Two Out of Three ‘Fox & Friends’ Think ‘All Terrorists are Muslim’
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
No one should believe that Fox & Friends is a bastion of journalistic integrity or even slightly interested in fact checking. However, the morning show took the cake in redefining those two terms this week when co-host Brian Kilmeade, declared “Not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists are Muslim.”
So, I suppose this would mean that the following terrorist organizations are somehow secret Muslims:
- Provisional Irish Republican Army (Catholic)
- Ulster Defense Association (Protestant)
- Real IRA (Catholic)
- Sons of Freedom (Christian)
- National Liberation Front of Tripura (Christian)
- Babbar Khalsa (Sikh)
The list could go on. If you spend more than ten seconds even on Wikipedia, you might learn that there are even Hindu terrorists targeting Muslims…
Meet Pamela Geller, New York’s Number 1 Islamophobe
Pamela Geller with former IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon. Photo: P. Geller (CC)
Quite why the New York Times thinks it should give hate merchant Pamela Geller such a high profile, massive write up is mystifying … unless the Times itself is conforming to an unfortunate stereotype:
Pamela Geller’s apartment, in the fashion of the blogosphere, doubles as her office. It is a modern full-floor unit in a high-rise on the East Side of Manhattan that could belong to a socialite or the editor of a lifestyle magazine. There is ample light and a tasteful lack of clutter. The kitchen appliances are made of brushed steel; the countertops are slate. In the earth-toned living room hangs a painting, in vibrant colors, of a woman in a swimsuit.
It is in this genteel setting that Ms. Geller, 52 and a single mother of four, wakes each morning shortly after 7, switches on her laptop…
Texas Moves To Limit Islamic Brainwashing In Textbooks
The Texas State Board of Education has approved a resolution condemning “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias” in public school textbooks, Texas’s KTBX reports. Why? State board candidate Randy Rives explains that Islamicists are influencing the state’s textbooks as a way to brainwash children, and ultimately to “take over America without firing a shot.”
The Founding Fathers Read The Koran
For Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson among them, being properly educated included owning and reading the Koran. Via Boston.com, a glimpse at the little-known long history of the Koran in America:
Reports of Korans in American libraries go back at least to 1683, when an early settler of Germantown, Pa., brought a German version to these shores. Despite its foreign air, Adams’s Koran had a strong New England pedigree. The first Koran published in the United States, it was printed in Springfield in 1806.
Why would John Adams and a cluster of farmers in the Connecticut valley have bought copies of the Koran in 1806? Surprisingly, there was a long tradition of New Englanders reading in the Islamic scripture. No book states the case more plainly than a single volume, tucked away deep within the citadel of Copley Square — the Boston Public Library. The book known as Adams 281.1…
France Bans Burqas
I suppose it’s somewhat comforting to know that the United States is not the only country with xenophobic pastors and politicians who want to burn Korans, or in the case of France, ban women from wearing burqas (those head-veils) in public — but it’s not exactly going to make life any easier for the French, who have already seen a threat to the Eiffel Tower as a result!
My Trip to Al-Qaeda: Q & A with Journalist Lawrence Wright
I didn’t see the theatrical adaption of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower (which is the most informative book I have ever read about 9/11) so I am looking forward to checking about this documentary. From the Economist’s Prospero column:
Lawrence Wright spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews in at least ten countries in order to write “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”. The book, a best-selling history about Islamic fundamentalism, weaves the stories of terrorists, intelligence officers and government officials in a remarkable narrative that helps to explain both the cult of Osama bin Laden and the flaws in American intelligence that let him get away with murder.
“When I finished my book,” Mr Wright said in an interview with Prospero, “I had countless people asking me ‘What were they like?’ and ‘How did it affect you?’” He ultimately answered these questions in his one-man play, “My Trip to al-Qaeda”, a gripping personal account of the people he met and what it all felt like. On September 7th HBO will premiere Alex Gibney’s elegant screen adaptation, which mixes theatrical footage with more photographs and videos to help tell Mr Wright’s story about the lure of radicalism in the Islamic world.
Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves
Jason Linkins writes on Huffington Post:
[Thursday] afternoon, the leader of a microscopic cult of idiots who announced plans to stage an “international” day of Quran burning in Gainesville, Florida held a press conference, for a rapt media which decided that his moronic plans were the single most important thing going on in America. At that press conference, in front of “9/11 Truther” signs, this cult leader lied to everyone who was watching, telling them that he was going to call off his 9/11 book burning festival because he had successfully reached a deal with the people behind the Park51 community center in Lower Manhattan, in which they would move their facility away from the site of the World Trade Center.
Not a word of this was true, but it was amazing, all the same — at one fell swoop, we had finally knit up the strands of a season of irrationality…
Florida Pastor Cancels Koran Burning (Video)
I wonder what Obama said to him…
However, it ain’t over yet because everyone’s favorite idiot church, Westboro Baptist Church, says they’ll do the burning instead. Has everyone gone mad?!?
Here’s A Christian Pastor Planning to Burn A Koran This Saturday on 9/11 (Video)
His right to do so is protected by the First Amendment. While the president hasn’t questioned the “wisdom” of doing so, the military has, namely General Petraeus. Interview from Hardball with Chris Matthews:
Taiwanese Animation Takes On The Ground Zero Mosque Controversy
Taiwan’s Next Media Animation presents another in their series of incredible CGI renderings of U.S. news events, this time doing an overview of recent Islamophobia in America, including the anti-ground-zero-mosque protests, proposed Koran-burnings in Florida, and (the highlight) Barack Obama as an evil crypto-Muslim.
What Else Is Built In The Shadow Of Ground Zero?
Is Lower Manhattan hallowed ground? The blog History Eraser Button presents photos of the other businesses and organizations located directly by the World Trade Center site, as near as the proposed “Ground Zero mosque” is slated to be.
The Daily Show on Obama’s “Wisdom” in the “Ground Zero Mosque” Media Circus
“Yes we can … but should we?” — Jon Stewart
Politics is often defined as the “art of the possible.” However it should also be defined as “you can’t please all the people all the time.” Especially the ones being idiots on the “ground zero mosque” media shitstorm.
Thankfully The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart (who recently George Lucas made a Stormtrooper) is on the money again about President Obama’s mixed public comments regarding this non-story.
I could not complete this post without mentioning the great Jon Oliver’s commentary:
“There is a difference, Jon, between what you can do and what you should do. You can build a Catholic Church next to a playground. Should you?”
President Obama Hosts Ramadan Dinner
What are you doing tonight? President Obama will be celebrating the Islamic faith. From The Hill:
President Obama will host an iftar — the special evening meal observed during Ramadan — on Friday night in the White House dining room.
Ramadan began on Wednesday and will end around Sept. 10.
Obama participated in a similar gathering last year.
Celebrations like iftar dinners “remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings,” Obama wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality … a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country.”
The dinner comes amid a growing controversy over the proposed construction of an Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan, near the site of the World Trade Center.…
New York Ad Depicting 9/11 Attacks Beside Mosque Approved
Where would a religious/racial influenced debate be without advertisement? You know the ad sends a powerful message when you have to sue MTA to get it approved. Is there really an argument against an Islamic temple being close to ground zero when Masjid Manhattan mosque already exists a couple of blocks from the proposed site? From AP News:
New York City’s transit agency has approved a bus advertisement that depicts a plane flying toward the World Trade Center’s towers as they burn along with a rendering of a proposed mosque near ground zero.
The ad was paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organization that opposes radical Islamic influence in the United States. The group’s executive director says she doesn’t find the ad offensive.
The group sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to demand it accept the ad, which was approved Monday.
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz says the agency doesn’t endorse the ad’s views.
The…
Terrorist Comic Book Character To Teach Children
Ali Imron
Will scaring children with colorful drawings teach them a lesson about terrorist recruits? From BBC news:
The only surviving perpetrator of Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack, Ali Imron, is an unlikely comic book subject.
But the story of his journey from young Muslim to convicted terrorist has been chronicled in a new comic book.
Some 10,000 copies of Ketika Nurani Bicara, or When the Conscience Speaks, will be circulated in schools and libraries from next month, in an attempt to warn the country’s youth of the dangers of Islamic extremism.
Ali Imron is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the bombing of the popular resort of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
He escaped the death sentence because he repeatedly expressed remorse, and co-operated with police.
“From the time I was instructed to bring the bomb… there was already doubt in my heart. Is this really jihad?” he said at…
Holy Wars
Directed by GNN co-founder Stephen Marshall (Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 9/11), HolyWars was shot over a four year period in America, Britain, Lebanon, and Pakistan. The film follows a danger-seeking Christian missionary and a radical Muslim Irish convert, both of whom believe in an apocalyptic battle, after which their religion will ultimately rule the world. Tracking their lives from the onset of the “War on Terror” through the election of Barack Obama, HolyWars shows that even the most radical of believers can be transformed by our changing world.
The movie is screening in Los Angeles and New York. For more information visit the Facebook fan page.
Newt Gingrich Takes Saudi’s Lead On “Tolerance”
Newt Gingrich. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC)
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
Newt Gingrich, like many other Americans on the far right, has a problem with Mosques, more specifically the planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero. This doesn’t come as a shock in the least, his reasoning (H/T Justin Elliott at Salon) is that there aren’t any churches in Saudi Arabia and also, New York already has Mosques, so we should take the Saudi’s lead on this one:
“There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religious toleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no…
How Muslims Are Treated In America (Video)
This video is from a new segment on ABC News a few years back. Accurate? Off-base? Has much changed? Here’s a few details on the story: Ann Sorkowtiz and Julie N. Hays write on ABC News:
The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. “Islamophobia” has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.
But what if you witnessed “Islamophobia” in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else’s prejudices? What would you do?
Saudi Clerics Tell Women To Feed Their Breast Milk To Male Friends
Not that this kind of thing is restricted to Saudi – remember the New York City chef who’s serving his wife’s breast milk cheese? – but still! From AOL News:
Women in Saudi Arabia should give their breast milk to male colleagues and acquaintances in order to avoid breaking strict Islamic law forbidding mixing between the sexes, two powerful Saudi clerics have said. They are at odds, however, over precisely how the milk should be conveyed.
A fatwa issued recently about adult breast-feeding to establish “maternal relations” and preclude the possibility of sexual contact has resulted in a week’s worth of newspaper headlines in Saudi Arabia. Some have found the debate so bizarre that they’re calling for stricter regulations about how and when fatwas should be issued.
Sheikh Al Obeikan, an adviser to the royal court and consultant to the Ministry of Justice, set off a firestorm of controversy recently when he said…
Boobquake to Rock World on April 26th
The Facebook event has over 50,000, Looks like the “movement” started with Blag Hag’s “In the name of science, I offer my boobs”:
This little bit of supernatural thinking has been floating around the blogosphere [on April 21st]:
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader.
I have a modest proposal. Sedighi claims that not dressing modestly causes earthquakes. If so, we should be able to test this claim scientifically. You all remember the homeopathy overdose?
Time for a Boobquake: On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts,…
