The Arab World Is On Fire Lately

Figuratively, in the media, I mean it’s almost as news-worthy as Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen nowadays. I mean, eight years of war in Iraq had to fight for a few minutes on the news here and there, but now it’s all about the people’s uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and so on.

Even on the subject of Islam and Muslims the good blogs are trouncing me at my own game. Here’s Wonkette a couple days ago with three posts about Muslims in America: one on jackasses hired by the govt to give misinformation about Islam, one about Christians throwing crosses at a Muslim man praying, and one about a crowd of good Americans chanting insults and curses at a Muslims attending a charity fundraiser.

I think you can see how full of God’s love these Christians are in the videos posted on Gawker.

And here’s a CNN article from late last year about how some whites in the US now perceive themselves as a minority. Yes, the group that is extremely well represented in both houses of Congress, all the nation’s CEOs, and who fielded 43 of 44 US presidents, feels oppressed.

A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found 44% of Americans surveyed identify discrimination against whites as being just as big as bigotry aimed at blacks and other minorities. The poll found 61% of those identifying with the Tea Party held that view, as did 56% of Republicans and 57% of white evangelicals.

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh argued in a radio show that Republicans are an “oppressed minority” in need of a “civil rights movement” because its members willingly sit in the “back of the bus” and “are afraid of the fire hoses and the dogs.”

Conservative news outlets ran a number of stories last summer highlighting an incident from the 2008 elections, in which activists from the New Black Panther Party appeared to be intimidating voters at a polling place. Those claims were never proven.

Peter Brimelow, author of “Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster,” asserts that much of white America’s anxiety derives from living under a black president and changing demographics.

Diversity, he says, “is not strength.”

James Edwards, host of the “Political Cesspool” radio show, isn’t shy about naming those interests. He says white Americans have become the “dispossessed majority” and that coming demographic changes may turn the United States into a “Third-World flop-house.”

You know what would turn the US into a third-world flop-house? Continuing its course of anti-intellectualism, believing that Fox News presents news, putting faith before reason, weakening public education, closing libraries, ending integration programs, downplaying and undermining scientific data, failing to keep church and state separate, and a host of other actions that large segments of the white, Christian population are embracing with open arms.

Now whites are victims of pervasive racism, Edwards says.

“They’re the victims of it every day. Anything a white conservative does that a liberal doesn’t like is called racism.”

Gay Man Beaten to Death by Religious Zealots

The New York Times has the story.

NAIROBI, Kenya — An outspoken Ugandan gay activist whose picture recently appeared in an anti-gay newspaper under the headline “Hang Them” was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police said on Thursday.

David Kato, the activist, was one of the most visible defenders of gay rights in a country so homophobic that government leaders have proposed to execute gay people. Mr. Kato and other gay people in Uganda had recently warned that their lives were endangered, and four months ago a local paper called Rolling Stone published a list of gay people, and Mr. Kato’s face was on the front page.

He was attacked in his home Wednesday afternoon and beaten in the head with a hammer, said Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman. But police officials said they don’t believe this was a hate crime.

“It looks like theft, as some things were stolen,” Mrs. Nabakooba said.

Gay activists disagreed and said Mr. Kato was singled out for his outspoken defense of gay rights. “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. Evangelicals in 2009,” said Val Kalende, the chairperson of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

Mrs. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals who held anti-gay rallies and church leaders who authored the anti-gay bill, which is still pending, attended those meetings and said that they had worked with the Americans on their bill.

Don’t you hate the way Muslims Christians are always resorting to violence? You’d almost think that Jesus ever said anything about homosexuality.

I’m guessing press coverage here would be slightly different if we had any reason to believe the murderers were Muslims. “Honor killing” springs to mind. But when it’s Christians, they don’t even mention it.

Take David Bahati, for instance, the Ugandan MP who introduced the “death-to-gays” bill. His Wikipedia entry makes no mention of his religion (Christian). Think it’d be the same if he were Muslim?

“Because Muslims Hate Dogs”

Story found at Talking Points Memo. A bunch of moron islamophobes out in California are determined to stop a mosque from being built in Riverside County.

It seems the anti-mosque protesters in California have torn a few pages from the Abu Ghraib field manual. Protesters of a planned mosque and Muslim community center in Riverside County, California are calling on locals to come to a rally outside an existing mosque with their pet dogs because, as the protest organizer says, Muslims “hate dogs.”

“We will not be submissive,” the notice proclaimed. “Our voices are going to be heard!” The alert went on to question what its authors described as Islamic beliefs. It suggested that participants sing during the rally because Muslim “women are forbidden to sing.” It suggested that rally participants bring dogs because Muslims “hate dogs.”

Brilliant scholarship, guys. Here are some photos, found on the internet in a few seconds, of Muslims and dogs:

Are you feeling the hate?

And to go with that, here are Muslim women singing:

Pesky facts.

————–
UPDATE: I looked more closely and realized at least three of those pictures are of the same man. And another two are of the same man, who might or might not be the same as the first three. I will go hunting for more pictures of different Muslims who don’t hate dogs if I must.

But let’s see what I can do right quick:

From Humane Society International:

Almost no one in Qatar wants a saluki because they are so common there. People there prefer “exotic” breeds like German shepherds.

This from an Omani blog, Muscat Confidential:

The ruling, published in mid-January, had escaped my notice – probably because I don’t have a dog. But it would seem to put an end to evening strolls with your dog. Early morning horseback-rides (or camel rides?) on the beach must now be considered to be illegal too.

Now, there was a couple of real problems that arguably did need addressing – selfish and inconsiderate dog owners who would let their animals run around off the leash on public beaches (especially problematic at Intercon beach), and dog owners who leave their dog shit all over the place instead of picking it up.

Loonwatch Continues to Rock

Loonwatch continues to be the blog I’d like to be. Here are a couple of recent posts over there:

Muslim Store Owner Harassed Due to Ignorance

“They’ve threatened to kill me; sometimes they’re cursing when they call,” a resigned Master said Thursday in his shop.

Trouble is, all the indignation is the product of a massive misunderstanding, illustrating the awesome — and sometimes damaging – power of the Internet.

Master, who describes himself as a proud American citizen, isn’t a terrorist sympathizer. He’s just a shopkeeper who inadvertently touched a very raw nerve.

It started when the Muslim merchant posted a sign at his shop during Ramadan explaining the store would be closed Sept. 11 to remember the death of Imam Ali, a sacred Muslim figure. Master failed, however, to explain that Ali, who is remembered on a different date each year during Ramadan, died in 661 A.D. and was in no way related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Death threats? Impossible, right? Only angry Muslims ever make death threats. Why, everybody on the internet knows that.

Germany’s Anonymous Mosque Watchers

“Do you see that the letter ‘I’ in DITIB resembles a minaret? And that the minarets look like missiles?” he asks, beseechingly. It isn’t always easy for Werner to make himself understood.

Psst! Just because you’re misunderstood doesn’t mean you’re a genius.

And I recommend this BlogHer post on the mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center, or as you might have heard it called: The Ground Zero Mosque!! ZOMG!!

But what most people don’t know is that the so-called “Mega Mosque” is actually a community center that New Yorkers hope to build, appropriately called “Park 51” for its location.

According to the Park 51 website, the facility “will be dedicated to pluralism, service, arts and culture, education and empowerment, appreciation for our city and respect for our planet. Park51 will join New York to the world, offering a welcoming community center with multiple points of entry.”

According to an outside consultant working directly with Park 51, who agreed to speak about the project on the condition of anonymity, if built, Park 51 (a non-profit facility) would cover 150,000 square feet and stand approximately 13 to 15 stories high. The space would be divided into a prayer space for Muslims and include meeting spaces, meditation rooms, a memorial dedicated to 9/11, a spa, basketball court, swimming pool, auditorium, and classrooms offering everything from digital photography to language classes, all open to the public. The entire facility would also be green and include a garden.

The other day I had a conversation with an elderly relative who was mocking the “al-Qaeda” mosque where they want to celebrate and dance on people’s graves…so on my way home I decided to research the whole thing and do a reasoned blog post about it. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find cold hard facts yet. Lots of Islamophobes are screaming about it, and its backers are giving explanations, but I would really some just plain facts. I’ll keep on it.

Also from the BlogHer post:

“It’s become comedic to me,” said Oz Sultan, PR liaison and programming project manager for Park 51, regarding comments made by Pamela Gellar. “None of these groups have talked to us, and we’ve been open to let them know we’ll talk to them. We were part of the community that was affected –- Muslim people in the community lost family members [on 9/11], too.”

And from this CNN article, a truly moronic quote from a true moron:

“We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilations and mass slaughter,” Geller said.

Hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars? Also, what’s a land enslavement?