Right Wing Extremism

[lismore]

I feel very lucky to be living in England. Rarely do I hear of religious extremism from Christianity. Mainly, these days it seems to be the very tiny minority of Sharia law-loving, fundie Muslims.

True!

 

[TheManeki]

Police: Cab Driver Stabbed By Passenger Who Asked "Are You Muslim?"
Muslim cab driver Ahmed Sharif, victim in bloody attack, saw 'so much hate' in face of assailant
Mayor seeks to calm cabbie, NYC after knife attack
Meet Michael Enright: Photo Essay

Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when [Michael Enright] hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

---

Enright, a senior at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, returned from Afghanistan in May after 35 days of filming a documentary about front-line troops.

When he was arrested Tuesday in midtown, Enright had a personal diary filled with pages of "pretty strong anti-Muslim comments," a police source said.

The source said Enright's journal equated Muslims with "killers, ungrateful for the help they were being offered, filthy murderers without a conscience..."

Friends of Enright were baffled, but said he had become short-tempered and withdrawn since returning from Afghanistan.

"He seemed a lot more quiet. He seemed to be a lot more pulled back than he used to," said a friend, who asked not to be identified.

---

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group, said anti-Islam sentiment has bubbled up with new fervor during the debate about the mosque, leading to more bias incidents nationwide.

In addition to the cab driver stabbing, a mosque in Madera, Calif., was vandalized, and anti-Muslim graffiti was discovered in the parking lot of a Texas Islamic center, the group said.

"Hate rhetoric often leads to hate crimes, and I think that's what we're seeing now," spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.

 

[EADGBE]

Police: Cab Driver Stabbed By Passenger Who Asked "Are You Muslim?"
Muslim cab driver Ahmed Sharif, victim in bloody attack, saw 'so much hate' in face of assailant
Mayor seeks to calm cabbie, NYC after knife attack
Meet Michael Enright: Photo Essay

This is sad. Also, the video where black man was harassed at the NYC mosque (it isn't a mosque, it is a community center) just because he looked muslim made me ill.

The Right Wing is doing nothing but fanning the flames of hatred.

I have been on Yahoo news recently and some of the comments are some of the most vitriolic I've ever read. Comments like "if they build it, we will blow it up", etc.

Michelle

 

[mandyangel]

I think building the mosque is a very mean thing to do. I remember how sad I was on that day. It worries me what these mosques people are intending to do there, I can't think of anything more insensitive than what theyre doing. If Muslimism is a religion at all, wheres the respect for Americans?

 

[kiwimac]

1: Muslims died in the WTC buildings and as First Responders on 11/9.
2: The Muslims are revamping an old coat factory 2 blocks away into a cultural centre which will contain a prayer-room NOT a Masjid.
3: The Muslims both own the land and have the building permissions.

 

[TheManeki]

This is sad. Also, the video where black man was harassed at the NYC mosque (it isn't a mosque, it is a community center) just because he looked muslim made me ill.

The Right Wing is doing nothing but fanning the flames of hatred.

I have been on Yahoo news recently and some of the comments are some of the most vitriolic I've ever read. Comments like "if they build it, we will blow it up", etc.

Hmmm...it sounds like RW extremism is becoming more mainstream, doesn't it? Not only is that very sad, but we might have to change the thread title. "Right Wing Mainstreamism" would work, except it isn't very catchy...

 

[Merlin Athrawes]

Hmmm...it sounds like RW extremism is becoming more mainstream, doesn't it? Not only is that very sad, but we might have to change the thread title. "Right Wing Mainstreamism" would work, except it isn't very catchy...

Sigh. I honestly think the only reason America isn't an outright fascist nation right now is simply because we're too large, populous, diverse, and unwieldy for a top-down movement like fascism to govern it effectively. (On Edit: And even that could eventually prove untrue someday.) It's not for lack of effort by the fascists.

 

[Merlin Athrawes]

I think building the mosque is a very mean thing to do. I remember how sad I was on that day. It worries me what these mosques people are intending to do there, I can't think of anything more insensitive than what theyre doing. If Muslimism is a religion at all, wheres the respect for Americans?

I hear you. I worked in a mall store at the time, and I had to go in that afternoon after the attacks had gone down. When I left home, there was talk the death toll might top 30,000 instead of "only" the 3,000 or so it turned out to be. There was also flash news of a bomb that hit Kabul, Afghanistan that night their time, and I honestly thought Bush had hauled off and nuked the place.

It was a frightening day where literally nobody knew what might happen next, and anything from bad to worse was possible. Our mall didn't close for the day IIRC but our store didn't have many customers, there wasn't a lot of traffic elsewhere in the mall, much of the traffic was watching store TVs for more news rather than really shopping. There was a lot of fear that day and for the next several days.

Though I think the "Ground Zero Mosque" group has the First Amendment right to worship in peace as they please, and has the right to build where NYC lets them build, I can't honestly say I think building there is a smart idea.

That said, though I would say further that most Muslims in America are not that mean, and that not only do these not approve of terrorism, but many of them moved over here specifically to escape from the right-wing Islamism and terrorism for which the goons of 9/11 stood. I'm not in any case down with maiming, killing, and otherwise persecuting otherwise law-abiding, innocent people just for being themselves.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

I also heard they planned to inaugurate the building on 9/11/11. I don't know how true that is, but if it is true, then it strikes me as a very "nyah, nyah, in-your-face-America" thing to do. Sure, they *have* the right, but does that *make* it right?

 

[TheManeki]

I also heard they planned to inaugurate the building on 9/11/11.

Incorrect; that's simply one of many falsehoods that has sprung up on the subject. I would recommend everyone check out factcheck.org's summary of what is going on.

Perhaps the time has come to begin a new thread discussing the community center/mosque that would be located a on a side street a couple of blocks from Ground Zero? I'd really appreciate it if we could keep this thread on topic.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

Incorrect; that's simply one of many falsehoods that has sprung up on the subject.

Thank you.

 

[TheManeki]

Sadly, on a related note:

Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson

Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.

Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson...

Opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer; they are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.

"They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group," Bob Shelton, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in the area, told The Associated Press.

Report of shots fired near mosque site being investigated

Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.

The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.

A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.

The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.

 

[TheManeki]

San Antonio mosque vandalized amid national tensions over NYC mosque

Molotov Cocktail thrown at Madera's Planned Parenthood

 

[Im_A]

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania:

Police: Stolen guns were to be used to overthrow the government

Not very far from where I live.

 

[TheManeki]

Concord, NC: Man Arrested in Abortion Clinic Bomb Plot

26-year-old Justin Carl Moose was arrested Tuesday on charges of providing information on how to make a bomb to a person he believed was planning to bomb a women’s health clinic in North Carolina. Moose used Facebook, a social networking site, to advocate violence against women’s healthcare clinics, according to the criminal complaint, specifically locations where abortions are performed and the healthcare professionals employed at these facilities...

During a recorded conversation, Moose referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart of Usama Bin Laden [sic]."

According to the complaint, Moose is a part of a group called the Army of God, which is considered a Christian terrorist anti-abortion organization that sanctions the use of force to combat abortion.

 

[TheManeki]

Vonore, Tennessee: Lesbian couple's home destroyed by arsonist

...while the two were celebrating an anniversary in Nashville, their house was burned to the ground. Whoever set the fire, which has been deemed an arson, also painted “queers” in large letters on the side of the garage...

The MCSD and the FBI are investigating the crime as a possible hate crime, and the state Bomb and Arson squad is also conducting interviews, but nothing conclusive has been determined.

 

[TheManeki]

Salem, Oregon: Bank bombing trials open with allegations of anti-government extremism

Bruce Turnidge was so fervent about protecting his right to have guns that he once sought to build and supply his own private militia, prosecutors said. His son, Joshua Turnidge, disdained police officers, calling them thieves and believing them all to be corrupt...

They feared Obama's election would mean more gun restrictions...

An employee at the Turnidges' biodiesel business recalled that Joshua Turnidge was "practically frantic" after the election about getting cash to reclaim his pawned guns as soon as he could, Suver said.

Then on Dec. 12, 2008, she said, the Turnidges planted a bomb outside the West Coast Bank in Woodburn. It ended up exploding inside the bank, killing two police officers, critically injuring a third and wounding a bank employee.

 

[TheManeki]

Running total so far:

1 church shooting
1 museum shooting
5 police officers killed in the line of duty
1 mosque bombed, another burned to the ground, another vandalized
2 Planned Parenthood clinics bombed
1 family home burned to the ground
Several murders and assaults

Not to mention more plans that were stopped before they could add to the above totals.

 

[TheManeki]

Here's a follow-up to the story in post 17:

Jailhouse Confession: How the right-wing media and Glenn Beck's chalkboard drove Byron Williams to plot assassination

 

[TheManeki]

Corvalis, Oregon, 29 November 2010

Someone set fire to an Islamic center on Sunday, two days after a man who worshipped there was accused of trying to blow up a van full of explosives during Portland's Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Other Muslims fear it could be the first volley of misplaced retribution...

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton vowed to prosecute the case aggressively.

"The fact is that violent extremists come from all religions and no religion at all. For one person to blame a group, if that's what happened here, is uniquely anti-American and will be pursued with the full force of the Justice Department," he said.

Fire at Mosque of Man Caught in Sting