Check out these acts against American Muslims. Even after 9-11, there wasn’t such a surge in violence against Muslims. Why now??? Is it our frustration with the bad economy that’s being channeled into anger with Muslims, as politicians try to advance their careers and scapegoat Muslims!!! How come in the freest country in the world that respects the religious freedom and rights of its people, a Gainsville church in Florida is ready to burn 1000 Qurans… What good could come out of that? Do we need to push the envelope so far with Muslims in the U.S. and the world to see how badly they react and then judge them as such? Already mini protests are taking place, including in Pakistan, where American flag and a figure representing President Obama were burned… Do we need to show the world how much we disrespect Muslims? Do we need more enemies?Jesus encouraged forgiveness and compassion. Where are Jesus’ teachings in the act of that church?
Sep
07
American Muslims ask, will we ever belong?
The New York Times interviewed American Muslims who used to feel their integration in America was more successful than in Europe. Suddenly, their reality was turned up side down with the strong opposition to the Islamic community center near Ground Zero, accompanied by vicious anti-Muslim rhetoric and the knifing of a Muslim cab driver in NYC.
Sep
06
Debating Horowitz on Hannity radio show
David Horowitz is focused mainly on Hamas. I am focused on our freedom of religion rights that people like him could chip away compromising democracy for everybody in America. I live in America and I care about what’s happening in my backyard, not about the crazy stuff going on in the Middle East. Muslims in America practice their faith peacefully while abiding by the law, yet they are demonized by those who don’t approve of Islam as a religion. Why are people like Horowitz debating the faith of 7 million Muslims in America, when faith itself is an extension of our given rights?Horowitz alleges that Hamas is behind the funding of the Ground Zero mosque, but he has no proof because it is a LIE. Unfortunately, the exaggeration of Islamic threat in America by the likes of Horowitz and Newt Gingrich has frightened not only Americans, but Muslims too from angry reprisals. Many fear they are easy targets because of their veil and looks. Among them is Nadya, who recently wrote me after the stabbing of a NY cabbie for being a Muslim: “I have family and children. Children will be significant victims of hate mongers and bullies out there. Please, protect them from those predators.â€
Sep
05
Muslim Americans find their voice amid the shouts!
The open expressions of hostility to Muslims wanting to build community centers and mosques have been obvious in towns across the U.S. Many polls taken recently on Muslims have pointed to one conclusion: anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise. But the loud voices of demagogues raising the fear of Islam and Muslims in America have led American Muslims to fight back. That is in the form of an online video campaign: My Faith, My Voice. It has a simple message: “I’m an American, I’m a Muslim. This is my faith. This is my voice.” Â Many ordinary American Muslims don’t want an Islamic takeover. They are just happy with our American system and many keep flocking here to enjoy our American freedom. Â Nicholas Kristof points out in his New York Times column that in 1940, 17 percent of the population considered Jews to be a “menace to America.” Almost every ethnic group in the country has gone through a period of transition when they had to fight to prove that they are indeed Americans. Â Now it is the turn of American Muslims here in this cool video.
Sep
04
Is today’s Islamophobia part of America’s history of fear?
NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof yet again sheds an interesting perspective on the today’s hysteria about Islam. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05kristof.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
Historically, unreal suspicions were sometimes rooted in genuine and significant differences. Many new Catholic immigrants lacked experience in democracy. Mormons were engaged in polygamy. And today some extremist Muslims do plot to blow up planes, and Islam has real problems to work out about the rights of women. The pattern has been for demagogues to take real abuses and exaggerate them, portraying, for example, the most venal wing of the Catholic Church as representative of all Catholicism — just as fundamentalist Wahabis today are caricatured as more representative of Islam than the incomparably more numerous moderate Muslims of Indonesia (who have elected a woman as president before Americans have). Similar suspicions have targeted just about every other kind of immigrant. During World War I, rumors spread that German-Americans were poisoning food, and Theodore Roosevelt warned that “Germanized socialists†were “more mischievous than bubonic plague.â€Â Anti-Semitic screeds regularly warned that Jews were plotting to destroy the United States in one way or another. A 1940 survey found that 17 percent of Americans considered Jews to be a “menace to America.â€Â All that is part of America’s heritage, and typically as each group has assimilated, it has participated in the torment of newer arrivals — as in Father Charles Coughlin’s ferociously anti-Semitic radio broadcasts in the 1930s. Today’s recrudescence is the lies about President Obama’s faith, and the fear-mongering about the proposed Islamic center.
But we have a more glorious tradition intertwined in American history as well, one of tolerance, amity and religious freedom. Each time, this has ultimately prevailed over the Know Nothing impulse. Â Americans have called on moderates in Muslim countries to speak out against extremists, to stand up for the tolerance they say they believe in. We should all have the guts do the same at home.
Sep
02
A great Jewish gesture of support to Muslims in Queens
All is still well. An alert from a Rabbi to an abused mosque in Queens, New York, unleashed a flood of support from across the country, including from Jews, Christians, pagans, and others. A drunk man urinated on the prayer rugs of Al-Iman mosque. That alert led to a social movement on the web to gather donations to clean or replace those rugs. The donations surpassed all expectations, not only in the dollar amount but in the messages of friendship and interfaith solidarity. We need more initiatives like this that can bring us together as humans and as Americans. Thanks to Rabbis Gershon Steinberg and Velveteen Rabbi! And thanks to fellow filmmaker David Vyorst for sharing this story: http://www.marcgopin.com/?p=3815
Sep
02
The world watches America’s heated mosque debates
From Afghanistan to Abu Dhabi… see how the world sees the intense anti-Muslim rhetoric and fierce debates on the Muslim center near Ground Zero.
Aug
31
Debating Hannity and Jasser on mosque politics
It is interesting how Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, undermines racism and Islamophobic politics about the Muslim community center near Ground Zero.
An innocent NYC cabbie was just stabbed for being Muslim. A bomb exploded in a mosque in Jacksonville, FL, while 60 worshippers were inside. A priest in Florida will be burning the Quran on 9-11… and the list goes on and on and on. If this is not racism, then what is? When will the cycle of hate and violence stop?
I am not invested in any way in this mosque. But I deeply care about our American values and the principle of free religion for all that will be compromised if we cross the legal boundaries and remove that mosque. If we chip away at this right today for Muslims, who else will be next on the butcher block? If we do it to Muslims in NY, we are essentially setting a precedence to do the same to other Muslims in America. In this case, where should the line be drawn and how do we set it, by whose standards, feelings, politics, race, etc… I don’t want America to become another intolerant Middle East.  I believe our forefathers were wise in setting the foundation of our democracy on freedom of religion for all, without exceptions.
In a TIME poll, 61% of Americans oppose the construction of this Muslim community center, mostly in show of sensitivity to the victims of 9-11 attacks. The same survey also revealed that many Americans harbor lingering animosity toward Muslims. Â This isn’t a surprise considering the insulting protests taking place around the country accusing Muslims, wanting to build a community centers or mosques, of breading home-grown terrorists. Also, this isn’t a surprise considering politicians like Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is equating Muslims with Nazis, and others like David Horowitz are accusing Imam Abdul Rauf as radical trying to impose Sharia law in America, which is a loud and pure LIE. I have debated him on this very issue.
America is at a crossroads. On the one hand, keeping the mosque could hurt the feelings of many still grieving from 9-11, but will affirm our adherence to our higher principles of freedom and justice for all. On the other hand, forcing the removal of the community center away from its current location, though illegal and unconstitutional, will be considered an official endorsement of the collective punishment of ALL Muslims and an affirmation of their new label as “terrorists,†and “Nazis.†Some of those Muslims were actually victims and first respondents who sacrificed their lives to save others in the 9-11 attack… Some of those Muslims are also soldiers who have put their lives on the line fighting Muslim enemies in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just marched on the Mall to restore America’s values… the values that Martin Luther King called for: Justice and equality for all. How can we reconcile our two dialectic realities and be the best democracy on earth?
Aug
27
Read what was edited out of my Hannity radio debate with Horowitz
I debated David Horowitz on Sean Hannity radio show a couple of days ago. Point blank Horowitz asked me if I would agree to the building of a synagogue near ground zero if the 9-11 terrorists were Jewish. I answered him with a clear YES, saying “I am American first and foremost and my actions should support the foundation on which our democracy is built: Freedom of religion for ALL.” But his actions on the other hand, I said, limit freedom and ignite hatred, thus his agenda is unAmerican. Â Then there was a long pause from typically talkative Horowitz. Whoops, that entire conversation was cut out.
Shortly after that he accused me as a Jew hater, and screamed shut up, which of course could be heard loud and clear in the interview. The intolerant Horowitz criticized the bloody history of Islam at length, but when I mentioned the Crusaders, that was cut off, too.
In America, we don’t judge people by their color, race or religion. We have freedom to believe in any religion, thought or ideology as long as we abide by laws of this land. Â That’s the Imam’s version of a peaceful Sharia that he wants the entire Muslim world emulate, but his message is constantly being distorted. We all should stand up and fight the ideology that divides us, spreads hatred and fear, endorses collective punishment, and causes violence, like the recent stabbing of an innocent NY cabbie for being Muslim. Most importantly, we all should act AMERICAN first, and protect our democracy from the likes of Horowitz, who ironically heads a Freedom Center but wants to curb it for American Muslims! Thanks for the Jewish listeners and others who sent me emails of solidarity even though they didn’t fully support my views.
Aug
25
Another casualty of the rhetoric against American Muslims: NY cab driver allegedly stabbed for being Muslim!
It is not a surprise this is happening now. The fiery rhetoric against American Muslims is inflaming anger and hostility. When will it stop?
I just had another Hannity Radio Show debate with David Horowitz, which I will post tomorrow. I am not sure what his Freedom Center is doing about preserving our freedom when he is opposing the religious right of Muslims to build a mosque and community center near Ground Zero. He asked me if it were Jews who committed the 9-11 atrocities, would you let them have a synagogue near Ground Zero. “YES” I told him, because I am American first and I adhere to the rules of this land and cherish preserving what is best about America: Democracy and freedom for ALL. His answer was: “You are a Jihadi!” I told him I am American. It seems like we’re living in a new age of McCarthyism. If I don’t go with his flow, I am a Jihadi! I am not sure about his allegiances and his ideology of spreading hatred against Muslims. I wonder how his camp would react to the NY cabbie victim of such hateful rhetoric!
Aug
25
Debating Hannity & Ex-CIA Officer Over Mosque
On the Hannity Show on Aug. 9, I debated Republican Congressional candidate and former CIA Officer Gary Bernsten: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDvfMFj0yE
Bernsten already declared the mosque “a magnet for militants.” While he doesn’t even know Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, he assumed the Imam is radical or guilty by association for knowing the former  Iranian Ambassador, whose brother is involved in arms trafficking and because he did not denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Are we in an era of a new McCarthyism against Muslims? Those who don’t conform to a certain political ideology are treated like Communists, even though they abide by the law, condemn terrorism and preach tolerance. My personal connection with Imam Abdul Rauf right after 9/11 and his personal counsel have made me convinced he is one of the most moderate Muslim voices out there. Â He already declared in his book and in his speeches he is against terrorism in all its shapes and forms, including terrorism committed by Hamas. In fact, his knowledge and out right moderation have earned him the trust of our U.S. government. Right after 9/11, he was asked by the FBI to train 600 of its agents! These are facts but what Mr. Bernsten and others are saying are assumptions.
Obviously the noise created by special interest groups for their own political gains is louder than the facts that all Americans should know before casting their judgement on the Imam and Park 51 Community Center near ground zero. Glad House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now calling for investigating all sides of the issue, including those who fiercely and actively oppose it to expose their political agendas. The funding of the mosque and community center will be ordinarily overseen by the US Treasury, NY Charities Bureau and their multi-faith board members.
Aug
24
Keith Olbermann: There is no “Ground Zero Mosque”
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Keith Olbermann talks about the willingness of a seemingly rational society to condone the collective punishment and scapegoating of innocent victims. His interpretation of the not-at-ground zero mosque and community center reveals just how naive it is to assume this would be a training ground for terrorist, when on May 10, a bomb went off during the evening prayers at a mosque on Jacksonville, FL. Who should be fearing who here?
How ironic we send our troops and sacrifice 4415 to liberate Iraqis, who are mostly Muslim, from the tyranny of Saddam, and now we don’t want Muslims to open a combination of a culinary school and prayer space in lower Manhattan!
Aug
24
Time to laugh at our mosque politics with Jon Stewart
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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In his Municipal Land-Use Update, Stewart talks some common sense about how odd our politics and politicians are on the not-at-ground-zero mosque!
Aug
24
European Islamophobia finds a home in the U.S.
Check out Reza Aslan’s commentary on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129381552
It offers insights into racist groups succeeding in marginalizing Muslims in Europe now exporting that Islamophobia to America. The fear is that this may lead to the same kind of radicalization among Muslim youth in the U.S. that we’ve seen in Europe. It has already played into the hands of al-Qaida, which has for years been trying to convince American Muslims that the unfettered religious freedoms they enjoy is a mirage — that the U.S. will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens.
Aug
22
Time to laugh at our mosque politics with Jon Stewart
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Jon Stewart tries to find out what’s all the fuss about having a mosque near Ground Zero. In the show, Wyatt Cenac fears that Muslims will take over by building mosques every two blocks until New York City is completely covered.
Aug
21
Taking Bin Laden’s side
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof shows why those opposing the not-at-ground-zero mosque are taking the side of Osama Bin Laden: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22kristof.html?_r=2
Aug
20
Discussing the battle of the sexes in mosques on PBS
Discussing Muslim women’s pray-ins in US mosques on To The Contrary.
Aug
04
Fiery rhetoric against American Islam
Take a listen here: http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/08/fiery-rhetoric-on-american-islam
NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook explores the broader movement in some Republican circles that sees a real and present danger: the “Islamization†of America. From Ground Zero to California, politicians are promising to keep America safe from Sharia law and Muslim conspiracies. Congressmen last fall demanded an investigation into a purported Muslim fifth column infiltrating Capitol Hill. Newt Gingrich is calling for legislation to keep Sharia law from taking over American courtrooms. Critics call it the New McCarthyism. Defenders call it a war for the survival of America.
Listen to:
Samuel Goldsmith, staff writer for the New York Daily News. He has been the paper’s lead reporter on the Ground Zero mosque story.
Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), who represents Arizona’s 2nd District, which includes Maricopa and Mohave Counties, and towns like Glenndale, Peoria and some of Phoenix.
Intisar Rabb, professor of criminal law, constitutional law, and Islamic and comparative law at Boston College Law School.
Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and professor of theology at, and former president of, the Chicago Theological Seminary. Read her Washington Post/Newsweek columns on the fear of Islam and what she calls the “new McCarthyism,†and on the mosque controversy at Ground Zero.
David Gaubatz, author, along with Paul Sperry of “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.â€