Home A Rally at Times Square and a Time for a Muslim Moral Reckoning
Home A Rally at Times Square and a Time for a Muslim Moral Reckoning

A Rally at Times Square and a Time for a Muslim Moral Reckoning

The occupant of the White House's middle name is Hussein, every school curriculum lists a whitewashed history of Islam that ignores the genocides and atrocities, and there are now more positive depictions of Muslims on TV, than there are of Christians and Jews combined. But Muslims in America still aren't happy.

From all the wailing and boohooing, you might think that mosques were being shelled, the way Muslims are attacking monasteries in Egypt. Or that Muslim politicians were being gunned down in the street the way that Christian politicians are in Pakistan. You might at least think that Muslims are treated like second-class citizens, the way non-Muslims are treated in every Muslim country in the world. But no that's not the case.

So what has Muslim burqas wadded up in a bunch this time? Representative Peter King wants to hold hearings to investigate whether some Muslim groups are urging their communities not to cooperate with government authorities in fighting terrorism. King is not inviting experts on terrorism like Steve Emerson, or experts on Islam like Andrew Bostom or Robert Spencer. He isn't even inviting ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Wafa Sultan. Instead the witness list is limited to Muslims and law enforcement officials. Despite all the hysteria and Islamophobia-mongering, Islam isn't on trial here.

One of those witnesses is congressman Keith Ellison, a former associate of the violently racist Nation of Islam, who has defended and promoted anti-semitism in the past. Since then Ellison has been transformed into the chief spokesman for tolerance as America's first Muslim congressman. That tolerance however ends at the borders of Islam. And does not extend beyond it.

In response to Congressman King's hearings, a motley group of organizations held a rally at Times Square, near the site of an attempted Muslim car bombing attempt only several months ago. They made no acknowledgment of the countless lives that would have been lost at the hands of a Muslim terrorist. Nor did the media in any way acknowledge the radicalism of the participants.

They called the rally, "Today, I Am a Muslim Too". But where are the rallies for, "Today, I Am a Copt Too" or "Today, I Am a Hindu Too" or "Today, I Am a Zoroastrian Too".

In Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia-- saying "I am a Muslim Too" will not get you equal rights. It will get you superior rights, which is what Muslims enjoy throughout the Muslim world. And that includes the right to oppress and massacre Christians, Jews, Hindus and countless other minorities. Groups for whom no rallies are being held. Whose suffering goes unheard. While the media flocks to a photo op for an orgy of self-pity by radicals and extremist organizations.

Russell Simmons promoted and spoke at the rally. Simmon's own transformation into an icon of tolerance is another farce. Russell Simmons is not only close to violently racist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, but actually wrote an essay calling him, "My Second Father". In an interview, Simmons stated, "But all of us have some kind of an array of race-related issues. Farrakhan has the least. And his statement that he made when we were kids that inspired us so much when we were kids and so angry, were merited. The white man was the devil. I was happy to say it and I could say it all of the time, I could say it now." But of course he didn't say it at the rally. That would have ruined the photo ops. And the media remained silent on his love for Farrakhan, even while the Minister's former patron in Libya is massacring his own people.

This was only the first flash of intolerance at a Muslim rally supposedly dedicated to tolerance. The Facebook page for the rally listed Al Sharpton as one of the speakers.

Sharpton has led violent harassment of Jews and Asians in New York, which have been connected to horrifying acts of violence on more than one occasion. He has trafficked in religious bigotry as recently as the 2008 election. Sharpton has become a power broker among New York Democrats, but time and time again his racial incitement has led to murder. When Al Sharpton has gone to a neighborhood, bodies have been left behind. There is hardly a better symbol for violent bigotry in New York than Sharpton. Listing him as one of the speakers sends a message about what kind of "tolerance" the rally organizers are interested in. A tolerance that the dead of Crown Heights and Harlem testify to. Much as countless millions dead at the hands of Islam testify to the tolerance of the Religion of Peace.

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb was also listed as one of the speakers. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb is a leftist radical who is violently anti-Jewish and anti-Israel and supports a boycott of all of Israel. Gottlieb visited Iran as part of a peace delegation in 2008 and spoke at a dinner attended by the Mad Butcher of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At the J Street conference, Gottlieb delivered a hateful rant, denouncing what she called, "Jewish privilege", praising J Street for being "advocates for talking to Hamas" and demanding an end to US military aid to Israel.

Gottlieb's inclusion was not an isolated event. The Facebook page lists the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (a contradiction in terms) and Rabbis for Human Rights, an even more misnamed organization that assaults Jewish farmers and tries to drive them off their land. Rather than a show of tolerance, the inclusion of such extremist organizations which have dedicated themselves to the persecution of Jews in Israel, highlight the xenophobia and hostility of the entire rally. And if Rabbi Marc Schneier shared a stage with an extremist who calls for a boycott of Israel, then the last shreds of his credibility have just gone out the window.

Many of the speakers were also supporters of the Ground Zero Mosque. Not only was Imam Rauf listed as one of the speakers, but so was the Rev. Michael Kinnamon. Kinnamon is not only a fierce Ground Zero Mosque supporter, but also an opponent of Israel. Chloe Bryer, who supports the Mosque and whose interfaith center's board includes Rauf, was listed as well.

via No Mosques at Ground Zero
At the rally Rauf insisted that "Our real enemy is not Islam or Muslims. The enemy is extremism and radicalism and radical ideology", one of those profoundly stupid statements that mean less, the more you think about them. You might as well say that our enemies are not extremists, but people with bombs. After all that's technically true, and yet completely pointless and wrong. To say that our enemies are extremists is to say nothing at all. Extremism is relative. It is a label that depends on the perspective of the labeler. On the other hand our enemies are certainly and undeniably Muslims. Rauf may contend that they are not the majority, but the lack of human rights for non-Muslims throughout the Muslim world is ample testimony otherwise.

Farrakhan's favorite Rabbi, Marc Schneier, completing his divorce from his 4th wife after she allegedly caught him cheating, showed up to mumble that, "Singling out Muslim Americans as the source of homegrown terrorism is an injustice". When actually it's a simple statement of fact. Environmentalists have no trouble singling out cows as the source of global warming, whether or not this is an injustice. The injustice is not that people are noticing that Muslims are the chief source of terrorism, but that Muslims continue to practice terrorism and act outraged when asked to fight it.

Congressman King is not holding hearings to denounce Islam. He is holding hearings to challenge the lack of cooperation from the Muslim community. The protest is held out of mere outrage that King dares single out Muslims as the problem. But whom else should he single out? Buddhists, the Amish or maybe those dreaded hordes of bomb throwing nuns?

Muslim congressman Andre Carson said that he wanted to tell "the Peter Kings of the world: we will not take your xenophobic behavior". But then again holding a rally near a location of a Muslim mass murder attempt, involving violent racists and extremists might be viewed as xenophobic. And denouncing a fellow congressman as a xenophobe because he wishes to work together with the Muslim community in fighting terrorism reveals a basic intolerance on the part of Andre Carson.

Last May, Carson claimed that Tea Parties are one of the largest threats to our national security, but acts outraged when someone notices that the violence is actually coming from people who read the Koran and take its bloody tenets literally. Blanket condemnations are supposed to be reserved for him. The media which has no problem denouncing the entire Tea Party as violent or gun owners as potential terrorists, swallows Carson's line, hook and sinker.

And Carson should know about intolerance, because just like Russell Simmons and Keith Ellison, he has his own ties to Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan endorsed Carson at his own grandmother's funeral and Carson received a donation from a man investigated for terrorism ties. The man was Yaqub Mirza and his organization, the SAAR Foundation was raided in 2002. Those raids led to the conviction of SAAR's Abdurahman Alamoudi who was engaged in a terrorism conspiracy together with Libyan madman Khadaffi. Khadaffi had also provided millions to the Nation of Islam, which both Ellison and Carson have been associated with.

Over in Libya, Khadaffi is showing what real tolerance looks like. Khadaffi is not just a friend of Farrakhan, but also of his associates. Obama's own mentor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright and Farrakhan paid a call in 1984 on the robed madman. And Khadaffi described his relationship with the Nation of Islam as a breach in the American fortress. How many other Muslim leaders see Farrakhan and his congressmen in the same way? We'll never know, because the media is too busy picking up Andre Carson's denunciation of Peter King.

A rally featuring bigots and their associates that turned up a few hundred people got front page coverage from a media that refuses to hold Muslims accountable for their intolerance. And that is the source of the problem. That is part of what King's hearings need to address. Muslims in America are not victims, more often they are victimizers. And why would it be otherwise? Muslims did not come here as a persecuted minority, but as the majority. There are Muslim majorities in most of the countries that they emigrated from. And those Muslim majorities are violently intolerant of minorities. There are hardly any Jews left in the Muslim world. And the Christians are vanishing almost as swiftly.

Muslim xenophobia has led them to wage violence against Buddhists in Thailand, Hindus in Kashmir, Zoroastrians in Iran, Christians in Egypt, Jews in Israel and even engage in violent conflict with their own sects. America does not have a problem tolerating Muslims. Muslims have a problem tolerating Americans. Self-indulgent rallies that promote the myth of Muslim victimhood just enable the violence and the denial that has become a constant part of the narrative. America has embraced Muslims. And in return, Muslims have reacted with violence, hate and smear campaigns. In August 2001, America issued its first stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday. One month later, Muslims murdered 3,000 people. This in microcosm is the relationship between Americans and the Muslims living in their country.

No, there is no Islamophobia here. Only a callous lack of Muslim empathy toward the suffering that their religious ideology has caused. It's time that Muslims made a moral reckoning by confronting that suffering, from the waves of ethnic cleansing and genocide that rippled across the Middle East destroying a multicultural region, to the modern day atrocities in the 20th century. It is time for Muslims to confront the genocides of Turkey and Indonesia. Time to humble themselves before the murdered Christians of Pakistan, the raped Chinese women of Jakarta, the massacred Jews of Hebron, the beheaded Buddhist teachers of Thailand and every spot in the world where Muslim blades and bullets have shed the blood of the innocent in the name of the Koran.

"Today, I Am a Muslim Too" reminds me of the courageous words of Ali Sina of Faith Freedom, who explaining his decision to leave Islam said, echoed Lincoln's "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master", by saying, "As I would not be a dhimmi, so I would not be a Muslim." There is a weight of moral responsibility in these words entirely out of the grasp of the preening and posturing speakers on the rally stage. Muslims wish to retain the privileges of the oppressor and the moral stature oppressed-- but they cannot have both. They must choose whether they wish to be the oppressors or the oppressed-- but not both at the same time. It is time for Muslims to stop hiding behind the lies and make a moral reckoning of their guilt and bring an end to the violence. Only when Muslims take moral responsibility for the violence of their hands, can there be peace.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7/3/11

    A sample letter to send to Peter King:


    BY FACSIMILE:
    1-202-226-2279
    March 7, 2011
    Congressman Peter King
    339 Cannon House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515

    In re: ISLAMIC TERROR HEARINGS
    Dear Congressman King,

    Please continue with the Hearings and do not be deterred from fact finding. It is most URGENT that these hearings takes place and that the dots are connected and made public. The Investigative Project, CAMERA, Middle East Forum, Hudson Institute, Pam Geller, etc., etc., ALL must be heeded. The facts are real, on the ground and time is running out to preserve a western type democracy and an American Constitution that really is humankind’s last best hope for Freedom and Democratic Secular ideals.

    There is an expression in arabic and expresses a consistent course of political and religious behavior for Islam : “al- wala’ w’al-bara”. It deals with loyalty to either the state or Islam and Islam must be chosen for Muslims. The problem is the Qu’ran and concepts of duality and abrogation. The problem is that the majority of Muslims profess Islam in it’s totality and are ignorant of what they profess (“true Islam is spoken in Arabic”). If you google the above term and read it and ask Congressman Ellison what that means, his answer will have to be illogical (or mere taqiyah) - to be a good Muslim, one must follow the Qu’ran exactly - no deviation is possible, hence no reformation is possible as did take place in all other great religions (after about 1400 years) - allegiance is to Allah and not the state. To be a good Muslim you must therefore adhere to jihad and the teachings and fatwas, etc. It gets tiring. Islamic extremism is therefore consistent with the Qu’ran - later teachings out rule the earlier - the violent over the “peaceful”. This can not be tolerated in America - political Islam cannot be separated from religious Islam - it’s like Nazism all over again - THAT is the problem.

    Please note that the Ikhwan Islam (Brotherhood) documents in the Holyland Foundation Trial (5th Cir Ct. Of Apps, Texas) are most illustrative of what the US government is up against and the need to take action and “weed out” those in government who would overthrow our government, our way of life and our proud American jurisprudence, all for antithetical Islamic jurisprudence and Shariah Law - the lists of “brother” organizations in America in that court evidence is astounding and scary.

    My letter will not be “P.C.” - I will say this clearly: it is the verses in the Qu’ran which drive extremism. Period. It is the verses in the Qu’ran which cannot be changed (al-wala’ w’al-bara), hence they must be obeyed. The Qu’ran commands the faithful to destroy the kuffar and demand jiyza, that is us.

    I applaud you, your gumption and your actions. Please stay the course and ignore the race baiters and haters.


    Yours in Freedom and American Constitutional Exceptionalism,

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  2. They figure loud enough and long enough will convince people they are innocent and sweet. Not involved.
    It is the ruse of the moderate that is being pushed.
    How can anyone be moderate about 911, or beheadings and stonings and destruction and hate etc. etc etc.?

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  3. How about "Today I'm an American", but we all know that won't happen because 1) They're Muslims first before anything else and 2) They would suffer the same fate as the Infidel standing next to them given the opportunity for some good ole fashion jihad.

    The King hearings are a show at this point, totally useless and a waste of time. Ellison will do his best to make sure Islam comes out smelling like a rose. If King had any balls he'd ask Ellison point blank about Mirza's contributions. But that won't happen either, the "Grove St. Gang" has donated a lot of money to both republican and democratic candidates alike. And only when it was it made public was it so "patriotically" returned, otherwise it remained in the "war chest". It would be interesting to know who King has accepted money from.

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  4. Trying to reason with or make sense of the muslim mind is like trying to reason with or make sense of the words Charlie Sheen.... it ain't happening!
    Like Charlie Sheen, the muslims have a whole different way of seeing things.
    The more America gives ear to their insane world view, the more infection is spread throughout the Body America.
    Is it only a matter of time before the sane, rational ones begin to tip toe around the perimeters of their dark landscape?
    Is it only a matter of time until America is so seduced by these people they begin to believe their distorted world view?
    God Forbid It.
    Spot on Daniel, spot on!

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  5. To judge by the witness list published today by Steve Emerson's IPT, King's hearings look more like a show to exonerate Islam and Muslims. The dice are clearly loaded in favor of giving Muslims a free pass. Doubtless the organizers of the Times Square rally know this. And doubtless if King had included as witnesses Hirsi Ali, Emerson, Spencer, Pam Geller, Wafa Sultan, et al., there'd be rioting in the streets and more "To Hell with Freedom" signs brandished in our faces.

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  6. Anonymous8/3/11

    Does anyone here realize that the Muslim call to prayer was still heard in Ireland in the time of Oliver Cromwell?
    If only even a few politicians were interested in history, and would read about the near takeover of Europe in those days by Islam, they might learn something.
    Historically, it has been an expansionist religion for centuries.
    How many of us know that Vienna was saved from Muslim forces by the King of Poland in the 17th century..or how close Spain and France came to falling into Muslim hands ?
    Europe is once again in terrible straits due to Islamic immigration.
    If we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it, it seems.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8/3/11

    Wow. Whenever I think all the facts have been collected and all the angles discussed, Daniel Greenfield again demonstrates his connection with the Muses and steals fire from Zeus to give to the rest of us mere mortals.

    I first learned about Islam at FaithFreedom.org. Ali Sina is another of the finest intellects I have ever studied under. He has just launched a new site. Take a look at his introduction here before browsing around the site:

    http://alisina.org/about/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8/3/11

    Sultan, it's like talking to the deaf or the converted. In a country that has chosen Michelle Obama (never proud of America until she gets what she wants) as the most admired woman with more than 60%, I don't expect people to stop the spread of Islam. PC is too entrenched into their psyche to make place for reality.

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  9. Anonymous8/3/11

    I am tired of hearing About moderate muslims. We seldom hear From them. Unless it's from their Apologist-In-Chief,our very own Pretender to the WH.
    Does he not know convicted felons can't vote ? That leaves out a lot of Farrakhan's followers.. One is left to wonder whose vote he is trying to acquire...oh wait, I forgot, in Chicago felons vote all the time..glad I cleared that up !

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  10. Anonymous8/3/11

    I disagree with Anon. Even just last year in comments sections at mainstream news sites, people commenting on Islam were few in number and were shouted down as haters and racists. Now I see the apologists sometimes equally few in number, or at least in the minority - at least on some threads I have spent some time with.

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  11. Anonymous8/3/11

    When I think about moderate Muslims it reminds me of people who call themselves Christians but don't really go to church. They just identify with Christianity. The problem is when those type of Muslims want to really get on-fire-for-Allah they go to the Koran. Then everything turns to hell because that book is anything but moderate. Its a false religion rooted in violence, sexual abuse, and greed and will NEVER be anything more as those tenets are at the heart of the Islamic Faith - just look at their prophet.

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  12. Anonymous8/3/11

    If their illiterate founder had not married a wealthy, older woman, the world might be a different place today. He would have been too busy herding goats to bring such heresy to the masses.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8/3/11

    Muslims can´t change their behaviour.

    Their mentality have, due to generations of inbreedings,the words in the islamic texts, their upbring, their schools ect., got hurt.

    They can´t feel empathy and therefore they can´t react as normaly people does.

    And it doesn´t matter whether it is about a human beeing or an animal.

    They reacts as children in a-grown-up-body.

    They use taqiyya, kitman and taqfir against the non-muslims.

    You can not rely on them =

    DO NOT TRUST ANY MUSLIMS!

    Vivi Andersen, Denmark

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  14. Fantastic article, especially the final paragraph.

    Sadly, though I fully recognize the facts about Islam I've been jaded by the kindness depicted by and towards the Muslims in my neighborhood and still want to think of them as the funny but rational Muslims on Little Mosque on the Prairie.

    I know the truth but the child in me wants the fantasy to be real:(

    Which is probably why I make a point to smile at Muslim women in the supermarket (recalling how they were harassed and needed to be escorted by American men after 9/11). And at other times, I feel nervous about being around them and have actually tucked my chai necklace and Star of David pendant under my collar. Irrational and contradictory I know.

    How I can be an idealist and a realist at the same time baffles me.

    ReplyDelete

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