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Archive for Atlas Shrugs
Pennsylvania "Sharia Court": Loons Jump the Gun AGAIN on Ginned up "Legal Jihad"
Posted in Feature, Loon Sites with tags Atheist, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, Legal Jihad, Multiculturalism, Muslim, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Sharia, Zombie Muhammad on February 26, 2012 by loonwatch
Zombie Pope and Zombie Muhammad Marching in a Halloween Parade
by Ilisha
(H/T: CriticalDragon1177)
All across the looniverse, there is an uproar over an alleged triumph of Sharia in a Pennsylvania court case presided over by a "Muslim" judge. It's not the first time anti-Muslim bigots pounced on a story of so-called "legal jihad" before they got their facts straight.
This time, Pennsylvania State Director of American Atheists, Ernest Perce V, was parading down the street as "Zombie Muhammad," when an outraged Muslim bystander allegedly grabbed him, choked him from behind, and attempted to remove a "Muhammad of Islam" sign from around his neck. Both men complained to police, Perce for assault and Elbayomy because he apparently thought insulting Islam was a criminal offense.
Perce filed charges, but a judge dismissed the case after he allegedly said, "I'm a Muslim," and chastised the atheist in question for his misinterpretation and lack of understanding concerning Islam. Judge Martin is not a Muslim, and later said himself he is Lutheran.
Parts of the court video are garbled, and it seems he either misspoke or part of his statement was inaudible. In any case, his statements and decision to dismiss the case have sparked a fresh controversy over the limits of free speech.
The judge said in part:
Before you start mocking someone else's religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it. That makes you look like a doofus…
Here in our society, we have a constitution that gives us many rights, specifically, First Amendment rights. It's unfortunate that some people use the First Amendment to deliberately provoke others. I don't think that's what our forefathers really intended. I think our forefathers intended that we use the First Amendment so that we can speak our mind, not to piss off other people and other cultures, which is what you did.
I don't think you're aware, sir, there's a big difference between how Americans practice Christianity – uh, I understand you're an atheist. But, see, Islam is not just a religion, it's their culture, their culture. It's their very essence, their very being. They pray five times a day towards Mecca. To be a good Muslim, before you die, you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca unless you are otherwise told you cannot because you are too ill, too elderly, whatever. But you must make the attempt…
Then what you have done is you've completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very, very, very offensive. I'm a Muslim, I find it offensive. [Unintelligble] aside was very offensive.
But you have that right, but you're way outside your bounds on First Amendment rights.
Pamela Geller's hate site, Atlas Shrugs, blared the headline: "AMERICAN MUSLIM JUDGE WHO IMPOSED SHARIA IN PENNSYLVANIA COURT THREATENS TO JAIL INFIDEL VICTIM FOR BLASPHEMY — RELEASING RECORDED AUDIO OF THE CASE"
The inflammatory headline was followed by, "Infidel victim, Ernest Perce, has received 471 verifiable threats." No source was cited to substantiate the claim.
Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch declared:
This is enforcement of Sharia in a Pennsylvania court. The attacker supposedly got off because he "is an immigrant and claims he did not know his actions were illegal, or that it was legal in this country to represent Muhammad in any form. To add insult to injury, he also testified that his 9 year old son was present, and the man said he felt he needed to show his young son that he was willing to fight for his Prophet."
Though part of the statement on Jihad Watch is in quotes, it's unclear who Spencer is quoting. A full transcript of the judges statement is here, and the defendant's immigrant status and lack of legal knowledge are not cited as reasons for dismissing the case.
Spencer also doesn't explain how this is an example of Sharia. What Islamic Law did the judge cite in this case? Spencer doesn't say, and apparently that's fine with his no-evidence-required audience.
Although Eugene Volokh of The Volokh Conspiracy strongly disagreed with the judge's decision, he said:
…This is not a situation where the judge "applied Sharia law" in any normal sense of the phrase. The judge claimed that he simply didn't find enough evidence against the defendant. Perhaps the judge was biased against the victim because of the victim's anti-Muslim speech, but an anti-Sharia law wouldn't have helped avoid that. More broadly, a law banning judges from "consider[ing] … Sharia Law" (in the words of the Oklahoma anti-Sharia amendment) wouldn't keep judges from concluding that someone who insults members of other religious groups should be admonished, punished, or even stripped of the right to legal protection — they would just conclude this based on their own notions of refraining from offending other groups….
The case has nothing do with Sharia, and everything to do with the interpretation and application of American Law.
In the US, free speech is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and in most cases, speech that is distasteful, inflammatory, racist, sexist, or even outright hate speech, is usually permitted. However, there are exceptions, including "fighting words" and "incitement to imminent lawless action." Though the judge did tell the plaintiff it was his opinion he'd gone way outside the bounds of free speech, this was not the stated reason for dismissing the case.
In response to the controversy, Judge Martin gave a statement clarifying : ((H/T: Just Stopping By)
This story certainly has legs. As you might imagine, the public is only getting the version of the story put out by the "victim" (the atheist). Many, many gross misrepresentations. Among them: I'm a Muslim, and that's why I dismissed the harassment charge (Fact: if anyone cares, I'm actually Lutheran, and have been for at least 41 years).
I also supposedly called him and threatened to throw him in jail if he released the tapes he had made in the courtroom without my knowledge/permission (Fact: HE called ME and told me that he was ready to "go public" with the tapes and was wondering what the consequences would be; I advised him again to not disseminate the recording, and that I would consider contempt charges; he then replied that he was "willing to go to jail for (his) 1st amendment rights"- I never even uttered the word "jail" in that conversation).
He said that I kept a copy of the Quran on the bench (fact: I keep a Bible on the bench, but out of respect to people with faiths other than Christianity, I DO have a Quran on the bookcase BESIDE my bench, and am trying to acquire a Torah, Book of Mormon, Book of Confucius and any other artifacts which those with a faith might respect).
He claims that I'm biased towards Islam, apparently because he thinks I'm Muslim. In fact, those of you who know me, know that I'm an Army reservist with 27 years of service towards our country (and still serving). I've done one tour in Afghanistan, and two tours in Iraq, and am scheduled to return to Afghanistan for a year this summer. During my first tour in Iraq, I was ambushed once, attacked by a mob once, sniped at once, and rocketed, bombed, and mortared so many times that I honestly don't know how many time I've been attacked. Presumably by Muslim insurgents. My point: if anyone SHOULD be biased towards Muslims, one would think it would be me. I'm not, however, because I personally know or have met many good, decent people who follow Islam, and I shouldn't characterize the actions of those who tried to kill me as characterizations of all Muslims.
When I asked him why he dressed up as "Muhammad zombie," he told me that it was because he was reflecting the Muslim belief that Muhammad rose from the dead, walked as a zombie, and then went to heaven. That was one of the reasons I tried to spend 6 whole minutes trying to explain and de-mystify Islam through my own knowledge, and in an attempt to prevent an incident like this recurring in my community. Unfortunately, the message was obviously not received in the vein that I had intended. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I did use the word "doofus," but didn't call him that directly; I said something akin to " if you're going to mock another religion or culture, you should check your facts, first- otherwise, you'll look like a doofus.";
In short, I based my decision on the fact that the Commonwealth failed to prove to me beyond a reasonable doubt that the charge was just; I didn't doubt that an incident occurred, but I was basically presented only with the victim's version, the defendant's version, and a very intact Styrofoam sign that the victim was wearing and claimed that the defendant had used to choke him. There so many inconsistencies, that there was no way that I was going to find the defendant guilty.
A lesson learned here: there's a very good reason for Rule 112 of Rules of Criminal Procedure- if someone makes an unauthorized recording in a Court not of Record, there's no way to control how it might be manipulated later, and then passed off as the truth. We've received dozens upon dozens of phone calls, faxes, and e-mails. There are literally hundreds of not-so-nice posts all over the internet on at least 4 sites that have carried this story, mainly because I've been painted as a Muslim judge who didn't recuse himself, and who's trying to introduce Sharia law into Mechanicsburg.
Attempts to link the case to Islamic Law are illogical and absurd, but will no doubt provide convincing "evidence" for those already inclined to believe "creeping sharia" is a genuine threat to America.
However, the case may very well spark a wider debate. The idea that a judge may have sacrificed free speech on the alter of religious and cultural sensitivity is bound to attract attention, especially as Western democracies increasingly grapple with issues of multiculturalism, provocation, and the boundaries of free speech.
The judge's controversial statements begin in minute 29:
A Lavish Feast: Hatemongers, Hypocrites, and the Hate Du Jour
Posted in Feature, Loon People with tags antisemitism, Atlas Shrugs, Daily Kos, Eric Allen Bell, Islamophobia, Jihad Watch, Nazi Germany, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Terrorism on January 30, 2012 by loonwatch
In a daring display of "investigative journalism," Loonwatch was recently "outed" as a site, "pretty much exclusively concerned with exposing the perceived enemies of Islam…" This jealously guarded secret was previously known only to tech-savvy visitors clever enough to click the link to our About page:
Loonwatch.com is a blogzine run by a motley group of hate-allergic bloggers to monitor and expose the web's plethora of anti-Muslim loons, wackos, and conspiracy theorists…..
Isn't that a fancy way of saying pretty much the same thing?
Throughout the screed "exposing" our "super secret mission," there are numerous ludicrous and fact-less assertions, which have been refuted here and here. A garden variety bigot isn't of much interest to us here, but amid the baseless accusations, fuzzy logic, and shameless self-promotion, there is a question that warrants a response:
Does Loonwatch really shun all criticism of Islam and immediately silence our critics by branding them as loons?
Similar accusations have been made repeatedly, against Loonwatch and other sites devoted to fighting Islamophobia. The short and simple answer is "no." As American Muslim civil rights activist Ahmed Rehab has said:
One thing we must never allow is for the bad amongst us – terrorists, extremists, ideologues of exclusion and hate – to succeed in turning the rest of us against each other. We must condemn them, ostracize them, and disempower them. The way to do that is to strengthen our relations, and stand with one another. That is the only way to spell defeat for the agents of hate.
We must emerge from our comfort zones and stand together as one against all forms of violence, ignorance, and intolerance….
Islam should be subjected to its fair share of constructive criticism and we have said as much in a significant number of articles. In fact several of our writers have severely criticized the theological premises of certain violent and regressive trends within the worldwide Muslim community. The problem is that there's nothing fair or constructive about the ocean of half truths and outright lies that are routinely spread about Islam and Muslims by a well-funded network of pseudo scholars, grassroots activists, media amplifiers, serial fabricators, and other assorted anti-Muslim crackpots.
Legitimate criticism is truthful, proportionate, and in accordance with fair standards.
One of our most popular recent articles, Fake Nigerian Christians Burnt Alive Photo Resurfaces on Facebook, exposes anti-Muslim bigot and serial fabricator Pamela Geller trying to pass off a photo from a tragic accident as an incident of Muslims burning Christians alive.
Legitimate criticism is truthful.
There is a constant barrage of propaganda that says "Islamic terrorism" is the world's greatest threat. Hate sites far and wide trumpet brash and baseless claims, which we routinely expose as lies: 17,000 "Islamic terrorist" Attacks Exist in Fevered Islamophobic Brains.
Yet meticulously documented statistics on the website Unknown News put the figures in proper context:
About 303 times as many people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq than in the ghastly attacks of September 11, 2001.
More than 130 times as many people have been killed in these wars and occupations than in all terrorist attacks in the world from 1993-2004, according to data compiled by the US State Department.
Every life is sacred and precious, and reducing individuals to statistics is a grisly calculus. However, we must make the point that war consistently kills far more innocent civilians than terrorism. What justifies the myopic focus on the latter?
Legitimate criticism is proportionate.
Another favorite trick of anti-Muslim bigots is to cherry pick violent and intolerant passages from Islamic scripture and juxtapose them next to relatively peaceful passages from Jewish or Christian scripture. Loonwatch has a whole series of articles addressing this inconsistency: The Understanding Jihad Series: Is Islam More Likely Than Other Religions to Encourage Violence?
The most recent additions are here and here. We repeatedly expose this unfair tactic and insist that all religions be measured by the same set of standards.
Legitimate criticism is in accordance with fair standards.
Our mission is to expose the lies, exaggerations and double standards employed by anti-Muslim bigots, and our articles do exactly that. We advocate universal human rights, and refuse to give anyone a free pass.
We condemn all acts of terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians, no matter who is responsible.
No matter how many times we condemn terrorism, "critics" insist we haven't condemned terrorism, and have even had the audacity to smear us a terrorist spin control network. It's become almost laughable and reminiscent of a famous scene from the 1979 British comedy film, Monty Python's Life of Brian:
Brian: …Will you please listen? I'm not the Messiah! Do you understand? Honestly!
Woman: Only the true Messiah denies his divinity!
Brian: What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right, I am the Messiah!
Crowd: He is! He is the Messiah!
Will you please listen? We do condemn terrorism! Do you understand? Honestly! …
It's time to resort to a more potent weapon: common sense. When some halfwit sets his underwear on fire in a failed terrorist attack, anyone with the slightest stake in the Muslim community instantly thinks, "Please, please…don't let it be a Muslim!"
If it turns out the perpetrator is a Muslim, it is an unmitigated disaster for Muslims everywhere. Besides being morally repugnant, terrorism is self-defeating.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks paved the way for the US to bomb, invade, and occupy one Muslim country after another, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Syria and Iran may be next. The Islamophobia that germinated in the aftermath of the attacks has rooted itself in the public imagination and continues to deepen and expand, despite the loons' absurd claims it doesn't exist.
The blatantly obvious, self-evident truth is that terrorism hurts Muslims and damages the fight against bigotry.
In fact, it's hard to imagine anything that sets back the cause of fighting anti-Muslim bigotry more than a terrorist attack that is in any way associated with Muslims. The loons delight in reporting terrorist attacks because their interests are served, not ours. In fact, anti-Muslim hatemongers and outrage peddlers are so eager to publish news of "Islamic" terrorist attacks, they don't even care if there are no Muslims involved, as we've reported here and here.
Our question to critics: Do you?
As Danios said in his recent article, We're at War!" — And We Have Been Since 1776: 214 Years of American War-Making:
The objects of American aggression have certainly changed with time, but the primary motivating factor behind U.S. wars of aggression have always been the same: expansion of U.S. hegemony. The Muslim world is being bombed, invaded, and occupied by the United States not because of radical Islam or any inherent flaw in themselves. Rather, it is being so attacked because it is in the path of the American juggernaut, which is always in need of war.
The evidence that radical Islam is the justification, but not the catalyst, for US invasions is simply historical precedent. Decades before the War on Terror, the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war in Vietnam, and his words are no less relevant today:
As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action; but they ask and rightly so, "What about Vietnam?" They ask if our nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems…and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government…
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death…
The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins…
Even as we commemorate Dr. King's eloquent and timeless truths, it seems we've missed his essential message.
The US dominates the world through military power, maintaining over 700 bases in more than 130 countries, and is still bombing and invading nations with impunity. How is it that we view Muslims as the ones who are exceptionally violent and hellbent on taking over the world?
pro·jec·tion
: the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects; especially : the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety.
The US has been variously bombing and starving Iraqis for more than two decades, which begs the question: What did the nation of Iraq ever do to the United States? The answer: nothing.
How is it possible to fixate on acts of terrorism while simultaneously ignoring the colossal crimes the US has visited on the once prosperous nation of Iraq?
dou·ble stan·dard
: a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another.
de·ni·al
: negation in logic
: a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality.
Iran hasn't attacked another country in over 200 years. Even as the US threatens to launch a war against this relatively peaceful nation, many Americans continue to view their country as peace-loving and standing firmly on the moral high ground.
What accounts for this resilient sense of self-righteousness?
pro·pa·gan·da
: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect
ra·tio·nal·ization
: to attribute (one's actions) to rational and creditable motives without analysis of true and especially unconscious motives.
de·lu·sion
: a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary; also : the abnormal state marked by such beliefs.
How can our critics remain virtually silent on the Western violence and simultaneously assert, "Loonwatch is protecting Jihadists and terrorists through lies of omission."
hy·poc·ri·sy
: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.
Defense mechanisms and relentless propaganda are the "psychological cataracts" that embolden us to criticize others and remain blind to our own faults. Refusal to take a good look in the mirror is also a lie of omission.
Again, our question to critics: Do you?
Of course, the so-called "counter-jihadists" could reasonably argue that they too have a limited focus, and are, "pretty much exclusively concerned with exposing the truth about Islam…" That's fine, as long as their criticism is truthful, proportionate, and in accordance with fair standards.
Read the following excerpts and decide if they constitute hate speech or merely tell the unvarnished truth about Islam:
The cultured peoples, both today and in the past, create and build, proving their worth as the creators and advancers of culture. Islam was and remains only the corrupter and destroyer of culture… Islam can never be great, can never create culture, for it is not a people, but rather only a corrupt mixture of inferior desert tribes with no national life or longing, with no proud and famous past.
In this war for the very existence of the American people, we must daily remind ourselves that Muslims unleashed this war against us….
There is nothing cruder than the Muslim religious books: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the Hadith…The whole is a collection of ghost hunting and mysticism, blind cursing and the crassest egotism, an unimaginable superiority complex, sick perversity, the overturning of all natural laws, lust for murder, terror, and horror.
The Crusades, with their enormous sacrifices in the blood of northern peoples, were the result of Muslim insanity.
One feels horror at the unique depravity of the Muslims, at the crimes they have committed, at the devilish hate they have from the beginning directed against all those who did not want to bow to the yoke of Islam! This horror becomes terror when one reads the Qur'anic writings and reads such outbursts of Muslim rage as one finds in the Sunnah and Hadith…..
The term "kafir" expresses the deep antipathy Muslims feel toward infidels. Despite its inferiority, Islam was able to survive over the millennia because of its satanic hatred against infidels.
Muslim hatred today is as strong as it ever was. He who does not submit is their enemy. The Muslim hates the enemy with all his heart and with all the strength of his satanic soul….
Deep and boundless hatred is an essential characteristic of Islam.
Now there is war! The Muslims forced us into a struggle for life and death. The war has forced us to give up much we formerly thought was necessary. It has also forced us to give up the "politeness" that in reality is a weakness. A boxer in the ring must use his fists to defend himself against his opponent. A fencer can only win when he uses his sword. We as a people will survive this war only if we eliminate weakness and "politeness" and respond to the Muslims with an equal hatred. We must always keep in mind what the Muslim wants today, and what he plans to do with us. If we do not oppose the Muslims with the entire energy of our people, we are lost. But if we can use the full force of our soul that has been released by the new crusade, we need not fear the future. The devilish hatred of the Muslims plunged the world into war, need and misery. Our holy hate will bring us victory and save all of mankind.
Common themes include the cultural inferiority of "desert tribes," crude scriptures, boundless hate for infidels, unique depravity, a superiority complex, sick perversity, and lust for murder, terror, and horror. Muslims pose an existential threat, and their collective insanity is even responsible for the Crusades.
This is pretty standard fare for hate sites like Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, and Frontpage Magazine. Can you guess the source?
It's a trick question because none of these excerpts came from contemporary hate sites. All are from articles published decades ago by Nazis. Every word in bold has been modified so the passages appear to refer to Muslims instead of Jews.
You can view the original versions here, here and here. We previously published an article comparing specific statements from pre-Nazi era Antisemitic propagandist Julius Streicher and Robert Spencer, here.
That brings us to the next part of the Loonwatch mission statement:
While we find the sheer stupidity and outrageousness of the loons to be a source of invaluable comedy, we also recognize the seriousness of the danger they represent as dedicated hatemongers…
Muslims have not (yet) been subjected to pogroms or rounded up en mass and herded into internment camps, and the point is to make sure that doesn't happen. We have learned the lessons of history.
During the Nazi era, Antisemitic propaganda resonated with many "good Germans," just as many "good Americans" once accepted slavery and thought of Native Americans as "savages." Everyone outside the lunatic fringe recognizes the monstrous injustices of the past, but far fewer have the moral fortitude to recognize and speak out against the socially sanctioned injustices of the present day.
Islamophobia is the hate du jour, and hatemongers and hypocrites are enjoying a lavish feast.
Pamela Geller: Muslims Firebombed Their Own Mosque in Queens
Posted in Anti-Loons with tags Amago, Atlas Shrugs, CAIR, Charles Johnson, Islam, Islamophobia, Mosque, Pamela Geller, Queens on January 4, 2012 by loonwatch
by Charles Johnson
In yet another disgusting post filled with typos, hate group leader Pamela Geller makes excuses for terrorism by saying that Muslims in Queens probably firebombed their own mosque.
Yes, really.
HMEDIA FOCUSES ON MOSQUE FIREBOMBED IN QUEENS, IGNORES MULTI-PRONGED FIREBOMBING AGAINST HINDUS, CHRISTIANS, HOMES!!!!! – Atlas Shrugs
"Hmedia?"
Color me skeptical. We find time and time again, in the rare instances when a mosque has graffit [sic] or some prank, the perp is Muslim. More times than not.
Here's the a [sic] sketch of the perp, looks like a CAIR member.
It's amazing and sickening how much Geller's smears of Muslims resemble antisemitic libels of Jews.
Posted in Feature, Loon Politics with tags America's wars, Atlas Shrugs, Dr. Ron Paul, foreign policy, Islamophobes, Jihad, Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Ron Paul, Ron Paul 2012, Terrorism, The Greater Islamophobia, The Supreme Islamophobic Myth, wars in the Muslim world on January 2, 2012 by loonwatch
(image from an Islamophobic website)
DISCLAIMER: LoonWatch has not endorsed any candidate for President of the United States. This article should not be seen as such.
Islamophobes absolutely hate Ron Paul. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs–the King and Queen of Islamophobia on the internet–dedicate page after page on their hate blogs lambasting the Congressman and presidential hopeful.
Why do they hate Ron Paul so much?
There are three major reasons why they detest him:
(1) Ron Paul stands up for American Muslims against Islamophobia. For example, he defended the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," arguing that the entire controversy was "all about hate and Islamophobia."
(2) He has been one of the most vocal opponents of the Bush-Obama curtailments of civil liberties that specifically target Muslims.
(3) Paul is the only major presidential candidate to oppose America's wars in the Muslim world. Even more importantly, Ron Paul links reason #1 above (the Lesser Islamophobia) to reason #3 (the Greater Islamophobia), arguing that "in order to perpetuate this foreign policy…they have to perpetuate this hate toward Islam."
This third reason is also why mainstream politicians and the mainstream media dislike Ron Paul and have tried their utmost to destroy him. Fox political pundit Bill O'Reilly argued that Paul's views on foreign policy "disqualifies him" as a candidate for president. Here is exactly what O'Reilly said:
His foreign policy disqualifies him in my eyes as an American…
Bill O'Reilly has inadvertently touched upon something very deep and meaningful: "As an American," foreign policy must include waging war. To do without war would simply be un-American.
One recalls the words of H. Rap Brown, the chairman of the civil rights group Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who famously declared in 1967:
Violence is as American as cherry pie.
Brown uttered this statement during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. While blacks were being beaten up and hosed down in the streets of America, the United States was raining death down upon the Vietnamese population halfway across the earth.
H. Rap Brown was not the only one in the civil rights movement who linked the struggle of blacks in America to the struggle of the darker skinned peoples of the world. For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr. called America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" for its war-making:
The Soviet Union brought attention to America's "Negro problem." Michael L. Krenn writes on pp.89-90 of Race and U.S. Foreign Policy During the Cold War:
By 1949, according to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, "the 'Negro question' [was] [o]ne of the principal Soviet propaganda themes regarding the United States." "[T]he Soviet press hammers away unceasingly on such things as 'lynch law,' segregation, racial discrimination, deprivation of political rights, etc., seeking to build up a picture of an America in which the Negroes are brutally downtrodden with no hope of improving their status under the existing form of government." An [American] Embassy official believed that "this attention to the Negro problem serves political ends desired by the Soviet Union and has nothing whatsoever to do with any desire to better the Negro's position."
Apparently, only the United States is allowed to saber rattle and invade countries on the grounds that the "existing form of government" is discriminatory or unjust to part of its population.
With the world's spotlight on America's treatment of its darker-skinned citizens–and those same citizens linking their struggle to America's foreign wars against darker-skinned peoples–the United States moved in the direction of racial integration in the 1970′s. America's longest war was also grudgingly brought to an end.
But today, despite the fact that we have been waging wars for two decades in the Muslim world and in just the last couple years bombed over half a dozen Muslim countries, the anti-war movement is, at least compared to the 1960′s and 70′s, all but dead.
Ron Paul is one of the only major political figures–and the only major presidential candidate–to oppose America's wars.
And that is why he is in the cross-hairs of anti-Muslim bigots, who see the world in apocalyptic holy war terms: the jihad will bring an end to Western civilization as we know it so we must destroy them first! This is their fundamental world view, which is why sustaining and protracting the wars against the Muslim world is their greatest desire.
Ron Paul threatens that paradigm. He dares to cogitate that it is our military interventions in the Muslim world that result in Islamic terrorism against the United States and her allies. He had the chutzpah to include 9/11 in this: "They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years."
In the American national discourse, this is next to blasphemy. But, in the rest of the world (especially in Muslim countries), this is not just common knowledge, it's common sense. In fact, nothing could be more obvious.
It's precisely because this idea is so obvious and self-evident that it must simply never be uttered in the United States. Anyone who does so must be condemned as unpatriotic and, worse, as Unserious. Such a person's character must be viciously attacked.
That's exactly what is happening to Ron Paul. Unfortunately, Paul deserves much of the blame for making himself such an easy target. The racist newsletters are a gold-mine for his opponents. Pamela Geller gleefully called them a "bombshell," arguing that his presidential bid is now "unrecoverable" and that "[h]e is done."
The evidence against Ron Paul, that he wrote those vile things against black people, is certainly very strong. The only saving grace for Paul is the fact that those racist screeds do not sound anything like him. Whether or not this alone can outweigh the proof against him, I do not know. Whatever the case, Paul's delay in disassociating himself from the letters, his ever-changing excuses, and his questionable associations are enough to condemn him. (A balanced article on Ron Paul was written by the indefatigable Glenn Greenwald.)
Under normal circumstances, I'd have nothing but absolute contempt for Ron Paul. In fact, even if he didn't have such racism-related baggage, a progressive like myself would have nothing to do with a man who wants to get rid of social welfare programs, the Department of Education, etc. etc. When it comes to domestic issues, there is probably very little Ron Paul and I would see eye-to-eye on. Worse yet, I find many of his views on such matters to be outside the realms of reasonableness–I'd go so far as to call them loony.
Yet, many progressives like myself are finding themselves inexorably drawn to Ron Paul. That is because he is the only major presidential candidate to oppose America's wars. Stated another way: the rest of the candidates–including the incumbent president (who expanded the War on Terror)–are war-makers. Ron Paul is the only peace candidate.
This says a lot about the state of our union more than it does about Ron Paul. War-making has become such a staple of American life that the only man who stands a chance (and a slim one at that) of bringing an end to Endless War is a loony, fringe candidate with a questionable and possibly racist past.
I have been criticized by some Islamophobes for daring to say anything positive about Ron Paul. But, the fact that a person of my views (a progressive peacenik) is forced to consider Ron Paul is indicative of how truly violent and warlike our country has become (or, rather, has always been). This underscores my main counter-argument to the Supreme Islamophobic Myth: we, as part of the Judeo-Christian West, have been and are still, just as, if not more, violent and warlike than the Muslim world.
This fact is underscored even more by the fact that the reason why Ron Paul has been "disqualified" as a realistic candidate is because, in the words of Bill O'Reilly, of his peace-loving foreign policy. Imagine, for instance, if an Iranian candidate for the Iranian presidency could never realistically win unless he advocated for war against other countries. What would it say about Iranians if they, by convention and consensus, refused to elect someone who advocated peaceful relations with the rest of the world?
One would expect that progressive peaceniks like myself would have more options to choose from than just one candidate. But because warmongering is an essential component of being president of the United States (and serving in the military is almost a prerequisite to getting elected–imagine if Iranians would demand that their leaders must have sometime in their lives fought jihad), there is virtually nobody to vote for.
In an earlier article, I wrote of how war has been a part of the American psyche since the very beginning, from 1776 all the way to the present. We've never gone a decade without a major war, and no president in our history can truly be considered a peacetime president. Yet, somehow even after waging wars for more than 91% of our existence, we look at ourselves as peace-makers and "those Moozlums over there" as violent and warlike.
A verse from the Quran is most fitting here: "When it is said to them: 'Do not make mischief on earth,' they say: 'We are but peace-makers.' In fact, they are the mischief-makers, but they realize it not." (2:11-12)
Something else that reinforces my argument is the fact that even Ron Paul, the single peace proponent in the presidential race, does not seem to oppose war based on peacenik principles. He usually raises financial and political arguments against the wars, instead of humanitarian ones: We're bankrupting ourselves. Or: These wars result in terrorism (against us).
Our moral compass should not be dictated by money or self-interest. We should oppose these wars because killing innocent civilians is morally atrocious. This is what should be the main argument:
Not this:
Let me clarify: there is nothing wrong with raising financial and political arguments as secondary reasons to end the wars. In fact, I would encourage doing so. But, the primary motivation behind opposing wars should be less self-centered (the war is costing us too much money, they may retaliate with terrorism against us, too many of our young soldiers are risking their lives over there), but more humanitarian towards the victims of our aggression: we are killing innocent civilians.
Ron Paul's emphasis on financial and political reasons, as opposed to humanitarian concerns, seems to be consistent with his ideology. (After all, he supported Israel's bombing of Iraq in 1981 and seems unconcerned if Israel bombs Iran on its own accord. This indicates to me that it is not the dead in Iraq or Iran that bothers him so much, but only that it would cost us money to kill them or would risk retaliation against us for doing so.) What does it say about America if even the one and only supposed peace candidate is against wars not out of humanitarian reasons but financial and political concerns?
Even if I am being too harsh on Ron Paul and it's just a political consideration to focus on financial and political reasons, what does it say about us Americans that we can only be convinced based on our wallets and not on our consciences?
I don't say this very often, but Pamela Geller was absolutely right when she said about Ron Paul that "[h]e is done." He most certainly is. And so dies the only candidate who could have ended America's Endless Wars.
One should point out, however, that just because the Islamophobes have found the Kryptonite that will kill Ron Paul (the racist newsletters) this doesn't change the fact that Paul's foreign policy views were correct.
Let this be a lesson to groupies and fan boys of Ron Paul, a lesson that groupies and fan boys of Barack Obama should also heed: do not put your hopes in a man, because if you do, that man will often, if not always, disappoint you. Put your faith in a conviction instead. If you hold on tightly enough to the conviction and not the man, it will persevere.
Belgium, Islam, and the Boomerang of Loon Idiocy
Posted in Feature, Loon Media, Loon Sites with tags Atlas Shrugs, Belgium, Islam, Jihad Watch, Nordine Amrani, Robert Spencer, Winds of Jihad on December 15, 2011 by loonwatch
Francois Lenoir/Reuters Women lit candles on Wednesday in memory of victims at the site of a gun and grenade attack in Liege, Belgium.
On Tuesday, after the grenade attack in Belgium, Loonwatch exposed Robert Spencer's feeble attempt to pin it on Muslims here. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that the perpetrator, Nordine Amrani, was a Muslim with sinister Islamic motives. Spencer wasn't alone.
All the usual suspects also jumped the gun: Belgium, Islam and the Boomerang of "Multiculturalism" (Frontpage Magazine – thanks for the title idea), Belgium Grenade Attack by Muslim[s] 4 Dead, 75 wounded (Atlas Shrugs), Belgium: Honor Killing Trial Causes Jihad With Hand Grenades (Winds of Jihad).
Apparently the loons are unaware that Amrani is typically a Mizrahi Jewish surname. It is reckless to guess because names can be deceiving, but if Amrani's Jewish origin is confirmed, will the loons suddenly agree with us that the religious and ethnic heritage of the perpetrator shouldn't be relevant?
As the bigots are fond of pointing out, Nordine Amrani is of Moroccan extraction, though he was born and raised in Belgium. According to an article in the New York Times, Amrani considered himself Belgian, didn't speak a word of Arabic, and was not a Muslim.
In the absence of facts, it seems anti-Muslim bigots just manufacture whatever sensational headlines suit their hateful agenda. Authorities say the attack is not religiously motivated:
'No religious motive in Liege rampage'
The Belgium grenade attack which killed three people and injured 123 has sent shockwaves through the country. However, Glyn Ford, a former Member of the European Parliament, stresses that individual motives are the key to understanding such attacks.
After Nordine Amrani, who also died in the blast, went on a rampage in a central square in the city of Liege on Tuesday, there has been much speculation as to what led him to throw three hand grenades toward a bus shelter and opening fire on the crowd.
Speaking with RT, Glyn Ford said that despite earlier reports, this was not a repeat of the July 22 Norwegian massacre that left 77 dead.
Well, we don't know, but it would appear that it was an individual incident. Earlier reports that there were three or four gunmen involved have since been discredited and it equally appears that he wasn't targeting anybody in particular… so in a sense it's not a replica of what happened in Norway.
Ford was also quick to counter any allegations that Amrani's attack was religiously motivated.
Earlier reaction in many senses seems to be rather racist. He was not being identified as a Belgium when he was a Belgian citizen. Because of his Moroccan origins, people are talking about killing the Muslims; it's all the fault of the Muslims, and the new socialist government that's been in office now for nearly a week is being blamed for being soft on immigrants and not reacting hard enough.
It was also reported that a rightwing extremist had gone on a shooting spree in Florence, Italy, killing two African traders and wounding three others before taking his own life. While Ford recognizes that these tragic events in Europe are a cause for concern, he argues that the European Union has done a much better job of curbing such violent crimes than the United States.
In a sense, the European track record is far better than that in the United States. The United States has these kinds of rampage attacks happening fairly regularly in schools and elsewhere. I think it's the rather tougher gun laws that we actually have in the European Union that's kept it down to the low level that it is, because essentially Europeans are no different than American. It's the lack of weapons that's kept this under control to a degree.
Ultimately, Ford says that when confronted with such events, it is better to investigate individual motives rather than jump to any immediate conclusions.
The latest Europol Data confirms that less than 1% of terrorist attacks in Europe are perpetrated by Muslims. Shooting sprees and violent rampages are usually said to be the work of a "lone wolf" with no religious motive, and they don't count as terrorism, unless the perpetrator is Muslim. In that case, it's terrorism done "in the name of Islam," regardless of actual motive.
The Telegraph compiled a list of similar incidents over the last 10 years, and it appears Amrani would be the token Muslim if the loons were right about his background:
Liege shooting and grenade attack: previous European incidents in last 10 years
September 27, 2001 – SWITZERLAND
A man bursts into the local assembly in the central Swiss town of Zug and opens fire, killing 14 members of parliament and local government then turning the gun on himself.
'Grudge' behind Swiss gun massacre
Fredrich Leibarcher
March 27, 2002 – FRANCE
Eight local councillors are killed and 19 injured when a man opens fire on members of the municipal council of Nanterre, outside Paris. He kills himself the next day while in police custody.
The perpetrator in the shootings was Richard Durn, 33, who was originally from Slovenia.
Richard Durn
April 26, 2002 – GERMANY
Sixteen people, including 12 teachers and two students, are gunned down at a school in Erfurt in eastern Germany by a 19-year-old former student, apparently in revenge for having been expelled, who then killed himself.
Robert Steinhuser
November 7, 2007 – FINLAND
An 18-year-old goes on a shooting rampage in a school in the southern Finnish town of Tuusula, killing eight people before shooting himself.
A Deadly School Shooting, This Time in Finland
Pekka-Eric Auvinen
September 23, 2008 – FINLAND
Eleven people, including the 22-year-old gunman, die in a massacre at a training school at Kauhajoki, Finland at the hands of Matti Juhani Saari
Matti Saari
March 11, 2009 – GERMANY
Nine pupils, three teachers and three passers-by are killed in a school shooting at Winnenden in southern Germanyby Tim Kretschmer a former pupil who then kills himself.
Tim Kretchmer
June 2, 2010 – ENGLAND
Twelve people are killed when Derrick Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, goes on a shooting spree in the English region of Cumbria, before killing himself.
Derrick Bird
April 9, 2011 – THE NETHERLANDS
A gunman opens fire in a packed mall in the Netherlands, killing six people before shooting himself dead.
Lone gunman shoots six dead in Dutch shopping mall
Van der Vlis left a farewell letter, found by his mother, in which he mostly talked about his suicidal feelings. But it did not give a clear motive for the killings, the town's mayor Bas Eenhoorn told Dutch television.
Tristan van der Vlis
July 22, 2011- NORWAY
A bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo that kills eight is followed by a shooting which kills 69 at a summer holiday camp organised by the ruling Labour party on the island of Utoya, near to the capital. Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist is arrested for carrying out both attacks.
December 13, 2011 – BELGIUM
Three people, plus the gunman, are killed when a man, armed with grenades, opens fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers in the eastern Belgian city of Liege.
Nordine Amrani
December 13, 2011 – ITALY
In ITALY a far-right militant kills two Senegalese street vendors and wounds three people in a shooting spree in Florence after which he apparently kills himself.
Gianluca Casseri
Among all the anti-Muslim hate sites, the most novel is the Roman Catholic Imperialist, which claims Anders Breivik is also a Muslim convert. Notice how frequently the word "Muslim" is repeated [emphasis mine]:
In the Belgian city of Liege known for its love of the Muslim – a Muslim kills 4 in a terrorist attack and wounded at least 75. It is not official that the terrorist is a Muslim, but all bets are that he is. The Modus operandi is the same as in all other Muslim terrorist attacks. This attack is similar to the attack in Norway by the Muslim convert Anders Behring Breivik.
First: the bomb.
Second: the gun.
The Muslim terrorist lobbed grenades into the crowd. After his hands were free the Muslim terrorist pulled out a hand gun and started firing. The Muslim aimed to kill.
The Belgian interior Ministry said the incident was not terrorism-related. Meaning of course that the man was most likely a Muslim.
No Muslims were killed 'cept of course for the Muslim terrorist who later blew his brains out.
Breivik described himself in his Manifesto as a "culturally Christian" agnostic who wanted to restore the Knights Templar. Breivik despised Islam and viewed himself as a foot soldier in the war against the Muslim hordes. In fact, the site looks like something Brievik could appreciate.
So why does the Roman Catholic Imperialist say Breivik is a Muslim convert? An anonymous comment suggests, "All terrorists are Muslims, therefore all Muslims are terrorists." Breivik is a terrorist, therefore Breivik is a Muslim.
Take another look at the photos above, folks. According to loon (il)logic, they're all Moooslems!
TAM: Cucumber "Fatwa" Seems to Be Only Shoddy Reporting
Posted in Feature, Loon Media, Loon People with tags Anti-Muslim, Atlas Shrugs, Cucumber, Fatwa, Islam, Islamophobia, Jihad Watch, Pamela Geller, Sheila Musaji, Shoddy Reporting, TAM, The American Muslim on December 12, 2011 by loonwatch
Sexy Bananas
The loons are having a field day spreading a ridiculous rumor about an Islamic cleric who supposedly issued a fatwa warning women not to get near bananas and cucumbers because long, slender fruits and vegetables might inspire "sexy thoughts." Supposedly he also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.
Various anti-Muslim hate sites seized the opportunity to ridicule Muslims, including the infamous Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs. In No Cucumbers or Bananas for you, Slut!, Pamela Geller makes a nauseating attempt at humor at the expense of Muslims:
Obama say, "Respect it!" Jay Leno's wife Mavis say, "The Qur'an is more liberal with women than the Bible." Geller say, "One banana split, please, and a side of cukes, with extra whipped creme, thankyouverymuch."
Hell knows, whenever I am feeling lonely or blue, I head down to D'Agostinos and I perk right up again.
Seriously, this is a war on women, about women and ultimately to control women. Women are the ultimate booty, the spoils of war, chattel.
Sheila Musaji of The American Muslim investigated and concluded the rumor was unsubstantiated and a result of "shoddy reporting":
Cucumber "fatwa" seems to be only shoddy reporting
by Sheila Musaji
There was supposedly a fatwa written which would deserve ridicule if it exists. The original article about this was posted on Bikyamasr, an Egyptian news site, and the article was written by an individual named Manar Ammar. Manar Ammar is identified as a Senior Reporter and Women's Editor for Bikyamasr.com.
The article quotes an UNNAMED Islamic Cleric residing in Europe who "has banned women from touching bananas, cucumbers and other elongated fruit and vegetable due to their sexual resemblance" The Bikyamasr article refers to the source as "The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news".
I tried searching for el-Senousa news, but got nowhere. There is no site for any such entity. I can find nothing about them searching the net except for hundreds of articles reposting the article from Bikyamasr which mentions el-Senousa as its source.
Muna Khan at al Arabiya reports the same problems I had in finding the actual source of this story, and says "According to the Canadian news site Straight.com, it's been difficult to find the El-Senousa site on which Bikya Masr based its article on. A simple search of the website takes you to a list of articles on the story being quoted but not to the main site itself." She points out that there have been enough of what I call "stupid fatwas" to make anything easy to believe, but, it is an irresponsible rush to judgement to just assume something is true and publish it without any fact checking.
I found the article from Straight here, and it says "That's some pretty good flame-bait, but is it legit? According to the article in bikyamasr.com, the story originally appeared on something called "el-Senousa news", but good luck finding it. In fact, a Google search for "el-Senousa news" only points back—many times over—to the article in bikyamasr.com. Between that and the somewhat intangible location and identity of the "unnamed sheikh" in the article, the tale of the vegetable-fearing Mullah is starting to look a little short on authenticity. What's more likely is that the independent news service bikyamasr.com is reacting to the troubling emergence of the hard-line Salafi Al-Nou party in Egypt's (reportedly fraud-ridden) election—a story that, sadly, isn't so cockamamie.
This article was immediately picked up and posted with appropriate anti-Muslim comments by just about every site in the Islamophobic echo chamber.
Robert Spencer posted the "story" from Bikyamasr on Jihad Watch and included in his lede "It's all about controlling women, like so many aspects of Islamic law. Sharia Alert from Eurabia".
The always ladylike Pamela Geller posted this on Atlas Shrugs under the heading No cucumbers or bananas for you, slut! and included in the lede "Obama say, "Respect it!" Jay Leno's wife Mavis say, "The Qur'an is more liberal with women than the Bible." Geller say, "One banana split, please, and a side of cukes, with extra whipped creme, thankyouverymuch."
Weazel Zippers simply posted the article with no lede, but the comments their readers posted in response are truly hateful. For example: — ALL of Islam is a plague, a disease of the mind and soul. — Folks there is going to be a war—-I mean a real war where winner takes all and these animals will gladly die for their cause so we better get ready to do the same…..and I don't ever again want to hear the term moderate muslim….my reply to that is show me one—just one.
You get the idea about the response to this article, and that response is not to a particular unknown shaikh, but to all Muslims. Perhaps the author of the article and the Egyptian site that posted it are unaware that there is a problem with Islamophobia out there.
Why would anyone post an article about an unnamed person residing somewhere in one of the 47 countries of Europe who had supposedly issued a stupid fatwa without any corroborating evidence that this was even true. What is the point of raising this issue in such a thoughtless way? This is not a satirical article making fun of the stupidity involved in such a fatwa. This is not an article that provides concrete facts about the author of the fatwa, or that provides any counter arguments. There are no facts here that others could use to counter the fatwa, or to make a judgement about the author.
Whatever the reason that Bikyamasr had for posting this bit of unsubstantiated nonsense, the only effect it has had was to give the Islamophobes yet another item to use for years to come to bash Muslims. This article was not just irresponsible, it was as stupid as the supposed fatwa would be if it in fact exists.
I would like to see either a clarification of the article with actual information about the supposed fatwa and its supposed author (that can be verified), or an apology for engaging in reckless speculation and passing on of rumors.
It's not as if we don't have enough actual members of the Muslim lunatic fringe that need to be countered, that we need to make them up.
I received an email from the Founder and Editor of Bikyamasr:
Thank you for your email. I am Joseph Mayton, the Editor and Founder of Bikyamasr.com. I would like to bring your attention to the corrected version of the article, which now has the appropriate name of the publication where the information first appeared in Arabic, with a link.
We take full responsibility for this error and have stated so on the article. It is unfortunate that it has been taken out of context, but we feel that by talking about the anger it initially sparked was properly done. At the end, these places are going to take any little bit of information for their own purposes. It is sad.
I hope you will understand that we do our utmost to source anything from a third party, as any other news website would.
If you have any other questions, or would like to interview me, or our staff, please let us know.
Thank you very much for the email, Joseph
The article now lists the source of this "fatwa" as el-Sawsana news and the link takes you to a site that is only in Arabic. I don't speak Arabic, so am unable to make out what the original article of this "news" item might have been.
I received a second email from Joseph Mayton asking me to check out a follow up article that they have now posted Cucumber sheikh "far from the truth," says Egypt Islamic leader. This new article quotes Sheikh Gaber Taye' Youssef, identified as "An Islamic scholar and chairman at Egypt's Religious Endowments Ministry said this sheikh could not be more "far from the truth." … He expressed serious doubts that the sheikh sourced is even qualified for his position. "Nonesense and wrong, such talk is empty of any logic or sense and has no roots or relations with Islam or its belief system," said Youssef when Bikyamasr.com interviewed him over the phone early on Saturday.
Sheikh Youssef's opinion is exactly what any mainstream Muslim already knew.
The Stealth Halal Jihadist Turkey: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Muslim Trojan Horse
Posted in Feature, Loon Politics with tags Atlas Shrugs, Butterball, Domestic Crusaders, Geller, Goatmilk, Jihad, jihadist turkey, Pamela Geller, stealth halal, stealth halal jihadist turkey, Thanksgiving, turkey jihad, Wajahat Ali on November 24, 2011 by loonwatch
Guest Article by: Wajahat Ali
American Muslim communities celebrating Thanksgiving with a traditional Turkey feast represents an encouraging sign of integration with American values and rituals.
But, of course, we Muslims fooled you.
You should have known that our baked, brined, and deep-fried masala turkeys were simply veiling our nefarious, anti-American plots to replace McDonald's arches with minarets and convert the White House to the United Colors of Benetton House.
Pam Geller, our anti-Muslim Paul Revere
However, not all patriotic Americans were gullible and naïve! Nay, some America-holic crusaders, like bloggers Pam Geller and her fearless co-horts, called out our "stealth jihadist turkey plot!" Like modern-day Paul Reveres, they blogged, tweeted and mass mailed our ingenious plot "to submit unassuming Americans to Islam by feeding them halal Turkey" this holiday season. (Halal meat is slaughtered according to Islamic custom, similar to Jewish Kosher laws.)
Our nation's Cassandra, Pam Geller – the preeminent anti-Muslim blogger and conspiracy theorist aficionado – believes President Obama is a Muslim, illegitimate son of Malcolm X who once went to Pakistan for drugs and jihad. She also uncovered Arabic is not just a language, but actually a spearhead for anti-Americanism. Thanks to her, we discovered radical Islam has infiltrated our government, which is secretly being run by Islamic supremacists. She also accused Muslims of engaging in stealth cultural jihad by wearing their headscarves at Disneyland.
Truth be told, we've already converted Goofy. Donald Duck was always our Manchurian candidate. Mickey was the first to turn Benedict Arnold. As for Porky Pig, he better watch out; we're coming for him next…with our scimitars.
Damn you, Pamela Geller, your anti-Muslim, detective nose is too evolved and sophisticated in sniffing out our dastardly plots!
I guess the feathered, red wattled bird is out of the proverbial bag. There's no reason to hide the secret any longer.
It's true. The turkey is our new Trojan Horse.
After spending decades learning to cook and enjoy the famously-dry turkey, we Muslims decided to use the bird to launch our turkey jihad after successfully conquering it in our respective kitchens. We've evolved from creeping sharia into states to creeping cholesterol and obesity into American diets. After taking over all the street meat vendors in New York, the Islamization of the turkey bird was inevitable.
Turkey: The Greatest Weapon of Mass Distraction
The Turkey is our greatest weapon of distraction. Even more so than hummus, biryani, shwarmas, kebobs, naans, and Lupe Fiasco.
The fatty bird's high levels of tryptophan act like a paralyzing agent, causing intense drowsiness and lethargy when Americans overeat on Thanksgiving Day. The ensuing food coma paves the way for The Muslim Agenda to stealthily accomplish its ambitious goal of radically transforming America into a radical Caliphate guided by Sharia law.
Pam Geller, the 21st century's Velma, uncovers The Great Halal Turkey Conspiracy:
Across this great country, on Thanksgiving tables nationwide, infidel Americans are unwittingly going to be serving halal turkeys to their families this Thursday. Turkeys that are halal certified… [this] is just the opposite of what Thanksgiving represents: freedom and inclusiveness, neither of which are allowed for under that same Islamic law.
Blast her foresight and remarkable sleuthing skills!
In this land of religious freedom, tolerance and pluralism, it is utterly unacceptable – downright un-American, I say – to allow a diversity of slaughtering options for mass consumers! And allowing Turkeys to be slaughtered according to a religious custom similar to Jewish Kosher laws? Shudder the thought!
Indeed, it is more patriotic to consume a steroid-pumped, undernourished, traumatized turkey hurled onto a mechanical conveyor belt – along with thousands of its gobbling brethren – awaiting its rapture under the guillotine of economic efficiency and other profit-maximizing instruments of death.
That, my friends, is truly the American way!
Muslims, we're like the Green Bay Packers
But, even American superheroes like Pamela Geller can't stop our momentum. Muslims are like the current Green Bay Packers of fifth-column, culinary stealth jihadists– we're on a hot streak!
First, we infiltrated America by creating a hot, Lebanese American beauty pageant named Rima Fakih who won Miss USA and stole the tiara from the infidels. Then, we installed a biracial man with Kenyan roots in the Oval Office, who happens to be a practicing Christian that celebrates Easter, accepts Christ as his savior, and has yet to step foot in a mosque during his three years as President. Moreover, he drinks alcohol and publicly eats bacon. Indeed, the hallmark traits of a Muslim President.
Most recently, we have invaded mainstream American television sets with our very own reality TV show, TLC's All American Muslim. Move over Kim, Paris and Snookie, Arab-American Muslim Shadia is creeping to take over your botox and photoshopped US Weekly covers. According to Pamela Geller's Justice League of Islamophobes, TLC's real intention in creating the show is to force "submission to Islam through the hijab." (Our clandestine plots foiled yet again!)
Halal Turkey Victory: The Icing on the Cake
But this latest victory is the icing on the cake, or I should say, the honey on the kanafeh. Ha!
Who was our mighty warrior leading us to victory, you ask? Our Alexander? Our Achilles? Our Obama? Our Aaron Rogers? The Trojan horse of our stealth victory was none other than the Thanksgiving turkey.
In fact, we've been so successful at integrating, we've inspired the mega corporation Butterball to become our preeminent stealth jihadist and unleash stealth halal turkeys on unsuspecting Americans and citizens abroad.
After all, what's more anti-American than introducing a uniquely American bird, Turkey, to new global consumer markets thereby promoting American products, advertising brand names, and stimulating the national economy? That's downright Communistic!
But, even this is too much for Geller, who is asking for Butterball to be held accountable for allegedly serving Americans unlabeled halal meat. She has created the "Boycott Butterball Turkey" Facebook page.
Even fellow American Muslims are upset! All this time they could've purchased turkey at affordable prices from their local supermarkets instead of shelling out extra money for halal-certified birds from their community butchers! How come no one told the rest of them about Butterball's ingenious stealth halal turkey jihadist plan?
(We have to keep them in the dark. We can't afford to activate all of our of culinary stealth jihadists at once. Most of them have to live as if they are actually moderate, peaceful, loyal, normal Americans going about their day to day lives dealing with real problems and concerns that are shared by their neighbors, friends and co-workers. Lateral thinking.)
The Muslim Agenda Fortune Cookie
If you're lucky, you'll find The Protocols of the Elders of Mecca (or, "The Muslim Agenda") stuffed in your Butterball turkey this holiday season. It outlines the plans for our next American cultural takeovers. If you look closely, deep inside your Butterball turkeys, there will be leaked cell phone photos of a circumcised Easter Bunny praying towards Mecca right before he hands out Kosher eggs and crescent-shaped chocolates to kids from his Easter basket, which we imported from China.
Apparently he's also developed an insatiable sexual urge for white female rabbits and has started his own "Hare's Harem." Rumor has it he's been fasting during Ramadan and partying like it was Mardi Gras during Lent.
And, wait until you see what we have in store for Christmas! Red-nosed camels and a Santa Claus named Abu Qhlaws: a hairy, overweight Moroccan man with a bushy beard giving chicken tagine to school kids in the malls.
There's a rumor that American Muslim families will be giving snickers and tandoori chicken pieces for Halloween. Trick or Treat?
We've successfully brainwashed the Tooth Fairy as well. She now wears a burqa and was forced to marry Imam Rumpelstiltskin (Come on, that wasn't a shocker, right?). Instead of replacing children's teeth with coins, she now places small Qurans published in Saudi Arabia under their bedroom pillows. She also sprinkles fairy dust on the children, consisting of turmeric and zaatar.
The battle of the absurd, paranoid, and demented is thankfully yearlong and not contained to seasonal limitations. This Thanksgiving, however, please do enjoy your Turkey, whether it be kosher, halal, vegan, vegetarian, American or even foreign.
To appease Pamela Geller and company, just please make sure your dead, cooked bird is tasty, America-holic and not a radical, stealth agent of jihad. Just to be safe, stab the bird a few times Pulp Fiction-style with the baster. Because, after all, you can never really know and you can never really be too sure.
Wajahat Ali is a playwright, attorney, journalist and humorist. He blogs at Goatmilk and is the author of the award-winning Domestic Crusaders. He will be basting his halal turkey in America-holic juices this Thanksgiving.


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A network of caring adults who mentored and helped pave the way for a successful transition to adulthood?
Regular encouragement that builds confidence and imprints the possibility of college into their psyche at a young age?
A "game plan" to prepares and position them for college with the same rigor as our own children?
Exposure to people, travel and opportunities that inspire them to dream BIG and achieve despite the daily challenges of living in care?
A college program that recognizes their unique academic, social, emotional and financial needs and addresses them in a way that leads to successful completion?
Internships and meaningful work experiences that create the link between aspirations and how to make them reality?
All of us in Child Welfare, including Judges, need to realize that if education is important and valued for our children at home, it is more important for our children in care...If we expect them to be productive members of society, we need to partner together and share responsibility for giving them the right tools to do so.
The Fedcap Group has the solution!
As parents, we know that regardless of the struggles our children have, good times and bad—we will be there. Our children know that too. A sense of security comes from knowing that there is someone in your corner to "clean up the messes" and help you navigate the unfamiliar, uncomfortable and/or difficult situations life brings.
Youth leaving foster care deserve this same security, guidance and positioning to be successful. We work with our community partners to find Mentors and a network of Coaches for youth in care. Our mentors support young people in their decision making and life choices; helping them to dream big and develop the skills to achieve.
Young people who have been abused, neglected or abandoned start out life with an uphill road ahead of them. They have to struggle to achieve things that come naturally to children living in homes that are safe and loving. They have to work harder to succeed belong… because they are often alone without a supportive family. They have to live in fear of being homeless…because they often have no place to call home.
On any given day there are 26,000 youth transitioning from care. Most have been living in foster care for well over 4 years. When adolescents live in foster care for any length of time—it impacts their lives–forever. They have a hard time finding a job, they rarely go to college, many end up homeless, pregnant and stuck in the cycle of poverty.
But youth in foster care indicate that they want to go to college. 70% of teens who leave foster care report that they want to attend college, but only 42% of them complete high school, fewer than 30% enroll in college, and of those, less than 5% graduate from college.
The Fedcap Group assists foster parents in creating a college going culture in care through our PrepNOW! program.
We leverage in-school and community academic supports to ensure youth successful complete high school. Successful completion of high school or obtaining a GED is a foundational step to college.
We are changing the outcomes helping youth enter college, persist and gradate at rates equal to their non foster care peers.
Help youth find internships and meaningful employment experiences through our extensive network of youth-friendly business partners. Youth will have opportunities to explore careers through our signature Connect2Careers™ events held four times annually. During these events the concepts of "speed dating" is employed.
Through support of board members and friends of The Fedcap Group youth are exposed to over 50+ career options. They learn interviewing and self-marketing in a supported but real world environment, and they develop networks of contacts.


>> Bidding and out bidding each other over and over. Hours after Rupert Murdoch raised an offer for Britain's Sky TV, rival Comcast raised its offer in a deal valuing Sky at $34 billion, topping Murdoch's offer from earlier in the day that would have valued it at $32.5 billion.
Reuters Kate Holton says the bidding war reflects the shifting sands in the global entertainment industry.>> Well, we're seeing some absolutely enormous deals going on in the world right now. I think the reason for this is because of the growth and success of companies like Netflix and Amazon.
And what it means is that the certain traditional major media companies feel that they have to, right now, have the best assets to be able to compete.>> The saga has been ongoing since 2016. Murdoch already owns 39% of Sky. His attempts to buy more in the past drew criticism from politicians wary of his influence over the press.
Earlier this year, Comcast launched its rival bid, only for 21st Century Fox to offer a renewed proposal that satisfied the British government's concerns. Disney is also in the fray, but for Fox assets further complicating proceedings. Sky's pay TV buys the winner access to a loyal customer base in 32 million households.


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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Temple U Hillel - Israeli Consulate, Stand With US And David Project Sponsor Israeli "Palestinian" Band That Bashed Israel And JustifiesTerrorism
Temple U Hillel - Israeli Consulate, Stand With US And David Project Sponsor Israeli "Palestinian" Band That Bashed Israel And JustifiesTerrorism
MIM: The Israeli group Heartbeat which includes "Palestinians" and Israelis used their performance as a platform to bash Israel and justify terrorism. More proof that any attempt at multi culturalism and inclusiveness on the part of Jews vis a vis Muslims is doomed to backfire. In the case of this performance several unabashedly pro Israel groups such as Stand With Us and The David Project unwittingly gave a platform to anti semites and Jewish self haters pushing an Islamist agenda under the guise of promoting 'coexistence'.
"If somebody is a terrorist, it's not because he's bad," said the band member. It's because of a "really hard reality."
Irregular Heartbeat Performance Leads to Confusion at Temple University
Jewish Exponent | Eric Berger
The contentious aftermath of a concert at Temple University, where members of an Israeli-Palestinian music group were critical of Israel, underscores the difficulties often involved with staging an event that takes on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
On Feb. 26, at a show at the Temple Performing Arts Center, the teen and 20-something musicians of Heartbeat, an Israeli-based nonprofit organization that is billed as a project to build understanding through music, opened by speaking about what they continually referred to as the "occupation."
"Here on the stage, we are equal," said one band member. "Back home we are not."
The director of the musical group says they do not promote a particular political agenda, but at the Temple show, the performers spent much of the time criticizing the Israeli government.
And the group sought to distance itself from some of the co-sponsors of the Temple Hillel program, which included the Israeli Consulate in Philadelphia.
For its part, Hillel officials seemed conflicted about how to respond to the turn of events. Some said they welcomed the dialogue but others said they were disappointed and even angry that what they had billed as a cultural event turned political.
Rabbi Howard Alpert, the CEO of Hillel of Greater Philadelphia, after the show went so far as to suggest that other Jewish organizations should think twice about inviting Heartbeat.
The concert is the latest illustration of the delicate line that leaders of Hillel chapters try to walk in advertising themselves as organizations that promote dialogue over the conflict while also trying to ensure that speakers fit under the pro-Israel umbrella. The issue has come up repeatedly on campuses across the country, sparking debate over freedom of speech and what it means to support Israel.
Alpert said he did not anticipate the opening statement from the musicians at the concert, but initially, after the opening, told the Jewish Exponent, "The musicians are a voice of this generation of Israelis, and it's good for this generation of Americans to hear that voice."
In a subsequent email, Alpert appeared to have second thoughts. "It is disappointing that the group re-wrote their opening statement the night of the Temple concert to make it more overtly political and critical than had been their practice on other campuses."
He said that his initial remarks of support referred to the band members expressing support for coexistence. He also stated that the event's organizers researched the group's performances at other campuses and anticipated a cultural rather than a political event.
The Hearbeat musicians appear to have been influenced by political pressures from the left. In the days leading up to the show, Hillel leaders had expressed concern about plans by Temple's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine to protest the show.
In addition, the day before the show, Heartbeat director Aaron Shneyer said, the organization learned that in addition to Hillel, the Israeli Consulate in Philadelphia, Stand With Us and the David Project were cosponsors of the event. He said his organization asked that these sponsors be removed and offered to return any funding they provided. He said Hillel leaders complied with the request, a claim Alpert denies.
On the day of the concert, a handful of members of Students for Justice in Palestine gathered outside the Temple venue to protest the show because, they said, it "normalized" the violence of the conflict.
Shneyer said that it was in response to these developments that members of the band decided to deliver an opening statement, which he said they had never done before. "The youth musicians, without any staff intervention, decided to write that statement in response to the unprecedented protest and the sponsorship issues at the Temple event," Shneyer, who founded the group in 2007, stated in an email. "In every other performance, they begin their presentation with music."
The protesters did not go into the concert, as members of the band had requested of them, and declined to be interviewed.
At one point during the dialogue with the audience, a band member appeared to justify terrorism.
Emily Simons, a junior student who serves as vice president of Temple Hillel, said the dialogue during the show was "a little tense at first."
The perspective of band members is "something we're not usually told, and we don't usually get to hear from Palestinians," she said. "You could see their passion" for why they're performing.
Simons said she did not think the band member was justifying terrorism but rather that she was expressing her frustration with the conflict. After the comments regarding terrorism, another band member said they condemned violence of any kind from either Israelis or Palestinians.
Heartbeat performed locally at Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley in 2013 and in 2014. Chazzan Harold Messinger described the group as "decidedly left-wing" and said band members talked about their experience and shared their views.
"It becomes political," he said of Heartbeat's shows. "They don't let the music speak for itself; to me, they were upfront about it." Messinger has spoken with several of the band members and shared what he sees as their motivation. "I think they want to place people in perhaps an uncomfortable place to get the questions going and get the conversation going," he said. "What appeals to me about them is they are not 'Let's just give peacce a chance and all you need is love.' I think they are saying something very profound that goes beyond 'can't we all just get along' to we need" change in the ways "Arabs and Jews understand one another for there to be a real lasting and enduring peace."
As for the sponsorship issue, Heartbeat has a policy not to receive funding from any Israeli or Palestinian government institution or from any group that is perceived as partisan, Shneyer said. In addition to the three sponsors that Heartbeat asked be removed, the sponsors also included Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Temple Student Government and Owls for Israel, Shneyer said. "It's simply to uphold the reputation of the organization as a neutral organization and also to protect the safety of the participants when they go home to their communities. It's so important that we work with neutral partners," he said.
Alpert stated in an email that Hillel did not agree to Heartbeat's request to remove the sponsors and said doing so would constitute a "boycott." "We told them that we do not participate in cultural or political boycotts of anyone who is supportive of Israel and that we could not accede to the group's request," Alpert wrote.
He also appeared to issue a warning to other Jewish groups about hosting Heartbeat.
"Hillel and the student leaders who organized the concert are disappointed that the group has evolved from a cultural experience promoting 'coexistence' to one promoting a one-sided, politicized perspective on Israeli society," he wrote in an email. "We recommend that any pro-Israel community organization consider the experience at Temple when thinking about bringing 'Heartbeat' to their constituents." http://m.jewishexponent.com/jexponent/db_335776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=nFCdAQLK

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Walmart Black Friday 2018: Best Laptop Deals From Lenovo, Dell and More…..!
Holiday discount deals are coming close fast and furiously. The people are also very anxious to do the bulk purchase. Therefore, to enhance the excitement of the people Walmart offers a lot of deals for coming Black Friday 2018. It covers almost all its product line for domestic and commercial use as well.
Now the laptop deals are reaching on high edge. Walmart provides a great chance for the technology lover people to buy such excellent technical goods on holiday. Rush towards the Walmart to get the benefit from holiday laptop deals.
As we know that a laptop is a good companion that can widen your everyday life. You can just do almost all activities through it. You can increase your productivity whatever where you are a school or office.
Lenovo has its own appreciation for generating reliable, powerful and economic price laptops for daily use. Its products are energy saving and reliable products because these may have Quad-Core Processor with Intel Core i5-8250U. It has 1.6Mgz Processor and 4GB, DDR3 + 20GB RAM and 16 GB Intel Octane Memory. Lenovo laptop has the latest version of bug-free and smoothest Window 10 installation. Therefore, you can do the best with this.
Graphics are of high in quality that can present a pure and smooth picture quality. So, Lenovo can provide a softer picture view at 15.6" inches.
You can buy it only for $349 instead of full price $499 and save $150.
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You can save $200 on Dell G3 laptop with a holiday price $599. Although the list price of Dell G3 gaming laptop is $799.


Ok, these are so darn yummy! I had these years ago at the Cheesecake Factory and I've always wanted to try and make them for myself. These days there are so many copycat recipes out there for just about anything you're looking for. So I looked and sure enough there were several to try. I particularly liked these and the lime cilantro dipping sauce was perfect with them.
The changes I made to these were adding more cilantro to the avocado mixture. I love cilantro so I added about 1/4 cup instead of 2 TBS. I also added chopped sweet red pepper (1 or 2 TBS.) and about 1/4 cup sweet corn. Adjust amounts to your liking. You could also add black beans.
I fried them in Avocado oil and they came out beautiful. I hope you enjoy these!! We loved them!


After a long winter spent fishing midges on your favorite trout stream, it's nice to switch things up with a little stillwater action once peak runoff hits—just remember to bring a spool of Airflo's Velocity Sinking Fly Line so you're able to put your fly down to where the fish are actually feeding. Its weight-forward taper makes it easier to cast than those old-school sinking lines, and the full intermediate sinking design drops about an inch per second, giving fish plenty of time to eat your fly.
This is a good line for shallow lake fishing for ice out where you need to get 5-10 feet under but getting deeper to catch lake trout (at any time other than ice out) requires a heavier line around 400 to 500 grains.
The line casts well and is a full sinking line which is exactly what you want if you want to avoid the hinge-like effect of sink tip lines and the less than adequate depth you always get with sink tip lines.
The only caution with a full sinking line is that if you are fishing around rocks, be sure you know exactly what the structure you are casting into looks like. The full sinking lines tend to tangle and hang up on rocks and underground structure more often given the entire line between the fly and you is sinking.


Located to the north of Nottingham city centre, Arnold Business Centre provides a mixture of serviced and managed offices to rent, plus studios, a meeting room, workshops, a meeting room, storage units, and a mailbox service.
The fully-restored hosiery mill provides commercial property for a variety of businesses, with units ranging from 100 – 15,000 square feet (9 -1,400 square metres). For example, we are currently home to a vehicle bodywork company, photographer and carpenter, as well as charities and financial service businesses.
Our on-site team includes maintenance and cleaning staff, as well as a welcoming centre manager who organises regular coffee mornings. These give the opportunity to network with other residents, as well as customers from our nearby Roden House Business Centre.
Where is Arnold Business Centre?
We're just a 10-minute walk away from Arnold town centre and the local amenities it offers, including shops, banks, and cafés.
Road: The centre has good motorway access, being less than 20 minutes away from junction 26 of the M1.
Rail: The nearest rail stations are Bulwell and Carlton, both 3 miles away.
Bus: Several bus routes serve the area, linking us to the city centre coach station and its inter-city rail service, connecting Nottingham to London.
Our offices in Arnold, Nottingham, are bright and airy, with large windows that let in plenty of natural light. Many are air-conditioned.
Most of our available offices for rent are between 140 and 672 square feet, so are ideal for sole traders and micro businesses through to medium-sized companies. We also have one large 2,852 sq ft open plan office with air-conditioning and its own kitchen and WC facilities.
Our studios, with their high ceilings, offer a bright, relaxed workspace – perfect for creative minds. Some have been fitted out specifically as music, photographic or art studios.
You can rent units individually or together to fit the needs of your business, with prices starting from just £15 per week.
With small spaces perfect for storage, through to large units designed for light industrial activities, our commercial units each have their own individual benefits.
Some of our workshops to let have their own toilets and kitchen facilities while others have self-contained offices.


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Jordiyali is small but well developed village of Vav taluka of Banaskantha district in Gujarat. It is located at left bank of Luni river. In this village, there is a  temple of Nag devta which was built by Jorji Darbar the king of Jordiyali village.

Villages in Banaskantha district

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Jennifer provides clients with representation and counsel on a broad range of employment matters. She has significant experience defending employers in discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wrongful termination claims in state and federal court, including the representation of employers in actions before Administrative Agencies.
Jennifer also conducts internal investigations related to employment misconduct issues, prepares and updates employment policies and handbooks, negotiates employment and severance agreements, and assists in reductions in force and the onboarding of new employees.
Prior to joining Mintz, Jennifer was senior counsel in the Washington, DC and New York offices of a large law firm where she practiced employment law, commercial litigation, and professional liability.
On May 15, 2018, Governor Hogan signed into law the "Disclosing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act of 2018" (the "Act"). The Act will go into effect on October 1, 2018, and contains two new obligations with which Maryland employers will need to comply.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals holding that a multi-month leave of absence is beyond the scope of a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
On March 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") announced a new pilot program, the Payroll Audit Independent Determination ("PAID") program, which encourages employers to self-report inadvertent overtime and minimum wage violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").
Many state legislatures spent 2017 tinkering with post-employment covenants. Given the growing trend to legislate locally and the employee mobility issues that seem to nag every employer, we thought the New Year would be a perfect time to review and revisit your post-employment covenants.


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Q: How to input therefore sign in mathematica I'm wondering how to input a therefore sign in Mathematica?
For example, I want to input / output something like:
∴ a == 2 + 1 // TraditionalForm
∴ a = 3

However, I get a syntax error. I'm guessing this is because the \[Therefore] is Therefore[x, y] that needs two arguments.
Doing Therefore[None, TraditionalForm[a == 2 + 1]] just seems to output None ∴ a == 3
I don't want to just use a text cell for this purpose, since I would like this to be dynamic.
Any help? Thanks!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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SAY THEIR NAMES: Don't Forget About Black Trans Lives ✊?✊?✊?
Mia Uzzell July 2, 2020
Photo courtesy Ian Reid.
June 1 marked the commencement of Pride Month. These thirty days are annually reserved to champion a community who once endured, and decidedly still is, a historic exile from human rights in every sphere imaginable. Bright-colored rainbow flags, the hallmark symbol of the community, are hoisted proudly across the nation — emblematic of the undaunted valor the LGBTQ+ community yields in seeking visibility.
However, this Pride Month comes on the heels of a global fever pitch of rage, dejection, and sorrow that boiled from a carceral state that remains resolute in enabling police brutality. Within two days of George Floyd's death, protests in his namesake rocked Minneapolis and set the city ablaze. Shortly thereafter, the unrest would intensify into a global wildfire valiantly raging to rise victoriously against the system.
This burgeoning activism encapsulated more than just justice for Floyd's death, but all Black people penalized by the proverbial system. Yet still in the very backyard of Minneapolis, the city that bore witness to the flame that ignited the world, unfolds the complexities of steering an inclusionary movement.
Photo courtesy Facebook {Iyanna Dior)
On the Monday following George Floyd's death, Iyanna Dior, a Black Trans woman in Minneapolis, was attacked by 15 to 30 men in a gas station over a reported fender bender. In the video of the incident that circulated online, the men, who are known as of now to be cis-gendered, are heard spewing transphobic slurs during the assault.
In her rendering of the incident on Facebook Live, Dior shared how the owners of the store declined to call the police after witnessing her visibly fraught and gravely endangered. Dior's experience, which occurred on the first day of Pride Month, cast a blinding light on the violent persecution of Trans people that are routinely ignored.
"Yet still in the very backyard of Minneapolis, the city that bore witness to the flame that ignited the world, unfolds the complexities of steering an inclusionary movement."
In 2019, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) tracked the statistics of violence the LGBTQ+ community is faced with and found that "at least 26 transgender or gender non-conforming people [were] fatally shot or killed by other violent means." Furthermore, 91% of the victims in 2019 were black and 81% of them were under the age of 30. As of their developing 2020 report, the civil rights organization advocating for LGBTQ+ equality "has already seen at least 16 transgender or gender non-conforming people" killed by violence.
On Wednesday, May 27, while Minnesota was beset by the shock of a swiftly rising rebellion, in Florida's capital Tony McDade became at least the twelfth transgender or non-binary victim of violence this year.
Photo courtesy Michael K. Lavers (Washington Blade)
The prefixed phrase "at least" is now embedded in the colloquial language of trans violence reports as it precedes cumbersome statistics to distinctly call attention to the vast misreporting or underreporting of cases. At the helm of misreporting sits culturally incomprehensive police departments whose investigations on trans violence, predominantly with black victims, are bound to go criminally unsolved when misgendering is normalized.
McDade, a black 38-year-old trans masculine person, was fatally shot by the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD). According to TPD, McDade was an alleged suspect of a fatal stabbing and was wielding a weapon at officers before his death. However, an eyewitness report claims there was no weapon insight right before officers arrived nor did the officers instruct McDade to put down the alleged weapon before firing shots.
Revell says "anger is justified" concerning raw feeling on race & policing nationwide. TPD officer involved in this shooting was white, woman shot, now deceased, was black
— Ryan Dailey (@RT_Dailey) May 27, 2020
In a briefing with reporters at the scene, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell, whose incumbency has seen three police-involved shootings thus far, said that "the suspect description that was broadcast was a black female, (wearing) all black, bald, armed with a pistol and a knife." This statement, the initial groundbreaking tweets, and the eyewitness account — all referring to McDade as a female — cascaded into a torrent of local media coverage that misgendered McDade in the wake of his death.
"For Black Trans victims of color, gender markers are emblazoned scarlet letters that deem them unworthy of justice."
In 2018, an intensive investigation by ProPublica to analyze the repercussions of misreporting discovered an unnerving nationally systematic pattern of negligence. After contacting all law enforcement agencies in locations where trans people have been killed since 2015, it was unearthed that 87% of victims were dead named or misgendered by authorities. Deadnaming is the act of referring to a trans person by their name used prior to their transition. For many in the trans community, dead names are eerily reflective of the state of entrapment one woefully exists in when their birth-assigned gender conflicts with their identity.
Both deadnaming and misgendering can excessively slow down, or even stagnate, cases when eyewitnesses, family members, and LGBTQ+ community members chronicle fragments of the story with starkly contrasting descriptions. This leaves a nebulous gray area for police departments, urged with no sense immediacy from a national outcry, to sift through.
Unsurprisingly, police departments are legally cleared to continue to egregiously disregard Trans violence. The inception of this national pattern is tracked to gender markers on state-issued identification that disclose one's birth-assigned identity. With no federal policy instituted, it is up to the state's discretion on whether or not gender markers on ID can be changed to one's identity.
While Trans-friendly states require an amended birth certificate, proof of surgery, and/or court order, in other states trans people must survive severe discrimination in seeking housing and employment when gender markers don't match one's outward appearance. For Black Trans victims of color, gender markers are emblazoned scarlet letters that deem them unworthy of justice.
"For this year's Pride Month, and every month hereafter, remember to pull up a chair at the proverbial table for Black trans people to join the discussion."
When there is a deafening silence surrounding trans victims of violence in the Black Lives Matter conversation, it is a glaring indicator that these victims are scrupulously relegated to the end of the agenda. As a nation, we would be remiss, especially during Pride Month, to not recognize the grueling intersection of transphobia and racism that Trans people of color are affixed to.
The month's celebratory roots date back to The Stonewall Uprising of 1969 that catalyzed a national reckoning. The adopted fervor from that point on gave birth to progressive legislation, a greater expanse of inclusivity, and the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision that federally recognized the fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples.
The lauded sweeping reform isn't curative, unfortunately, to the transphobia that festers throughout the nation. On the anniversary of Pulse, the Trump administration's surreptitious strides to undo Trans-inclusive legislation these past months came to fruition. Black trans people are especially at risk as the revised legislation will sorely permit health care discrimination amid a virus that is disproportionately ravaging the Black community.
With Pride parades, even if virtual, soon to begin during a long-overdue jolt to globally dismantle structural racism, it is time to parse the systems that embolden both racism and transphobia. For this year's Pride Month, and every month hereafter, remember to pull up a chair at the proverbial table for Black trans people to join the discussion.
For more updates, follow MEFeater on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
Tags Black Trans Lives Tony McDade
Mia Uzzell
Mia Uzzell is a second-year journalism student at Florida A&M University with a love for cultural storytelling.
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