Islamophobia still has its place at CPAC

SALON.com

Saturday, Mar 16, 2013 03:34 PM EDT
Islamophobia still has its place at CPAC
A panel of "Uninvited" anti-Islam activists trashed Grover Norquist and former Bush staffer Suhail Khan
By Jillian Rayfield

Though, for the most part, the fringiest conservatives were shut out of CPAC this year, one unofficial panel hosted by Breitbart.com did not disappoint, bringing out “The Uninvited” anti-Islam activists for a panel on national security. Speaking to a packed room, Pamela Geller, Frank Gaffney, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, talked of the Muslim Brotherhood’s infiltration of America, and, more imminently, of the CPAC conference.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who introduced the panel on Saturday and called the speakers “the world experts on global jihad,” bemoaned that the FBI has “scrubbed out” derogatory references to Islam or Muslims because their Muslim advisers told them they had to. He also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk illegal immigrants, who he called “undocumented Democrats.”

Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned of Islam’s “need to impose sharia on the world,” noting that “there has been a systematic purging of references to Islamism, lest offense be given to Muslims.” And where is the government finding out what will give offense to Muslims, Mukasey asked. From groups like CAIR and ISNA, “both of which are branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“The vast majority of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims adhere to a view of their religion that agrees on the need to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on the world,” he said.

Robert Spencer, the blogger for Jihad Watch, got a standing ovation for tying both Grover Norquist, who is married to a Muslim woman, and ex-Bush staffer and CPAC board member Suhail Khan, who is Muslim, to the Muslim Brotherhood. “What I do know is that they’re completely in bed with the same people Barack Obama is listening to to draft the entire foreign policy of the United States and domestic policy as well.”

Spencer added that Norquist “is the one who made it so that Pamela Geller and I are on this panel called ‘The Uninvited.’”

“Maybe you don’t know, but Barack Obama has completely aligned this nation with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “Barack Obama is not stupid and we should give him credit for knowing what he’s doing and for doing it on purpose.”

Pamela Geller, who called the panel “poetic justice,” said that “truth is the new hate speech,” and that those who try to speak the truth are “marginalize[d], demonize[d] and render[ed] radioactive.”

She also took a shot at Khan: “Suhail Khan is worse than Anwar al Awaki” because “look what’s he’s done to this conference.”

Frank Gaffney, who was banned from the conference several years ago, said that Khan “was recruited to the Muslim Brotherhood” when in college. “He is a prince of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

After the panel, Robert Spencer told Salon that “Islamophobia is a concept manufactured by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to intimidate people into being afraid to resist Islamic supremacism.”

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/16/islamophobia_still_has_its_place_at_cpac/

Muslim Communities Must Draw the Line on Killing of Shia

Muslim Communities Must Draw the Line on Killing of Shia
Sign onto the IntraFaith Code of Honor

The persistent and horrific attacks against Shia in Pakistan and the Middle East are an outrageous violation of Islam. Hundreds have been killed in the most recent string of sectarian violence across the region. MPAC condemns all attacks on minority groups and calls on all the governments in these countries as well as Muslim leaders to act immediately to stop this cancerous fratricide within our faith.

The latest attack took place in Pakistan on Sunday, when a bomb destroyed a Shia mosque in Karachi, killing 48 and wounding hundreds. The next day, a shooter opened fire on thousands of mourners who were returning home from the funeral of those killed in the bomb blast.

“We Muslims cannot let events which took place 1,400 years ago and created these labels be the demise of our community today,” said Dr. Maher Hathout, MPAC’s Senior Adviser. “These attacks are forbidden and a violation of Islam. The senseless murder of Shia must stop, and it is past time for political and religious leaders to step in to forbid and stop this slaughter, and hold the perpetrators accountable.”

In just the first two months of this year, about 250 Shia have been killed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni group which has been responsible for most attacks against Shia in Pakistan.

Tragically, these attacks are not limited to Pakistan. Shia have being expelled from the United Arab Emirates; major Shia mosques and villages have been destroyed in Syria; suicide bombers have attacked Shia shrines in Iraq; and Shia are being denied basic human rights in Saudi Arabia.

Governments that promote sectarianism, like those in Saudi Arabia and Iran, share responsibility for this misguided and senseless violence. They do not represent the Islamic values they claim to uphold when young impressionable Muslims take their lead to kill other Muslims from their cues. This deviation from Islamic principles based on justice are apparent when the Saudi military suppresses the Bahraini opposition while arming extremists in Syria, and while Iran arms the Syrian dictatorship while promoting their ideology throughout the region. They both fuel their ideological narrow-mindedness with their petrodollars.

The current deadly silence of Muslim organizations and leaders about this disaster is heart-breaking. Islam teaches us that the most sacred thing is human life, which we are seeing discarded and violated in gang-like confrontations. God’s commandments are clear:

“But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and God has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment.” (Quran 4:93)

This continued violence can no longer be tolerated, and we call upon all Muslim leaders to address these atrocities and put an end to the hate and violence. Condemning the violent acts is the first step in the right direction, but many leaders are ignoring the issue and taking solace in ceremonial interaction. The growing number of attacks is an indicator that these unchecked problems are getting worse.

Five years ago, MPAC brought together American Muslim leaders to sign onto an “Intra-Faith Code of Honor” to address the increasing sectarian violence abroad and, most importantly, ensure that American Muslim communities are not divided or infected by international events. The code, which was adopted by major American Muslim Sunni and Shia leaders, reads in part:

"As Muslim Americans who live and struggle together in harmony and cohesion, and who agree that the challenges of the future should supersede the problems of the past, we are eager to offer any help and join hands with all those who wish well for our Ummah (community) toward stopping this vicious cycle of violence in the Middle-East, which is abhorrent to all Islamic values and principles."

We call on leaders of Muslim communities in America and abroad to adopt the Code of Honor and use it as a point of dialogue and connection with their fellow Muslims of all schools of thought. This is a time for critical leadership to prevent atrocities against the Shia communities and to demonstrate the true values of Islam that abhor sectarian violence.

Last year, MPAC brought together a panel of scholars and human rights advocates, including Imam Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, for a forum on “Minority Rights in Muslim Countries.” The powerful event focused on reconciling Islamic ethics with the rights of minorities and arguing against the un-Islamic actions of governments that persecute religious minorities.

“Persecuting and oppressing religious minorities does not make us better Muslims,” Dr. Hathout said at the event. “Muslims do not need to believe in what religious minorities believe, and Muslims of different schools of thought need to accommodate one another, not produce animosity from their historical and jurisprudential differences. As human beings and fellow citizens, minorities deserve the same rights as majorities in Muslim countries.”

We call on leaders of Muslim communities in America and abroad to read the Code of Honor and use it as a point of conversation with their fellow Muslims. This is a time for critical leadership to prevent atrocities against the Shia communities and to demonstrate the true values of Islam that abhor sectarian violence.

[Contact: Hoda Elshishtawy, Legislative and Policy Analyst, hoda@mpac.org, (202) 547-7701]

SOURCE: Muslim Public Affairs Committee

Hannity accuses Keith Ellison of “a host of radical connections”

SALON

Friday, Mar 1, 2013 01:35 PM EST
Hannity accuses Keith Ellison of “a host of radical connections”
After a dust-up on Fox News, Sean Hannity attacked the Muslim Democrat

By Jillian Rayfield

Sean Hannity attempted to tie Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to controversial Nation of Islam pastor Louis Farrakhan and his national assistant Khalid Mohammed, following an explosive interview on Fox News earlier this week in which Ellison accused Hannity of being “the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen” and a “shill for the Republican Party.”

In a segment on his show Thursday, Hannity accused Ellison of having “a host of radical connections,” and revived attacks made during Ellison’s 2006 campaign about ties to Farrakhan and the Million Man March. “The reality is, the congressman not only associated with these radicals – but he spent years spewing their hateful rhetoric,” Hannity said.

He continued: “What is the difference, I mean, do we have somebody then in Congress that is the equivalent of one side of what the Klan is? Because I view the rabid ranting of Khalid Mohammed as frightening in terms of racism, anti-Semitism.”

As ThinkProgress reports, Ellison addressed his work with the Million Man March and Farrakhan several years ago:

In the late 1990s, Ellison worked with the group to organize the Million Man March, but apologized for failing to “adequately scrutinize the positions and statements” of the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan six years ago in a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

“I wrongly dismissed concerns that they were anti-Semitic,” he wrote, adding, “They were and are anti-Semitic and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.” “I have long since distanced myself from and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic ideas and statements, as well as other issues.”

MediaMatters points out that this is not the first time Hannity has attacked Ellison for reasons related to his religion. In 2006, when Ellison was sworn into office and took his oath on a Quran, Hannity compared it to using “Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ which is the Nazi bible.”

In advance of the segment, Ellison’s office sent out a statement calling Hannity’s attacks a “smear.”

“Tonight on Fox News, Sean Hannity will be airing a segment designed to smear Rep. Keith Ellison’s record,” wrote Ellison’s communications director Jeremy Slevin. “We need as many of our friends as possible supporting Rep. Ellison and helping him stand up against right-wing hate.”

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/hannity_accuses_keith_ellison_of_a_host_of_radical_connections/