Signs and graffiti?
"It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."
I got your "graffiti" right here:
Posted on 06/27/2004 7:26:04 AM PDT by veronica
Muslims and Arabs in America face increased hostility
The recent beheading of two Americans have added fuel to the angry backlash against Arab-Americans and Muslims that began after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The killing of Paul Johnson and Nicholas Berg triggered increased hate mail, verbal attacks and anti-Muslim graffiti.
Death threats against American Muslims have risen and mosques have been vandalised.
"Since 9/11, every time there is an incident overseas attributed to Muslims or Arabs, we go on orange alert ourselves," said immigration solicitor Sohail Muhammad.
"There are individuals here who are off the wall, who think that every woman who wears a hijab or every man named Muhammad is out to blow things up," he added.
Dissidents thought to have ties with al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia decapitated Johnson, an American engineer, after warning that they would kill him if the Saudi government did not release detainees. Berg, a businessman, met a similar fate last month in Iraq.
Anti-Islam sentiment
Following Johnson's death, anti-Islam signs surfaced around the rural New Jersey neighbourhood where he once lived. One read "Stamp Out Islam" next to a drawing of a boot over a crescent and star. Another, hung on a mailbox next door to Johnson's sister's home, was more detailed.
"There are individuals here who are off the wall, who think that every woman who wears a hijab or every man named Muhammad is out to blow things up"
Sohail Muhammad, Immigration solicitor
"Last night I wasn't a racist, but today I feel racism towards Islamic beliefs," it read. "Last night Islamics (sic) had a chance to speak up for Paul Johnson, but today it's too late. Islamics better wake up and start thinking about tomorrow."
The New Jersey attorney general sent bias crimes investigators to the area, along with stepped-up state police patrols. The signs are gone now, replaced with hand-lettered placards on utility poles that say "Our prayers are with the Johnson family."
But more anti-Muslim graffiti appeared on Thursday at a Muslim man's home in Egg Harbour Township.
'Worst fears'
"It's really our fear coming true," said Faiza Ali of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."
Relatives of Johnson, in a statement made through a church pastor after a memorial service on Saturday, said that they hope his legacy is one of peace in the land he grew to love during more than a decade abroad.
"When history is written on the war on terrorism, let Paul's death be the catalyst that led to thousands more Westerners working in harmony with people in the Middle East to ensure fear and barbaric acts against free peoples come to an end," Reverend Kyle Huber of Greentree Church said.
The day after Johnson's death, a coalition of Muslim groups in Paterson, the heart of New Jersey's Arab-American community, held a rally to condemn the killing
Mosques vandalised
A few days later, vandals tossed empty liquor and beer bottles at a mosque in Union City as congregants inside mourned a teenager who died in a car crash.
Some Americans have threatened to behead Muslims in the US
"If they are throwing empty bottles today, they could be throwing rocks, or worse, shooting at us tomorrow," said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New Jersey chapter.
Two mosques in Florida were vandalised in the days after Johnson's killing.
In the Tampa suburb of Lutz, someone broke into the Islamic Community Centre and scrawled "Kill All Muslims" on the mosque's interior walls, then smashed windows. In Charlotte Harbor, someone vandalised a mosque's sign and left threatening phone messages.
In the St Louis suburb of Ballwin, Missouri, vandals painted a swastika and the word "Die" on the wall of the Dar-al-Islam mosque.
Mosque construction protested
In Texas, dead fish were dumped near the entrance sign to a mosque under construction in a suburb of Houston.
And in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, residents urged officials this past week to reject a mosque's building application.
A Baptist pastor told a public hearing he feared it would attract Islamic extremists and violence. The centre was approved over boos and catcalls from the audience.
"I believe the time is coming when Muslims will not be safe inside the US borders," one man wrote to the Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"I see nothing wrong with us doing the same things to them that they are doing to innocent people."
"It is high time you people wake up and smell the blood," another man wrote to Assaf's group in New Jersey.
"Turn in the terrorists. They are your relatives, in a lot of cases. Cousin Omar. Uncle Mohammad. You know what I mean. Until you come forward to help us stamp out this vermin, you are as bad as they."
Signs and graffiti?
"It indicates a hatred that could turn into something violent."
I got your "graffiti" right here:
You notice that this doesn't seem to bother the Muslims in this country:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1160971/posts
Many thanks!
My Rx is lead alloy, placed at a good rate of speed, between the eyes. It is a sure and certain cure.
Don't forget "panties on the head."
So much more horrible than shooting pregnant women and little babies point-blank, blowing up buses and cafes, and sawing heads off kidnapped infidels.
This is about the 5th or 6th such article in the last two days.
Must mean the barbarians are losing, and they know it.
The best way to end war and ensure peace is to kill the enemy.
"Onward muslims Soldiers" is a great read.
I have been anti-muslim since the ayatollah's fanatics took over the US embassy in Teheran, in 1979. This war has been real personal since 10-23-83, and the murder of two close Marine buddies, along with 239 other US Marines, Sailors and Soldiers who shared the Marine barrack in Beirut.
Our government, and citizenry, as a whole, is still in a fog re islam and it's true intentions.
Semper Fi, USMC 1970-1981
Why not. He's an anti-American draft-dodger anyway.
I remember those muslim girls on TV too, we need a copy of that tape!!!
They haven't seen anything yet. I think it's going to get much worse. They waited too long to speak up. Americans are very angry, and it's likely they will vent that anger toward those who belong to the religion that advocates killing Americans!!
If their cr*p keeps up, it's only gonna get higher!!!!
Exactly. I don't agree with the sentiment that all Muslims are terrorists, but this story smacks of extreme defensiveness. A few nasty messages don't equal a wave of anti-Muslim repression. And frankly, if Muslim groups rush to claim victim status every time someone makes a bone-headed comment, they do themselves no favors and may in fact fuel a real backlash. If you try to stifle legitimate, reasoned discussion, people's fears could come out in other ways.
Like our Bible, there are many chapters in the Koran. The first chapter consists mainly of various prayers to Allah; however, starting in the second chapter, the entire book is riddled with statements about how non-believers are to be treated.
In Chapter 3, Verse 151 is the most chilling. It says, "We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they set up with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and their abode is the fire, and evil is the abode of the unjust."
Islamists are not people we can negotiate or discourse with or, heaven forbid, appease. Their only goal is the annihilation of all non-believers, and they will not be satisfied until they succeed.
With the gaggle of namby-pamby, politically correct imbeciles who flock to defend their "religion" and their reasons, we don't stand a chance!
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