It’s Not Getting Better For Muslims In America

It keeps getting worse…

No. not really.

Yes, REALLY.

 

The common myth embraced by most Muslims is, if Muslims keep their heads down, do nothing bad, tell everyone how much they love America, wear flag lapel-pins and sing songs of gratitude for being allowed to be in America, then MAYBE, they will be left alone….

…until someone decides to take you down and then all that has to be said is that you are suspected of sympathizing with terrorism or, Al-Q or, helping those who are planning to attack the US or its “coalition friends”.

Murder of Anwar Al-Awlaki; Slaughter of the Constitution

President Barak Obama grandly announced that a CIA drone attack had killed Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen along with Samir Khan, the editor of his website. “This is further proof that al Qaeda and its affiliates will have no safe haven anywhere in the world,” Obama said. The Press dutifully reported the announcement, some joined in the celebrations of having gotten another terrorist but nobody questioned the methodology that resulted in ending not one, but TWO American citizens’ lives.

Who cares? We got another one! Someone should care, certainly I do.

They were murdered.

Bashing Muslims, the AMERICAN Way!

President Obama signed into law, another four-year extension of the USAPATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001), while he was in Europe, just hours before it was to have expired…the monster was saved from a well-deserved death.

 

Just as a gutless Congress voted blindly in 2001 for an a law that would impose major abuses on people (mostly Muslims), a gutless Congress voted yesterday, to extend the abuses because of fears that they would look “weak on terrorism” if they didn’t; neither shame nor courage, are Congressional emotions.

 

There ARE a few people in Congress who have stated they do not like the Act and want to restrict it…being the loyal servants to the money that “brung them to the dance”, they are concerned about the FBI’s ability to investigate businesses, not about the severe limitations to personal liberty and not in the least concerned about the abuses that have been heaped on Muslims in America because of this monster disguised as “security”; most of us Muslims are keenly aware of how our governments in the Old Country used to and (still do) oppress people…imprison, torture, kill, maim…in order to defend the “integrity and solidarity of the nation”. Americans have also done similar things in America, but being selective in our memories and in our concerns, we have forgotten all that…”let’s keep the country SAFE!” is about all we can say these days, especially when the majority population is not seen as being at risk.

Following are some of the sections of the USAPatriot Act that should continue to cause us all concern:

Raymond Ibrahim’s attacks on Islam and Muslims

Just a few years ago I had never heard of Raymond Ibrahim and I never missed the experience; there are so may “experts” on Islam and on “Terrorism” that it is hard to keep up with the growing number of such people who seek to promote themselves by pressing another knife in the backs of Muslims.

Over the past year, I gradually became aware of one called Raymond Ibrahim, but I did not pay serious attention until I heard that he had been invited to speak at Everett Community College…on Islam!

Cursory investigation revealed that he was definitely one of those who made their careers spreading misinformation about Islam and Muslims; I decided to check him out in more detail, I decided to examine more closely, his writing on “Taqiyya” or Muslims’ lying, on his Everett presentation and on his book, “The Al Qaeda Reader” and to report on all three in this essay.

I found that he is one of the more effective hate-mongers against Islam and Muslims, not because he says things that have not been said by his peers, but because of the way in which he delivers his message. Raymond Ibrahim makes a great pretense of being objective, he insists that he has nothing personal against Islam, Muslims or Arabs (“some of my good friends are Muslims”),

What is happening to my America?

With great fanfare, Republican House Representative from New York’s 3rd Congressional District, Peter King, who is also the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, convened a hearing with the title: “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community’s Response.”.

 

Republican Representative Peter King at the "Hearings"

 

There are so many ironies in this entire charade that we could all die laughing, if it were not so deathly serious.

Rep. King is the same man who was an ardent and activist supporter of the terrorist Irish Republican Army, so much so, that when he was the Grand Marshall leading a St Patrick’s Day parade in New York, the Irish Republic refused to join the parade, as had been the tradition, citing King’s terrorist sympathies and work for the IRA.

Referring to the civilian killings by the IRA in Northern Ireland, King said at the time, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it“.

As recently as the 2010 elections, Peter King’s political opponent in the Congressional race, called King “A Terrorist Collaborator“, citing his support for the IRA. It is a shameful commentary on the electorate, that King still won.

Slaughter in Pakistan and Agent/Diplomat Raymond Davis

The bottom line in the Raymond Davis case is that Pakistan has no authority to hold or prosecute Raymond Davis; everything else is mere discussion…but what a lot of discussion there is to be had!

 

Raymond Davis was travelling in a dense, old part of the center of Lahore, in a rented car (with Pakistani driver) with Pakistani license plates. Along the way, he was accosted by two people whom he shot and killed, stating that he was feeling “threatened” for his safety and that they were trying to rob him.

Iranian Jews to be investigated

Breaking news from Iran:

Iranian government is planning to investigate Iranian Jews for their loyalty to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

 

“Iranian Jews are not really Persian, they are foreigners who settled here many years ago” said Parliamentarian Farhad Bewaquf. “The Shah catered to them because of America and Israel and he placed them in high positions. But now that we have an Islamic government, we know that the loyalty of Jews in this country is doubtful, I cannot believe that they would consider themselves as Iranians__ they are all Zionists!“.

 

Hostile Iranian leaders are calling for the expulsion of all Jews and the imprisonment of those suspected of spying for Israel. The Ahmedinejad government is trying to pacify the leaders by suggesting less extreme measures such as limiting Jewish access to government jobs and contracts and keeping Jews from areas and cities deemed to be “sensitive”.

 

Iranian Minister for Minority Matters, Chengez Jungistani agrees, suggesting that the one Jewish reserved seat in the Iranian Parliament, be taken away. “Our civilization is incompatible with Jews. These days, when Israel keeps threatening Iran, we do not know if the Jews are providing intelligence to Israel, that would hurt us.” He said. 

 

The above “news” is of course, a concoction of mine, it is absolutely untrue…Bogus!

 

What were your reactions, as you read the “News”?

 

Most Muslims would be astonished

Planting Prejudice In Our Defenders

For the story behind this commentary, please  read from this link.

 

 

Prejudice goes a long way. After it infects the primary person, it is passed on the others at the same level, to juniors and to other impressionable people, until very soon, its effects can be seen across the board

 

Prejudice is corrosive at all levels, it is bad when parents share their prejudice with their children who make it their own, it is bad when friends share their prejudice with each other and exercise it against others, but it is especially bad when it is shared in training of people who have the power of freedom or prison; life or death.

 

Prejudice travels best when it is unopposed and when it is disguised as beneficial to neighbors or, to society, thus causing irretrievable damage.

This is how genocidal movements get their energy and how they succeed; just ask Hitler, Milosevic, Habyarimana…ask anybody who is in the hate-business and they will share their prejudice, cloaked as a blessing to humanity. The justifications for spreading prejudice, almost always include the protection of the innocence of a society against an inexorable evil.

 

One unintended consequence of promoting prejudice is, that once unleashed, it becomes uncontrollable and attacks the originators and the spectators, just as easily as the targets.

The Germans who watched silently as Jews were marched off to death camps, soon found themselves rubbing shoulders with the same Jews in the same camps; the Sunni Muslims who stayed on the sidelines as extremist Sunnis bombed Shia gatherings, soon found themselves and their own loved ones also being targeted and victimized by the same fanatics.

 

There has always been a latent prejudice against Muslims in the West and

Terrorist bombers: Xmas Tree bomber vs. Times Square bomber

If we wait just a little while (not even “long enough”), an idiot Muslim will emerge with some plot to kill innocent people for an inexplicably idiot “reason”…and once again, America will look at us and ask, “Why do you think we should not treat you all with suspicion?”

 

A Somali Muslim was caught in Portland, Oregon  with the means and a plan to blow up a car during the Christmas tree lighting ceremony where about 10,000 people gather. Had he succeeded, it would have killed at least a couple of hundred people and maimed that many more….all innocent people, innocent families, out to enjoy a bit of life’s simple pleasures.

 

Earlier, a Pakistani Muslim was  caught after a failed attempt to blow up a car in New York’s Times Square, had HE succeeded, he would have exacted at least as many victims as the Portland bomber.

 

A comparison of the two types above, would be instructive…

Eid Mubarak?…Eid Mubarak!

What is Eid?

 

There are a few times when I miss the old country and my old friends, and Eid is among those times.

 

Eid in America is bittersweet event; on one hand there are the factionalized Muslim communities who insist on having Eid on at least two different days and sometimes, three. The inevitable and never-ending Moon-sighting controversy where Muslims cannot agree on whether to believe the science that accurately predicts to the minute, when the new moon will show and where or, to believe the old man on a hilltop claiming he saw the moon even as he points to en entirely different direction.

Should we accept the date set in Arabia? after all, that is where the final word on Eid is because that is when Haj is over.

Should we accept a global concept of moon-sighting where if it is sighted at one place, it is sighted all over the world or, should we accept local sightings by OUR religious scholars?

 

A Rabbi friend of mine told me that Jews addressed this problem (they too, work on the Lunar Calendar)…hundreds of years ago! They decreed that all holidays (except for Yom Kippur) would be observed for one extra day, just to be sure they observed it on the right moon-sighting day. Today, Reform (Liberal) Jews have removed the second day observance because they believe that it is scientifically possible to accurately determine the correct day.

 

Muslims’ dithering about when are our holy days, is what keeps us from having an actual holiday for Eid; if Muslims cannot agree when to hold their holy days, then how can we get our schools to agree on when the holy days are so they can give our children a holiday?

 

It never ends; we are doomed to celebrate our holy festivals on two, maybe three, different days. That’s the bitter part…