Maniac Michelle Bachmann Islamphobe
Ibrahim Hooper, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), says that the Joplin mosque fire and the shooting attack at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee on Sunday have him worried for the safety of those attending services at local mosques during the holy week of Ramadan. On Tuesday, an unknown vandal also smashed the sign of a mosque in Rhode Island, says Hooper. His organization has called for increased police presence around mosques, though it's unclear if any departments will oblige.
The most recent fire came only five weeks after the Joplin mosque's security camera recorded an unidentified man setting fire to the mosque in the middle of the night. That blaze was stopped before it caused too much damage, though the FBI has not found the culprit. The mosque, which now lies in ashes, served about 50 families in the area. While the FBI hasn't officially ruled the fire an arson, the earlier incident suggests that's likely.
Advocates say that the fire, other recent attacks against mosques and Sunday's deadly shooting at a Sikh Temple by a suspected white supremacist an hour before services threatens the country's core promise of religious freedom.
"America is still not getting it," said Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University's School of International Service. Ahmed traveled to 100 of the nation's approximately 2,000 mosques a few years ago with a team of researchers and found that vandalism of and protests against mosques rose sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks. (Hate incidents against Muslims peaked in 2001, when they grew 1,600 percent over the 2000 number, according to the FBI's hate crimes statistics. But in 2010, there was another, smaller spike, with nearly 200 Muslims confirmed as victims of hate crimes that year. Those figures don't include attacks against mosques, which, depending on the size of the congregation, can have hundreds of victims.)
During his research, Ahmed visited a mosque in Columbia, Tenn., that had been burned down and defaced with painted swastikas in 2008. In Murfreesboro, Tenn., the construction site of a future mosque was vandalized and set on fire while opponents sued to try to legally stop it from being built in 2010. (They lost.)
Ahmed and other Muslim civil rights advocates blame politicians and the media for not pushing back against attacks on Muslims, which they think only fuels this violence. (The advocacy group the Islamic Circle of North America took matters into its own hands this year, starting a multimillion dollar advertising campaign to counter negative messages about Muslims.) At a Republican presidential primary debate, Newt Gingrich said that people of Muslim faith should have to give a special loyalty oath before they would be allowed to be nominated to a Cabinet-level position. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota, recently alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood influenced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's longtime aide Huma Abedin. (Sen. John McCain chastised Bachmann for the "specious and degrading' attack.)
"The temperature must be brought down, it must be brought down by the leaders of America," Ahmed said. "They cannot allow this almost wildfire of prejudice and ignorance to just rage as it's raging now."
"There's a pattern of violence. These incidents are frequent," he said. "It is part of this bigger atmosphere in which it is very, very uncomfortable to simply be a Muslim."
Joplin, Missouri’s Only Mosque Burns to the Ground; Arson Suspected
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On July 4th, Joplin, Missouri's Islamic Center — the city's only mosque — suffered roof damage after an unidentified man set it on fire by tossing a burning object onto the building.
On Monday, the mosque burned again — but this time, the damage was far more extensive.
Fire Chief Bill Dunn of neighboring Carl Junction described it as a "complete loss."
The FBI has dispatched some 50 agents to investigate the fire, which special agent Michael Kaste, head of the Kansas City FBI office, characterized as "suspicious."
Some fifty families are served by the mosque, and the loss of their place of worship during the holy month of Ramadan hit especially hard. "It's unbelievable," said congregant Omar Ahmed. "It's a house of worship. It's a place of God."
The Islamic Center's leader, Imam Lahmuddin, expressed defiance in the face of hardship. "This should not stop us from serving God," he told the Joplin Globe. "We still have to fulfill our obligation."
Lahmuddin said mosque members view the fire as "a test from God."
The FBI and the ATF are offering a $15,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the arsonist who set last month's fire — a reward that will be extended to include the latest incident, should it be considered deliberate.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is offering its own $10,000 reward for information pertaining to the most recent fire.
(CNN) - When 20-year-old Ashley Carter heard about a mosque burned to the ground in her town this week, she was shocked.
“I was very saddened,” she told CNN on Wednesday. “I thought it was very evil.”
So Carter, a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, texted a friend, suggesting they organize an event “promoting acts of love.”
But quickly, the idea changed: They would organize a “rally of people coming together, from all walks of life, all religions, a really diverse group of people trying to promote this radical love.”
She called Kimberly Kester, spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Joplin, whose worship house serving about 50 families in the southwest Missouri city burned down Monday. Investigators have not determined the cause, but the mosque has been attacked in the past.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/increased-security-needed-mosque-burning-says-muslim-civil-204216348.html
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/06/missouri-mosque-destroyed-in-second-fire-in-a-month/
http://gawker.com/5932420/joplin-missouris-only-mosque-burns-to-the-ground-arson-suspected
http://fox2now.com/2012/08/06/mosque-burned-to-the-ground-in-joplin/
http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=684282
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/06/mosque_burned_in_joplin_another_hate_crime/
http://www.loonwatch.com/tag/christian/
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