Posted on 05/19/2005 2:33:27 PM PDT by Cornpone
LOS ANGELES, May 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A hate message scrawled on the inside cover of a Qur’an copy has rekindled fears of increasing discrimination against American Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
“I was taken back to 9/11, my fear that somebody is going to hurt me,” Azza Basarudin, a graduate student, told a news conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, reported Los Angeles Times on Thursday, May 19.
She had discovered a “Death to all Muslims” message on the inside cover of a Qur’an copy she ordered from Amazon.com.
“I felt that fear coming back. It really hurt me,” Basarudin told the press on Wednesday, May 18.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on May 11, that anti-Muslim hate crimes, discrimination and harassment in the US have increased by half over the past year.
Amnesty International said in a report, on the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies has grown to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.
A May 2004 report by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the US have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Public Apology
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has asked the giant online bookseller to issue a public apology, reported Reuters.
“Amazon has a responsibility to make a public apology and condemnation,” Edina Lekovic, the spokeswoman for MPAC, told the same press conference.
The Muslim group, which was notified of the hate message two weeks ago, asked the online bookseller for a zero-tolerance policy toward sellers and employees.
“It is important for business leaders to come out with a zero tolerance policy”, Lekovic stressed.
Amazon.com has already apologized to Basarudin, refunded her money, sent out a new copy of the Noble Qur'an and issued her a gift certificate.
It also suspended the Pennsylvania-based Bellwether Books, which packaged and mailed the copy, from selling the Noble Qur’an.
“We're deeply sorry and we think we've taken all appropriate steps to make sure this is not done again,” Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said.
Culture of Hatred
The Los Angeles-based MPAC said it also discovered an anti-Muslim message on the voicemail of the Islamic Center on Saturday.
In a taunting tone, the caller said he had just used the Qur'an in the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Salam Al-Marayati, the MPAC director.
“This is a culture of hatred [spread] through … schools, government and here through a bookseller.”
In its May 9 edition, the mass-circulation Newsweek quoted “a knowledgeable US government source” as saying that investigators probing abuses at Guantanamo found that US interrogators “had placed Korans (sic) on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet.”
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Gaza.
After protests from the Pentagon, the weekly cast some doubts on the story in its next edition, saying the source “couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts”.
Ping....
It's time that companies like Wendy's and Amazon quit bending over and taking the assumed blame for this kind of stuff. While Wendy's was being gentle with the woman perpetrating a scam on them - I'm sure there was a perceptible loss to shareholders.
And this is a problem?
already posted, complete with the Wendy's observation :)
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Salam Al-Marayati, the MPAC director.
“This is a culture of hatred [spread] through … schools, government and here through a bookseller.”
Poor you.
Welcome to our world, where the consensus among muslims is that all of us infidels deserve to die.
I guess one can only see so many taped beheadings in the name of "allah" before one begins to develop negative feelings toward Islam.
Sorry your feelings were hurt, but I bet Nick Berg's neck was bothering him a lot more in those last few seconds of life.
CNS NEWS.com: "FREE KORANS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" by Susan Jones (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Over the weekend, CAIR held a conference in the Washington area on the causes and remedies of "Islamophobia and anti-Americanism."") (May 17, 2005)
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Salam Al-Marayati, the MPAC director.
“This is a culture of hatred [spread] through … schools, government and here through a bookseller.”
Poor you.
Welcome to our world, where the consensus among muslims is that all of us infidels deserve to die.
I guess one can only see so many taped beheadings in the name of "allah" before one begins to develop negative feelings toward Islam.
Sorry your feelings were hurt, but I bet Nick Berg's neck was bothering him a lot more in those last few seconds of life.
Smells like a chili finger to me..
Osama thought he could shut down the American economy by destroying the World Trade Center. Clearly, he had it wrong. All it takes is CAIR, MAS, ISNA, MPAC and other Muslim 'civil rights' groups to shout boo and our spineless, PC, un-American corporate leaders and politicians hang their heads in submissive dhimmitude and beg forgiveness for unsubstantiated claims of desecration to the 'Noble Qur'an.' Idiots, wimps and defeatists.
They have truly assimilated into our Oprah world.
Typical Islamic crap.....zero tolerance
Ding-Dong
PING
Proper disposal for a defiled K'ran is to be flushed down the toilet?
Besides that, I rather imagine that it is a lie anyway. The packers at Amazon have to work so fast they hardly have time to breathe, much less scrawl notes in the books they are shipping.
In the future, maybe Muslims should order from Barnes and (ig)Noble. They LOVE terrorists and terrorist enablers there.
I'm not on the road to dhimmitude. I don't think you are on the road to dhimmitude. I don't believe anyone in the Free Republic is on the road to dhimmitude. The question is, what do we do we do about our politicians that are leading us down that road? I say write them and express our disgust over their abandonment of our values.
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