A Dam to Block the Islamocaust Wave

With all of the controversy surrounding Muslims today, I often find myself asking the question "What's taking the Islamocaust so long to take hold?" At first, I was under the impression that it actually HAS started, but with the access to information at its all-time high due to instant sharing, stories which were "news" ten years ago are no longer newsworthy. However, I don't think things are as morbid as they seem. For instance, at least for now, Muslims in the U.S. still enjoy their freedoms granted to them by God and guaranteed by the Constitution. If a Muslim woman is harassed, she has several organizations that will yell and throw tantrums until she gets her compensation and is allowed to don her Hijab.

This realization led me to the only other conclusion I could possibly think of, and that is that there are still sensible people around. When I do a post like this, I purposely don't mention Muslim efforts; this way we can eliminate all bias. You will recall the story I did on a Rabbi standing up for the New York multi-purpose center which has a prayer area in it. This time, I bring you a similar story, but from a Christian.

"Wait, a Christian?" one of my readers is likely to ask disapprovingly. Well, yes, and I want to stop you there. What you will read next is an Email from a good friend of mine. He is active in his church and is a strong believer in God. As Muslims, we are very quick to judge other faiths despite our religion demanding that we not do so (Quran 2:62.) Still, a lot of us are stuck on this idea that Muslims MUST hate Christians just because we are Muslims. I daresay that some schools go as far as to say that having friends from different faiths is unacceptable.

When I took an Islamic Studies course a while back at university, the majority of people there were Christian or Jewish--not Muslim. The reason a lot of them gave for taking the course is that there was a lot of misinformation going around about Islam and they wanted to find out the truth about the religion. Now let me ask you, O humble "pious" Muslim readers: How many of you would take a Bible studies course simply because you wanted to understand Christianity better? There is still a lot of unfounded hatred in our community for Jewish people as well, but what this has done is allowed us to ignore that Jews and Muslims are, in fact, very similar when it comes to traditions and practices. Ask a Jew about their marriages next time you get the chance, and you'll be thoroughly surprised.

When I met this man at a convention in 2012, he noticed a prayer rug sitting on my bed in my room. He pulled me aside and told me he had found it ("I noticed a prayer rug on your bed. Are you a Muslim?") My first reaction was "O no, I've lost a friend." But his next question caught me completely off guard. "Would you like me to let you know the phases of the day so you can pray on time?" We were in a different state, and adjusting to time differences is difficult, especially for a blind person since you can't see the changes in lighting well enough to determine accurately when it is time for prayers. I was amazed by this reaction to me being Muslim, and this is why I think the Islamocaust hasn't taken hold. Not everyone is brainwashed by the media and active government propaganda against us. He even approached me in such a way so that there was little chance of someone else eavesdropping on our conversation, since he understood that this might have been a sensitive subject and others would not necessarily take kindly to knowing I am Muslim.

Here is his Email. I have reproduced it with his permission.

Subject: from World War Two until now  
From: Bruce Radtke
To: Munawar Bijani

Dear Munawar, You are in my thoughts.  Yesterday at our public library I attended an event that publicized a community reading of a book about the Japanese-American experience during World War II.  It's a novel by Guterson called SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, set in our area of the nation.  Since you live in Florida, perhaps you have only a little familiarity with what happened to Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.  Soon after Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, a Presidential Proclamation uprooted all Japanese-Americans, whether US citizens or not, who lived on the West Coast and required their "internment."  In reality, 120,000 women, children and men were placed in concentration camps until the end of the war.  Men who refused to sign the loyalty oaths were sent to federal prisons, but those who pledged allegiance only to the USA were placed in Japanese-American-only army troops that later were recognized for their bravery.  I'm of German descent, but no German-Americans or Italian-Americans were sent to concentration camps just because of their ethnicity.  It was a blatant example of national racism to place all Japanese-Americans in miserable concentration camps.  The Supreme Court upheld all these actions. 

Yesterday we listened to some panel members who lived through that experience and described its effects, mostly negative.  Several times these panel members from all over our state warned the audience that today we Americans are tempted to discriminate and abuse American residents and citizens who are Muslims, not because of their crimes, but because of their religion and sometimes only their ancestors' origin in the Middle East.  I live in a town with a university, so I was pleased to see the warm welcome these speakers received, but I know that drawing a parallel between how we treated the Japanese-Americans during World War Two and how we treat Muslims today might not be typical in many places in the USA. 

Guantanamo remains open, with some "detainees" or prisoners who have never been tried and should be released.  I recall seeing your anger displayed on Facebook over treatment of Muslims, and I encourage you to speak clearly about the bigotry you perceive.  There are many examples in our world of how silence can lead to disaster repeatedly, while truth-speaking has the potential for possible confrontation but ultimately a potential for healing and achieving belated justice.  I want to stand beside you. Your friend, Bruce

People who think along these lines are perhaps the only reason Muslims still enjoy their freedoms. As long as there are a few people like Bruce who can put faith differences aside and call things for what they are, I'm not worried about our situation. So thank you Bruce for being open-minded and not being afraid to voice your support despite the heavily anti-Islam public opinion. Your message is like a beacon of light among all the negativity and your efforts will go a long way. You've truly defined what it means to be brothers bound by common Abrahamic roots.

The Islamocaust Continues

For a long time now, I've been using the word Islamocaust to describe the current state of affairs concerning Muslims. From the day a cab driver was stabbed in New York for being Muslim, to the Park 51 controversy, from Geert Wilders' assault on Muslims to Adam Hasner's Free Speech Summit, the evidence is mounting in favor of the Islamocaust.

This latest incident further confirms the idea that Muslims are headed towards a dangerous period in time, a danger which Al-Assad's murder of Syrian civilians during Ramadhan is doing nothing to prevent.

A mosque in Joplin, Missouri, was burned to the ground early Monday [August 6th, 2012], just over a month after an attempted arson at the Islamic center, officials said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the latest fire. The mosque's security cameras were destroyed in the blaze, according to Sharon Rhine of the Jasper County Sheriff's Office.

We are all familiar with the Holocaust of the 1940's. In American History courses, the Holocaust is, often times, a central theme for the entire course. We are taught about the mass murder of Jews and what methods were used to kill them (with none of the graphical material held back, regardless of whether the class is early high school or upper-classman university.)

In these classes, one thing is repeated over and over. Jewish people were used as scapegoats, and because of the intolerance and frustration of Germans, the Holocaust was permitted to happen. The teachers and professors emphasize that we must prevent such an incident from happening again by learning to coexist, not exclusively exist.

Think back to your late middle school and early high school days when they were teaching you about the Holocaust. Can you still hear your teacher's voice? I can. Now, bring yourself back to today. I'll wait a moment...

As you read the excerpt below, ask yourself "Did I think this was possible [years] years ago when I was learning about the Holocaust? Did I think history could POSSIBLY repeat itself in TODAY's 'civilized' world?"

Though investigators haven't determined the cause, [Kimberly] Kester suspects it to be another incident of arson.

On July 4, surveillance video caught a man approaching the mosque and throwing "an ignited object" on the roof, causing minor exterior damage, according to the FBI.

The FBI was offering a combined reward of $15,000 for information leading to the suspect arsonist in that incident.

Kester said the mosque was a target of other acts of vandalism. In September of 2008, a sign at the mosque was set on fire and was also determined to be arson, according to CNN affiliate KODE.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for increased police protection at other places of worship in the wake of the fire and is offering a $10,000 reward for information on the latest incident.

Here, the article talks about another incident which occurred on July 4th at the same mosque. So, the mosque was burned on July 4th and then again on August 6th. I bring this point to your attention because this is not a one-shot, once-in-a-lifetime-occurring incident. It has happened before, and it will happen again.

From Geert Wilders, to Adam Hasner, to the cab driver stabbing, to the Quran burning, to mosque burning. Sound familiar?

Before some of you start shaking your heads and saying "but you are not scapegoats like the Jews were--this is all your fault anyway," I humbly correct you.

Remember why Muslims are hated. We are hated because a minority who claims to be Muslim (and whose ideology I have denounced strongly often times) flew planes into the World Trade Centers. These people had political motives, not religious ones, but yet people act as if we, all Muslims everywhere, had some or other part in it; whether it's that we follow the teachings of the Quran and Abrahamic faiths, or that we pray "just like the terrorists do, with your asses in the air to your fucking god Allah who has a machine gun and wants you people to kill us all." In this way, we all become scapegoats for something that wasn't our doing, and we would never even dream of doing.

Now the problem is becoming a lot more serious. We all know by now that the shooter who went on a shooting spree in a Sikh temple actually wanted to target Muslims, but lacked the brain capacity to know the difference between the two religions. So, it was misfire, but his intents were very clear. Consider that for a minute, even my Muslim readers who don't accept the reality of the Islamocaust. WHAT IF he hadn't misfired, and had ACTUALLY shot up a mosque?

Fathima Rifqa Bary: Investigative Report; Exaggerated Or True?

Sallams All,
The case on Fathima Rifqa Bary continues. This time, however, the case has taken an interesting turn. Just to make sure we are all on the same page, here is the summary of the case. So far, it has been an ideological battle between Ohio and Florida. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) conducted an investigation into Fathima, and wrote a seven page investigative summary on it. The report was provided by WFTV Eye-Witness News. The investigation suggests that there is no evidence or proof of any abuse having occurred; it goes on to state that Fathima's beliefs of an "honored killing" are influenced by her culture and customs, and FDLE found no factual grounds for these claims. One part of the report reads as follows.

I ran OCR on the report which was originally in a PDF embedded image. Since the report was scanned, parts of the report were handwritten and did not come out correctly. I have replaced these parts with [unintelligible] even though the missing parts may be deduced from the context. This is to avoid "guess-and-replace" and to keep me out of trouble.

[ Unintelligible ] discussed her upbringing and stated that she had been a cheerleader at New Albany High School. When asked if her father approved of her cheerleading she stated that her father had no real idea what the concept or activities involved in cheerleading were, and allowed it. She stated that she always wore sweatpants or other coverings to hide the short skirt of the cheerleading outfit from him. She stated her father had never been to an event in which she performed as a cheerleader. Furthermore, she stated the family had no photos of her cheering or team photos as would appear in a yearbook.
...

When FDLE and other investigators visited the household on August 27, 2009, several photos of dressed in her cheerleading uniform were prominently displayed in the family living room.

Two things could be going on here; either (1) she had a real reason to run away from home and is now, under the influence of her current environment, out to destroy her family; or (2) what happened was a spur of emotions and now she does not know how to handle the situation. Either way, the investigative report broke through her. The most recent report on Fathima as of this writing can be found at WFTV Eye-Witness News here.

In essence, the report indirectly states that Fathima's case is not immediately valid. The report claims that she has named noone besides her father who will conduct the so-called "honored killing" and even goes as far as to include an interview with CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations):

On August 27, 2009, [unintelligible] was asked if there was any Islamic punishment for
conversion from Islam to Christianity. [Unintelligible] answered "absolutely not" and "there is no such thing as honor killing." An attorney present at the time, Mr. Romin Iqbal, characterized the concept as cultural and tribal, not related directly to the Islamic religious practice.

So finally someone is stepping up and saying "hey, she could have been set up." Indeed, the investigation was not even started by Muslims. I'm amazed that non-Muslim investigators--who were not motivated by religious bias have written this report. Thank you CAIR for stepping in as well.

The report also found no evidence of the child abuse Fathima talks about. The lie about the pictures of her cheerleading is what really brought her credibility down. If any of you wish to add to this, just leave a comment. I was not able to touch on everything here (and I do not always find everything as proven by an excellent comment on my last post) so feel free to add to this summary.

One thing of note is that her father did admit to picking up her laptop; but he did not strike her with it as Fathima claimed he did. The report claims that her father was about to throw the laptop but then decided against it because it was expensive. In addition, Fathima's original story of hitch-hiking a ride to the bus station was proven false. As it turns out, Brian Williams--the one who Baptized her--drove her to the station from a residence. In other words, she was not out on the street.

On August 31, 2009,
FDLE's investigation has revealed that the ticket was purchased in
Orlando under a fictitious name and provided to [unintelligible] During her interview, [unintelligible] acknowledged that it was her signature on the ticket. FDLE has maintained a copy of this ticket for this case file.

So they interviewed her, and then gave her a ticket to Orlando. Why is she so excited in the video? As one of the authors posted in the comments to the previous entry, "A pastor was filming a 16-year-old girl in her bedroom... I find that very suspicious. If her parents were so strict, how did she sneak a grown man into her room to film her?" I agree, it looks very suspicious, and I think law enforcement is seeing that as well.

For my visually impaired readers (or whoever does not wish to download the PDF version of the report,) you can get the rich text version here. Please note that this is the exact report contained in the PDF image, with no alterations of any kind. The document has not been edited for scanning errors or layout. The document is provided "as is" with no modification except that it has been converted to text. The rich text format was used to preserve all formatting as found in the original report. I make no warrant of any kind concerning this document, and do not claim a copyright on it; the document is only here for those of you who cannot read the original image. I disclaim all misinformation caused by any optical character recognition errors, missing parts, poor formatting, unrecognizable text, etc. Use at your own risk. If you are concerned about downloading the converted version, you may obtain the original version from WFTV. The original document just linked is provided by Eye-Witness News and written by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. All copyrights remain with them.
Ma'a Sallamah,
Munawar