elements in it which are fanning these flames for political gain.
September 2, 2010 at 9:48 am
Rose
I see, so, according to Joel it is not bigoted to paint the nation – or the “right wing” – with a broad brush over two incidents. But it is tea-bagger bigotry to point out untold documented incidents and practices that illustrate the very real threat Muslims do face from their own zealots.
Got it.
Right – bad. Right – bigots. Right – evil, dangerous. Got it, Joel. Stereotype much?
I look forward to you condemning the left, Eric, over the Discovery Channel/Al Gore gunman. It’s a dangerous time to work at the Discovery Channel. Or bear children, I’m not clear on which.
September 2, 2010 at 9:57 am
Plain Jane
WTF? “Al Gore gunman?” The bigotry against Muslims is widespread, primarily from the right, and that fuels violence from nuts. Who has been inciting violence against the Discovery Channel over their programming and promotion of population growth? You should see if Walmart has perspective on sale, Rose.
September 2, 2010 at 10:15 am
Anonymous
Uh Jane,
Read the news.
September 2, 2010 at 11:50 am
Eric Kirk
Not the incidents Rose. The rhetoric which is feeding the incidents, and the two I posted is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
If environmentalists had been engaging rhetoric along the lines of Pam Geller and Frank Graham, with the tacit approval of the Republican Party leadership, then you might have an argument regarding the Discovery Channel guy.
September 2, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Plain Jane
“Read the news.”
I read the news. Calling this guy the Al Gore gunman is hysterical rhetoric. No where in Inconvenient Truth did Gore advocate violence or violating anyone’s rights. Blaming people who speak the truth because a nut cracks is crazy, but what I’ve come to expect from the sort of people who claim they aren’t bigots because their bigotry is justified when its toward Muslims.
September 2, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Jim Buoy
@Plain Jane;
Approximately 70% of Americans polled don’t think Muslims should have the same property and religious freedoms that the rest of us have.
Are we to believe that right wingers compose 70% of America now? Obviously, there must be a few lefties polled in there too. That is what should be of concern. To label this behavior as coming from the right, or Tea Party influence, does not really come to grips with the problem. In that respect Rose is correct. I’m sick of this left, right, hup two, three, four, BS.
The NYC cab driver slasher <a href=http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/what_we_know_about_michael_enright.php was not a right wind nutjob either.
As to the Mosque vandalism, while it’s easy, and lazy, to assume that it must be the work of right wing Muslim haters, it might be someone who is using the current climate for some more personal, perhaps, financial motivation. I remember some years back a string of forest arson fires that, as it turned out, were not set by teenagers or a wackjob arsonist, but by a heavy equipment contractor(s) looking to make money fighting those fires.
If indeed, right wingers are fanning the flames of intolerance there are a whole lot more than just them who are enjoying the warmth. Remember the nine murdered Muslims in last May’s Gaza relief ship IDF hy-jacking? I seem to recall a few “lefties” here ready to defend Israel’s actions as their automatic response mechanism, or, pretended that they hadn’t researched it enough yet to make a comment.[ And, apparently, never did find the time!] Well, that spared them from coming to any personal resolution to that thorny problem.
September 2, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Plain Jane
Unlike you, Jim, I don’t believe there’s only a right and left. Most people are in the middle. There is no doubt the hysteria over Islam is coming from no direction but the right, their “news,” rant radio and bloggers. I’ve been watching the growth of Islamophobia since 9/11 and have yet to see a single prominent leftist buy into it. Of course, I can’t read everything that everyone rights so if you have a source which implicates the left in this craze, please share it.
September 2, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Plain Jane
Further note as to Israel’s attack on the Palestinian relief ships, neither the left nor the right have 100% group think. While most leftists condemned Israel’s overreaction, there are leftist Jews and others who are pro-Israel regardless. There are also rightists who are outraged over the escalating Islamophobia that is occurring because they understand how dangerous scapegoating is. Read Michael Gerson (gasp!) on the subject.
September 2, 2010 at 12:52 pm
middle child
It seems to me the Right and Left unanimously deplore the hideous actions of Taliban style Muslim extremism. It also seems to me that the Right fears the beginning of that type of intolerance and subsequent loss of personal freedom here in the US if Muslims are allow to practice their religion unhindered. The Left fears that the very intolerance aimed at moderate Muslims here at home is the beginning of the end of our open and tolerant society with and personal freedom.
September 2, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Joel Mielke
“two incidents”?
Rose’s teabagger blog alone qualifies as one incidence of ignorant bigotry after another.
September 2, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Jim Buoy
I never said there was only a right and a left. What I don’t believe in is this sacred leftist purity BS. It is you who is wielding the broad broom of total rightwing guilt on the matter. While Islamophobia may begin there, there are enough middle-of- the-roaders and lefties joining in on it too. Not to mention capitulating Dems in congress on the Zero Mosque issue and silence on the vandalism. I guess they’re not truly lefties then, is that it?
Your second comment concedes my point in the case of the IDF raid, does it not? Could it be that some of those same” lefties” with Israeli sympathies in that matter are also part of the 70% you mentioned in the poll on Islamic religious freedom? If not, then we are to believe that these “lefties” don’t mind if Israel wacks a few Muslims there, but want religious freedom for them here. Do I have that right? Very confusing leftist ideology, I must say. So, since you asked, my source that implicates the left in this craze has gotta be – you . Thank you very much..
September 2, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Jim Buoy
BTW, if there are any Muslims in Humboldt County, the leftist bastion of Islamic freedom, they’ll have to travel to Mill Valley if they want to worship at a Mosque.
September 2, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Plain Jane
Just shows what you don’t know, Jim. There are Muslims in Humboldt County and they have a “mosque” in a private home. I notice you didn’t offer any source to support your claim that leftists are bigoted against Muslims. Supporting Israel’s “right to self defense” is not bigotry and certainly not evidence of Islamophobia so is irrelevant regarding religious freedom.
September 2, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Jim Buoy
I’ll try to make this short. I know where the right is coming from. They don’t bother me because they are pretty much out there for all to see. It’s the magnificent leftists and their high ideals of freedom and social equality that scare me the most because that all can shift with the slightest wind.
You want a left leaning source involved with this Islomophobic rage? Is the ADL idealistically lefty enough for you? Now in all fairness, they finally had to walk that back a few days later, but their initial reaction was no different from the FOX crowd. That’s what I’m talking about. Leftist appear to have another side to themselves that even they don’t fathom and it’s barely indistinguishable from the rightists. Any leftist worth their salt should question their personal ideology from time to time – for consistency, if nothing else. Even Mother Teresa questioned her faith when confronted with a lifetime of dealing with squalor and poverty. Humboldt leftists are extremely insulated from life’s realities and that makes for an ideology in a vacuum. Try money issues with the so-called leftist/liberals of the pot patch if you want an exhibition of emotional angst befitting any rightwinger.
September 2, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Mr. Nice
Not all muslim countries are fucked up. Turkey and Morocco are okay muslim-leaning countries. That is as far as weed, religious freedom, and fine ladies go at least. Iraq got that last one but the first two are lacking so I hear. I’d never go there personally unless they stepped up their weed.
September 2, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Plain Jane
No, Jim. “In its statement last Friday opposing the plan, the ADL called the bigotry that has surrounded the decision “unfair and wrong.” Nonetheless the ADL opposes the construction, it says, out of sensitivity to those who had family members killed on 9/11.”
Of course, the right has exploited the ADL’s opposition to the mosque just like they exploit everything. Here is Foxman’s condemnation of the right wing haters:
http://www.adl.org/ADL_Opinions/Civil_Rights/20100827-Op-ed+Huffington+Post.htm
September 2, 2010 at 6:27 pm
mresquan
Mr.Nice,Iran is pretty much weed friendly as well,legal in small amounts.
September 2, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Jim Buoy
I don’t know how more obtuse one can get. This is the statement made 7/31 from the article I linked: “Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said ”
So in your leftist universe while Muslims have a right it’s wrong for them to exercise it. Gotcha. Over and out.
September 2, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Plain Jane
Poor Jim can’t discriminate between the people who believe it’s wrong to go against the wishes of 9/11 families and those who hate Islam. It isn’t my, or the majority of leftist’s view and, as stated above, even some right wingers have said they should be allowed to build where ever they want regardless of 9/11 family wishes. That ADL’s extreme sensitivity to 9/11 families is being exploited by the haters isn’t surprising; that it is being used to smear the left is absurd.
September 3, 2010 at 6:27 am
Jim Buoy
That also appears to be the same reasoning used by the most recent liberal/leftist hero of this very blog, NY Congressman, Anthony Weiner, of You Tube fame, who took this non- position on the Ground Zero Mosque. Which,BTW, isn’t a Mosque and isn’t at GZ. I think that has already been established, hasn’t it?
It’s also the same position that former leftist hero, Howard Dean, has taken and so on and so forth. The only person to take a solid stand on complete religious freedom in this matter has been NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who is anything but a liberal/leftist. But he’s not running for re-election this year.
Whichever way you want to twist this kaleidoscope of cowardice, PJ, you and your lefty heroes wind up at the same end result: No Mosque anywhere near GZ. Nice to see that you and those idiot rightwingers agree on something.
September 3, 2010 at 6:46 am
Plain Jane
Where did I say I agree with them, Jim? Explaining what I’ve read about why they oppose the mosque doesn’t mean I agree with them. Since the very beginning I have said nothing but they should be allowed to build where ever they choose. I don’t agree with Dean or ADL any more than I agree with the Islamophobe fearmongers. I was very disappointed in Obama for appearing to bend after his initial strong support for the mosque. Further, I think this scapegoating is the work of fascists, the sheeple bleat and run and politicians try to have it both ways in an attempt to avoid offending anyone. They are, after all, politicians. You have yet to give a single example of the left hyping the fear of Muslims.
September 3, 2010 at 7:00 am
Jim Buoy
Well, they certainly are caving into that fear. The word ‘enabler’ comes to mind. Can you find any leadership type lefties, outside of this blog’s heroic denizens, that have come out squarely for the Cordoba House two blocks from GZ to go forward?
Here, I’ve googled it for you. Happy hunting.
September 3, 2010 at 10:01 am
Mitch
Same google, different viewpoint. The glass is 10% full.
Here are a few, and I’m sure a longer search would turn up more.
Religious leaders:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20100823/wl_oneworld/world3694421282565227
Obama:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/eyeblast-tv-staff/2010/08/30/obama-defends-his-support-ground-zero-mosque
Oregon Senator Merkley:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/66906
Senator Durbin:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/2654258,durbin-ground-zero-mosque-083010.article
Illinois Democratic Senate candidate:
http://www.hapblog.com/2010/08/alexi-giannoulias.html
Congressman Nadler (NY):
Jerrold Nadler, Democratic congressman for New York
Key quote: “We do not put the Bill of Rights, we do not put religious freedom, up for a vote.”
September 4, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Eric Kirk
And Republicans Bloomberg and Christie.
January 9, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Kra
While we have Christians Worldwide being beheaded, killed and persecuted why is this thing about Muslims such a BIG deal ? How many Christians murder and behead Muslims ?