WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, has reported another “anti-Muslim” contretemps. The story is here:
Muslim rights and advocacy groups in Massachusetts have accused a suburban Boston city councilor of anti-Islamic social media posts.
Revere city councilor George Rotondo Jr. insisted late Tuesday his online posts “are not what they are being called” and said the allegations were “totally politically motivated.”
Rotondo is not folding. He has understood that his islamocriticism is being slandered as “Islamophobia” in order to shut down his, and all other, evidence-based criticism of Islam. His posts “are not what they are being called” – that is, “Islamophobic” and “racist” – and are not “hate speech” directed at individual Muslims, but rather, they offer studied criticisms of the tenets and teachings of the faith. Evidence from the Qur’an, hadith, and the history of Muslim conquest over the past 1,400 years that all help us to understand Muslim behavior today, are an important part of Jihad Watch.
But Jetpac, a political action committee that supports Muslim candidates for public office, and the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for an investigation of the posts. The two groups want to know if Rotondo is using city resources to promote what they say is an Islamophobic and anti-immigrant agenda.
Rotondo should come out swinging against the use of the word “Islamophobic.” He should tell local media that his concern about Islam is not an “irrational hatred” as that epithet implies, but rather, a rational anxiety based on the observable behavior of Muslims today, and on what he has learned about the contents of the Qur’an and hadith, which contents he would be happy to discuss with any interlocutors, Muslim or non-Muslim.
Jetpac and the Islamic council [CAIR] say Rotondo has posted links several times to “propaganda” by discredited anti-Muslim groups such as Jihad Watch and a YouTube video that describes Portland, Maine, as “overrun” by migrants from Africa.
Who “discredited” Jihad Watch? Why, CAIR itself did, an organization led by such people as the head of its L.A. Chapter, Hussam Ayloush, who has called for the overthrow of the American government and denounced “Zionazis.” Its Executive Director is Nihad Awad, who as long ago as 1994 was publicly supporting Hamas, which the American government has recognized as a terrorist organization. Instead of helping the government in its efforts to contain Muslim terrorism in this country, CAIR has conducted campaigns of urging Muslims not to talk to the FBI. Yet it is this organization, and the SPLC, which we are expected to uncritically put our faith in when they declare, without the slightest evidence, that Jihad Watch is a “hate site” and others then mindlessly repeat, without doing their own research, that Jihad Watch has indeed been “discredited.”
Apparently Rotondo provided a link in his postings not just to Jihad Watch, but to one YouTube video, in which a single “unacceptable” remark is made. To wit: that Portland, Maine is being “overrun” by migrants from Africa. Here is what the Wall Street Journal reports about that city:
But Maine’s largest city, population about 67,000, is now struggling with an influx of asylum seekers, to the point where a local official is alerting shelters in other parts of the country to discourage people from heading here.
The word is out there that our community is open to that population and has some assistance programs,” said David MacLean, administrator of Portland’s Social Services Division. “Our local resources are not able to keep up.”
Asylum seekers, who are primarily from African countries, now make up 90% of the people living in Portland’s city-run family shelter and overflow shelter, where new arrivals sleep on mats. A city fund that assists with necessities is dwindling fast, and pro-bono lawyers are overwhelmed with cases, Mr. MacLean said.
Portland’s strain comes as the number of asylum requests, in which people ask to be allowed to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons, has ballooned.
Portland’s challenge is expected to drive new debate around immigrant assistance in the state, where Democrats recently gained control of the legislature and the governor’s seat.
Legislation recently filed by Democratic state Rep. Michael Brennan would beef up state assistance to asylum seekers. He said it would give them flexibility to settle in other Maine communities that need workers in the fast-aging state.
But Jacob Posik, communications director for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a think tank focused on limited government, cautions public officials not to overpromise.
“We certainly need the help,” Mr. Posik said, referring to the state’s labor-force needs. “But if we’re attracting people to come here, we should certainly do it in a responsible way that isn’t strangling resources.”
Jennifer Bailey, the asylum program director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Maine, which works with arrivals, said the migrants in Maine have typically come to the U.S. on visas.
“We have more cases than we’ve ever had,” she said. “The number of people coming is out of sync with resources.”
“Our local resources are not able to keep up” says David MacLean, the administrator of Portland’s Social Services Division. Even an advocate for migrants in Maine – Jennifer Bailey — worries that “the number of people coming is out of sync with resources.” Given such remarks, it is certainly reasonable to conclude that Portland, the center of this migration, is being “overrun” with migrants from Africa, who make up 90% of the people living in Portland’s shelters. This is not incitement to hate, but the description of a problem that is visible to Portland’s people.
And again, as for the dismissal of Jihad Watch as “discredited,” here we are entitled to ask a few questions. In what way has Jihad Watch been “discredited”? By the likes of CAIR and SPLC? Has JW peddled false stories about Muslims? Written something false about Muhammad, such as a crazy story about his consummating his marriage to a little girl, Aisha, when she was only nine and he was 54? Oh dear, that story turns out to be true. Has JW attributed to Muhammad statements surely concocted to make him look bad as, e.g., “War is deceit,” or “I have been made victorious through terror”? What? He did say both of them? Obviously this has to be looked into. Have Robert Spencer and his contributors made up a single Qur’anic command to wage violent Jihad? Not one. Every Qur’anic verse, every story in the hadith that are mentioned, are quoted scrupulously from the sources. We know that all of these things are, in fact, true, and that CAIR has yet to provide a single example of Jihad Watch’s supposed “hate crimes.” Robert Spencer has never descended to “hate speech” against Muslims. He bases his islamocriticism on the words of the Qur’an, on the most authoritative Hadith, and on the words and behavior of Muslims themselves, both today, and over the past 1,400 years. He criticizes the faith, but nowhere promotes hatred of individual Muslims. Nor do any of the other islamocritics who regularly contribute to the site engage in “hate speech.”
The word “discredited” refers to the attacks on Jihad Watch by such groups as CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which have called JW a “hate site.” We have already seen, above, the kind of people – Hussam Ayloush, Nihad Awad – who direct CAIR. We know that they help publicize supposed “hate crimes” against Muslims, including those that turn out to have been fabricated. We know that they urge their members not to cooperate with the government on security matters (“Don’t talk to the FBI”). We know that their task has been to employ taqiyya, religiously-sanctioned dissimulation, in order to defend Islam from all criticism. Surely this behavior has contributed by now to discrediting not Jihad Watch, but CAIR itself.
CAIR has been equaled, and possibly even surpassed, in mendacity by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which we will examine tomorrow.
djbarro says
Good article. Thank you. CAIR doesn’t care about truth.
Stanton Lore says
Well constructed article. Politicians and other public figures who speak out against Islamic terrorism or uncontrolled immigration from Muslim countries need support to give them courage to stand by their convictions.
mortimer says
In fact … anyone who is Islamo-KNOWLEDGEABLE or Islamo-CRITICAL (all science is *critical*) is accused of being Islamo-phobic by Islamic apologists.
Islamic apologists have a totally *uncritical* view of Islam … an obscurantist view of Islam … in fact.
Knowledge and science do not lead to PHOBIAS. They lead to enlightenment.
Rufolino says
Thank you Mortimer !
Terry Gain says
Off topic, but Jihad Watch readers may be interested to know that the great critic of Islam Christian Prince is criticizing President Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds.
I agree completely and have been saying much the same thing since the decision was announced. CP of course is infinitely more knowledgeable about the Kurds than me.
https://youtu.be/Dfywn0VlGL8
mortimer says
“Christian Prince” is from the region and understands it better than our Western politicians. The Kurds are little different from other Muslims, but they do not deserve GENOCIDE. No one does. The US should continue to use them as willing allies and establish a large military base and airforce base in Kurdistan. Only the US can establish stability in this region. The local states are dysfunctional.
Terry Gain says
Mortimer
I read a few weeks that 40% of kindergarten children in Germany are Muslim but I can’t find the article. I want to send it to Toronto Mayor John Tory.
Anyone.
Thanks.
Ole Pederson says
These are the numbers I read, larger cities in Germany:
Children under 6: migrants make between 43% and 75%
Children under 3: migrants up to 90%
Here two publications,
– “respectable” newspaper DIE WELT (online)
– someones blog, says official numbers quoted from government agencies
http://unser-mitteleuropa.com/2017/10/10/statistik-uber-75-der-hamburger-kinder-unter-6-jahren-sind-auslander/
Scroll a bit down for percentages of migrant kids under 6, listed per German city
(migrants are not necessarily muslim, but from these migrants probably 80%-90% are as they are mainly from Arab and North African countries as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan).
Terry Gain says
Ole
Thank you very much. Are you why I hear sports fans cheering Ole, Ole, Ole.
UNCLE VLADDI says
Re: “The Kurds are little different from other Muslims, but they do not deserve GENOCIDE. No one does.”
Those who preach genocide deserve it. Who preaches genocide of all unbelievers? islam and it’s holy-mobster “muslim” gang members. And any who don’t agree, will also be genocided anyway.
ElderlyZionist says
The asylum seekers are coming to the wrong city. Someone should tell them they want Portland Oregon, not Portland Maine. Snerk
mortimer says
WBUR of Boston has taken a totally *uncritical* view of its source of information on the meaning of *Islamophobia* (a libellous propaganda term used to stop analysis of Islam).
WBUR has taken a political side with Muslim supremacists with the agenda of imposing Sharia law over the US.
WBUR should ask, “What would WBUR look like in a Boston ruled by Sharia law and restricted by Sharia censorship?”
Ashley says
Personally, I prefer to judge a man by his actions…
https://reverejournal.com/2019/06/07/rotondo-receives-commendation-award-for-his-life-saving-efforts/
JW and George Rotondo aren’t being derailed by the likes of CAIR, SPLC or WBUR.
It is the other way around.
revereridesagain says
Revere is 3 towns south of me. Will see if there is anything I can do to help support Rotondo.
I wonder what percentage of these “asylum seekers” taken in by the Islamophilic leftists in Maine are girls and young women fleeing forced marriages and threats of “honor” killing. My guess would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 0%. These people are stone-cold hypocrites.
Ray Jarman says
If the statement “the migrants in Maine have typically come to the U.S. on visas” is accurate, there must be a lot of counselor officers at U.S. Embassies who have been derelict (or criminal) in their duties. For a visa one must be able to prove that he/she has is expected to return plus a round trip airline ticket. This leads me to question just how they really arrived in the US. If they lied when completing a visa request, then they should be removed from the US. American employers require people who have basic understanding of the tasks for working for them and a willingness to actually work. With the so-called need for agriculture workers, why are the people permitted to remain on any welfare program. They should be forced to perform the work required by employers or be returned to the place from which they left.
David says
Who is really paying the air fares for all these ‘poor’ immigrants to get to the USA? They all seem to have mobile phones (a necessity in this modern age).
Westman says
CAIR’s name spells out exactly what is and excludes what it is not. It makes no attempt to describe itself as helping Muslims integrate into an existing community. It only describes itself as a body smoothing relationships between Muslims and the nation; those relationships being between two parallel societies. It apologizes for Muslim attacks by disowning the “not real Muslim” participants, not by reference to actual doctrine, rather, often by attacks on critics who ask why it is being done by Muslims claiming the approval of Allah.
After listening to NPR for 40 years and hearing it degenerate onto carrying water for the BBC and its joining the move for a soft coup of the POTUS, we have parted ways and money. Like the Democrat party, it has driven itself so far left and into niche causes that it has fallen down the rabbit hole into Alice’s Wonderland where it projects a fantasy future that its university adherents will never know.
This is the tragedy of socialism: It has never delivered the heights of its promise yet it easily delivers the destruction of a society’s morals, wealth, and future. How many real-life failed socialist nations does it take before the “we can do it better”, “give us your money”, stops? Ever?
Criminals say, “We don’t want to compete for goods and services. We’ll steal them instead of working for them.
Socialists say: “We want to use your resources for our SJ projects and ourselves. We’ll get legislation that will take them from you.”
Any real difference?
paul budrunas says
Discredited indeed! Discredited by CAIR is hilarious, as this group has discredited itself over the years with all the Islamic apologetics I’ve seen put out by these America hating Muslim thugs. This group of Sharia promoting thugs needs to be declared persona non grata by this administration immediately and all its members deported post haste! All Americans need to read the Qu’ran and understand what it says or risk being beheaded by these GD idiots!
Lydia Church says
JW cannot be ‘discredited,’ because no one can discredit the facts! It’s the truth, period and you can’t discredit that. On the reverse, SPLC and Cair are already discredited by default!
My acronym for SPLC:
Slander, Propaganda, and Lies Corporation!
Anyone who opposes terrorism and speaks the truth about the terrorism that comes from the false religion of islam is accused of ‘hate’ speech. Those who hate truth call truth ‘hate.’ Common sense: Anyone endorsing terrorism is guilty of hate speech! Not those who oppose it and warn against it!
Famous saying of the left: “Don’t confuse me with the facts!”
: D
David says
How about ‘Stupid People Lacking Credibility’?
The article mentions ‘Zionazis’ How about ‘Islamaniacs’
David says
Imagine: You get a knock on the door and standing there is a complete stranger. He says he wants to stay in your house, free of charge, and you can feed him as well. What would you say?
Ray Jarman says
I might ask him if he knows my friends, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson or I might give them Nancy Pelosi’s, Bozo O’Rourke’s or AOC’s address since they believe in open borders and love all Muslims.
Infovoyeur says
I went and read CAIR’s report on “Islamophobia.” MANY (claimed) incidents of (if true) harrassment of people, children, etc. in re physical, insulting, etcc. (*****) PLEASE—–if these true, doesn’t the CAIR etc. claim of “Islamophobia” rampant or at least more frequent than we (in the counter-jihad movement) claim. HOW TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE?