Even conservatives were quick to criticize a Keller school trustee’s bigotry. But while most of north Tarrant County denounced Jo Lynn Haussmann’s Muslim-bashing last week, another story unfolded in downtown Fort Worth.

UT Arlington senior Heba Said, opinion editor of The Shorthorn, wrote Wednesday about the disgusted looks and comments of “you people” and “y’all Muslims” directed her way as she covered the Republican state convention.

In one panel session, a prominent official of the Republican Party of Texas repeatedly described all Muslims as Islamists. At an autograph event for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Fort Worth police circled Said and then followed her.

Said, 22, is a star student, a Texan and a graduate of Trinity High School in Euless, one of the nation’s most diverse and successful schools. Her column answered convention delegates’ persistent question, “Where are you from?” “I am an American,” she wrote. “The question is, are you?”

Said’s appehension about the convention was borne out, she wrote: “I discovered a cult-like hatred that is simply disgusting.”

Star-Telegram, 12 June 2014

A Virginia church has generated a lot of controversy over its distribution of a pamphlet that some claim wrongly stereotypes Muslims.

Bible Baptist Church of Roanoke made local news when some in the city’s Muslim community expressed concern over the distribution of a pamphlet on Islam. Titled “Unforgiven?” the pamphlet was created by Chick Publications, a fundamentalist Christian evangelism outlet.

In an interview with local media, Roanoke resident Hussain Al-Shiblawi said the messages in the pamphlet suggest that Muslims are violent and are condemned to hell. “It basically indicated that the people are violent, the religion itself is violent, and the facts in here are not true,” said Al-Shiblawi to WBDJ 7 news.

“It shows him trying to kill his grandmother, saying, ‘If you weren’t my grandma, I’d kill you where you stand, Allahu Akbar’ … Read it before you hand it out, read it. Even though you don’t write it, you still hand it out.”

Al-Shiblawi also said that Bible Baptist Church regularly distributes Christian material to the community on Sundays, which he finds inspirational, but he’s deeply offended by the “Unforgiven?” pamphlet.

“Unforgiven?” is designed as a comic story, featuring a black man who converts to Islam while in prison after being threatened with physical violence. The man proceeds to fully embrace an extreme form of Islam, while his Christian grandmother attempts to prove his beliefs wrong by showing him that Christianity, and belief in Jesus Christ, is the only way.

The grandmother fails, however, and the final images in the comic strip show the man being condemned to hell. The final page has a message about the need to accept Jesus Christ and the Bible.

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A Christian, a Muslim and a Jew turn up together on a Washington, D.C., bus.

It’s no joke. They’re the faces of a new ad campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties group. And the ad is the latest volley between Muslim and anti-Muslim groups that has played out most recently on the sides of buses in the nation’s capital.

First, the American Muslims for Palestine ran ads during peak D.C. tourism season, the Cherry Blossom Festival in April, condemning U.S. aid to Israel. A month later, blogger Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative responded with bus ads featuring photos of Hitler meeting the grand mufti of Jerusalem and a text equating opposition to Israel’s territorial policies with Nazism.

CAIR’s ads, unveiled at a Wednesday (June 11) press conference, highlight “Islam’s commitment to freedom of religion, diversity and peaceful coexistence encouraged by the teachings of the Quran,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. He also announced a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo to raise the $41,000 it cost to design, publish and circulate the ads on multiple bus routes for a month.

“We do not shy away from debates on issues, but hate speech is a red line and I believe (Geller’s) ads have crossed the line between what is ethical and what is designed to provoke hatred in others,” Awad said at a press conference where he was flanked by Jewish and Christian clergy and activists.

In the CAIR ad text, “we let the Quran speak for itself,” he said. All three people say that the Quran’s verse 2:62 speaks for them when it says: “Verily, those who have attained to faith, as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians … all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve.”

The ad also offers a website link where people can request a free copy of the Quran for the cost of shipping ($9.95).

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