Another means of deflecting focus on the root causes of violence that is Islam. All non Muslims should be worried about Islam and Muslims, because the track record shows what happens when a certain threshold is reached. Sharia is enforced, non Muslims are bombed or killed. This islamophobe is a farce, a front because they know Islam has F!@KED UP. I wonder if he has asked about the hatred and infidelophobe that occurs is all Islamic States. All Islamic States have the worst human rights record. It is embarrassing and shameful the state of Islamic countries and the west lets them in through asylum and the whole process beginning in the west. You have in western countries honor killings, beat up clerics, many on dole, sharia laws that deny rights to non Muslims.

Posted by: savsiv at June 11, 2008 12:29 PM

Muslims are actively waging Jihad on our soil to subvert and annihilate our society. They are waging open and covert war to replace our government, our legal system, and our religions with the filth stained blood soaked terror loving nightmare of Islam. Can anyone imagine that after declaring war on us in WWII, the Nazis had also set about moaning about "hate crimes" as we rolled back the myriad Bunds which existed? Muslims are the most brazenly arrogant, and at the same time pathtically cowardly foe we have ever been called on to fight.

Posted by: jsla at June 11, 2008 12:36 PM

"American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA) Director Sofian Zakout, who also spoke at the hearing about personal experiences of bias and discrimination, said "Post 9/11 anti-Muslim hysteria has created widespread fear in the minds of American-Muslims and causing mental health issues."
"

I guess that is accurate, there is widespread fear in Muslim communities. That fear may have been justified in Sept 2001. Anti Muslim acts increased but there were still far below those against Blacks or Jews.

Today Muslims may have a rational suspicion that their neighbors don't like them but they cannot say they truly are fearful of any attacks.

Posted by: Jerry M at June 11, 2008 12:49 PM

I am having so much trouble with the word "islamophobe". It contains a Greek root - phobia, meaning "fear of".

All kufars have a right to fear Islam. Read Islamic history or the Qur'an.

Islamophobe is a perfectly appropriate label for those kufar who are aware of the threat of jihad.

Posted by: tanstaafl at June 11, 2008 12:56 PM

There have been all kinds of "hate crimes" involving Muslims in the United States.

There was the Muslim from Saudi Arabia who, in a fit of islamitude, slit the throat of his former, and too-trusting, supposed close friend, a Jewish friend, in Houston.

There was the Muslim Egyptian who opened fire, killing two, at an El Al check-in line at LAX.

There was the Muslim Arab (I don't remember his country of origin, and it hardly matters) who opened fire on a van full of yeshiva students travelling on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing one, and leaving another with brain damage.

There was the Muslim -- there were many Muslims --who have attacked rabbis, in Canada and Belgium, in England and in France, yelling about "the Jews" and, in some cases, screaming "allahu Akbar" as they attacked.

Oh, did I leave out the Christians? Did I leave out the little Christian girls attacked and decapitated on their way to school in Indonesia? Did I overlook the Christian farmers who have been killed in the southern Philippines? The Italian monks in Algeria, the ones who came only to practice their vocation of charity, and not to convert anyone, and who were killed, as they lay asleep on their ship in the port, when Muslim fanatics crept aboard in the night and slit the throats of every last one?

Did I forget to mention the Italian lady doctor who had given her life to helping the Muslims in Somalia, and who was murdered there two years ago? Did I forget to mention the Christian priest murdered in Turkey, for the apparent sin of having ministered to a handful, less than half-a-dozen, Christians?

Did I forget to mention the beatings of Anglican clergymen in Great Britain? Did I forget to mention the clear "hate crimes" of the mass gang-rapes of "Aussie" girls, forced by their Arab attackers to learn what real Arabs could make them do, and all the while, in Sydney, they spat a steady stream, an endless sputum of hate, at those they were deliberately, and fiendishly, attempting to degrade, all for the sake of teaching those Infidel Western girls, who deserved no better (unlike those splendid Arab Muslim girls, kept under, in every sense, civilizational lock-and-key)?

Did I forget to mention what happened to the Jewish boy Ilan Halimi, lured into being kidnapped, then held and tortured, slowly, over many weeks, with his half-dozen Muslim captors delighting in calling Halimi's family to ask for ransom, and allowing them to hear his screams, as he was being tortured in the background -- and then, finally, tortured unto death?

Did I forget to talk about what happens to Christians in Pakistan, accused of blasphemy, and sometimes beaten to death not only by ordinary Pakistani Muslims, but with the connivance or collaboration of Pakistani policemen?

Did I forget to mention what happens to Hindus when they happen to walk by an excitable group of Muslims, exiting from Friday Prayers, and without Jews or Christians to kill, are happy to make do with Hindus, who may be beaten to death without fear of punishment in Bangladesh?

Did I forget to mention the killings not of soldiers, but of the most inoffensive Buddhists, monks, and schoolteachers, in southern Thailand, their heads cut off, their bodies sometimes mutilated, by Muslims, all because they were not Muslims themselves, but Infidels?

And because Doudou Diene is from sub-Saharan Africa, does he really need to be told of what Muslims have done, in "hate crimes" on an industrial scale, to Christians in Nigeria (with a little help from Egyptian pilots), to Sudanese black Christians and animists in the southern Sudan, to those who are not Muslims everywhere that Muslims find they can get away with the kind of things they like to get away with, whenever the Infidels prove insufficiently submissive?

Posted by: Hugh at June 11, 2008 1:00 PM

An excellent editorial by Jay Ambrose appeared a few days ago in the normally mediocre San Francisco Examiner. In print, it ran under the head, "Does the Uniter Nations need a racism inspector?"

So is Doudou Diene concerned about racism in Sudan, where the "Arab" Janjaweed is murdering thousands of blacks in Darfur? Is he concerned about oppression of the Berbers in Morrocco? Maybe kidnapping and forced conversion of Christian girls in the horn of Africa?

Well, no. He seldom finds much fault with authoritarian regimes. Instead, he's coming to America, to teach the Western democracies about their shortcomings. What, as he sees it, is the biggest form of "racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance"?

What else could it be? It's "Islamophobia". And one of the greatest examples of this evil ideology? Of course, it's the Mohammed cartoons, forced upon the world by that vicious. oppressive and endlessly violent country, Denmark.

I'm sure Mr. Diene has plenty to teach us.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.examiner.com/a-1411656~Jay_Ambrose__U_N__should_clean_own_house_first.html

Posted by: gravenimage at June 11, 2008 1:15 PM

Bedier, according to his own press release on the meeting (thanks to Paul), "relayed how Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric by officials and pundits are contributing to hate crimes against Muslims across Florida."
- Ahmed Bedier, quoted in the article above

By this statement, in his press release, Ahmed Bedier has damaged the image of the state of Florida and of its citizens. He should be asked by the Attorney General of Florida, acting at the direction of the Governor or of his own accord, to provide proof or at least some evidence for such a public declaration. If none is forthcoming, or if what is offered is comically inadequate, he should be asked to make a full and complete public retraction, and to apologize to the State and people of Florida. And if he fails to do that, he should be sued for collective defamation.

And if there is no such cause of action, then figure out another way to make him suffer in the courts, and make him pay for this kind of outrage.

Posted by: Hugh at June 11, 2008 1:28 PM

What a photograph. Kind of says it all. We have here an ex-representative from a mendacious, terrorist-enabling organization meeting a representative from a useless, foolish one. Nice. And they're all smiles. Bet they both love the United States too. The Age of Nonsense is proceeding at full speed.

Posted by: Wellington at June 11, 2008 1:37 PM

From the Ottawa Citizen

Don't fear Islamophobia

Raheel Raza, Citizen Special

The wide-scale persecution of Muslims in Canada occurs mainly in the minds of an aggrieved and politically motivated few

[...]

My unease lies in the constant use of the term "Islamophobia." Since I don't want to spend an inordinate amount of time counting how many times the "I" word was used by the complainants in the Steyn case, all I can say is that it's one too many. One might think there's an epidemic of Islam-bashing rampant in Canada. We have conferences and panels on Islamophobia. It's a hot topic at the pulpit. The bungling of some Canadian institutions in handling terrorism suspects only adds fuel to the fire.

Let's take a moment to debunk Islamophobia. The term was first coined in the 1980s but gained momentum after 9/11. In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust think tank defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore ... the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation.

But many Muslims in the West use Islamophobia as a penalty card against free speech whenever there is criticism of Muslims. This reactionary response is stifling dialogue, debate and discussion -- all signs of a healthy thriving democracy. When I last checked, Canada still was one, but I fear Canadians are being held hostage by a small group of people who insist they speak for all Canadian Muslims.

[...]

But will Canadian Muslims thrive while trying to choke anyone who says boo? If an illegal immigrant is deported, is it Islamophobia? If suspects are picked up suspected of plotting to behead our prime minister, is that Islamophobia? Only in the minds of those Muslims who want to give the impression that they are always the victims.

I would like to ask what these Muslims were thinking when coming to Canada. Did they imagine they were coming to a sacred land where everything would be halal and holy? Also, were they forced to come here?

Most of us came here for personal freedoms. Canada is a country where freedom of expression is a cherished value. This includes the freedom to criticize the followers of a faith if they're indulging in stupidities.

The most recent example of inane behaviour is a Toronto imam blatantly going against Canadian law and blessing polygamous marriages. I can't think of a single Muslim country where brazen actions against the laws of the land would be accepted. But if non-Muslims voice critical opinions on this murky issue, Islamophobia will be used as a trump card to shut them up. Many of us would like to be invited to this imam's farewell-from-Canada party soon.

[...]

My version of Islamophobia is an extreme fear at the way Islam has been misused, misquoted and misrepresented by some Muslims. Stifling intellectual debate; trying to pass off cultural values as Islam; unreasonable accommodation requests; intolerance against others while screaming racism for themselves and total disrespect for the culture of this land we live in and call home -- to me, this is Islamophobia.

Posted by: Webler at June 11, 2008 1:49 PM

I am having so much trouble with the word "islamophobe". It contains a Greek root - phobia, meaning "fear of".

All kufars have a right to fear Islam. Read Islamic history or the Qur'an.

Islamophobe is a perfectly appropriate label for those kufar who are aware of the threat of jihad.

Posted by: tanstaafl at June 11, 2008 1:51 PM

Today's WashPost OpEd "They Still Hate Us" asserts that:

"... terrorists are not motivated by sophisticated theological arguments; they are motivated more commonly by a visceral belief that Islam is under attack from the West and that violence is the only mode of resistance."

Anyone willing to straighten-out the author and their readers?

Please comment at:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2008/06/they_still_hate_us.html

Posted by: DemoCast at June 11, 2008 2:03 PM

"Islamophobia" is a term used by Muslims to revert the true blame onto infidels. Projection. Most infidels fall for it. "Islamophobia" really means "someone who knows too much about Islam" and they don't want you to know that either. Stop blowing things and people up, stop the hate speech and calls for supremesism in the Mosques, assimilate into the western nations as millions of others have, stop trying to silence the people. Over 11000 deadly terrorist attacks since 9/11 doesn't help either. But I'm sure we will see much more doo-doo instead.

Posted by: Sounder at June 11, 2008 2:16 PM

Bedier, according to his own press release on the meeting (thanks to Paul), "relayed how Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric by officials and pundits are contributing to hate crimes against Muslims across Florida."
.................................

I decided to look into this. Were there really rampant hate crimes against Muslims in the state of Florida? I ran across a site, Tolerance.org, dedicated to tracking down incidents of "violence against Arab and Muslim Americans" in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The site was last updated in June of 2002, which might be telling in itself. Under the listings for Florida, I did find a couple of disturbing items:

"In Tallahassee, a man who said he was motivated by hatred of Muslims drove a truck into a mosque just 30 minutes before evening prayers. The driver, Charles Franklin, 41, walked away and was arrested later at a campus bar on charges of burglary and criminal mischief, police said." No one was hurt.

"A family in Temple Terrace found their garage door vandalized with the words "Muslims F***."

There were also some cases of threatening or rude phone calls.

Some are equivocal:

"A Muslim mosque and school were ransacked in Cooper City, Florida."

"Nur-Ul-Islam Academy, a mosque and school for children in kindergarten through 12th grades in Cooper City, was ransacked by vandals." Islamophobia, or robbery?

"Someone attempted to run a Muslim woman in Brooksville off the road." Was this Islamophobia, or road rage?

"An arrow was shot through the front window and into a washing machine at an Muslim-owned laundromat in Green Cove." An arrow is an odd weapon--was this anti-Muslim rage or kids dangerously goofing around?

"The pilot of a United Airlines flight from Tampa to Cairo arbitrarily refused to allow an Egyptian American to board." Hard to tell without more information--was the pilot being overzealous, or was the would be passenger behaving in a suspicious manner, like the "flying Imams"?

No one was even hurt in any of the above incidents. Hardly a spate of serious hate crimes. Then, I did come accross something genuinely awful:

"Imran Hussain, 26, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly bludgeoning a Muslim couple to death in Ft. Lauderdale. The couple's store was set on fire and their burned bodies were found inside."

This is a terrible, terrible crime. Then I took another look at the name of the perpetrator--Imran Hussain. I don't know what this man's motives were for this ugly crime--robbery, jealousy, resentment--but with a name like Imran Hussein, I think it is rather unlikely that the criminal's motives were based on his hatred of Arabs or Muslims.

But I'm sure Mr. Diene will have his hands full, anyway.

Posted by: gravenimage at June 11, 2008 2:20 PM

I heard Doudou speak about racism on NPR right ofeter Senator Obama was nominated. Doudou is truing to sniff-out "new" racism in the good 'ol USA. Is he a muslim?

Posted by: MP at June 11, 2008 3:06 PM

ALLOW ME TO ADD TO HUGH'S LIST---THE 1968 ASSASSINATION OF SEN.ROBERT F.KENNEDY BY PALESTINIAN/JORDANIAN TERRORIST/ASSASSIN ,SIRHAN SIRHAN!

Posted by: CHOI at June 11, 2008 3:08 PM

Two questions posed by Webler

If an illegal immigrant is deported, is it Islamophobia?

Either that or racism, take your pick

If suspects are picked up suspected of plotting to behead our prime minister, is that Islamophobia?

Either that or ethnic profiling, take your pick

Posted by: PMK at June 11, 2008 4:38 PM

LOL!

Great title, Robert!

In deep DouDou, indeed.

Islam: believe it, or else.

(With apologies to Mr. Ripley.)

Posted by: profitsbeard at June 11, 2008 9:41 PM

Did we ever discover just exactly who it was who invited Doudou here?

Does he have a clue that we don't give two hoots about anything he has to say?

Posted by: Connie at June 11, 2008 11:55 PM

"I wonder if Ahmed Bedier could provide even one scrap of evidence for that assertion."

Mr. Bedier doesn't have to have any proof. All he needs to do is follow Hiter's formula of repeating the lie over and over again until the public is convinced.

We already have "hate crime" laws in this country, which are in reality "thought crimes", and all that's needed now is to add Muslims to the list of protected groups, and then all you need is to define a hate crime as offensive speech.

It's comming the road, and don't expect politicians ang Judges to stand in the way. They didn't stand in the way of hate crime legislation, and they won't stand in the way of redefining a hate crime to include speech.

All anyone has to do is look at Canada, Australia and Europe to see how deceived people in a democracy can be.

Posted by: rational at June 12, 2008 1:12 AM

Criticising Islam in public can already land you in a Civil Tribunal in Australia.
Two preachers in a Protestant group known as 'Catch The Fire Ministeries' were taped at a public meeting and later made several court Appearances.
All in the name of the Victorian Racial Vilification Bill .Otherwise known as pandering to the Islamic lobby in the post 911 World.
We too are plied with anecdotal stories by the MSM of rising hate crimes and abuse of Muslims.But the evidence ? It's nowhere to be seen!

Posted by: dearby at June 12, 2008 1:18 AM

This is why it's good NOT to do away with the English language and it's definitions because it's just "too hard" for some people.

The definition of Phobia:

"a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. "

My fear of islam does not come from an "irrational" state of mind. My state of mind is actually very rational when it comes to islam and involves knowing history and realizing that I like my head right where it is as a kuffar, on my head and not on the ground in chop chop square.

So the term islamophobe just cracks me up when muslims and liberals try to tag people or publications with this term. We should call muslims who call us islamophobes to shut us up from speaking truth about islam, kuffaraphobes!

Seriously, I would love to see the islam supporters' faces when they have a factual name by definition tagged back to them. Make them say publically for all to hear in their own words what a kuffar is and why islam even HAS such a term..then you will have to translate what they say from their low voices of embarrasment for the stupid libs living in berkeley and san francisco as they don't realize if they lived in Iran they'd be hung by now.

I just have to say...GOOO Mark Steyn! Expose islam for what it is.

Posted by: diaphanous at June 12, 2008 2:34 AM

Doudou is a good example of why the USA should get out of the UN and pack the the lot of them off to Timbucktu.

Grab the UN building with Eminent Domain and install a group of democracies that subscribe to our first ten amendments - no hate speech or hate crime laws allowed.

Posted by: Jimmy Bones at June 12, 2008 2:43 AM

I wonder, if the list above, from Hugh, was recorded if possible with pictures, if they were posted on the TV, every evening, with a message that we are at War with these countries, would it not give a boost to the aproval of Bush.

Posted by: Maria at June 12, 2008 5:01 AM