Monday, January 2, 2012

Islamophobia Fire Bombing

This is what ignorance, intolerance, bigotry ginned up by fear produces.

Conservatives have far more people who personify these fears and other feelings; it is far more from the conservative side of ideology that we have rampant Islamophobia, and the need and desire to arm themselves as a result. Thees are the people who are willing not only to arm themselves, but to take action against their fellow citizens, the other people who live in this nation and society, and against the government that they fear.  Fear drives them.  Hatred of those perceived to be other or different drives them.  Their presumption of rightness and their false perception of being superior, of being more exceptional, more deserving, more righteous than other people drives them to act in the most heinous possible ways - lie this.

Fear and hatred bring out the worst in people, when they act like this; never the best. It turns these self-righteous and self-congratulatory ignorant asses into themselves becoming the very thing they profess to hate. 

They become the terrorists they claim to hate.

It is not fact based, it is not rational, it is not objective thinking or action.  It is emotional, it is ill-informed, misinformed, disinformed thinking that leads to actions like this.  The guilt, the blame, the responsibility for fomenting these actions lies with sources like Rush Limbaugh, Faux Nuissance, Glenn Beck, Pam Geller, Jihad Watch, and the many other highly partisan sources that get their power by promoting their agenda of hatred and paranoia.

This is the price, a society where people are less free, less safe, less able in practice (as contrasted with theory) to pursue their freedom of religion.

From MSNBC.com and the AP:

Cops investigate firebomb attacks on NYC Muslims

Islamic center, two homes and a deli targeted; 60 firefighters battle blaze at house 

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 1/2/2012 2:30:32 AM ET
Authorities were investigating after reports that Molotov cocktails were thrown at an Islamic center and several other properties in New York City late Sunday.
The Fire Department of New York said a blaze outside the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation building in Queens was brought under control quickly after a call came in at about 9 p.m. Sunday.
No injuries were reported. There was minor damage to a door.
Fire marshals and police were investigating the purported attack.
The building on the Van Wyck Expressway in the Jamaica section houses a school and religious spaces.
Police also said they were investigating whether there were possible links to fires at a deli about four miles away and two nearby homes.
Starbucks bottles The New York Times reported that police believed Muslims were being targeted in each of the four attacks.
The paper said that in three of the attacks, the Molotov cocktails used were made with Starbucks bottles.
The Times said the Islamic center was one of the most prominent Shiite mosques in New York.
The paper said an attack on a home on 107th Avenue caused the most damage. The house caught fire and 60 firefighters worked for about 40 minutes to deal with the blaze.
The other attack on a house caused little damage, the Times said. Two bottles were thrown from a vehicle at the home, on 170th Street, a Fire Department spokesman said the person who called 911 reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

13 comments:

  1. I hope they catch whoever is doing this but really the odds are that they are other Muslims rather than some right wing conservative somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FatWhiteMan said...
    I hope they catch whoever is doing this but really the odds are that they are other Muslims rather than some right wing conservative somewhere.
    January 2, 2012 4:05 PM


    That is stupid, ludicrous, lacking any basis in fact. It is one of the most stupid remarks, one of the most bigoted notions, that you have ever written here in a comment.

    It is indefensible.

    There is an overwhelming number of false statements made by the right - notably by Pamela Geller, Jihad Watch, Glenn Beck and others - that have incited people to behave badly towards Muslims here in the U.S.

    While there are plenty of instances of internecine violence between different sects of Islam in other countries, that has NOT been the case in the U.S.

    So........what odds are YOU talking about?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dog Gone,

    I agree that this is a heinous act, and I hope that the purpetrators are caught soon. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who wishes to come here and share in our freedoms, participate in our society, and live a life is welcome. Anyone born here who chooses to worship in a way that does not harm others is welcome to do so. That's the principle of America that we're still trying to live up to.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I fail to see the difference between your editorializing about Geller and Beck and FWM's opinion when nobody knows who is responsible for the dirty deeds. Talk about jumping to conclusions! Sheesh!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "That is stupid, ludicrous, lacking any basis in fact. It is one of the most stupid remarks, one of the most bigoted notions, that you have ever written here in a comment."

    You don't have to like it but how can you say it is ludicrous or bigoted?

    First, have you ever read any history? Are you not aware that muslims have been killing each other since the religion was founded? They kill each other's children in school attacks. They bomb each other, they fight each other. I am sorry if the truth is repugnant but ludicrous is hardly accurate. How many bombing attacks by right wing conservatives against muslim targets can you come up with?

    What I said was statistically accurate, not ludicrous.

    Secondly, I am hardly a bigot against muslims though I am not a fan of terrorists no matter what their religion is. I am not one of those that believe that every muslim is a terrorist however I am not going to dismiss the prevalence of terrorists being muslim nor refuse to mention it because it is not politically correct.

    Finally, I have relatives that are muslim that I love very much. In fact, I had 21 people at my table for Thanksgiving and 1/3 of them were muslim.

    You are well aware that my posts can be flippant, arrogant or just plain full of shit but you will not find me making bigoted comments--at least not based on hate or bigotry anyway.

    The posted incident can very well turn out to be done by right wing conservatives. You could even show me a picture of Rush Limbaugh flinging a Starbuck's bottle and I will acknowledge that you were correct. However, my statement still stands, if a muslim group is attacked anywhere in the world in a visible, violent manner, the odds are that it was another muslim group. That is fact, not ludicrous, not bigotry.

    ReplyDelete
  6. C'mon, this isn't the murder of a black drug dealer that you can say was probably done by another black. When you've got a bunch of Muslim targets it's safe to assume racism.

    ReplyDelete
  7. News reports today indicate that this may just be one man who had a personal grievance against his targets, and that however insane that may be, it was not directed against a religion.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Firebombs killed 72 Shiite Muslims in Bagdad yesterday. Sunni Muslims are suspected, but that is a "ludicrous notion as that would never happen. Maybe it was really Glenn Beck and a phantom band of right wing hate mongers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reuters says Sunni Muslims killed 13 Shiite Muslims in Syria Saturday but we all know that is just ludicrous.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And we have how many instances of Christians killing Christians? Northern Ireland ring a bell, FWM?

    FWM, the tribal and sect violence in other countries is not mirrored by similar sect based violence in this country. WE don't have that kind of occurrence between different varieties of Muslims. We DO have some pretty hateful things being said in the current political campaigns though about Mormons, especially distrust from other sects of Christianity, especially a problem with the more extreme, crazy fundies among the evenagelical Christians..

    What we do have is violence against Muslims by non-Muslims - mostly right wing Christians, engaged in hate crimes.

    It is widely believed by those who study the problems of hate crimes, including those directed at Muslims, or those believed to be Muslims is under reported.

    The United States has long been systematically monitoring anti-Muslim crimes. For the reporting year
    2009, Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 107 “anti-Islamic” incidents, registering a slight increase
    from 2008 (105)27.


    per the March 2011 Violence Against Muslims report from Human Rights First.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I never said that all religions are not guilty of doing so. All I said was that statistically, muslims are attacked by other muslims far more than they are violently attacked by right wing talk radio listeners. You said that was "ludicrous" when indeed it is not.

    So, please show us some of those incidents in the news where right wing conspirators are attacking muslims.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 10 muslims including 3 schoolboys were killed today in Iraq. The police suspects it was sunni muslims but that is just ludicrous. Anyone know what Glenn Beck was doing today?

    ReplyDelete
  13. A suicide bomber killed 53 Shiite muslims today in Iraq. I wonder if it was a right wing whacko? After all, it would be ludicrous to think otherwise.

    ReplyDelete