Fast Company’s Mark Borden tweets this terrifying photo of a rented, decommissioned missile that “Ground Zero” “Mosque” protesters are driving around the proposed Islamic community center site today, and perhaps indefinitely. Take that, “productive interfaith dialogue” prospects!
Send an email to Jim Newell, the author of this post, at newell@gawker.co
source
Muslims donate nearly $1 billion to Pakistan
Monday, 30 Aug, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Muslim countries, organizations and individuals have pledged nearly $1 billion in cash and relief supplies to help Pakistan respond to the worst floods in the nation’s history, the head of a group of Islamic states said Sunday.
The announcement came as floodwaters inundated a large town in Pakistan and authorities struggled to build new levees with clay and stone to prevent one of the area’s biggest cities from suffering the same fate.
Foreign countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help Pakistan cope with the floods, which first hit the country about a month ago after extremely heavy monsoon rains. But some officials had criticized the Muslim world for not contributing enough.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the 57-member Organization of The Islamic Conference, likely sought to counter that criticism by announcing that Muslims have pledged nearly $1 billion. The pledges came from Muslim states, NGOs, OIC institutions and telethons held in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, he said.
”They have shown that they are one of the largest contributors of assistance both in kind and cash,” said Ihsanoglu of the various donors. He spoke during a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad.
Ihsanoglu did not provide a breakdown of the pledges or say how much of the money would flow through the Pakistani government versus independent organizations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani criticized donations made to foreign NGOs rather than the Pakistani government Sunday, saying much of the money would be wasted ”Eighty per cent of the aid will not come to you directly,” said Gilani, referring to Pakistani citizens.
”It will come through their NGOs, and they will eat half of it,” he said during a press conference in his hometown of Multan.
The floods began in the mountainous northwest about a month ago and have moved slowly down the country toward the coast in the south, inundating vast swaths of prime agricultural land and damaging or destroying more than 1 million homes.
Floodwaters surged into the southern town of Sujawal on Sunday after breaking through a levee on the Indus River two days earlier, said Hadi Baksh, a disaster management official in southern Sindh province.
Most of the town’s 250,000 residents had already fled, but the damage to homes, clinics and schools added to the widespread devastation the floods have caused across Pakistan.
Authorities in Sujawal were trying to limit the flood damage, but the water level has already risen up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) in the center of town and 10 feet (3 meters) in the surrounding villages, said Anwarul Haq, the top official in Sujawal.
The floodwaters also threatened Thatta, a historic city of some 350,000 people who have mostly fled to higher ground. Thatta is the base of operations for local authorities trying to cope with a disaster that has overwhelmed the Pakistani government and international partners who have stepped in to help.
Authorities rushed to build makeshift levees across the road connecting Sujawal and Thatta, parts of which were already flooded, Baksh said.
”We are trying to plug the bridges at three different points to stop the water flow toward Thatta,” said Baksh. ”We are trying all our best efforts.”
Thatta is located about 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of the major coastal city of Karachi and 15 miles northwest of Sujawal.
Many of the people who fled Sujawal and Thatta headed to Makli, a hill just south of Thatta that contains a vast Muslim graveyard. About half a million flood victims are camped out on the hill, Baksh said. Most lack any form of shelter and are desperate for food and water.
”We don’t have water to drink, not to mention food, tents or any other facility,” said Mohammed Usman, a laborer who fled Sujawal several days ago and needed water to help cope with a painful kidney stone.
The United Nations, the Pakistani army and a host of local and international relief groups have rushed aid workers, medicine, food and water to the affected regions, but are unable to reach many of the 8 million people who are in need of emergency assistance.
The US said Saturday it would deploy an additional 18 helicopters to help with the relief effort. The US military is already operating 15 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft in the country, the US Embassy said in a statement. -AP
By KEVIN DOLAK
A fire early Saturday morning at the construction site of a new Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Officials say that the incident was an arson attack.
“It is absolutely heartbreaking,” Camie Ayash, spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro told ABC affiliate WKRN News 2 in Nashville. ”This has absolutely set fear throughout our community.”
The older members of the congregation were very affected by this,” she added. ”We had a man say this morning ‘God forbid someone come and try to attack me.’”
Police and the fire department in the Nashville suburb responded to a call at the site at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning and extinguished the fire. One construction vehicle was significantly damaged, while several others were doused with an accelerant but not set ablaze. It is suspected that a passerby scared off the suspects.
LAHORE: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that intelligence information was warned of another terror attack on other minorities.
Talking to the media in Lahore, he said that terrorists hiding in South Punjab have started to come out in the open. The Interior Minister said that the banned outfits of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jash-e-Muhammad are part of TTP and Al-Qaeda, adding that 29 banned organizations have been supporting terrorists inside the country.
He also condemned the terrorist attacks on two places of worship of the Ahmedi community on Friday, adding that it is state’s responsibility to protect the minorities.
Jammat-i-Ahmedia’s demand for security
The Jammat-i-Ahmedia demanded that the government provide security to the Ahmedi minority sect on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore director Anjuman-i-Ahmedia Mirza Ghulam Ahmed said that they did not demand compensation from the government but it was the duty of the government to protect them.
He said that in Model Town the CCTV cameras installed in the worship place did not work due to loadshedding. However, the CCTV footage of the Garhi Shaho attack was handed over to the police. He said that security was not sufficient in both worship places and only 4 policemen were deployed.
He also said that the banners were displayed against their community at Mall Road and Garhi Shaho. Jamat Ahmadiyya Spokesman Ghulam Ahmad said that the government had taken Friday’s terror attacks very seriously. He was talking to media in Lahore.
Earlier, the Punjab Police claimed to have made headway in the investigation of terror attacks on Ahmedis worship places during Friday prayers.
Briefing the media at Central Police Office, the Punjab Police Spokesman DIG Akram Naeem Bharokah said the police arrested two terrorists from Model Town, namely Abdullah alias Muhammad son of Atta Ullah Chachar of Saje Village Rahim Yar Khan, and Muaz in injured condition while two terrorists Mansoor and Durwaish were killed during police encounter at Garhi Shahu.
It was disclosed in the preliminary investigation, he said, all the four terrorists were teenagers having links with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, while a militant trainer Muneeb trained all of them at Miran Shah, North Waziristan Agency. Bharokah said the terrorists came to Lahore from Miran Shah via Bannu district through a public bus on May 21 and stayed in Braili Mosque near Batti Chowk.
The same day they divided into two groups and conducted reconnaissance of their respective targets under the guidance of their accomplices over here. Later,they kept on changing their hide-outs. On May 28, their local accomplices dropped Abdullah and Muaz at 87C Model Town, and Mansoor and Durwaish at Ahmed is Jamaat Khana in Garhi Shahu, besides providing them ammunition, hand grenades and explosive jackets at around 1:30pm.
Both the groups attacked their targets at around 1:35pm when the Ahmedis were busy in their adoration, killing 52 people in Garhi Shahu and 27 in Model Town. While 107 people received injuries- 73 in Garhi Shahu and 34 in Model Town, he maintained. The DIG said the terrorists also inflicted bullet injuries to nine policemen including an SP and ASP of Civil Lines Police at Garhi Shahu and an Inspector at Model Town.
To a question, he said, the terrorist network is very complex and they organize different groups for different targets, therefore, it will be pre-mature to talk about presence of other terrorists in the Punjab capital city.However, the initial investigation would prove to be veryhelpful to trace and dismantle the terrorists network, he added.
He said, the police also recovered 18 grenade, 19 detonators, four kilograms explosive, one full live explosive jacket and one half live jacket, one bull action kalashnikov,55 live bullets, seven magazines, 177 bullet rounds, six primacards from the terrorists at 87C Model Town, and two kalashnikovs and four hand grenades at Garhi Shahu.
By Daniel Tencer
Friday, May 28th, 2010 — 5:27 pm
The US’s largest Muslim advocacy group has filed a complaint with the FCC over what it says is a Houston radio talk show host who “advocated bombing a proposed New York City mosque.”
In a statement released Thursday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Michael Berry of KPRC 950 AM “made a call to violence” when he said he hoped someone would blow up the mosque being proposed for a location in lower Manhattan, near the site of the 9/11 attacks.
During an argument with a caller who supported the mosque’s construction, Berry said, “You can’t build a mosque at the site of 9/11. No you can’t. No you can’t. And I’ll tell you this — if you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up. … I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up, and I mean that.”
Download audio of Berry’s comments here (WAV file).
“Calls for acts of violence against houses of worship must never be tolerated or excused,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “We ask the FCC to demonstrate that incitement to violence is never acceptable on our nation’s airwaves.”
In a statement on the KPRC Web site, Berry denied that he advocated terrorism against a house of worship, and said CAIR was trying to intimidate political opponents into silence.
“This is how CAIR intimidates people into silence,” he said in the statement. “They want to scare people into believing that having differing opinions will cost you your job.”
But CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told the Houston Chronicle that his group isn’t calling for Berry’s firing because “then we’re accused of censorship and stifling his free speech.” But he said he wanted to see Berry’s employer take “some action” in response to the incident.
“While I stand by my disagreement of the building of the mosque on the site, I SHOULD NOT have said ‘I hope someone blows it up,’” Berry wrote on the KPRC site.”That was dumb, and beneath me. … For that, I apologize to my listeners.”
CAIR notes that Berry “has in the past been a guest host for nationally-syndicated broadcasters like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.”
The group said Berry’s remarks were “of particular concern” as they came shortly after the pipe-bombing of a Florida mosque earlier this week.
A Muslim group known as the Cordoba Initiative is planning to build a mosque inside a former Burlington Coat Factory building two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The 13-story building was damaged during the 9/11 attacks.
Earlier this month, a New York City community planning board approved the plan, stirring up opposition from some residents of the city and from conservative commentators around the country.
Rob Crilly in Islamabad
Published: 1:41PM BST 29 May 2010
More than 1500 people from the much persecuted Ahmadi sect were caught up in the violence, crammed into mosques in Lahore for Friday prayers.
The death toll could have much worse but for the actions of two brave men who tackled the suicide attackers.
Nabeel, aged 25 who had only one name, said he had been among the faithful at one of the mosques in the Model Town area of the city when he heard gunshots.
He watched as a gunman began firing indiscriminately into the crowd – turning the mosque into a bloodbath – before throwing a grenade.
Dozens of people were injured by the blast, including the gunman, who was bleeding from the head.
“He shot at least a dozen people before he fell to the ground. I used the opportunity to seize the man, still wearing his suicide vest. Two other men helped me remove his jacket and disarm him. I held him in that position for nearly 35 minutes waiting for police officials so I could hand him over to them,” said Nabeel.
“I had placed a foot just over the man’s neck to make sure he could not move. He kept telling me that he was in a lot of pain and wanted me to remove my foot.
“I removed some pressure and asked him why he had killed so many innocent people. “He replied that it was his mission to eradicate all infidels from Pakistan.” Nineteen people lay dead by the time police arrived.
The Punjabi Taliban has claimed responsibility for the co-ordinated attacks.
Their targets were members of the Ahmadi sect. While they follow all Islamic rituals, other Muslims revile the group for believing that their founder was a prophet. They are not recognised as Muslims under Pakistani law and are routinely subject to discrimination.
The death toll makes Friday’s massacre Lahore’s worst terrorist attack.
While Nabeel tackled one gunman on the ground floor, another gunman calmly climbed the stairs to an upper floor, firing as he went.
Bilal, a regular at the mosque, threw himself behind a sofa as the gunman approached.
The young man was constantly firing. I had a clear view of everything that was happening. Luckily the terrorist did not see me,” he told The Express Tribune newspaper.
“I knew I had a brief window of opportunity to act. When the terrorist had his back to the place where I was hiding behind, I pounced and grabbed him and yelled to other people to help me overpower him.” They pinned him to the ground and ripped off the attacker’s jacket which was packed with explosives.
Between them, their quick thinking saved dozens of lives. Three attackers at the second mosque – where the extremists kept security forces at bay for three hours – killed scores of hostages by detonating their suicide vests when police commandos raided the building.
On November 26, 2006, radio host Jerry Klein of WMAL 630 AM (covering Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland) had a program that was “focused on public reaction to the removal of six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, from a US Airways flight.”[1] (See Flying Imams controversy). In an effort to gauge his audience’s reaction, he said that force should be applied to ensure that all Muslims in America wear “identifying markers. …I’m thinking either it should be an arm band, a crescent moon arm band, or it should be a crescent moon tattoo. …If it means that we have to round them up and do a tattoo in a place where everybody knows where to find it, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”[2][1]
The response was overwhelming and “the phone lines jammed instantly”. Klein later stated that “The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes. There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were plenty who agreed.”[1] While some callers said he was “off his rocker”, others insisted that his statement did not go far enough, calling for forced mass exile: “Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country…they are here to kill us.” Others called for Muslims to be placed in internment camps: “You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.”"[1]
At the end of the show he revealed that his statements were a hoax, saying, “I can’t believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said. For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people’s bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver’s license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It’s beyond disgusting … because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen … We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous.”[1] A week later, Klein also expressed surprise at how much international media coverage the story got. “You should know that I’ve received email from around the world, interview requests from the BBC and Channel 4 in England”.[3][4][5][6]
In a press release the Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ibrahim Hooper, stated, “The public reaction to Mr. Klein’s courageous parody should be a wake-up call for American religious and political leaders who remain silent in the face of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our society. Americans of all faiths must come together to marginalize extremists and to challenge ethnic and religious bigotry.”[2]
Conservative commentator James Taranto called the experiment misleading, writing that, though “any reasonable person will find the sentiments Klein elicited from his listeners disturbing”, “unlike German anti-Semitism, Americans’ fear of Muslims is not fundamentally irrational. It is a fact that not long ago 19 Muslims exterminated some 3,000 people in America, and that in doing so they were acting on the basis of their religion, as they understood it.” Taranto continued that “as one of his overheated listeners suggested, the real analogy here is not to Nazi Germany, where an evil leader concocted an imaginary threat in order to justify genocide, but to America during World War II, and specifically the internment of Japanese-Americans: an overreaction to a real threat, which deprived thousands of innocent people of their liberty.”[7]
(From the diaries — kos)
On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail — were distributed by mail in Ohio, a “chemical irritant” was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain’s supporters has led to — Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.
I read the story as reported by the Dayton Daily News, but this was after I had received an email written by a friend of some of the victims of these American terrorists. The matter of fact news report in the Dayton paper didn’t come close to conveying the horrific impact of this unthinkable act like the email I had just read, so I asked the email’s author for permission to share what they had written. The author was with one of the families from the mosque — a mother and two of the small children who were in the room that was gassed — the day after the attack occurred.
“She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.
“The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn’t stop sobbing.
“This didn’t happen in some far away place — but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love.
“I am hurt and angry. I tell her this is NOT America. She tells me this is not Heaven or Hell — there are good and bad people everywhere.
“She tells me that her daughters slept with her last night, the little one in her arms and sobbing throughout the night. She tells me she is afraid, and will never return to the mosque, and I wonder what kind of country is this where people have to fear attending their place of worship?
“The children come into the room, and tell me they want to leave America and return to Syria, where they had fled to from Iraq. They say they like me, … , and other American friends — but they are too afraid and want to leave. Should a 6 and 7 year old even have to contemplate the safety of their living situation?
“Did the anti-Muslim video circulating in the area have something to do with this incident, or is that just a bizarre coincidence? Who attacks women and children?
“What am I supposed to say to them? My words can’t keep them safe from what is nothing less than terrorism, American style. Isn’t losing loved ones, their homes, jobs, possessions and homeland enough? Is there no place where they can be safe?
“She didn’t want me to leave her tonight, but it was after midnight, and I needed to get home and write this to my friends. Tell me — tell me — what am I supposed to say to them?”
When acting as a representative of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the 501(c)3 non-profit organization that I work for, I cannot engage in political activities. The distribution of Obsession, however, although a political campaign scheme, clearly crosses over into the mission of MRFF. So, I’m going to make two statements here — one in my capacity as MRFF’s Research Director, and another as an individual whose disgust at the vile campaign tactics of John McCain’s supporters completely boiled over when I opened up the email about children being gassed.
My statement as MRFF’s Research Director:
The presidential campaign edition of the Obsession DVD, currently being distributed by the Clarion Fund, carries the endorsement of the chair of the counter-terrorism department of the U.S. Naval War College, using the name and authority of an official U.S. military institution not only to validate an attack the religion of Islam, but to influence a political campaign. For these reasons, this endorsement has been included in MRFF’s second lawsuit against the Department of Defense, which was filed on September 25 in the Federal District Court in Kansas.
My opinion as an individual and thoroughly appalled human being:
John McCain has a moral obligation to publicly censure the Clarion Fund, the organization that produced Obsession and is distributing the DVDs; to denounce the inflammatory, anti-Muslim message of Obsession; and to do everything in his power to stop any further campaign activities by his supporters that have the potential to incite violence.
BBC News
Bob Trevelyan
Thirty four Islamic scholars in Mauritania have signed a fatwa, or religious opinion, banning the practice of female genital mutilation.
The fatwa, signed in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, states that the procedure has been proven to be harmful either at the time or subsequently.
Many Mauritanian women have welcomed the move.
Female genital mutilation has been recognised globally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
But that message has been slow to filter down in parts of north, east and west Africa where the practice is still widespread.
Health campaigners estimate that more than 70 percent of Mauritanian girls undergo the partial or total removal of their external genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The World Health Organisation says there are no health benefits and many potentially damaging consequences, from severe pain and blood loss to recurrent infections, infertility and an increased risk of complications in childbirth.
Taboo ‘smashed’
Mutilations are carried out for a mix of cultural and social reasons, and many believe the practice has Islamic religious support, even if this isn’t always the case.
A law professor at Nouakchott University said the collective fatwa would greatly reduce female genital mutilation in Mauritania because it would remove what he called the religious mask that the practice hides behind.
Mauritanian women in Nouakchott also welcomed what one said was the smashing of a religious taboo.
However, others have cautioned that a publicity campaign will now be needed if the fatwa’s message is to be spread into outlying areas where genital mutilation is most common.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8464671.stm
Published: 2010/01/18 00:01:01 GMT
© BBC MMX
@ May 11, 2010 4:02 AM Permalink | Comments (24)
Worshipers at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida are offering special prayers this morning after a small explosion and fire at the mosque Monday night.
No one was hurt in the incident and damage is described as very minimal by a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue spokesperson.
“There was a lot noise outside,” the center’s Vice Chairman of the Board Ashraif Shaikh tells WOKV. “They opened the back door and there was fire outside.”
Tom Francis with JFRD says the arson unit was called to the mosque on the 2300 block of St. Johns Bluff Road around 10 p.m. and immediately discovered obvious signs of foul play, though Francis stopped short of saying what was found behind the Islamic Center, saying only it was “a combustible substance that had no business being here.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations alerted the media to the explosion early this morning, sending out a news release that says “worshipers heard a loud noise outside the mosque as preparations were being made for the evening (isha) prayer at about 9:35 p.m.”
A fire extinguisher was used to put out the small fire.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is being joined by the state fire marshal’s office, ATF and FBI, a normal protocol in all arson-related invesitations, according to Francis.
CAIR reports early last month a white man in his 40s entered the Islamic Center during prayer services and shouted “stop this blaspheming.”
The man was chased away by worshipers, but was reported to say “I will be back.”
Neither the police, nor Shaikh would elaborate on that incident or how it may relate to last night’s fire.
Francis says, as is the case with fires at every house of worship, this is being looked at as a possible hate crime.
“A possible bias-motivated attack on a house of worship should be of great concern to Americans of all faiths, and particularly to our nation’s religious and political leaders,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “Those who shape public opinion must begin to speak out against the rising level of anti-Muslim sentiment in our society.”
Last month, the nomination and confirmation of Dr. Parvez Ahmed, a former CAIR chairman and current University of North Florida professor, to Jacksonville’s Human Rights Commission sparked outcry from many activists.
The Human Rights Commission is schedule to meet this afternoon, according the the city’s website.
Shaikh says Ahmed is a member of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida.
The Islamic Center is one of several religious communities along St. Johns Bluff Road and across the street from the large New Covenant Ministries.
Shaikh described the location as a great example of inter-faith relationships and said there have been no problems at the Islamic Center.
“Everybody was really concerned,” he said of Monday’s fire. “But the main thing was, thank God, that when it happened no one got hurt…But it is very frightening, yes.”
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