Lowe's faces backlash over pulling ads from 'All-American Muslim'

Lowe's faces backlash over pulling ads from 'All-American Muslim'

By Shan Li, Los Angeles Times

December 13, 2011

Home improvement giant Lowe's Cos. continues to come under heavy criticism from activists, some politicians and customers after pulling its ads from a reality TV show featuring Muslim Americans.

The North Carolina company decided to stop advertising on the show "All-American Muslim," on Discovery Communications Inc.'s TLC channel, after complaints by the Florida Family Assn., a conservative Christian group that lobbies companies to promote "traditional, biblical values."

The association praised the move, but the decision sparked immediate backlash. State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) called the move "bigoted, shameful, and un-American." A petition on SignOn.org that calls on companies to keep advertising on the show has gathered more than 13,000 signatures. Activist and actress Mia Farrow joined the battle in a Twitter post and urged a boycott of Lowe's.

In its defense, Lowe's spokeswoman Karen Cobb said the company had a "long-standing commitment" to diversity and pulled the ads only after the show became "a lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives." Other companies had also removed their ads from the show, she wrote in an email.

"All-American Muslim," which premiered last month, follows the day-to-day lives of five Muslim American families in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit with a large Muslim population. Cast members talk about how their faith affects their actions and choices.

The conservative Christian group, based in Tampa, Fla., called the show "propaganda" that "hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values." The organization began an email campaign urging companies to yank their advertising off the show. The group did not respond to an email Monday requesting comment on the reaction to its effort.

Laurie Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the Discovery Network and TLC Network, declined to comment on whether any companies besides Lowe's had pulled their ads. "We stand behind the show 'All-American Muslim,' and we're happy the show has strong advertising support," she wrote in an email.

In a letter, Lieu, the state senator, urged Lowe's to reverse its decision and apologize to Muslim Americans.

"The show is basically about Americans who happen to be Muslim," Lieu said in an interview. "For Lowe's to say that the show is dangerous, or agree that it's dangerous or somehow showing anything other than American Muslims as normal, is quite outrageous."

Lieu said he would consider urging a boycott and drafting a legislative resolution denouncing the company's actions. He said he would give Lowe's until Friday to respond.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim American elected to Congress, issued a statement condemning Lowe's for deciding to "uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of the 1st Amendment."

At a Lowe's store in Burbank, some customers expressed opposition to the retailer's actions.

"It's pretty ridiculous," said Nate Childress, 28, of North Hollywood. "The show has a great concept, and it's showing a different view of Muslims than what's constantly blasted at us in the U.S."

Childress said that even if the company had a "knee-jerk reaction" to the conservative group, that doesn't excuse its actions. "That just frustrates me, that a company would actually be afraid to advertise on a show about Muslims that aren't terrorists," he said.

Bob Clendenin of Burbank echoed that sentiment. "It just sounds like bigotry," said the 47-year-old actor. "When a company takes a stand like that, that just makes me angry."

He said he would boycott the chain until Lowe's reinstated its ads and apologized.

The broader Muslim American community is also considering taking action, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Muslim community leaders and interfaith groups were meeting to discuss boycotts, petitions, rallies and other forms of protest against Lowe's, he said.

"Hate groups are entitled to their bigotry — that is the beauty of America, people have the right to their own opinions," Ayloush said. "However, when a large corporation takes their side or caves in to the requests of hate groups, that is of concern."

Ayloush wondered what the public reaction would have been if a company had yanked its ads from certain now-classic programs.

"Imagine if Lowe's had decided many years ago to pull out its ads from shows like 'The Cosby Show' or 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' or 'Seinfeld' because they were deemed to portray African Americans and Jews as normal people," he said. "The American public would have been outraged by any corporation who did that."

shan.li@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

From his grave, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish responds to Newt Gingrich's anti-Palestinian bigotry

Long before Newt Gingrich made his repeated bigoted statements that the Palestinian people are an "invented" people, renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote two poems challenging this hateful genocidal rhetoric against the Palestinian people, their identity, their heritage, and their future.

Newt Gingrich is not the first nor is going to be the last person to engage in such Nazi-like revisionism that attempts to deny a people their existence, past, and dignity. As if robbing a people of their homes, land, freedom, and rights is not sufficiently immoral, Newt Gingrich and those who share his views want to intensify it  with an assault on their past and memories.

Mahmoud Darwish responded to the similar racist Israeli campaigns to erase the Palestinian identity and culture through his poems. The world lost this genius on Saturday, August 9, 2008. His poetry remains celebrated around the world by all those who value human rights and support justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.

Read and/listen to the two poems below and you will understand the pain, hope, perseverence, and aspirations of the great real and un-invented people called the Palestinians.

Passport - By: Mahmoud Darwish (Song performed by renowned Lebanese singer Marcel Khalife)     They did not recognize me in the shadows That suck away my color in this Passport And to them my wound was an exhibit For a tourist Who loves to collect photographs They did not recognize me, Ah . . . Don’t leave The palm of my hand without the sun Because the trees recognize me Don’t leave me pale like the moon! All the birds that followed my palm To the door of the distant airport All the wheatfields All the prisons All the white tombstones All the barbed Boundaries All the waving handkerchiefs All the eyes were with me, But they dropped them from my passport Stripped of my name and identity? On soil I nourished with my own hands? Today Job (The Prophet) cried out Filling the sky: Don’t make and example of me again! Oh, gentlemen, Prophets, Don’t ask the trees for their names Don’t ask the valleys who their mother is From my forehead bursts the sward of light And from my hand springs the water of the river All the hearts of the people are my identity So take away my passport!

_______________________________________________

Identity Card - By: Mahmoud Darwish

 (Arabic and English read by Souhad Zendah  - English begins at: 3:55)

Record!

I am an Arab

And my identity card is number fifty thousand

I have eight children

And the ninth is coming after a summer

Will you be angry?

 

Record!

I am an Arab

Employed with fellow workers at a quarry

I have eight children

I get them bread

Garments and books

from the rocks..

I do not supplicate charity at your doors

Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber

So will you be angry?

 

Record!

I am an Arab

I have a name without a title

Patient in a country

Where people are enraged

My roots

Were entrenched before the birth of time

And before the opening of the eras

Before the pines, and the olive trees

And before the grass grew

 

My father.. descends from the family of the plow

Not from a privileged class

And my grandfather..was a farmer

Neither well-bred, nor well-born!

Teaches me the pride of the sun

Before teaching me how to read

And my house is like a watchman's hut

Made of branches and cane

Are you satisfied with my status?

I have a name without a title!

 

Record!

I am an Arab

You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors

And the land which I cultivated

Along with my children

And you left nothing for us

Except for these rocks..

So will the State take them

As it has been said?!

 

Therefore!

Record on the top of the first page:

I do not hate people

Nor do I encroach

But if I become hungry

The usurper's flesh will be my food

Beware..

Beware..

Of my hunger

And my anger!

Michael Savage blames Muslims for the Norway attack and rants his bigotry at Muslims

Listen to these few minutes to better understand Islamophobia and those who fuel it with hate talk and lies.

Hate Comes to Orange County

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today released a video of a rally organized by anti-Muslim bigots to protest a February fundraising event held by an American Muslim relief group for relief work and charity in the U.S.

A few hundred protesters showed up to the rally, which was sponsored by groups such as: “We Surround Them OC 912” (a local Tea Party group), Rabbi David Eliezrie of Chabad - Yorba Linda, North Orange County Conservative Coalition, ACT! for America, and Pamela Geller (whose group “Stop the Islamization of America” has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).

Elected officials Congressmen Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly also attended and spoke at the protest rally.

The event – held at Yorba Linda Community Center, a facility that has been frequented by Muslim families and businesses over the years – first became a target of anti-Muslim bigots over two of the fundraiser’s speakers, who were to speak on the importance of charity in Islam. Initial attempts of some groups to have the Yorba Linda Community Center and the Yorba Linda City Council cancel the fundraising event failed, followed by the protest. 



In a statement, CAIR-LA said:

“We support the First Amendment right of protesters anywhere in America to voice their concerns, dissent, and even hatred. However, when our nation’s foundational values of inclusiveness, pluralism and equality are attacked by some in favor of calls for advocating hate and violence, then all Americans have a responsibility to challenge and expose such bigotry and those who enable it.

“As the video shows, the rhetoric of the protesters became increasingly venomous toward the families and children who came to attend the ICNA Relief fundraising dinner. Protesters shouted invective statements such as “Go home terrorist,” “Muhammad is a pervert, Muhammad is a child molester,” “Go home and beat your wife, she needs a good beating” at the event-goers.

“Even more disturbing was the participation and encouragement of elected officials in promoting the hateful protest rally. Villa Park Councilwoman, Deborah Pauly, while addressing the crowd at the rally, appeared to threaten Muslim event-goers. Congressman Ed Royce (R-40), in a troubling trend of disparaging Islam and its followers, added fuel to the fire by encouraging protesters to continue on with their hate-mongering. The attendance of Congressman Gary Miller (R-42) was a clear surprise, since he previously has engaged with all constituents, including Muslims, toward a better America.

“We strongly urge all elected officials in attendance to distance themselves from such an exhibition of hate and bigotry. We further ask residents and elected officials of Yorba Linda, Orange County and other parts of our nation to speak out against such hateful rhetoric and the continued Islamophobia that plagues our nation.”



CONTACT: CAIR-Greater Los Angeles Area, 714-776-1847, info@losangeles.cair.com

A Timeline for Islamophobia in 2010

The Year in Islamophobia: Timeline
Mother Jones
Tim Murphy, Thu Dec. 30, 2010

It's never a good sign when you find yourself longing for the halcyon days of George W. Bush. But after a year in which right-wing activists and politicians identified America's greatest threats as mosques and infants, you could be forgiven for feeling a bit nostalgic for the man who responded to the 9/11 attacks by emphasizing that "Islam is a religion of peace."

So, is America Islamophobic? It depends. For the overwhelming majority of Muslims, America's still a pretty sweet place to work and pray (just watch out for these fellas). And as conservatives like Jeff Jacoby are quick to point out, when it comes to reported hate crimes, Jewish Americans still have it worse. Much, much worse. But with precious few exceptions, anti-Semitism is confined to the paranoid fringe; you'd never see a slew of presidential candidates line up to, say, protest the construction of a synogogue.

2010 was the year Islamic fearmongering officially went mainstream. Here's a quick look back at how the heck it happened. Enjoy.

Click here to see the timeline.

Bigoted Sign of the Day: "No Muslims Inside"

Alabama Store Owner’s Sign Reminds That BBQ Restaurants Are “Safest” Because Of Lack Of Muslims

VIDEO: Keith Olbermann Names Muslim-Basher Steve Emerson 'Worst Person in the World'

Muslim and Jewish Leaders Condemn Anti-Muslim Bigotry of Extremist Rabbi

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 10/25/10) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today joined Southern California Jewish community leaders in condemning the hateful remarks of a local candidate for state Senate.

The candidate, Rabbi Nachum Schifren, spoke at a rally in London over the weekend, which was sponsored by the extremist English Defense League, where he said Muslims "eat each other alive, like the dogs that they are." He further said: "We shall prevail, we will not let them take over our countries. We will never surrender to the sword of Islam." In a commentary written in February of this year, Rabbi Shifren stated: "We are at war with Islam!"

SEE: Calif. Senatorial Candidate Responds to Muslim Hooliganism
http://www.newswithviews.com/Shifren/nachum108.htm
ALSO SEE: Surfing Rabbi tells EDL demo 'We shall prevail'
http://www.thejc.com/arts/film/40156/surfing-rabbi-tells-edl-demo-we-shall-prevail

In statements today, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush, Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace (ICUJP) Chair Stephen Rohde, and Jews on First Co-Founder Rabbi Haim Beliak expressed outrage over the rabbi's racist remarks and urged Americans to unite against such hatred.

"Religious and political leaders have a special obligation to promote tolerance and mutual understanding in the communities they serve," said Ayloush. "Rabbi Shifren, unfortunately, has done the opposite. What is even more abhorrent is that he is using his bigotry to try towin a political seat and is being supported broadly by members of the GOP and the Tea Party movement. As conscientious Americans, we call on the GOP and the Tea Party to repudiate Rabbi Shifren's bigotry and work with Americans of various faiths, including Muslims and Jews, and ethnicities toward a more pluralistic society. Being silent about the rabbi's hateful remarks will imply that those who endorse him as a California Senate candidate support his bigotry as well."

"Nachum Shifren's expressions are repugnant to Judaism," Rabbi Beliak said. "Shifren's anti-Muslim hate speech are not isolated ideas but part of a pattern which includes anti-immigrant and racist expression. Using the sobriquet "Surfing Rabbi" does not diminish his moronic thoughts. His visit to England, his candidacy for the California State Senate, his association with Chabad and his teaching position at Dorsey High School raise further concern. Since Shifren associates himself with the "Tea Party" and the GOP it is reasonable to ask that they condemn his words."

"Few slurs are more despicable and incendiary than to dehumanize an entire people by comparing them with disdain to animals," Rohde said. "For Rabbi Shifren to call Muslims 'dogs' is beneath contempt. It feeds hatred and bigotry and must be condemned by all decent people."

SEE: List of Politicians and Others who have Endorsed Rabbi Shifren
http://www.rabbiforsenate.com/endorsemets.htm

- END - 

CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Munira Syeda, 714-776-1847, Email: info@losangeles.cair.com

Jon Stewart On NPR's Firing Of Juan Williams - Hilarious

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
NPR Staffing Decision 2010
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Funniest quotes from the show:

Aasif Mandvi:

“If they’re not gonna make the distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent fearful white people and racists?”

---

Larry Wilmore:

"Over time prejudice faints…eventually they will elect one of your guys as president"

Aasif Mandvi:

"One of our guys already is!"

The bash and cash machine:Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear

By Bob Smietana • THE TENNESSEAN • October 24, 2010
First of Two Parts

Steven Emerson has 3,390,000 reasons to fear Muslims.

That's how many dollars Emerson's for-profit company — Washington-based SAE Productions — collected in 2008 for researching alleged ties between American Muslims and overseas terrorism. The payment came from the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation, a nonprofit charity Emerson also founded, which solicits money by telling donors they're in imminent danger from Muslims.

Emerson is a leading member of a multimillion-dollar industry of self-proclaimed experts who spread hate toward Muslims in books and movies, on websites and through speaking appearances...

Read Full Article

Israeli racism and the role of the American Jewish leadership

The last few weeks have exposed the world to a new wave of racism and apartheid practices by Israel against its non-Jewish citizens. In this post, I will not discuss past and existing apartheid-like practices that target Israel's indigenous Palestinian and non-Jewish populations, such as the apartheid-wall, for-Jews-only neighborhoods/cities/colonies, for-Jews-only rights, for-Jews-only jobs, denial of right of return for non-Jewish refugees, etc. That can be a discussion for another day.

In the most recent developments, a couple of weeks ago the Israeli cabinet approved a new law requiring new non-Jewish citizens to take a loyalty oath to Israel as a “Jewish state.”  The proposal was denounced by many Jewish and non-Jewish leaders around the world, some of whom described the measure as "fascist.”

Then yesterday, a group of rabbis from the city of Safed issued a letter urging Jews to refrain from renting apartments to Arabs. And today, Israeli newspapers reported that a leading Israeli rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, gave a sermon on Saturday in which he stated that God created non-Jews only to serve Jews.

It is important that we as Americans challenge such practices because the whole world sees our country as the sponsor and strongest unconditional defender of Israel and its policies. Israel's immoral practices taint the credibility and image of our country and serve to fuel anti-American sentiment among the world's populations. As a country and people that repeatedly struggled and fought to end slavery, racism, bigotry, and apartheid at home and abroad, we have an important role to play in pressuring Israel to end such practices.  

Let me be clear: no one should ever blame Jews or Judaism for the outrageous Israeli practices, even as Israel falsely claims to be THE "Jewish" state.

The American Jewish community, as a leading community in the struggle against discrimination and bigotry in America, is in a unique position to expose Israel's shameful attempts to justify its war crimes and racist actions falsely in the name of Judaism.

There are many Jewish people who challenge Israel’s bigotry, and I applaud the heroic rabbis and activists who never remained silent in face of Israel's brutality and racism.

Unfortunately, in our country there are still some who prefer to engage in Muslim bashing rather than on securing equal rights and equal treatment for all. The ADL, once a leader in defending civil rights, seems recently to have changed its mission to becoming the lead advocate for the Israeli right-wing government. I pray that the ADL will now take a break from its efforts to advocate restrictions on the rights of Muslims to worship freely in America and direct some of its resources toward promoting peace, justice and harmony in Israel and the world.

For the sake of America, for the sake of peace and justice in the Holy Land, and for the sake of good and harmonious relations between Muslims and Jews, the ADL needs to stop attacking Islam and Muslims and instead start challenging the racism of Israel.

American Jews and American Muslims can and must continue to work together to challenge anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of injustices perpetrated by those who claim to follow our respective religions. Both communities must join hands to show our children a brighter future in the Holy Land - a future that is built on justice, mutual respect, equality, and peace for all people.

Israeli Rabbis urge Jews to refrain from renting apartments to Arabs

Don't count on the ADL to notice this apartheid-style racism since it is busy opposing American Muslims trying to build mosques in America or busy attacking pro-peace groups.

----
Safed Rabbis urge Jews to refrain from renting apartments to Arabs
Rabbis' letter says renting properties to Arabs would deflate value of homes as well as those in neighborhood.
By Eli Ashkenazi
Haaretz
10/20/2010

A group of 18 prominent rabbis, including the chief rabbi of Safed, signed a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.

According to a report which first appeared on Channel 1 television, most of the signatories are from Safed, a city that has seen an increase in its Arab student population that is enrolled at the town's local college.

Safed chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who has been criticized in the past for incendiary remarks against Arabs, is the most prominent figure to sign the letter.

Last week, Safed played host to an "emergency conference" which was held under the banner "Quiet War: Combating Assimilation in the Holy City of Safed". The event, which attracted 400 participants, was held at the Yigal Allon House, the municipal cultural center.

Haaretz has learned that the venue was reserved thanks to funding from the city's religious council. Far-right activist Baruch Marzel spoke at the event, as did a representative of the "Lahaba" organization, whose Hebrew acronym stands for "Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land."

Speakers at the conference expressed concern over plans to build a medical school in the city which they said would exacerbate the problem of "the Arab takeover of Safed."

The rabbis' letter, which was originally published months ago, urges Jewish owners of apartments to reconsider renting their properties to Arabs since it would deflate the value of their homes as well as those in the neighborhood.

"Their way of life is different than that of Jews," the letter stated. "Among [the gentiles] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger."

The rabbis also urge neighbors of anyone renting or selling property to Arabs to caution that person. After delivering the warning, the neighbor is then encouraged to issue notices to the general public and inform the community.

"The neighbors and acquaintances [of a Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this harmful deed," the letter reads.

Letter prompted by rise in demand

There are currently 1,350 Arab students (out of a total student body of 2,200 ) matriculating at the Academic College in Safed. The increased demand for rented apartments prompted the rabbis to issue their call.

Mahmoud Abu Salah, the Arab representative of the Academic College Student Union, told Haaretz that his primary task is to aid Arab students in finding apartments to rent.

"The entire population in Safed listens to Rabbi Eliyahu, not just the religious public," he said. "Sometimes I present myself as 'Tomer.' That is the only way people will agree to rent out their apartments. In one instance, we managed to find an apartment for rent in the nearby moshav of Biriya. When the neighbors understood that Arabs were moving in, they threatened to set the apartment on fire. The situation has become intolerable. There are students who come here from the Negev, the Triangle, Haifa and Wadi Ara. They have nowhere to live. We will combat this ugly phenomenon."

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu is the son of the late Mordechai Eliyahu, who once served as the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel. Shmuel Eliyahu has been indicted in the past for incitement stemming from controversial remarks about Arabs. After a Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 50 on a bus at the Meron junction in northern Israel in August 2002, Eliyahu called on the Academic College to expel its Arab students.

"You can say the word 'racist' 20 times," Eliyahu once told an interviewer. "It doesn't have an effect on me. By the way, Jewish religious law prohibits the selling of apartments to Arabs and the renting of apartments to Arabs."

Officials in the State Prosecutor's Office told Haaretz: "We have yet to receive any complaint on the issue. If and when a complaint is received, the matter will be investigated."

Islamophobia, European-Style (The Nation)

Gary Younge | September 23, 2010

Say what you like about George W. Bush; he respected the Muslims he murdered. Even as he wiped them out and tortured them, he professed his respect for their religion. "The Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion," he said. "The exact opposite of the teachings of the Al Qaeda organization." The problem wasn't that he hated Muslims; it was that, through invasion and occupation, he sought to love them to death.

There was no reason to disbelieve these claims. Iraq, in particular, was never a war against Islam. It was primarily a war for oil; Muslims just got in the way. The driving logic behind it had no more to do with religion than slavery had to do with skin pigmentation. When it came to marketing the war, not only was disdain of Islam not necessary; it was actively unhelpful. With the war branded as an act of liberation, there was little to be gained by wantonly disparaging the faith of the very people it was now your task to subdue. And so long as the United States was bombing Muslims abroad, there was no need to bash them at home.

Needless to say, this official sensitivity bore little relation to how Muslims were treated by the state. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, broad sweeps of people from predominantly Muslim countries resulted in the "preventive detention" of 1,200, mostly men; voluntary interviews of 19,000; and a program of special registration for more than 82,000. Not a single terrorism conviction emerged from any of this.

Nor did Bush's tactful words do anything to quell popular Islamophobic attitudes. In 2006, long before the brouhaha over Park51, the so-called "Ground Zero mosque," a Pew survey showed that Muslims were viewed less favorably in the United States than in Russia, Britain or France, while a Gallup poll revealed that 39 percent of Americans supported requiring Muslims in the country, including US citizens, to carry special identification. By the time Obama ran for president, "Muslim" was a slur—an accusation about his faith he felt compelled to deny.

But while these views were prevalent, they did not gain electoral expression or widespread political currency. There was no rush to reprint cartoons of Muhammad or hold vexed national discussions about what Muslim women should or should not wear. Though Islamophobia may have been rife, Islam itself did not appear to provide a rich vein to tap. There were, it seems, precious few votes in it.

That paradox is now unraveling. The fallout over right-wing attacks against Park51, as well as those against several other mosques across the country, suggests that a sizable section of the right believes there is capital to be gained from scapegoating Muslims. From now on, the Koran burnings, mosque torchings and hate crimes directed at Muslims can no longer be understood simply as isolated incidents of bigotry. They will draw their strength and legitimacy from within the establishment and their encouragement from the mainstream media: not acts of individual calumny but insidious calculation.

Just as earlier waves of Islamophobia cannot be understood outside the context of 9/11 and the "war on terror," so this current strain is consistent with two related trends at home and abroad. First, it marks the rise of xenophobic and racist forces within the Republican Party, for whom the election of a black Democratic president with an uncommon name and an African father has produced a perfect storm for divisive, deranged rhetoric. As such, this most recent outburst of Islamophobia marks a plot development in the narrative of the Nixon strategy, which used the dog whistle of racially charged rhetoric to realign the South toward the GOP. Now no dog whistle is needed. The racism is not veiled but naked, the delivery not subtle but brutal. With the Minutemen, the birthers, the Tea Partyers and Fox News on common ground, it was only a matter of time before they turned their pitchforks on Muslims. For while they did not invent Islamophobia, they were well positioned to exploit it. Twenty-eight percent of Americans believe Muslims should not be eligible to sit on the Supreme Court, while fully one-third believe Muslims should be barred from running for president.

Second, the moment also brings the American hard right into line with its European counterparts, which bodes ill for American political culture as a whole. The past decade has seen an alarming rise in anti-immigrant and Islamophobic parties gaining political representation in Europe. In the Netherlands in June the party of Geert Wilders, who calls Muslims "goat fuckers" and wants to ban the Koran, almost tripled its representation, becoming the third-largest party. In "liberal" Sweden in September the hard-right Sweden Democrats entered Parliament for the first time, with 5.7 percent of the vote. With extremist parties regularly getting more than 10 percent, and in some cases sitting in government, European fascism has returned as a mainstream ideology. These movements start off on the fringes, but like arsenic in the water supply, their policies and rhetoric have a tendency to infect the broader discourse. The result, where Muslims are concerned, has been a moral panic. Switzerland voted in a national referendum to ban the construction of minarets—there are just four in the whole country. Belgium has passed a law banning the burqa, a garment estimated to be worn there by a couple of hundred women at most. In Italy a woman was fined 500 euros for wearing a veil on her way to a mosque.

That the American right, so contemptuous of Europeans on almost every level, should follow them on this front is, to say the least, disheartening. Polls show that despite living in the very country whose foreign policy, in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole, had done so much to enrage the Islamic world, Muslims felt more at home here than in European countries that opposed the Iraq War. That paradox, too, is unfortunately set to unravel.
Source URL: http://www.thenation.com/article/154978/islamophobia-european-style

Who is behind the growing anti-Muslim bigotry campaign in America? Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit.

Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit
The Forward, A Jewish weekly newspaper
Opinion
By Matthew Duss
Published September 22, 2010, issue of October 01, 2010.

After the last several months, it should be clear that the controversy over the Park 51 Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is about more than sensitivity to the families of the 9/11 victims and the sacredness of the site where their loved ones were murdered. In places as far from Lower Manhattan as Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Temecula, Calif., Muslim houses of worship, and the people who pray in them, have come under attack by conservative activists as representing an American beachhead for Muslim extremism.

Whether it’s Newt Gingrich peddling false stories of “creeping sharia” (strict Islamic law) to an audience of very serious people at the American Enterprise Institute, or the Washington Times running endless editorials and op-eds from conspiracy theorists like Frank Gaffney warning that President Obama “may actually still be a Muslim,” or Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney shamelessly and falsely asserting that Park 51 leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has “terror-related connections,” it’s clear that quite a few conservative elites see political profit in stoking Americans’ fear of Islam.

Such hostility toward Muslims is unfortunately not marginal in the pro-Israel community — unless one is prepared to define the huge annual policy conference of one of Washington’s foremost lobbies as “marginal.” At an AIPAC conference in March 2009, to take just one example, terrorism expert Steve Emerson spent 40 minutes stoking the worst fears of the mostly elderly attendees with a talk called “Tentacles of Terror: The Global Reach of Islamic Radicalism.” It could just as easily have been called “Scaring the Living Crap Out of Bubbe and Zayde.” As long as Jews are encouraged to believe that scary Muslims are hiding under every American bed, the idea is perpetuated that support for the Jewish state is a zero-sum contest between favoring Israel and favoring Arabs and Muslims. For too many American Jews, smearing Islam is seen as a legitimate expression of Zionism.

Groups like The Israel Project, the Middle East Media Research Institute and Middle East Forum seem to exist for no other reason than to spotlight the very worst aspects of Muslim societies. Magazines like Commentary and the Weekly Standard regularly traffic in the crudest stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, and promote the harshest measures for dealing with them. Musing over the appropriateness of targeting Palestinian civilians during the Gaza conflict, Standard contributing editor Michael Goldfarb wrote approvingly, “To wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause.”

Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, president of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and frequent AIPAC panelist, took things even further, suggesting that Israel’s siege on Gaza, could, by depressing population growth, “crack the culture of martyrdom, which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men.”

In 2007, in what could be seen as a precursor to the current uproar over the Park 51 Islamic cultural center, Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes played a key role in flaming controversy over the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a planned New York City public school emphasizing the study of Arabic language and culture. Pipes asserted that such a school represented a potential threat simply by virtue of teaching Arabic.

It would be wrong, however, to pretend that these sorts of smears have been the work solely of conservatives. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a liberal who promotes himself as Israel’s leading public defender, regularly rehearses the most clownish calumnies against Israel’s adversaries, real and perceived. Citing the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis, Dershowitz wrote, “the Palestinian leadership, supported by the Palestinian masses, played a significant role in Hitler’s Holocaust.” The obviously ahistorical stupidity of that claim aside, it hardly needs pointing out that a similar attempt to lay collective blame upon Jews would be immediately — and rightly — condemned, by Dershowitz and others.

Hatred of Arabs has also had a home in one of America’s oldest and best-respected liberal magazines, The New Republic, for over three decades, courtesy of owner and editor-in-chief Marty Peretz, who never seems to tire of identifying ways in which Arab society is “hidebound and backward,” as he wrote in 2007. Observing the devastation in Iraq, Peretz wrote: “I actually believe that Arabs are feigning outrage when they protest what they call American (or Israeli) ‘atrocities.’ They are not shocked at all by what in truth must seem to them not atrocious at all. It is routine in their cultures.” Peretz reiterated that view in September of this year. “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims,” he wrote. “This is a statement of fact, not value.”

While it’s tempting to dismiss Peretz as a racist old kook, he does serve as editor-in-chief of a major magazine, and he has been able to help define the boundaries of acceptable liberal discourse for 30 years. And he has chosen through those years to place the most retrograde anti-Arab, anti-Muslim bigotry — including constant denials of Palestinian nationhood — within those boundaries.

It wasn’t so long ago that Jews in America were targets of similar slander and knee-jerk opposition. Liberal American Jews have been at the forefront of all of America’s struggles against bigotry, but they need to do a better job of calling out the hate in their own communities. Moderate Muslims are often called upon to condemn the extreme rhetoric of their co-religionists. It is not too much, at long last, to call upon moderate Zionists to do the same.

Matthew Duss is National Security Editor at the Center for American Progress.


Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/131502/#ixzz10V32gw00

NPR/KPCC: Muslim community launches TV campaign to fight hate speech

9/2/2010
Susan Valot, KPCC
(photo by Susan Valot/KPCC)

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A Muslim group is speaking out against the backlash against plans to build an Islamic community center a few blocks from ground zero in New York. They say it’s spawned a lot of hate speech against Muslims in general. They’re hoping a new series of TV public service announcements will help. The Los Angeles chapter of the Council in American-Islamic Relations — or CAIR — unveiled those PSA’s in Anaheim yesterday.

The PSA’s have two themes: “We have more in common than we think” and “9/11 happened to us all.”

One of the three videos features a New York City firefighter — a Muslim — who was one of the first to arrive at the Twin Towers. As he talks, tears stream down his face.

"I had a very good friend of mine. His name was Shawn Powell. And he worked in my firehouse for a while," says Hisham Tawfiq in the PSA. "When my friend came up to me and told me that Shawn Powell was on the list, I was like, ‘No, he’s not.’ And I took out my phone and I called him. That’s really when it hit me and I was like, ‘Okay, this is real.’”

CAIR hopes the TV campaign will help dispel the myth that all Muslims are terrorists.

CAIR-LA attorney Ameena Qazi, who wears a traditional Muslim head scarf, says she’s noticed an increase in hate e-mail and phone calls in the last six months.

"Just the other day, I got a hate mail — voice mail on my phone here at work, saying, 'You F-ing terrorist, go home. Leave our country.' Just completely out of nowhere," Qazi says. "Somehow they got through to my voicemail and left that message."

Qazi says those messages are like a hit-and-run. She says there’s no way to respond to help those people better understand her religion.

"For me, the hurtful part is that, you know, I am American," Qazi says. "I’m actually a mix race, you know. I’m white American. I’m Pakistani American. So it’s hurtful when we have our own people spurring this hate against us because it’s like our own. You know, we don’t view them as others or we’re others. It’s like our own not being able to understand. And that’s what we hope to achieve through this [PSA campaign]."

CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush says hate talk is driven by fear of Islam — and that’s driven by ignorance. He says hateful comments keep bubbling to the surface long after the 9/11 attacks.

"It’s nine years and brewing. That’s what it is," Ayloush says. "I think what happened — things got out of hand because of many factors. One is the election of President Obama. Some people are still not digesting the idea of having a first black president in America. For them, it is something that undermines, that shakes the history of what America stands for because for some extremists what America is maybe a white, Christian society."

Ayloush says more anti-Muslim groups have popped up in the years since 9/11. He says the rhetoric is becoming more vicious, as traditional hate groups like neo-Nazis and former Ku Klux Klan members get involved.

"This is the exact same practice that led to attacks on black people in the ‘30s and ‘40s, up to the ‘60s," says Ayloush. "These are the same type of tactics that led to the internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. The internment didn’t happen in a vacuum. It came after many, many years of building and brewing anti-Asian and anti-Japanese feelings and sentiments in America."

Ayloush also blames politicians for fanning the flames in an election year.

"When we face — and it has happened throughout history — when there’s a bad economy, populist — not popular and not necessarily good leaders — populist leaders try to find victims, someone to blame, a scapegoat," says Ayloush. "Whether it’s the immigrants in the past or the Catholics or the poor East Europeans or the Jews. Today it’s the Muslims. The Muslims to be blamed to all evil things that happen in the world."

Ayloush says he hopes the new TV announcements will change some minds about Muslims. They start airing on TV stations this week and are posted on YouTube.

We soon could find out how well they work. On October 17, Muslims in Southern California will invite people of all religions to visit them on Open Mosque Day.

Olbermann: There is no ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ - msnbc tv - Countdown with Keith Olbermann - msnbc

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Obama's Islamic-Center Stance: Why the GOP Shouldn't Run Against It

By Mark Halperin
Monday, Aug. 16, 2010
Time.com

Dear Republican Party:

Your moment is now.

This weekend, President Obama defended the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque two short blocks from Ground Zero, despite cries of insensitivity from some New Yorkers and accusations of mischief from some pundits. This finally gives you an opportunity to add a powerful national-security cudgel to the message of economic woe you have been pushing as the midterm election approaches...

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By Justin Elliott
Monday, Aug 16, 2010
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In short, there is no good reason that the Cordoba House project should have been a major national news story, let alone controversy. And yet it has become just that, dominating the political conversation for weeks and prompting such a backlash that, according to a new poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans now say they oppose the project. How did the Cordoba House become so toxic, so fast?

In a story last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive, noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start by "public relations missteps." But this isn't accurate. To a remarkable extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim, conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was embraced by Rupert Murdoch's New York Post...


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