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In reply to the discussion: Some 30,000 Germans protest against anti-Islam rallies [View all]Violet_Crumble
(36,379 posts)Sorry, but blaming immigrants solely because they're Muslim for anti-Muslim bigotry by extremist neo-Nazi style groups IS a bigoted attitude that I'd expect to see on RW forums, but not on DU. And when it comes to juries and bigotry on DU, there's been some shockingly bad jury decisions on some posts. I don't think any form of bigotry has been immune, so claiming that a jury didn't hide a post that contained bigoted views isn't exactly a glowing endorsement.
As for yr >95% of terrorists are Muslim guesstimate, yr in interesting company with that number. Remember a week or so back when you linked to Pamela Geller in support of one of yr 'arguments' about Muslims, and I showed you that she was listed as an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Centre? Well, this time we're heading back to the SPLC's Hatewatch section to hear from Republican state Senator Michael Fair, who like you believes that over 95% of terrorists are Muslims.
Terror is only terror when Muslims are responsible, according to South Carolina state Sen. Michael Fair (R-Greenville), who recently sponsored legislation that would ban Shariah law in the states courts.
That much was made clear again during a Hatewatch interview with Fair Thursday, a day after he told the Think Progress blog that 99%, probably of all terror attacks worldwide in the last three decades was carried out by Islamic groups. That estimate isnt even close to accurate, and serves no obvious purpose but to vilify hundreds of millions of people around the globe for political ends.
Obviously, the threat from radical Islamic terror groups such as Al Qaeda is very real. But terrorism is hardly limited to Muslims. The world has endured countless acts of terrorism committed by non-Muslim perpetrators in recent decades from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka to Basque separatists in Spain to radical-right attacks in the United States, including the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. In the United States alone, there have been scores of other terrorist plots and attacks since that Oklahoma attack left 168 men, women and children dead. Just this March, a neo-Nazi activist was charged with attempting to use a homemade bomb to murder hundreds of Martin Luther King Day parade marchers in Spokane, Wash.
Countless experts on terrorism have pointed out the large number of non-Islamic terror conspiracies and attacks. The FBI reportedly has said that two-thirds of all terrorism between 1980 and 2001 in the United States was conducted by non-Islamic American extremists; from 2002 to 2005, a period when anti-Islamic sentiment exploded in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, that percentage grew to 95%. Last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller testified to Congress that home-grown and lone-wolf extremists, including domestic jihadists, had come to constitute a threat as serious as Al Qaeda. More recently, Harpers Magazine, citing the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said in its May 2011 issue that there had been 10 confirmed terrorist plots against the United States perpetrated by Muslims in 2010, while 25 came from non-Muslims.
So where did the senator from the Palmetto State come to believe that 99% of all terrorism comes from Muslims? He said he has read enough books on the subject to make him an expert. Jihad is an Islamic concept, Fair told Hatewatch. It comes from their books. And anyway, he added, I did not say that, I dont think. Reminded that his 99% remark had been videotaped, he retreated. Maybe I did say that, but what I thought I said was of any significance, large.
In a bizarre moment, Fair told Hatewatch that Think Progress had misunderstood his comments. He wasnt referring to Muslim terrorists but to radical Islamic Middle Eastern men a distinction clear only to him.
Politically, it is understandable why Fair might feel comfortable painting terrorism as a purely Muslim phenomenon. In the last year, anti-Muslim sentiment has been burgeoning in the United States, where one state, Oklahoma, recently passed an anti-Shariah amendment to the state constitution (it is currently stayed by a federal judge). At least 13 other states have considered similar legislation to outlaw the use of Shariah, or Islamic religious law, in U.S. courts even though legal experts agree that that would be impossible under the constitution. Several politicians, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, recently have bashed Muslims publicly as a way of building political support in certain quarters.
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/05/20/south-carolina-state-senator-says-99-of-global-terrorism-comes-from-muslims/
As for Modi, I'm going to ask the obvious question. Why is it acceptable at DU to support a RW politician like him? It'd be like me as an Australian floating round DU singing the praises of Tony Abbott (that's the current RW Australian PM) for his, uh, stringent economic policies while totally ignoring that on all other issues he's the exact opposite of what left-wingers should support.
I really hope you take the time to read up on bigotry against Muslims and alter yr views accordingly...