Hate Rally at Ground Zero

With the wave of virulent anti-Muslim bigotry on display in the ongoing “Ground Zero mosque” controversy, it becomes abundantly clear that the full truth about 9/11 is needed more than ever. This hate-fueled media circus has shown us that, nine years down the road, the memory of the 9/11 attack still remains a dangerously potent force for fear-mongering propaganda.
Here are some words from those most affected.
“This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism,” said Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. “That’s what we feel right now. It’s not even Islamophobia, it’s beyond Islamophobia – it’s hate of Muslims. And we are deeply concerned.”
“It’s a sin what [the fearmongers] are doing, making this about politics at the families’ expense,” said Robert McIlvaine, who lost his son when the planes hit the World Trade Center. “It’s producing hate, and it’s the last thing this country needs right now. People who have absolutely no connection to 9/11 are using it for their own political agendas. Fear and hatred help those agendas.”
“There is no simple, singular 9/11 group who really should or could speak for all 9/11 family members,” said Donna Marsh O’Connor of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a coalition of more than 250 families which recently endorsed the mosque. Since the endorsement, the membership numbers have grown, she said.
O’Connor said it’s unfair for groups like Debra Burlingame’s 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America to act as if they are representing everyone who lost loved ones in the attacks. O’Connor’s 29-year-old daughter Vanessa, pregnant at the time, was killed working on the 93rd floor of one of the twin towers.
Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick, widowed by the attacks on the World Trade Center, says she feels chilled by efforts to prevent a Sufi Muslim community to expand their facilities in an old warehouse two blocks from Ground Zero. “It’s only because of religious tolerance in this country that my family is here,” says Van Auken, one of the so-called “Jersey Widows” who led the fight to create the 9/11 Commission. “They escaped intolerance in Europe — now we see it here.”
Mindy Kleinberg, of East Brunswick, another “Jersey widow,” says she was stunned by the force of the anti-Muslim rhetoric, but says she has other fights. “We still don’t have all the truth of what happened that day. We still have Guantanamo. This should not be the most important issue.”
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Fox News shareholder funded ‘Ground Zero mosque’ imam: report
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-shareholder-funded-mosque-imam/
The ‘right wing’ Fox News appeals has been hyping the controversy over this mosque- it was entirely predictable that this issue would rile up the bigots in their viewer base and be good for their ratings- but it’s also been an effective wedge issue- as well as a distraction from more important issues, as Kleinberg pointed out, above- and right around the 9/11 anniversary season.
Poll: Americans believe Islam no more prone to violence than other faiths
Non-partisan Pew Research Center poll finds, however, that overall view of Islam has worsened over the past five years.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/poll-americans-believe-islam-no-more-prone-to-violence-than-other-faiths-1.310032
Nice collection of quotes . . .
Yes Cosmos… nice collection of quotes. 🙂 Good job on the write up. Clear and concise.
Thanks, Jon. Keep those anonymous tips coming.
Ron Paul speaks out against hate and says we “must only blame al Qaeda” for 9/11, not Islam. While speaking out against hatred is laudable (wish he started earlier), those more concerned with justice might argue that an actual criminal investigation into the attacks would be required before deciding who “only” to blame.
John Stewart did a nice roundup of some of the hate and insanity fueling this controversy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVFey_tsG9g
Some family members of 9/11 victims to support mosque construction
Some family members of 9/11 victims will rally Wednesday in support of a controversial mosque and Islamic center that is scheduled to be built near New York City’s ground zero. Their group, called September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, will also be joined by at least 40 religious and civic organizations, and is expected to announce the creation of a coalition called New York Neighbors for American Values. The coalition’s goals include support of “religious freedom and diversity” and the rejection of “crude stereotypes meant to frighten and divide us.” The rally is scheduled to be outside a municipal building in Manhattan.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/25/new.york.islamic.center.rally/index.html?hpt=T2
Lots of hate-filled comments here
Is there a special code to embed videos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlMj66jfSME
Nope, just the regular embed code should work.
Donna Marsh O’Connor on Countdown:
Didn’t work for me.
A Muslim cab driver was stabbed. Horrid.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38861763/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
During our community outreach yesterday to promote the We Are Change Atlanta’s Engineering Destruction event we got one person concerned about us “getting us killed.” I suspect he meant the muslims would come kill us if we didn’t continue our incentives to wipe out “terrorism” in the Middle East.
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