American Muslims beginning to fear that 'Islamophobia' is gripping the U.S.

NORTHRIDGE - The Muslim university student was listening to his biology professor when the lecture sharply digressed from evolution.

"Don't talk to Muslims about religion," the California State University, Northridge, teacher reportedly said. "Because they turn to a different animal."

The unidentified student reported the incident to CSUN's Muslim Student Association, which sent a letter to university President Jolene Koester, demanding that the teacher apologize and that the university conduct sensitivity training.

"The school needs to provide a safe environment for our students' education," said Zabie Mansoory, Muslim association president. "It is a biology class, for God's sake. Religion shouldn't be anywhere close to a biology class."

The incident last month, which CSUN is investigating, illuminates a broader concern among the United States' estimated 5 million Muslims. With increasing frequency, Muslims are talking about an "Islamophobic" culture that is inciting violence and discrimination - more than five years after 9-11.

In February, a hacker entered the Web site for the council that oversees Southern California mosques and wrote a hateful obscenity aimed at Muslims on the mosque-finder page.

Three times in the past two months, the Islamic Center of Upland in San Bernardino County has been vandalized.

And in December, Keith Ellison, who was about to be sworn in as Congress' first Muslim, was widely criticized for wanting to take the oath on the Quran.

Hate crimes against Muslims have constituted about 11 percent of religious-bias incidents since 2002 - after spiking to 26 percent in 2001 from only 2 percent in 2000, according to the FBI. But religious-discrimination complaints filed with Muslim organizations have been climbing.

And some worry that could lead to broader problems. Marginalized Muslims in France rioted two years ago, bombed subways and buses in London, and bombed a train in Madrid.

"Islamophobia is a root cause of radicalization," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.

"As we are trying to counter extremism, we are coming up on Islamophobia as a major barrier to integration of Muslim Americans into the larger society."

At CSUN last month, biology lecturer Haig Kopooshian had been talking about evolution when he digressed into discussing religious perspectives on science.

An Armenian Christian who lived most of his life in Lebanon, Kopooshian said his discussion of humans as the "most complex animals" caused him to unconsciously refer to Muslims as animals.

"I don't know what the problem is. You are an animal and I am an animal," he said, adding that he immediately apologized in case he had offended anyone in the class.

While Kopooshian said he harbors no ill feelings toward Muslims, plenty of Americans do.

In the film "Borat," a Virginia rodeo organizer asks Borat, whom he thinks is a Kazakh journalist, whether he is Muslim.

"I see a lot of people," the organizer says, "and I think, `There's a dadgum Muslim. I wonder what kind of bomb he's got strapped to him."'

It's an uncomfortable moment because while Borat is a film character, John Saunders, the rodeo organizer and assistant director of the Salem Civic Center, is a real person.

Last summer, a USA Today/Gallup Poll found that 39 percent of Americans have "at least some feelings of prejudice against Muslims" and 34 percent said Muslims living in the United States were "sympathetic" to al-Qaida.

"There are elements of truth (to that)," said Daniel Pipes, a Middle East expert and visiting professor at Pepperdine University. "That is not to say it is a broad-brush indictment of all Muslims. But there is a segment of Muslims who are alienated from the United States.

"Were Muslims unequivocal and consistent in condemning not just terrorism but the perpetrators and the ideology that support terrorism, the American public would feel much more confident."

The term "Islamophobia" was coined in 1997 by the British think tank Runnymede Trust. But before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it had little use in the American lexicon.

Kevin J. Hasson, president of the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said growing suspicion of Muslim Americans isn't surprising.

"It isn't surprising people were fearful of Japanese-Americans in World War II, and it isn't surprising they decided to put them in internment camps," he added. "But it's still appalling."

Muslim leaders blame Islamophobia on voices in the media such as syndicated columnist Ann Coulter and politicians such as Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Virginia, who criticized Ellison's use of the Quran for taking the oath of office.

"The underlying issue is the growing anti-Islamic sentiment that is being fueled by the industry of hate in America," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization that has been accused of having links to terrorist groups, most recently in The New Republic.

"It's an industry that benefits financially and otherwise from policies of war, policies of division and policies of demonization of American Muslims."

But Ayloush also added: "America has its way of eventually accepting and integrating all segments of the population. It is just a matter of how long it takes. We are, as American Muslims, fully committed to integrating through dialogue and creating trust, no matter what attacks we are subjected to."

THE VERSES OF THE SWORD

Islam: “Religion of Peace”?

“Those that make war against Allah and His apostle and spread disorder in the land shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the land. They shall be held up to shame in this world and sternly punished in the hereafter.” (Sura 5.33)

“O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. Allah guides not the people of the evildoers.” (Sura 5.51)

“Allah revealed His will to the angels, saying: ‘I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!’ That was because they defied Allah and His apostle. He that defies Allah and his apostle shall be sternly punished by Allah.” (Sura 8.12-13)

“In order that Allah may separate the pure from the impure, put all the impure ones [i.e. non-Muslims] one on top of another in a heap and cast them into hell. They will have been the ones to have lost.” (Sura 8.37)

“And fight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and polytheism, i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah alone (in the whole world). But if they cease (worshipping others besides Allah) then certainly, Allah is All-Seer of what they do.” (Sura 8.39).

“Muster against them [i.e. non-Muslims] all the men and cavalry at your command, so that you may strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them who are unknown to you but known to Allah.” (Sura 8.60)
“O Prophet, urge on the believers to fight. If there be twenty of you, patient men, they will overcome two hundred; if there be a hundred of you, they will overcome a thousand unbelievers, for they are a people who understand not.” (Sura 8.65)

“It is not for any Prophet to have prisoners until he make wide slaughter in the land.” (Sura 8.67).
“Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book [i.e. Jews and Christians] — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.” (Sura 9.29)

“If you do not go to war, He will punish you sternly, and will replace you by other men.” (Sura 9.39)
“Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and deal harshly with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.” (Sura 9.73)

“They [i.e. faithful Muslims] will fight for the cause of Allah, they will slay and be slain.” (Sura 9.111)
“O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find in you a harshness, and know that Allah is with the godfearing.” (Sura 9.123)

“When We resolve to raze a city, We first give warning to those of its people who live in comfort. If they persist in sin, judgement is irrevocably passed, and We destroy it utterly.” (Sura 17.16)

“We have destroyed many a sinful nation and replaced them by other men. And when they felt Our Might they took to their heels and fled. They were told: ‘Do not run away. Return to your comforts and to your dwellings. You shall be questioned all.’ ‘Woe betide us, we have done wrong’ was their reply. And this they kept repeating until We mowed them down and put out their light.” (Sura 21.11-15)

“When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take a ransom from them, until war shall lay down her burdens.” (Sura 47.4)

“Mohammed is Allah’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another.” (Sura 48.29)

“May the hands of Abu Lahab [Mohammed’s uncle, who had refused to embrace Islam] perish! Nothing shall his wealth and gains avail him. He shall be burnt in a flaming fire, and his wife, laden with firewood, shall have a rope of fiber around her neck!” (Sura 111.1-5)

BRAD A. GREENBERG
Re: American Muslims beginning to fear that ‘Islamophobia’ is gripping the U.S.

They are ether Americans or Muslims, they cannot be both. Americans except each other, Muslims want to push Sharia Law.

You liberal scumbags, this is just another propagandist story about Anti-Muslim bigotry.

Since MUSLIMS ATTACKED US ON 9/11 they have been crying racisms and bigotry, WHEN IT DID NOT EXIST.

This is just another propagandist piece attacking America by RADICAL ISLAMOFASCIST .

WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY PRACTICED BY YOUR DAM PAPER????? THIS IS A CHRISTIAN NATION, NOT, A DAM MUSLIM COUNTRY. IF THE MUSLIMS DO NOT LIKE THE WAY THEY ARE TREATED THEY CAN GO THE HELL BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM.

AND YOU AND YOUR PAPER CAN GO TO HELL.

Sharia Law Coming to YOUR Neighborhood.
TimesOnline via AntiMullah ^ | April 8th, 2007 | Alan Peters & TimesOnLIne

http://www.antimullah.com/

Do not think this is happening so far away it is not going to worry you.

a) You should remember the news videos of Black-suited African-Americans entering liquor stores in the USA and using clubs to smash the inventory of alcoholic drinks.

b) There are thousands of madrasseh (religious schools) inside or attached to mosques throughout the USA. They can respond in a similar way to the Islamabad students at the drop of a hat and create a similar threat in our American neighborhoods.

c) Moslems have started demanding the implementation of ‘sharia’ law for Moslems in Canada. Justice being meted out by their Imams, not the Canadian courts.

d) In Britain an Islamic Society has demanded that ‘sharia’ law and Moslem customs be followed in ALL of Britain’s schools. For example, forbidding swimming, gymnastics, singing, western clothes and even complaining about Christian teaching.

So read the following with keen insight and a valid, real feeling of danger to YOU and yours.

Islamic gangs roam streets of capital city (Islamabad) to enforce their law with threats.

Shiraz Ahmed was tending his music store in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, when a group of 15 bearded young men walked in bearing bamboo poles and a chilling message.

Politely but firmly, they instructed him to take down the colourful array of Bollywood and bhangra dance tunes on display and to restrict his business to Islamic music.

“They told me I had to change my business,” said Mr Ahmed, 25, whose family has run the store for 15 years. “I am so confused. I don’t know what to do.”

Until last week he might not have worried about these men from Islamabad’s Lal Masjid (Red Mosque). After all, his shop is legal and within walking distance of Pervez Musharraf’s presidential palace.

But this was just one of several signs in the past ten days that a creeping campaign to “Talebanise” Pakistan has spread from tribal areas on the Afghan border right to the heart of the capital.

And to judge from the Government’s response, even here it is reluctant to confront the radical clerics who openly preach jihad (holy war) and defy the writ of the state.

Last week hundreds of women students from the Jamia Hafsa seminary,which is attached to the Lal Masjid, raided a nearby house that they said was a brothel.

Wearing black burqas and wielding bamboo poles, they dragged the alleged madam, identified only as Aunty Shamim, to the seminary along with her daughter, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

When police arrested two women teachers from the seminary, its students responded by abducting two policemen along with their vehicles. A tense stand-off only ended when Aunty Shamim was released with her relatives after reading a signed confession in public.

Pakistani police have promised to arrest Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the seminary’s vice-principal, and to prevent more vigilante raids.

Maulana AbdulAziz, the seminary’s principal, has refused to give up Mr Ghazi, who is his brother, and has vowed to cleanse Islamabad of brothels, liquor stores and other “unIslamic” activity.

He also gave the Government until today to introduce Sharia (Islamic law) across Pakistan. Otherwise, he said, his students would do it themselves, starting with the surrounding G-6 neighbourhood in central Islamabad.

“It’s like if you have garbage outside your house and the city authorities fail to clear it - you have to do it yourself,” he said. “We’re urging the whole country to rise up and make the country clean and pure.”

Radical clerics have made similar calls in vain in the past but never before have they been backed up by vigilante raids in the capital.

The seminary’s students have also been seen carrying Kalashnikovs and other weapons around their compound.

Mr Aziz denied having violent intentions but said his 10,000 men and women students, most from tribal areas near the Afghan border, were ready to die for their cause.

“If the police and Army come here we will sacrifice our bodies and will not allow anyone to be arrested,” he said.

He admitted openly that some of his students may have joined theTaleban in Pakistan or Afghanistan because he taught jihadi principles. He admitted, too, that his students had been to the local market, where Mr Ahmed’s shop is, to tell video and music stores not to sell “unIslamic” products.

They have also been seen at traffic lights around the capital telling womento stop driving cars and asking people playing “unIslamic” music to turn it off.

Analysts say the Government is capable of arresting Mr Ghazi and even closing the mosque. Because it is a state religious institution the Government still pays its utility bills. It was also built illegally on government land.

General Musharraf has, however, shied away repeatedly from confronting the Lal Masjid’s clerics - even when they openly called for his assassination. In July 2005 his security forces tried to raid the mosque after suicide bombings in London that month but were beaten back by women students.

His Government announced plans to demolish the mosque in January but backeddown when its students occupied Islamabad’s only children’s library in protest. They have been there ever since.

Analysts say President Musharraf is worried about losing the support of Islamist parties in the presidential and parliamentary elections over the next year. He is already in the midst of a showdown with the country’s lawyers after suspending Pakistan’s independent-minded Chief Justice.

Some critics also accuse him of tolerating the Lal Masjid and other madrassas to justify continued military rule. Analysts say, however,that his tactics are playing into the hands of the mullahs, allowing them to act with increasing audacity and impunity.

“They know Musharraf needs them now more than ever,” said Samina Ahmed,South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group. “What other constituency does he have?”

Creeping influence

- Leaflets distributed to barbers in the North of Pakistan last month said that growing a beard was an Islamic practice. Barbers no longer offer to shave patrons

- Militants destroyed CDs of Urdu, English and Indian films at a video shop in Bannu, northern Pakistan, in February

- Zil-e-Huma, a woman Punjabi minister, was killed in February by a vigilante because “she was leading an unIslamic life and spreading an evil influence over other women”

- A report by International Crisis Group this month said that madrassas were breeding religious militants

- In Tank, in the North West Frontier Province, the Taleban were discovered recruiting students at a boy’s school. The school head confronted them and was kidnapped the next day

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