Posted on 01/15/2005 8:55:12 AM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
WASHINGTON, January 14 (IslamOnline.net) - The largest US Muslim civil liberties called on the State Department to issue a report on Islamophobia across the world, as American Muslims have complained of more anti-Islam TV rants.
The proposal was made when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and several other Muslim and Arab-American groups met Thursday, January 13, with top State Department officials to discuss a number of issues related to American foreign policy, according to CAIRs Web site.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad presented in the meeting -- attended by Assistant Secretary Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and Ambassador William Burns -- a proposal for cooperative efforts to challenge both Islamophobia and anti-Americanism.
The proposal includes such measures as producing a report on the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia, conferences in this country and in the Muslim world to discuss both Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism and domestic and international goodwill ambassadors who can speak about both topics.
By challenging anti-Muslim bigotry, we can help reduce anti-American attitudes in the Islamic world.
And by having American Muslims speak out in support of their nation's values, while at the same time maintaining essential credibility on issues of importance to Muslims worldwide, we undercut growing Islamophobic views in our society, read the report, carried by the group in a press release Thursday.
Awad described the meeting as open and forward-looking.
Anti-Semitism
The meeting came after the State Department released its first report on global anti-Semitism January 5, taking a country-by-country survey of anti-Semitism worldwide from July 2003, to December 15, 2004.
The report was mandated by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act, which was approved by US President George W. Bush in October.
Influential Jewish leaders applauded the move, saying the very fact that Congress enacted legislation requiring the State Department to issue annual reports is extremely important and highly significant.
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, having 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
Pro-Islam Spots
CAIR said in earlier reports and surveys that attacks against Muslims have been on the rise in the United States since the 9/11/2001 deadly attacks.
The recent slur against Muslims was carried in the Fox TV hit show 24, which featured an upper-middle class Muslim family operating as a sleeper terrorist cell.
In the drama, premiered Monday, January 9, the Muslim mother poisons her son's non-Muslim girlfriend because it was feared the girl could jeopardize the terrorists' plan.
The Fox television network said it would provide its stations with TV spots that portray Muslims in a favorable way after it received complaints for featuring followers of Islam as terrorists on the television show.
A Fox spokesman was quoted by Reuters Friday, January 14, as saying it would provide public service announcements sponsored by CAIR to its affiliate stations.
The move was in response to the Islamic council's complaints about the show.
What we are hoping to do is to try and mitigate the damages of the stereotypes because it can bring real-life consequences on American Muslims and their lives here, said Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Islamic group.
Citing a public opinion survey conducted by Cornell University last year, Ahmed said television influences viewers' perceptions of Muslims.
There aren't any positive or even neutral portrayals of Muslims on TV; whenever Muslims or Arabs are portrayed it is always in a stereotypical way, she said.
What we are hoping to do is to try and mitigate the damages of the stereotypes because it can bring real-life consequences on American Muslims and their lives here, said Ahmed.
When average Americans don't have any personal interaction with Muslims, whether it be at work or at school, they base their perception of Islam and Muslims from what they see on TV, she added.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan opened in December a seminar on combating Islamophobia through education, inclusion and example.
Annan also warned in an earlier black-tie dinner at the UN headquarters in January that Islamophobia poses a challenge to the spirit that he said unites peoples across the globe.
He said that since the 9/11 attacks many Muslims, particularly in the West, have found themselves the objects of suspicion, harassment and discrimination.
Too many people see Islam as a monolith and as intrinsically opposed to the West. Caricature remains widespread and the gulf of ignorance is dangerously deep.
CAIR = The Enemy Within.
What a sick joke. After 9/11 these clowns are lucky Americans haven't torched every mosque in the country.
Not enough paper or computer room for the daily report. Might try hourly per reigon?
A phobia is an irrational fear. considering the abunace of evidence that many, many Muslims are either terrorists or terrorist supporters, or are afraid to speak out or provide testimony against Muslim terroists, the fear is rational.
Hmmm.... That would make Michael Powell the chairman of the Federation Communications Commission, wouldn't it? That should provide sufficient coverage to satisfy CAIR.
Fair enough:
If it bothers them so much perhaps they might look into their habit of releasing video tapes of beheadings to the media.
Maybe they should tell their sponsors to quit inviting Muslim and French news teams along when they detonate a roadside bomb or fire off a mortar.
Maybe they could fight stereotypes by requesting that a future episode of "The Sopranos" off a nice muslim boy by accident.
Hey, what about a world conference on Naziphobia? Poor Nazis, huh?
perhaps they can merge it with the other insane cult reports.
What is there to be afraid of? getting your head chopped off with video posted on the internet? body mutilation of females? no use of deoderant? death sentence to all who dissent? Courts which hold unbelievers as less than human? Letting your children die to feed the ego of your local cult leader?
CAIR is a hate group no different than the KKK.
CAIR is a front for "The Brotherhood," a Muslim group determined to overtake the world.
Do you think the Christians in Sudan, Jews in Israel or Hindus in India would be rated high on Islamphobia?
Perhaps they have a reason to hate the "religion of peace."
I submit a partial list of Islamophobic news reporting in the recent past, the kind of reporting that CAIR wants eliminated:
Bali nightclub attack in Indonesia that killed more than 200.
Attack on Djerba, Tunisia Jewish temple, killing 20 German Jews.
Attack at Faylakah in Kuwait.
Attack on the French tanker Limburgh in Yemen.
Attacks on Mombasa in Kenya against Jewish tourists, who were attacked in the their hotel, and the unsuccessful attack on the El Al airline with two missiles.
Attack on the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital
Attacks in eastern of Riyadh, on residential districts where Americans and other westerners live
Electrical power blockouts in the northern portions of America and the southern areas of Canada
Electrical power blackouts in Great Britain.
Attacks in Istanbul against the Jewish synagogues.
Attachs in Istanbul battles against the British bank and the British consulate, in which the British consul was killed.
Battle of Badr Riyadh in the residential complex
Attack on the United Nations building in Baghdad in which Sirgo Des Milo, Kofi Annan's envoy, was killed
Attacks in Nasserya against the Italian forces
Attacks in Casablanca
Attempted assassination of a dangerous ally of America, Pervez Musharraf
Attacks in Madrid against three trains, killing 200 and injuring more than 1500 injured.
9-11-01 mass murder of thousands of innocent people in NY and Washington, DC.
many thousands of other mass murders in the Sudan, Thailand, India, Russia, and many other nations.
We don't need FICTIONAL TV shows fantasizing about how wonderful Islam and its followers are. That's the Goebbels/CAIR approach. All we need is reality: 9/11, beheadings, suicide bombers, Sadam, etc., to see the true face of Islam.
*(goat-lickers)
So Khofi wants to combat people's dislike of homicide bombers by converting everyone to Islam.
Which will initially be met with complete silence as they all scramble for the dictionaries....I LIKE IT!
I nominiate "nominaphobia" for the FReeper lexicon, to go alongside Grampa Dave's "Islamakazi"
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