A newly created group dedicated to fighting the “Islamization of America†will be walking the streets of Washington DC on September 25th engaging passers-by in a “dialogue†about Islam in America.
The group, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), stands out for its extensive ties to far-right bloggers in the US and Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy. It also has links to the European Far Right and Nazi apologists.
The choice of September 25 as the launch date is designed to coincide with “Jumah Prayer on Capitol Hill: A Day of Islamic Unity,†a gathering of Muslims on the National Mall. Its organizers say:
“The objective of this gathering is to invite the Muslim Communities and friends of Islam to express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam. We intend to manifest Islam’s majestic spiritual principals [sic] as revealed by Allah to our beloved prophet Muhammad (PEACE BE UPON HIM) of Arabia. Likewise; we intend to inspire a new generation of Muslim to work for the greater good of all people. We shall serve all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin.â€
SIOA, however, takes a dim view of what it calls “the doctrine of Islam, jihad, and Sharia (Islamic law),†especially in the United States.
“Islamic law and jihad are brutal, misogynist, and fundamentally contrary to our Constitution and to our concepts of human rights and freedom. Tolerance for ideologies that are opposed to our principles of individual freedoms and our Constitution is indefensible,” reads SIOA’s website.
The new group’s September 25 launch will include a number of high-profile guests, including Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Christine Brim.
Both Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller were present at the 2007 CounterJihad Europa Conference in Brussels which was co-sponsored by the Belgian far-right Vlaams Belang (VB) party whose platform, among other things, calls for pardoning Belgians convicted of collaborating with the Nazis. Spencer, Geller and Brim have also been strong supporters of far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders and helped facilitate his fund-raising trips to the US. (Ali Gharib, Daniel Luban and I have written about Wilders and his American hosts here, here and here) Wilders has gone so far as to suggest that the Koran should be banned, along with Mein Kampf, as examples of hate speech.
Spencer, Geller and other attendees at the Brussels conference have denied that they’re allied with Nazi apologists, insisting that their European contacts in VB and Wilders’ Party for Freedom are totally unrelated to the fascists of the 1930s. By loudly claiming their affection and support for Israel, the new European Far Right has tried to distance itself from that era and, in so doing, has succeeded in gaining the support of some neoconservatives.
SpinWatch recently published an excellent article that details the development of the European far-right’s relationship with U.S. neoconservatives.
In 2007 Christine Brim, whose group Center for Vigilant Freedom helped organize the Brussels conference (along with VB) and who is listed as a speaker at the SIOA kickoff next week, elaborated on the neoconservative relationship with the European far-right in 2007.
“If such parties specifically state pro-Israel positions, and take real actions opposing anti-Semitism and disavowing previous positions – and reach out to Jewish constituents and encourage Jewish participation in party positions – these are real actions to observe, and to approve.”
Brim also serves as a senior vice president at Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy.
Encouraging far-right political parties in Western Europe to reject anti-Semitism–formerly a tenet of their often fascistic views towards immigrants and non-Christians–is a positive step. But the willingness of U.S. neoconservatives such as Brim, Gaffney or far-right US bloggers, such as Geller and Spencer, to embrace politicians who have substituted Muslims as targets for their xenophobia and hate they once (and probably still, at some level) directed at Jews seems like a devil’s bargain. (Of course, this is not entirely new: prominent neo-conservatives, including Midge Decter and the late Irving Kristol, staunchly defended the murderous military junta in Argentina from the late 1970s until the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War against charges by Jacobo Timmerman and human-rights activists that it had a special affinity for Hitler and Nazi paraphernalia.)
Arutz Sheva called attention to SIOA’s “brainstorming†blog posts that suggested that donkeys, dogs and women should be brought to the group’s launch in order to interfere with the Jumah Prayer event on the Mall.
SIOA president D.L. Adams responded to accusations that such provocations were “extremeâ€.
“Because the Arutz Sheva article picked up on some of SIOA’s creative brainstorming posts to use humor and a bit of theatrics involving the things that are thought to disrupt prayer for Muslims – dogs, donkeys and women – some are already calling this loving group of people “extreme.â€
I take the opposite viewpoint and contend that drawing attention to the Muslim belief that â€dogs, donkeys, women†(and don’t forget breaking wind) are the things that interfere with their prayers being received, rather than spiritual matters like insincerity of heart, highlights the essential materialism of this so-called religion.
Neither our Founding Fathers, nor Lao Tse, Confucius, Gautama Siddartha, Saint Paul, Jesus, Isaiah, Moses, nor Abraham would recognize Islam as a bona fide religion, but would instantly understand it as the massive intellectual fraud that it is. Our cowardly leaders, in both Church and State, who claim it doesn’t matter what people believe, are fools. It matters that Muslims believe non-Muslims are inferior human beings. It matters that Muslims believe women are inferior to men. It matters that Muslims believe obedience and worship are the same thing and that conformity is the same as morality. It matters that Islam requires territorial sovereignty. It matters that Muslims believe that leaving Islam is equivalent to high treason. It matters what Muslims believe just as it matters what communists believe and what neo-Nazis believe.”
SIOA’s kickoff will be followed by a “saunter†to “engage in conversations with our fellow citizens who might happen to be there on the same day on matters of moment.”
The European Court of Human Rights has declared that Islam is not compatible with democracy. Muslims are welcome in the West but they must repudiate Sharia which relegates non-believers and women to third class status. This is not acceptable to any modern democracy.
I see no advantage at all to the west by importing muslims. Europe is making the greatest mistake in its history by allowing the mass colonization of its terrtitories by muslims and Africans.
And Jews, of course, must repudiate the halacha.
Would that the usual suspects devoted as much time to fighting the REAL threat, the "fascialization" of Ameri[k]a", as flailing at "an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Hw can liberals support a system that steps on the neck of women?
UNBELIEVABLE SHAME ON YOU!
Me and my fellow subHumans watch with great interest the attrocities and genocides comminted by terrorists and humanitarian religious fanatics against each other and sadly innocent bystanders.
We hope they continue till they they destroy each other completely so that Humanity may live in Peace and Harmony with Mother Nature once again.
Do a little research and you will find that, eg, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and other Founding Fathers, were not hostile to Islam.
""In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth.[ …]He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE (Adam's capital letters).""
– President John Quincy Adams, 1827
Do a little research.
Great quote, but John Quincy Adams was John Adams son, and not considered one of the founders, per se. I'd love to see a quote from his dad along these same lines (there probably is one).
HasEyes, surely you should be able to see that using the supposed oppression of women (or for that matter "GLBT people") as a blatantly cynical pretext for bombing their countries and stealing their natural resources, is not the best way of improving their lot? That, in fact, it will make it considerably worse, since they will be regarded as the witting or unwitting causes of the bombing, by those taken in by this propaganda? That, in fact, the best way to improve their lot, should you sincerely wish to do so, is to be friendly and cooperative with the countries concerned, and to earn their friendship in return (not something the USA is capable of)?
"SIOA is an educational and human rights organization with two foundational principles: Love and Compassion."
oh of course.
I haven't followed this too closely but I know in europe their muslim problem is kind of a combination of terrorism and cultural stuff over all the muslmi immigrants.
I don't think america has the same sort of issue and thus this doens't make alot of sense. most of our immigrants who people don't like are spanish and not muslim.
“Hw can liberals support a system that steps on the neck of women?”
Would you care to explain farther?!Or any bad thing written about Islam must be true?!
What about the huge number of violent crimes against women in the so called enlightened west say about the west ?
Your right. I never thought about violent crimes against women in western countries. I guess condemnation of dispicable crimes aginst poor women in the Islamic world will have to wait.
“The European Court of Human Rights has declared that Islam is not compatible with democracy.”
Intersting that this same so called court of human rights has kept silent about the Palestnian human rights under Israeli occupation,Iraqi rights,Afghan rights under British and US occupation?!
Palestnian human rights under Israeli occupation lear grow up and pull your head out of your ass there is not any Palestnian occupation other than in there minds!!!! in fact the so called Palestnian peaple consider ALL of the state of irael that the Palestnian goverment doent control to be occupied Palestnian never mind that the jews were there first but dont take my word for it lookup yjr hamass charter fool
I take the opposite viewpoint and contend that drawing attention to the Muslim belief that â€dogs, donkeys, women†(and don’t forget breaking wind) are the things that interfere with their prayers being received, rather than spiritual matters like insincerity of heart, highlights the essential materialism of this so-called religion”
This paragraph illustrates the gross ignorance of these people of Islam and its tents,and reveals so much about their source of information about Isalm and their simplistic mind.
Women in mosque attend prayers!
The presence of dogs,and donkeys does not invalidate the prayer.
Breaking wind ! no need to respond to that.
sincerity of heart and actions go hand in what ever a muslim undertake.No deed or action should taken by for show off or impress others,nor to gain the adulation of people.
I'm a hardcore racist and a neonazi that disagrees with Hitler's Stand on Jews but i honstely dont hate jews(i hate blacks so jews who have mixed with blacks are a nono)
Jews for all care can date white's as long as they are white like Jon stewart,BIll maher and i thing they are the same race as whites,
Hitler did a huge mistake for gassing white jews instead of extermitning the real enemy (muslims)
Ya, that one worked troll. Try being a little more subtle in your sock-puppetry, or whatever they call it.
You are a hardcore loser.
I'm not thrilled with the religious nature of the Capitol Hill event. I think it's going to backfire and give bigots like the SIOA ammunition for their propaganda, and I've said as much to a Muslim friend. However, I'm willing to bet that at least half of the attendees will be young women, as Muslim congregations usually are, so I have no idea where the heck they got the notion that a female presence is a "disruption".
I've visited a few Middle Eastern countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt) and from what I've seen there is no religious enforcement there, at least not by the government. Just like the US and pretty much every country in the world, in every one the capitols and major cities were generally secular (Amman, Beirut, Cairo) – Alexandria's beaches had as many bikini-clad women as the California coast line. But when you go deeper into any country and hit the small towns and villages you'll find the Muslim Bible Belt. To my knowledge, the vast majority of the middle east – with a few obvious exceptions – resembles these countries.
So if most Arab and Muslim countries haven't been "Islamized" nor implemented Sharia law, how are the US and Europe in danger? Does Islamization mean the mere presence of Muslims? Am I missing something?
Has anyone watched the movie Schism? It's kind of funny how these people like to point out passages in the Qu'ran that are evil, while ignore passges in their own holy book that are rather evil as well.
This article states:
The new group’s September 25 launch will include a number of high-profile guests, including Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Christine Brim.
That is not true. These people have no ties with SIOA. Please remove it from the article
“Readers may be surprised to learn that there may have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Muslims in the United States in 1776—imported as slaves from areas of Africa where Islam flourished. Although there is no evidence that the Founders were aware of the religious convictions of their bondsmen, it is clear that the Founding Fathers thought about the relationship of Islam to the new nation and were prepared to make a place for it in the republic.
In his seminal Letter on Toleration (1689), John Locke insisted that Muslims and all others who believed in God be tolerated in England. Campaigning for religious freedom in Virginia, Jefferson followed Locke, his idol, in demanding recognition of the religious rights of the “Mahamdan,” the Jew and the “pagan.” Supporting Jefferson was his old ally, Richard Henry Lee, who had made a motion in Congress on June 7, 1776, that the American colonies declare independence. “True freedom,” Lee asserted, “embraces the Mahomitan and the Gentoo (Hindu) as well as the Christian religion.”
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0205/tolerance.html
In 1777, Morocco was the first foreign nation to recognize the new United States.
The Persistence of Wishful Thinking
http://www.lewrockwell.com/featherstone/featherstone76.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery09212009.html
For a site that has had some excellent, excellent articles about Serbia and the Balkans, it saddens me to see such a ridiculous article. Not only are you completely wrong about the speakers appearing at this event, but you display a very dangerous misunderstanding of Islam.
Too bad President John Quincy Adams chose to ignore much of what is in his own Bible with its so much violent passages,or how women were not allowed to vote or own properties,or how the pre-Europeans were violently traeted!
For those who always drag out the issue of women and their treament in Muslim countriesis nothing more than cynical attempt at gaining support for violent and endless wars against the muslim people and countries.They would not hestiate a moment in slughtering these same women who they pretend to champion their cause if that would farther their true agenda.Iraq was the most secular regime where women were totally librated ,and religion was totaly suppressed.In certain so called secular muslim country women who choose to adher to Islam are suppressed ,denied education,medical treatment,jobs,and throwen in prison and tortured.
Another thing that I think should be remembered is that the various extremely authoritarian and religiously intolerant governments which we see in the Muslim world were actually put there by the US, starting with the Taliban, in order to fight communism. In fact, even when the bogey of communism is removed, they still serve that function; they fight against the influence of Russia and China, and to that extent the US supports them.
Robert Spencer has personally responded to your smears here:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/09/department-of-c…
All the best
The article seems a little flawed. If you care to investigate, you will find that Robert Spencer is neither speaking at this event, nor approves of it. I recommend a retraction.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/09/department-of-c…
Robert Spencer has personally responded to your smears
That's certainly gracious of him, considering he's so big time ;-)
The left always bring up the nazis when they want to start bashing those they disagree with. In fact, the Nazis are… National SOCIALISTS. They are lefties. In fact, if one looks at the history of Nazism they would find a lot of similarities between our own left and them. They want control of the press, business, and give a lot of promises they cannot possibly keep. they demonize those who disagree with them and are very paranoid.
But the name calling won't stop and I will probably be told I am wrong, blah blah blah.
Robert Spencer is being bashed in this article and for no reason. The Muslims who are intolerant are intolerant due to the koran's teachings. I don' tknow how people can explain the centuries of bloody jihad even before the USA was a nation! Due to Islam and Jihad, 270 million people have died just because they are not muslim:
60 million Christians, 1 million Armenian Turks, 10 million Buddhists, and 80 million Hindus, and who knows how many of their own they have killed just in the 20th and 21st centuries alone while the Jihads (over 40) are still being waged around this earth today. And Hitler's holocause was due to the influence – The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husseini. But we just cannot wrap our heads around the fact that a 'religion' has been just as atrocious towards others they deem as their enemies. (If you are not a believer then you are islam's enemy)
Blame the USA, but how do they explain the killings going on in India? Or in Africa?
A question to the left… If they are soooooo concerned about human rights how come not a peep out of them concerning women under sharia laws? How come no concern that islam still is actively in the slave trade – they take little children and the boys the either castrate partially or fully, the little girls they start getting sexually active before they are sold, and the abuses of them can range from sexual to physcial. Why is the left is ignoring that if one is not a muslim in the lands where sharia laws are the laws of the land, everyone else is subjugated and the persecution of them just because they reject Islam is going on and they can be killed, tortured, their lands stolen, their children kidnapped, etc ?
If the left is so concerned about human rights issues why are they silent on the abuses of women under sharia laws? Or why are they allowing some financial institutions to cater to one religion? Or why are they allowing segregation back for muslim vs non-muslim? (If Christians, or whites, or jews did that and excluded minorities, or muslim, they would never have allowed it and instead for muslims they allow it!) Or why is there no outcry that slavery still exists and they with either partially or fully castrate the little boys, get the girls sexually aware, etc and they are subjected to sexual and physical abuse. Why do they just sit silent while thinking Islam is so 'cool' when it is the reason for all of this (they follow the example of their 'perfect' man who also was a pediphile and that is the reason why so many of their clerics and other men marry children, sometimes as young as 5-6 years old and start having sex with them?
Instead the left bash us because we do not want segregation, polygamy, pediphilia, catering to one religion, etc!
If you want some leftists to react to all that, R_not, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong website. This is, how can I put it … Buchanan territory …
R_Not!
You ,in very sterotypical fashion,choose to believe any and allgations about subjects that you know very little about .Some people will never find the courage to find out of what they read from specific sources that had preset agenda is true or not.Sources that the last thing on their minds is the truth .They more comfortable in their ignorance because the truth might be very unsettling for them.
Rowanda,Congo,Liberia are not muslim countries ,the killing was between different Christians of different ethnic bacgrounds!