Islamophobia in the US: Terry Jones Burning of Quran Should Be Ignored, April 5, 2011

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Cops have reportedly taken a second suspect into custody in an attack on a 13-year-old honors student at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton, who authorities say was targeted because she was Muslim. (More)

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CAIR: TERRY JONES SHOULD BE IGNORED - TOP William M. Welch, USA TODAY, 4/3/11

As deadly demonstrations spread across Afghanistan, American Muslim leaders condemned the violence as well as the Quran-burning by a fundamentalist Christian minister in Florida whose actions were cited as provocation for the killings. ...

Terry Jones, 59, who runs the Dove World Outreach Center, held a mock "trial" of the Muslim holy book and burned a copy on March 20. He had threatened to do so last fall, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but backed down.

His actions last month gained little initial notice in the USA until the violence erupted Friday. Thousands of demonstrators in Mazar-i-Sharif overran a United Nations compound, killing seven. On Saturday, nine people were killed when hundreds marched in Kandahar, attacking cars and businesses and confronting security forces. ...

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Sunday that his Muslim advocacy group tried to ignore Jones because he has a tiny following and is not representative of mainstream American thought. "We believe he's just in the mode of pure publicity seeking," Hooper said of Jones. "We've purposely downplayed it as much as possible."

Hooper denounced the violence as "a completely inappropriate reaction" to the Florida preacher.

"Everybody has freedom of speech. In this case, even freedom to do stupid and reprehensible things. But everybody also has the responsibility to act in a way that doesn't harm others or doesn't lead to the harm of others," Hooper said. (More)

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GOV. CHRISTIE NOT BOWING TO ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS - TOP Matt Katz, Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/3/11

Gov. Christie delivered a spirited, impromptu defense last week of a Muslim lawyer he had nominated for a judgeship. On the face of it, the comments weren't extraordinary. But given the way some Republicans have recently characterized Muslims, what he said was remarkable to hear from a GOP darling.

Consider these statements by other Republicans, all likely to run for president next year:

"I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they [his grandchildren] are my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, once the most powerful Republican in the country, said that last Sunday.

"Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." That was the response from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.), a tea party favorite, to a 2005 debate question about riots among French Muslims.

"No, I will not." That was Herman Cain, a longshot candidate who appears before mainstream conservative crowds, last weekend on whether he would appoint a Muslim as a judge or cabinet member.

But Christie - who has been courted to run for president - has basically done just what Cain said he would never do. In January, he nominated Sohail Mohammed, an Indian-born Muslim living in Clifton, to Superior Court in Passaic County. Mohammed awaits confirmation by the Democratic-controlled Senate. (More)

----- RIGHT WING COMMENTERS: 'THE MUSLIM RATS NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED' - TOP Charles Johnson, 4/2/11

If you want to see how deranged the commenting sections of right wing blogs have gotten, just go read any of their posts about the violence in Afghanistan. Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Pamela "Shrieking Harpy" Geller, Fox Nation -- all of them are packed with comments calling for genocide against Muslims.

Here's a tiny excerpt of this massive hatefest, taken from the popular right wing blogs mentioned above: (More)

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THE TRUTH ABOUT AMERICAN MUSLIMS - TOP New York Times editorial, 4/1/11 At the Justice Department, it's called the post-Sept. 11 backlash -- the steady stream of more than 800 cases of violence and discrimination suffered by American Muslims at the hands of know-nothing abusers. These continuing hate crimes were laid bare at a valuable but barely noticed Senate hearing last week that provided welcome contrast to Representative Peter King's airing of his xenophobic allegation that the Muslim-American community has been radicalized.

Offering federal data rather than mythic scapegoating of an easy political target, the Senate hearing focused on the fact that while Muslims make up 1 percent of the population, they are victims in 14 percent of religious discrimination cases. These range from homicides and mosque burnings to job, school and zoning law abuses, according to the Justice Department.

In running the hearing, Senator Richard Durbin tried to set the record straight about the patriotism of a vast majority of American-Muslim citizens and the continuing assaults on their civil rights. He warned against the "guilt by association whipped up by Mr. King's broadsides -- that there are "too many mosques in the nation, that most of them are extremist, and that American Muslim leaders have failed to cooperate with law enforcement against home-grown terrorism. (More)

----- CAIR: CLOUD OF CONCERN ABOVE MUSLIMS IN AMERICA - TOP Nicole Debevec, UPI, 4/3/11

Radicalization. Freedom of religion. Home-grown terrorists. Religious persecution. All directed toward one segment of U.S. society: American Muslims.

Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Muslims in America have been subjected to derisiveness not experienced by one segment of American society since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, or in the years following the bombing of Pearl Harbor that propelled the United States into World War II.

Followers of Islam have been painted with a broad brush as terrorists because of the actions of a few, whether in the United States or abroad. ...

A bill was recently introduced in Tennessee that would ban the practice of Shariah, and perhaps (by extension) the practice of Islam itself. ...

The Tennessee bill, sponsored in the state Senate and House by the chambers' top Republicans, would allow the director of Tennessee's Homeland Security Office to offer a recommendation to the attorney general or governor to "designate" a terrorist entity and, basically, isolate the entity from support, The Murfressboro (Tenn.) Post said. Once designated, no material support or resources may be provided to the entity and people who knowingly provide such support can be prosecuted or fined.

It was amended to remove specific much criticized religious references and now "reflects our original intention to prevent or deter violent or terrorist acts, but does so without any room for misinterpretation regarding the language's effect on peaceful religious practices," Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Bill Ketron said.

As amended, the bill contains no references to Islam, but still would allow Tennessee to prosecute those who offer financial or material support to known terrorist entities.

"I think it's a victory for common sense and legislative restraint," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Tennessean. "This is a win for Tennessee's Muslim community." (More)

----- MUSLIM DOCTORS PROMOTE HARMONY WITH FREE CLINIC - TOP Mark Curnutte, Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/4/11

Robert Bowling has diabetes, high blood pressure and gout, and has been unable to work since 2002.

At Thanksgiving 2009, when he had to be rushed to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital Anderson, a nurse referred him to a free clinic that had just opened in the adjacent medical office building.

The Muslim Clinic of Ohio, Cincinnati Chapter, now known as the Mercy Care Clinic, was started by a group of local Muslim physicians.

"I think a lot of the American public sees the news and thinks if they see a Muslim that they're automatically a terrorist, said Bowling, 53, of Anderson Township.

The Muslims Bowling knows are dedicated physicians volunteering their time to care for him and providing him with life-saving medicine. They've given him Kroger pharmacy cards, redeemable for $4 prescriptions, and a referral to St. Vincent de Paul Society's free pharmacy in the West End.

"I'd really be struggling without the clinic, said Bowling.

The Muslim doctors want to expand the clinic's hours and its ability to provide medicine to meet a growing need.

Bowling's physician is Tariq Sultan, a Pakistani-born Muslim and internist at Mercy Anderson. Sultan was one of the clinic's founders -- it opened in July 2009 -- and one of the region's 140 Muslim physicians who had volunteered individually or in small groups at other clinics serving the poor. (More)