Posted on 09/22/2002 7:07:17 PM PDT by Stultis
Posted on Sun, Sep. 22, 2002
Florida Muslims try to right some people's tilted view
By CASSIO FURTADO
cfurtado@herald.com
Officials from Islamic organizations in Florida gathered Saturday to look for ways they could influence some Americans' perceptions of Muslims in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
At a conference at the Signature Grand in Davie, the officials showed visible anger at the detention of three Muslim students on Alligator Alley nine days ago and the media coverage of the incident. The students were arrested after police received a tip that they might be terrorists planning an attack.
The officials also complained of unfair treatment toward Muslims in the United States, comparing the treatment they have received in the past year to the way Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II.
''Other ethnic groups that wanted to make America their home went through the same thing,'' said Parvez Ahmed, a professor at the University of North Florida at Jacksonville.
Ahmed Bedier, of the Islamic Society of Pinellas County, said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, ``the threat to Muslims reached an all-time high.''
''They are concentrating their efforts on Muslims, the most law-abiding people in this country,'' Bedier said. ``They don't drink, they don't smoke, they don't commit adultery. What's so scary about that?''
He said that if Muslims didn't act to reverse perceptions, ''Alligator Alley is just the beginning'' and urged Muslims to be proud of their religion. ''Walk in the streets with your head high, unite or we're going to lose,'' he said.
Bedier noted the discrepancy between media and police handling of the Sept. 13 incident and the case of Robert Goldstein, a 37-year-old Tampa doctor arrested on charges of planning to blow up mosques.
Goldstein was arrested Aug. 23. Police found in his home more than 30 explosive devices, including hand grenades and a five-gallon gasoline bomb with a timer and a wire attached, prosecutors said. Also, according to prosecutors: a cache of up to 40 weapons, including .50-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles.
Ahmed, the professor at the University of North Florida, said ``characters like Dr. Goldstein are a direct result of the stereotypes of Muslims in the media.''
The burden to change ''will be on our shoulders,'' said Altaf Ali, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida.
Imam Rafiq Mehdi, of Sunrise, said Muslims should be the first to condemn those who use Islam's name to commit criminal acts.
Jack Michel, the chief executive officer of Larkin Community Hospital, where the three Muslim students were to train, said the media had been ''completely irresponsible'' in its coverage of the incident.
Michel, whose hospital has been under fire for rescinding the students' clinical rotations at Larkin because of security concerns, said that in the Alligator Alley episode, ``we have seen the worst in America.''
Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, criticized a series of steps taken by the INS since Sept. 11, which include a rule that requires nonresidents to report changes of address within 10 days of a move.
Little said these rules gave Americans a false sense of security.
''It is a war on terrorism, not a war on immigrants,'' she said.
Sayed Hemayed, of the Muslim American Society, said that mistreating immigrants was the ``beginning of the destruction of a country.''
''It's me today, it's you tomorrow, it's one after another,'' Hemayed said after urging Muslims.
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, said, ``We don't have to sacrifice freedoms to be safe. We can't abandon constitutional principles.''
YOU are what's scary, Ahmed.
For example, I know any number of Muslims who drink, and who smoke. Most of them keep the five pillars, but don't sweat the small stuff. But to you, these aren't "real" Muslims, now are they? Narrow-minded, intollerant monoculture muslim-o-bots like you and your CAIR-horts are scary as hell, even with all concerns regarding terrorism to one side. If you don't understand this, and why this is so, then you don't understand America.
"Moderate islam is the trojan horse of radical islam."
That's bull. Islam requires major reform, in fact needs to become a reformist religion like Christianity and Judaism have. Many Muslims recognize this.
Even in the most democratic, moderate forms of Islam it is clear that the only punishment for anyone who leaves Islam is death. I've yet to hear any moderate Muslim say otherwise.
See Democracy According to Isalm by Dr. Niaz Faizi Kabuli which John Esposito of Georgetown University calls an important work on this subject.
Militant, radical Islamic "reformers" are a problem for Moslems, too. These offspring of the original Wahhabs and reconstituted Assassins have organized out of their desert exile to once again bully the Arab world. They must be squished like bugs. But to sweepingly condem all Moslems is wierd. If they live by the Golden Rule, I have no problem with them. And most do. Consider the young Iranians, now struggling against these buttheads in their own country.
I wonder what would have happened to anybody holding up an "Islam Is a Suicidal Death Cult " sign.
Probably would have been decapitated by one of the towel headed psychotic murdering subhumans.
So Jewsw or Christians immigrating to, say Saudi Arabia, will be treated with full respect?? And allowed to practice their religion openly?
Well, Mr Bedier, most of those folks who do smoke, drink, and commit adultry didn't happen to fly two passenger jets into the World Trade Center. Nor did most of the folks who drink, smoke and commit adultry jump for joy in the streets and/or silently condone the attacks.
Mr. Bedier, the people who DID fly those airliners into the World Trade Center, and jump for joy in the streets, and remain silent as to any condemnation of the actions, are/were Muslim. MUSLIM!
While this does not accuse all Muslims, pardon me if I happen to look a little askance at the practicioners of the 'Religion of Peace', while their compatriots continue to speak of killing more Americans with abandon.
I suspect, Mr. Bedier, that there are quite a few folks like myself who, while giving the benefit of doubt, and wish to believe that we can all make a circle, link arms, and sing 'Kumbaya', are silently getting tired and a bit angry at being made to look like the bad guys for being a bit wary.
As a side note, if those students were 'joking', their ordeal should remind them and others from the Middle East that this is not a laughing matter to a lot of Americans who saw 3,000 innocent people die on September 11, 2001. I honestly fear for the well being of American society, and especially for those segments of Middle East extraction, if another 'event' like September 11 occurs.
Better, I think, to apply for permission to set up a missionary church -- you pick the denomination. Just be sure there are plenty of news cameras watching.
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