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Pro-Islamist spin at ABC
ABC News ^ | 12/7/2004 | Leela Jacinto

Posted on 12/08/2004 10:32:54 AM PST by harmodius

Dec. 7, 2004 — It was not what she said, but the way she looked and her manner of dress that had the crowd hooting and jeering as she addressed a conference in Paris last year.

When Salma Yaqoob, a 32-year-old British Muslim activist, took the stand at the November 2003 European Social Forum, she was taken aback by the ruckus.

As chairwoman of the Stop the War Coalition in Birmingham, England, Yaqoob was in Paris to talk about the backlash against British Muslims sparked off by the war on terror during a session titled "Dimensions of Islam." But it was her veil, or hijab, that turned into the subject of an acrimonious dispute.

This was months before France passed a controversial law banning head scarves in public schools, and Yaqoob, a psychotherapist who took up community service shortly after the 9/11 attacks, says she was rattled by the audience hostility.

"I was genuinely shocked how people reacted just because I happened to be wearing a hijab," Yaqoob recalled in a phone interview. "It was actually a very upsetting experience. It was shocking to see people so passionate and, in my view, so ignorant of basic things, basic things like etiquette. [They] felt they had a right to behave that way in the name of what they thought was freedom and liberation."

In the Netherlands — a country famed for its relaxed attitude to everything from pot smoking to prostitution — at least 14 Muslim buildings and schools were attacked in the troubled days following the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Islamist extremist. Postings in online chat rooms showed a rising anti-Muslim feeling. "Today is the day I became a racist," read one typical message.

And when a TV contest recently asked viewers to name the "greatest Dutchman ever," they chose Pim Fortuyn — a self-avowed anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant politician who was killed by a white animal rights activist in 2002.

In neighboring Belgium, the country's highest court recently ruled the far-right Vlaams Blok party racist and stripped it of its funding and TV access rights, forcing it to disband. Party leaders say they plan to reconstitute under a new name.

In Denmark, an Islamophobic party came in third in the 2001 elections, foreshadowing Jean-Marie Le Pen's right-wing party's stunningly strong showing in the French elections the next year.

"There is definitely a rise in Islamophobia across Europe," said Liz Fekete, deputy director of the London-based Institute of Race Relations. "Muslims collectively are being blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center, and there is a general punitive climate toward Muslims. This has manifested itself in a variety of ways. On the ground, there has been a rise in racial violence on Muslim targets across Europe. And the biggest problem is that the scale of the problem has not been acknowledged," Fekete said.

For rest of article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=289575&page=1


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: islam
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Yeah, sure, Europeans have nothing to fear from the rising Muslim populations inside their countries ... because it's not like Muslims have ever done anything that would arouse suspicion or fear, right? It's a religion of peace, after all, and anyone who says otherwise is a racist (or gets killed by Muslim thugs).

This is the sort of nonsense you get from a "mainstream" news organization. The only bad people are the ones who don't want millions of Muslims flooding their countries. And then they wonder why people are turning to FOX News or Web-based alternative media sources.

Of course, what can you expect from a media outlet that has Peter Jennings at its helm?

1 posted on 12/08/2004 10:32:54 AM PST by harmodius
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To: harmodius

At least ABC, on Dec. 7, didn't blame Pearl Harbor on the US for overthrowing the Hawaian monarchy.


2 posted on 12/08/2004 10:35:11 AM PST by Semper Paratus
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To: Valin; nuconvert; Old Student; Cultural Jihad; AdmSmith; crail; traviskicks

This thread bears watching.


3 posted on 12/08/2004 10:37:04 AM PST by Chemist_Geek ("Drill, R&D, and conserve" should be our watchwords! Energy independence for America!)
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To: harmodius
"Pro-Islamist spin at ABC"

Well there's a Shocker!!

4 posted on 12/08/2004 10:41:07 AM PST by groovychick (I have nothing to say for myself)
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To: harmodius

I consider a hijab to be an admission that the person is a threat to everything I know and love. Clearly, I am not the only one who feels this way.


5 posted on 12/08/2004 10:45:50 AM PST by thoughtomator (The Era of Old Media is over! Long live the Pajamasphere!)
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To: harmodius
Postings in online chat rooms showed a rising anti-Muslim feeling. "Today is the day I became a racist," read one typical message.

Islam isn't a race.

6 posted on 12/08/2004 10:46:18 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

It's a cult.


7 posted on 12/08/2004 10:46:49 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: harmodius

she said

[They] felt they had a right to behave that way in the name of what they thought was freedom and liberation.


I would answer...yes they do have the right to behave that way that the thing you muslims dont get.


8 posted on 12/08/2004 10:48:21 AM PST by Prysson
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: harmodius

Slowly......the Western world wakes up.....


10 posted on 12/08/2004 10:50:44 AM PST by Ashamed Canadian
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To: harmodius

As heard on Rush Limbaugh after 9-11

"The President of the ABC News Division spoke to a university...and was asked by a student which side he was on (after 9-11)...he said he was a reporter, he could not take sides..."

NEVER FORGET!


11 posted on 12/08/2004 10:56:57 AM PST by sully777 (Our descendants will be enslaved by political expediency and expenditure)
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To: 7.62 x 51mm
It was shocking to see people so...so ignorant of basic things, basic things like etiquette.

You forgot that one...

Islam, cult of Etiquette

12 posted on 12/08/2004 10:57:48 AM PST by weenie ("A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants." -- Churchill)
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To: 7.62 x 51mm
Islam, cult of Etiquette

For example, "excuse me, Rahman...if you are not using him at the moment, might I bugger your camel for a while?"

13 posted on 12/08/2004 11:00:39 AM PST by weenie ("A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants." -- Churchill)
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To: harmodius
We have all forgotten and ignored what the Muslims taught our European forefathers back in the 700s A.D.

When even the Goths had to annually hand over 100 of their own blond haired blue eyed virgin female children to the Muslims as tribute..

And now they are back...and sponsored by our own leaders and even some of the so called main stream Christian churches..

Those who won't learn from history......

imo
14 posted on 12/08/2004 11:05:59 AM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: harmodius

No surprise here. ABC News have been cheering for the enemy since that enemy was the USSR.

By the way http://pytheasonline.blogspot.com/ tore this article apart yesterday.

Who the hell is Leela Jacinto anyway? Wanna bet which leftist university "journalism" school she went to?


15 posted on 12/08/2004 11:06:22 AM PST by phileros
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To: harmodius
I believe that Christianity is a religion of peace and tolerance. However, looking back on the past, one might feel different. There were the crusades, and Catholic Protestant wars plagued European countries for centuries.
Really, while Christianity is essentially good, there have been some leaders who were able to skew Christianity’s true meaning.
Now I don’t know, perhaps it was because only priests could read and read in Latin for that matter (the bible was written in Latin) and the people couldn't’t. And I don’t know the literacy rate of Islamic countries, but perhaps this is the same problem that plagued Christianity.
16 posted on 12/08/2004 11:06:28 AM PST by LauraleeBraswell (See and decide for yourself)
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To: harmodius
It was shocking to see people so passionate and, in my view, so ignorant of basic things, basic things like etiquette

Yeah right, like the etiquette of shoving your religion down everyone's throat and saying "Accept it or die!"

The etiquette of wearing your veil as an "in your face" expression of your religion.

The ettiquette of imposing the death penalty for anyone proselyting your adherents, but forcing your proselyting on everyone else.

17 posted on 12/08/2004 11:07:21 AM PST by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
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To: harmodius
But across Western Europe, immigrant and civil rights experts say a xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim wave appears to be gripping a region once famed for its tolerance.

**********

Willfully clueless.

18 posted on 12/08/2004 11:11:52 AM PST by trisham
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To: harmodius; USF; missyme; Howlin; VOA; 537cant be wrong; Alouette; airborne; Victoria Delsoul; ...

Ping


19 posted on 12/08/2004 11:13:39 AM PST by jan in Colorado (Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas...anyone offended? Ge t over it!)
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To: joesnuffy

Where did you read that? That's very interesting


20 posted on 12/08/2004 11:13:47 AM PST by LauraleeBraswell (See and decide for yourself)
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