Flashback: In 2008, German far right groups competed with Neo-Nazis to be the most "anti-Mosque"

[Turborama]

Just sayin'...

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1056367,00.jpg

New Front for the German Far Right - Anti-Islamic Party Is Playing With Fear

01/03/2008

By Andrea Brandt and Guido Kleinhubbert

Right-wing radicals in Cologne are gaining traction with Germany's first anti-Islamic party. The German domestic intelligence agency is alarmed -- but so are traditional neo-Nazis, who may have to shift their tactics to compete.

Full article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,577743,00.html

Cologne Mosque Project - Controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Mosque_project#Controversy

[Iterate]

1. ...and all thirty of them protested,

though they did manage to dominate the news and national conversation for a while.

I haven't heard much about this lately, with the last news being that the city council had approved construction of a smaller, redesigned structure. It should be noted that a large majority of Köln residents approved the permitting. Much of the concerns of the more rational centered around the imposition of another large religious icon on the city's skyline. I feel the same way about the large banks in Frankfurt, but that's another topic.

I know it has been a long time ago, but the memory of religious wars that killed as many as the Black Death still seems to be present in the culture. Maybe the US missed the memo on that one and wants to replay it, with a better outcome of course.

Personally I'd rather see the establishment of religion-free zones, overcrowded as they might be, where the rest of us can get on with our short lives, unmolested by zealots of the unseen and unknowable.

[sabrina 1]

2. That same year, British MP

Shalik Malik, an International Development Minister, mad the following observation:

"We Muslims are the new Jews ...

He is a very respected Member of Parliament, and not known to be tolerant of Extremists, speaking out against them many times. However, it would be hard not to notice the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric and bigotry spreading across Europe and the U.S.

MP Malik went on to say:

'In the way that it was and still is in some parts, almost legitimate to target Jews, many Muslims would say we feel the exact same way - that somehow there is a message out there that it is OK to target people as long as they are Muslims.'

The complaint by the Dewsbury MP will carry added weight because Mr Malik is regarded as one of the most measured of Muslim leaders, regularly attacking Islamist extremism and suggesting that those who want to live under sharia law could emigrate to do it.

But he added that many feel it legitimate to pick on Muslims 'and you don't have to worry about the facts... people will turn a blind eye.'

We Muslims are the new Jews" says MP who has been victim of a hit-and-run and a firebomb attack

This is how it begins, the persecution of a group of people. There's always a 'legitimate' reason given. The culmination of this kind of demonization has always ended in tragedy, and for many Muslims it already has.

Where are all the people who should be taking a stand against this bigotry?

'Democrats are split on building of Mosque' was a headline I saw today. Split on Bigotry? On Constitutional Rights? And it is Democrats, the only party we could hope would come out swinging against any violation of people's rights like this.

As MP Malik and others have said 'it is open season on Muslims'! Shame on Democrats, I don't expect anything from Republicans. But Democrats should NOT be split on this.

And this is one of the reasons why the disaster in Pakistan is receiving so little attention. We just never learn.

[Turborama]

3. A Möbius strip of hate

No, Democrats should NOT be split on this and it's a very sad day when they so blatantly chase the "fear & hate votes".

What I find really worrying is this "http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x494462">war on Islam", that the Reich-wing are proclaiming, is being broadcast all over the world!

And they are giving the impression that Al Qaeda are right when they use the propaganda that America is at war with Islam, as http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x495639">Joe Scab's guest said and as did http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x495315">Keith's guest the other night (I'm terrible with names and haven't got time to watch the videos in those links again).

CNN International are covering it: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/16/obama.islamic.center.politics/index.html

Al Jazeera English are covering it: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/201081422058404426.html

And Faux news is 'covering' it, obviously.

What makes it worse is that Faux news is broadcast unfiltered all over the world.

For example, in Pakistan there are http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184837,00.html">84 different broadcasters pumping out Faux news' fearmongering extreme Islamophobia unfiltered 24/7. (Of course, that was until the horrific events that started 2 weeks ago, who knows how many people even have electricity at the moment). Apart from everything else, this is most likely a major reason for the anti-American sentiment there.

The point I'm making is, what must the Muslims across the world be making of all this American hatred towards their religion that's being spewed out of their TVs?

PS If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend watching this video by ObamaComma:

Terror Babies. No, it's not National Inquirer, it's National Republican
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOu8ofb6L0g

I posted it here with another one they made: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x495700

Edited to add this...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw">NYT On The Fear & Hatred Not Limited To NYC, Mosque Projects Across America Meet Opposition

[sabrina 1]

5. Excellent post Turborama

I am shocked to see the acceptance of such hateful targeting of a single group of people and the failure to recognize it for what it is.

I have a friend in the ME who is a wonderful, brilliant woman. She is a mother who wants nothing more than to be able to raise her family the best way she and her husband can, just as mothers everywhere want to do. A few years ago she told me she was frightened about the spreading of hatred towards Muslims after 9/11, frightened for her children mostly. She despises the fundie elements in her country just as we despise our own fundies. But as she said, they do not represent the vast majority of Muslims, any more than Jerry Falwell represents the vast majority of Americans.

Saddest of all though, is to see Democrats willing to join the hate generated from the right rather than pointing out facts and standing up for the Constitution.

The president did a good job in his initial speech educating people on the rights of all Americans to be free from religious discrimination. Every single leader in this country should have joined him in making it clear that intolerance of the kind we are witnessing is not the American way according to our laws and hopefully our core beliefs.

Instead, members of his own party decided to cave to the lowest common denominator in this country, the screaming racists who receive their education from Faux News.

Thank you for all the links, you have done an amazing job of keeping track of this and I hope people will start realizing the harm of going along with White Supremacists, because that is what they are posing as 'sensitive' people worried about the victims of 9/11 which they could care less about.

And to do it for political reasons, to try to get votes, I can't think of a more cowardly reason. But even here on this board, after Reid's outrageous capitulation yesterday, I saw a comment claiming that this should take away his opponent's weapon against him on 'terror'. It just made me sad.

[Turborama]

6. "Caving to the lowest common denominator in this country & going along with White Supremacists"

I think that about sums it up perfectly!

Thank you for your compliments, I really enjoy your OPs and your writing. Please PM me anything you think is worth a read.

[Turborama]

7. Kicking because more people need to know about this.

[hobbit709]

4. Same as it ever was.

No difference between RWers of any country.