Above photoshopped image from Pam Geller's Atlas Shrugs- Rifqa Barry Muslim American who became a Christian Evangelical Convert and claimed her parents planned to kill her for Apostasy. After taking the case to court she was returned finally to her family. Geller is now being sued by opposing attorney in the case.UPDATED & Revised 12:11 Sept. 16, 2010.
Anyway let's begin with a view inside the twisted thinking of the Republicans and what they think is funny but given the times is not but rather reflects insensitivity and their message of hate for President Obama and all Black people in America.
Photo from :
South Carolina President Glenn McConnell (R) Dresses up as Confederate Soldier with Black Slaves in Tow by beekiller at Little Green Footballs Sept. 15, 2010
This past weekend, the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) “held its annual fall Board of Directors meeting in Charleston, S.C.” In attendance at the event were major Republican leaders throughout the state, including Gov. Mark Sanford, who spoke to the audience gathered there.
One shocking moment at the NFRW meeting involved a special event called “The Southern Experience.” In this event, attendees dressed in clothing reminiscent of the Civil War and the antebellum South. As FITS News reports, South Carolina Senate President Glenn McConnell (R) participated in the event by dressing up as a Confederate General, and at many points posed with African Americans dressed as slaves:
And another recent act of Domestic Terrorism in America:
Planned Parenthood Clinic Firebombed in Madera, California By: Charles Johnson • US News • Sep 4, 2010 at LGF: little Green Footballs
In Madera, California, police and FBI are investigating a firebomb attack against a Planned Parenthood office that has been open for 20 years without incident: Molotov Cocktail thrown at Madera’s Planned Parenthood.
This attack comes one week after a brick was thrown through the window of a local mosque and anti-Muslim signs posted on its walls, by a group using the name “American Nationalist Brotherhood.” One of the signs: “No Temple for the god of terrorism at Ground Zero.”
And As Nicholas Kristof asks:
Is This America? By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF at New york Times Sept. 11, 2010
For a glimpse of how venomous and debased the discourse about Islam has become, consider a blog post in The New Republic this month. Written by Martin Peretz, the magazine’s editor in chief, it asserted: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.”
...It would have been natural for this test to have come right after 9/11, but it was forestalled because President George W. Bush pushed back at his conservative ranks and repeatedly warned Americans not to confuse Al Qaeda with Islam.
Now that Mr. Bush is no longer in the White House, nativists are back on the warpath. Some opponents of President Obama are circulating bald-faced lies about him that are also scurrilous attacks on Islam itself. One e-mail bouncing around falsely accuses Mr. Obama of lying and adds, “His Muslim faith says it’s okay to lie.”
Or there’s the e-mail I received the other day from a relative, declaring: “President Obama has directed the United States Postal Service to remember and honor the Eid Muslim holiday season with a new commemorative 44 cent first class holiday postage stamp.” In fact, it was President Bush’s administration that first issued the Eid stamp in 2001 and that issued new versions after that.
Astonishingly, a Newsweek poll finds that 52 percent of Republicans believe that it is “definitely true” or “probably true” that “Barack Obama sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world.” So a majority of Republicans think that our president wants to impose Islamic law worldwide.
That kind of extremism undermines our democracy, risks violence and empowers jihadis.
but he ends his article on a more positive note as some raise their voices condemning such hysteria and conspiratorial thinking if only more would do the same.
...Above all, bravo to those Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders who jointly denounced what they called “the anti-Muslim frenzy.”
“We know what it is like when people have attacked us physically, have attacked us verbally, and others have remained silent,” said Rabbi David Saperstein. “It cannot happen here in America in 2010.”
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick put it this way: “This is not America. America was not built on hate.”
“Shame on you,” the Rev. Richard Cizik, a leading evangelical Christian, said to those castigating Islam. “You bring dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ. You directly disobey his commandment to love your neighbor.”
And a few words from wacky Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell:
GOP Nominee Christine O’Donnell: “God Created the Earth in Six Days” Posted by Tana Ganeva at Alternet.org Sept. 15, 2010
CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: Well, creationism, in essence, is believing that the world began as the Bible in Genesis says, that God created the Earth in six days, six 24-hour periods. And there is just as much, if not more, evidence supporting that.
Oh, and here’s the video where O’Donnell lays out all the solid, scientific evidence against masturbation
Rachel Maddow presents clip of O'Donnell
Americans supposedly pride themselves on their basic principles of religious tolerance and individual freedom yet once again these principles are under attack as part of a delayed response to the unimaginable almost unthinkable horrendous events of 9/11 by those who want to marginalize Muslim Americans who are being singled out as having values and religious beliefs which are characterized as being antithetical to American values and traditions . That such emotional and gut responses would well-up at that moment and for a period of time after wards is understandable . But it is at such times that one has to try to pull it together and decide upon a more rational and reasonable response which hopefully will not make matters worse . As I have argued before the response to such an horrific event can lead as does for soldiers on the battlefield to a form of collective Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , feelings of helplessness and the desire to lash out which if not articulated and dealt with openly can lead to a festering wounding of the collective and individual psyche or soul if you like.
In the past America has allowed itself to be swayed by such an event which led to mixed feelings of insecurity and fear and the desire to lash out to do something lashed out not just at those who perpetrated the atrocity but to generalize and to see all those who are in some way like the actual perpetrators as the enemy which in this and other cases they are not. America was not attacked by Islam and all the Muslims in the world including Muslim Americans but by extremists by fanatics who had convinced themselves or convinced by others that all of their grievances or any misery occurring in their lives was somehow the fault of America and therefore the fault of anyone in America . So they concluded that in America and the West there are no innocents or guiltless individuals that each and every person in America deserved to be punished for whatever crimes these terrorists believed had been committed by America and the West.
For instance recently we saw the extremist orthodox Jewish Israeli Rabbis who in their ongoing fight with Arabs and Palestinians are able to formulate the thesis that the whole of the population of Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims are collectively guilty and responsible for the actions those fighting the Israelis. From this thesis the Rabbis conclude that even a child is a legitimate target in such an unconventional war.
The Japanese in 1941 attacked America but it was not the fault of Japanese Americans who had assimilated into American society yet they were characterized as being a Fifth Column in America who might turn against their fellow Americans. They regretfully were put in internment camps in America and in Canada as well even though there was little or no evidence of Japanese Americans or Japanese Canadians working on behalf of the Empire of Japan. Those who spoke out defending Japanese Americans were condemned as unAmerican or as disloyal and as traitors. This blanket characterization of all citizens of Japan or of Japanese Americans as sharing the guilt of actions carried out by the Japanese military and air-force swept across America and was pandered to rather than resisted to the regret of many Americans years later that they had committed a great injustice against a defenseless minority. ( except for Michelle Malkin and her Uberconservative followers who see no reason to apologize to Japanese Americans)
Now since 9/11 it is the Muslim-Americans who are being attacked verbally and now sometimes physically. In large part this vocal and physical antagonism and attacks on individual Muslim Americans or on Mosques in America are being ginned up by anti-Muslim Islamophobes and ideologues and cynical politicians and media personalities.
For most of the past nine years since the 9/11 Terrorists attacks perpetrated by Islamic extremists there has been little retaliation and condemnation of all Muslims including Muslim Americans til the last two years. It is as many have reminded Americans recently is that it is to President Bush's credit that he over and over again insisted America was at war with Al Qaeda and other Islamic Terrorists and not with Islam itself and especially not with Muslim Americans who played no role in these attacks.
It was during the run up to the 2008 party primaries and presidential campaigns that things started to turn ugly especially when Obama became a major contender for leader of the Democratic Party. Since then many in the GOP and the right wing media took off the gloves and went after Obama in anyway they could ( and unfortunately some in the Democratic Party and others especially in the heat of the campaign cycle which in America goes on for something like a year and a half -long enough to increase the likelihood of those in the running to say or go in directions that otherwise they would never go this is a discussion for another time) . So Obama was accused of not being an American citizen and as a "Secret Muslim" a sort of Manchurian Candidate for Islam or Communism or socialism or for Africa especially Kenya or as part of the New World Order Conspiracy or even as the Anti-Christ or Spawn of Satan. One of the reasons for this uncivilized hate-fest was that he was black and that he became extremely popular and so the GOP hit back . But once the GOP and the Media etc. released the Genie from the bottle or as it were opened Pandora's Box of hate, fear, Xenophobia, racism, Nativism etc. it has led to a poisoning of American politics and has tainted the very nature of America's beliefs and principles .
It is no longer just President Obama and his supporters who are being maligned but rather all who are seen as the "Other" as foreign or alien as different as exotic who may not look like or act like the average American. So the GOP and the right wing media such as Fox News and Conservative Talk -Radio with the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Ingraham ,Hannity , Michael Savage have awakened a hornets' nest or a witches brew of a vile admixture of emotional responses of hate, fear, anxieties, suspicion which are for the most part irrational and which the GOP itself cannot control or rein in . These are irrational feelings which have little to do with reality and yet are being exploited by racists, Islamophobes, Nativists, xenophobes and cynical politicians , pundits and Media personalities all of whom have their own agendas which they wish to promote.
Islamophobes such as Pam Geller and Robert Spencer boldly claim that Islam being an intolerant and violent religion has no patience for apostates unlike other religions such as Christianity or Judaism but this is not quite true as this article from Loonwatch.com points out. They used the case of Rifqa Barry as an example of a Muslim-American turned Christian whom they claim was at risk of becoming a victim of an honor killing since she claimed her family had threatened to kill her for leaving Islam but the courts decided this was not at all the case in fact she had become the victim of an evangelical Christian cult which had unduly affected her thinking about the issue. It was they who put such thoughts in her adolescent head.
Rifqa Barry became for a while the sweet heart of these Islamophobes and the Religious Right who began referring to her as the New Esther ushering in the era just before the Apocalypse or the Christian Millennium or the Second Coming
(see for instance my post January 24, 2010
Christian Crusade Continues:Bible Passages on Rifle Sights Rifqa Barry Exploited By Fox News
November 13, 2009
Pam Geller ,Robert Spencer In A Panic "Global Jihad Coming To Get Us"
Pastor Blake Lorenz brainwash & Coached 17 year old Sri Lankan girl on Facebook against her Family-August 17,2009
Robert Spencer using Rifqa Barry case to promulgate his anti-Muslm Islamophobia.
Anyone familiar with the arguments by Anti-Semites will note the similarities in developing a conspiracy theory and the misreading of the Qur'an.
He believes Islam unlike Christianity is inherently evil and violent.
Rifqa Barry he and Pam claim is a victim of evil Islam.
Robert Spencer of SIOA & Jihad Watch & Muslims Against Shariah
Pam Geller in this clip is upset that anyone would dare question the motives of the Evangelical Christians who were involved in the case since she implies that Muslims always lie and Christians never lie or would put any pressure on anyone to convert -didn't she see "Jesus Camp".
Rifqa Bary Press Conference: Pamela Geller
In case you missed it here's an informative article on Islamic & Christian Apostates- here's the opening remarks setting the scene:
Fathima Bary Needs to Read Her Bible; Final Word on Islam and Apostasy by Danois at Loonwatch.com Sept. 2009
An emotional Fathima Rifqa Bary–whose personal writings reaveal that she wants to be a modern day prophet–said of her parents:“My parents are Muslim…I don’t know if you know about honor killing…They have to kill me…Because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It’s in the Quran. And you can, like, give them knowledge about it[gestures to someone off camera, who says something unintelligible].”
It seems that Fathima’s understanding of the Quran comes from whomever she pointed to, whom I can only assume is her pastor (or pastor’s underling more likely). A few more dry runs could have perfected the performance. She just had to memorize a few verses to prove her claim:
13:6 If–your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, which is as your own soul–entice you secretly, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods,” which you have not known–not you, nor your fathers;
13:7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
13:8 You shall not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him:
13:9 But you must surely kill him; your hand must be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
13:10 And you must stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God.
Well, that’s pretty damning evidence right there. That sounds a lot like “honor” killing: “If your brother…or your son or your daughter….entice you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’…You must kill him…you must stone him with stones, that he die.” Well, if that’s in the Quran, then we better ban all Muslim immigration to America!
But before we call Homeland Security, I hope you don’t mind if I check the Quran to verify if those verses exist.
[Flipping through pages of Quran]
Hmmm, can’t seem to find it.
Oh wait, *smacks forehead*, I remember now where those verses are from. Ahh yes, they are from the Bible (Deuteronomy, 13:6-10). There are of course many other Biblical verses in the same vein, such as 2 Chronicles 15:13 which reads: “All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.”
Oopsie doopsie!
Maybe it’s not such a good idea to randomly quote someone else’s scripture or medieval texts without any context as a proof to demonize a people or to fear monger.
and here's a little bit of news about Geller getting sued for calling anyone who disagrees with her a Stealth Jihadist working for Islam and Obama:
Pamela Geller is Getting Sued for $10 Million Dollars for Defamation 08 September 2010 by Emperor
Last year Pamela Geller injected herself into the case of Rifqa Bary, a teenage runaway and Christian convert who claimed her Muslim parents were planning to kill her. (The Florida Department of Law Enforcement subsequently investigated these claims and found “no evidence whatsoever of alleged abuse or threats of death made by the girl’s parents.”)
As part of her usual hateful rabble-rousing, Geller repeatedly labeled the attorney for Bary’s parents as a terrorist sympathizer who was “appointed by CAIR.”
Now attorney Omar Tarazi is suing Geller and an activist Christian attorney in federal court for $10 million.
A Muslim attorney on one side of the Rifqa Bary dispute has filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Orlando attorney John Stemberger, an activist Christian attorney who worked for the other side.
The suit was filed by Omar Tarazi in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, Friday. It names John Stemberger of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council.
Also being sued is a blogger from elsewhere, Pamela Oshry, who writes under the name Pamela Geller at the website atlasshrugged2000 and penned scathing anti-Muslim posts after Rifqa ran away from home in July 2009, saying she was afraid her Muslim parents would kill her for converting to Christianity. …
In the suit, Tarazi accuses Stemberger of falsely claiming on Fox News that Tarazi was associated with a Columbus-area mosque that had ties to terrorists. It also says Stemberger defamed Tarazi by saying Rifqa’s parents fired qualified court-appointed Ohio attorneys to use only one – Tarazi – who was paid by a pro-Muslim group in Ohio, the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR.
Tarazi was paid by no one, according to the suit. …
Oshry [Geller] published web posts that falsely said Tarazi had joined Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, and received payments from ” ‘criminal’ organizations with ‘ties’ to terrorists,” according to the suit.
The attorney being sued, John Stemberger, is apparently also under investigation by the Florida Bar for possible ethics violations in the case:
Stemberger on Tuesday called the suit “ridiculous and frivolous.”
“This is just an attempt at grandstanding after a loss,” he said.
Stemberger acknowledged but would not discuss an investigation by the Florida Bar into possible ethics violations by him for statements he made about the case.
Given what appears to be a dire situation unfolding in America due to the rise of the Christian Evangelical Right and the Wacky Tea Party Gang and Uberconservatives and those like Newt Gingrich who are just milking the situation to further their own political agenda here is an article which may offer a little hope for America's future.
Why Jon Stewart Is a Huge Long Term Threat to Fox News :Stewart educates his young viewers in the ways of Fox news on a nightly basis. Meanwhile, Fox's primary audience is over 60. Who does the future belong to? by Jason Easley at Alternet.org. Sept. 13, 2010 |
The newest Pew Research Center’s survey of where and how people get their news has been released, and while Fox News is still polling the oldest viewership, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are pulling the youngest. As Stewart educates his young viewers in the ways of FNC on a nightly basis, it is clear that he is the biggest long term media threat to Fox News.
...Speaking of television, Fox News has been able to hold its audience share because Republicans have been fleeing to the network. In 2002, Republicans were just as likely to watch CNN as they were to watch Fox News, but eight years later, 40% of all Republicans regularly watch FNC. Twelve percent of Republicans watch CNN and 6% watch MSNBC. Fox News does not lead the cable news ratings because there are more Republicans in the United States. They lead because they have been successful in consolidating the Republican audience.
It is no surprise than that Fox News, just like the GOP caters to an older audience. Sixty three percent of Bill O’Reilly’s viewers are over 50 years old, and 65% of Hannity’s viewers are over 50. Only 44% of the nation as a whole are over 50 years old, so the over 50 demographic is overrepresented on Fox News
and so it goes,
GORD.
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