Category Archives: USA

Joyce Carol Oates sparks Twitter storm over Egypt remarks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Author Joyce Carol Oates has sparked a social media ruckus with a series of tweets linking rape culture to Islam, drawing a stream of responses from other writers and users of the site.

Oates is not the first high-profile writer to stumble into the political arena, but her choice of timing, topic and media were particularly incendiary.

Oates’s 140-word political tweet-bombs began by remarking: “Something dispiriting about ‘Brotherhood’ political parties – wonder what it is.”

And drove on with “Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemic – Egypt – natural to inquire: what’s the predominant religion?”

Guardian, 8 July 2013

Swastika sprayed on New Jersey Islamic center ‘disgraceful’, director says

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of Morris County graffitiWhat appears to be a swastika spray painted on the Islamic Center of Morris County is “disgraceful,” said Dr. Aref Assaf, one of its directors. “We’re very concerned about this,” Assaf said.

Police are still investigating the vandalism, and whether it was a hate crime, said Kyle Schwarzmann, Rockaway Borough detective sergeant. The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said police should investigate the incident as a possible hate crime.

“Because of the nature of this incident and because of other recent incidents targeting American mosques, we urge local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive,” said Khurrum Ali, CAIR-NJ’s civil rights director.

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Posted in USA

East End United rally vows to fight on after EDL march is banned

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Campaigners at a rally held last night in the wake of the Home Secretary’s ban on Saturday’s English Defence League march through London’s East End have vowed to continue fighting “the constant threat of neo-fascist organisations.” Around 150 supporters packed the rally by East End United anti-fascist campaign staged at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel.

Delegates from 21 community groups, religious organisations and trade unions joined politicians to reaffirm a ‘No Place for Hate’ campaign launched in 2010 when the EDL first attempted a march through Whitechapel. “There is the possibility that the EDL might again attempt to march through east London,” warned campaign orgaiser Weyman Bennett. “Neo-fascist organisations who seek to sow divisions in multi-cultural, working class areas are a constant threat.”

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Mad Mel not mad enough, Robert Spencer complains

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The very welcome ban on hate-mongers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer visiting the UK to join a disgusting publicity stunt planned by the English Defence League predictably had its critics. Equally predictably, one of them was Melanie Phillips.

“What on earth have we come to, after all, when the British Home Secretary is banning people on the basis that they criticise Islam and warn against jihadi violence?”, Phillips demanded indignantly. “Is this not exactly the menacing argument mounted by Islamic extremists, that any condemnation of Islamic extremism is to be banned as ‘Islamophobic’?”

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CAIR calls for hate crime probe of New Jersey mosque vandalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of Morris CountyThe New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ) today called on state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate vandalism of a mosque in that state as a possible hate crime.

An official with the Islamic Center of Morris County in Rockaway, N.J., told CAIR that someone spray-painted a Nazi swastika on an exterior door of the mosque Friday evening. The alleged perpetrator was caught on surveillance video entering the mosque and then going out to a vehicle and returning to spend time at the site of the graffiti. Rockaway Borough Police are investigating the incident as “criminal mischief.”

The mosque had faced opposition several years ago when it was in its planning stage.

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NYC man charged with hate crime in mosque stabbing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A New York City man has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime for allegedly stabbing a man as he unlocked a mosque for morning prayers last year. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown says Friday Bernhard Laufer was awaiting arraignment on attempted murder and assault charges in the alleged bias attack.

Laufer was in custody Friday and unable to comment. Attorney information was not immediately available. Brown says he faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the top count.

Brown says Bashir Ahmad received stiches and staples after he was stabbed repeatedly while unlocking the front door of a Queens mosque last November. He says Ahmad was stabbed in his hands, legs and back. Brown says Laufer threatened him with an anti-Muslim slur.

Associated Press, 28 June 2013

Secret no-fly list blamed for American’s Bangkok nightmare

Posted on by Bob Pitt

U.S. citizen detainedA Southern California medical student is back home after spending nearly two weeks at a Bangkok airport when he says his name turned up on a no-fly list. Rehan Motiwala’s ordeal ended Friday when he was finally granted permission to fly out of Thailand and was greeted at Los Angeles International Airport with hugs from his family, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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Geller and Spencer banned from UK

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spencer, Carroll, Geller and Lennon in Stockholm

Two of the people behind a campaign against the building of the “Ground Zero Mosque” in New York have been barred from entering Britain to speak at an English Defence League rally in London this weekend, it has been announced.

The Home Secretary Theresa May has told Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, both of the anti-Islamic group Stop Islamization of America, that their presence in the UK would “not be conducive to the public good”. The decision, which they cannot appeal, will stand for between three and five years.

According to the Home Office, Mr Spencer and Ms Geller set up organisations “described as anti-Muslim hate groups” and, consequently, they have been told not to travel to Britain.

The decision follows pressure from anti-racist groups and chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz, who wrote to Ms May earlier this week asking her to consider a ban.

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Shock revelation by Daily Mail: Obama administration held meeting with influential Muslim leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The White House’s National Security Council has confirmed that staffers held a June 13 meeting with Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, an Islamist cleric who shares leadership of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, where he is vice-president and the terror supporter Yusuf al-Qaradawi is president.

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