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 The ruins of a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, after a fire last month that Muslims leaders suspect was an arson.
September 5th, 2012
01:19 PM ET
Rising anti-Islamic sentiment in America troubles MuslimsBy Moni Basu, CNN On the program, called "The Threat in Our Backyard," is a lecture on Islam in public schools and a short film on Sharia finance. It's a program organized by people who feel the American way of life is threatened by Islam - in particular, Sharia, or Islamic law. Sharia would bring ruin to America, says Greg Johnson, vice president of the 9/12 Project Tennessee, a sponsor of the event that advocates for shifting government back to the intent of the Constitution's authors. He says he has nothing against Muslims, but he takes issue with the tenets of Islam. Sharia, he believes, would mean that practicing homosexuals would be put to death, women would not be educated and would be married off to men chosen by their fathers, and non-Muslims would become kafirs - nonbelievers - relegated to second-class citizenship. My Faith: After my mosque was torched "And I don't want that coming to America," Johnson says. He's not alone in his fears. A tide of anti-Islam sentiment has been swelling across America in recent months, strong enough to prompt one imam to wish for the days immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when President George W. Bush declared that Muslims were not our enemies; that the war on terror was against a select few who acted upon their hate for America. "In the 11 years since, we have retreated," says Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University who likes to call himself the Blue Devil Imam. Muslims make up less than 1% of the U.S. population. Yet, say Muslim advocates, they are a community besieged. Hate crimes against Muslims spiked 50% in 2010, the last year for which FBI statistics are available. That was in a year marked by Muslim-bashing speech over the Islamic center near ground zero in Manhattan and Florida Pastor Terry Jones' threats to burn Qurans. Why some American Muslims wear the hijab Antepli likens the current climate to McCarthyism. Left unchecked, he says, anti-Muslim fervor, like racism and anti-Semitism, has the potential to evolve into something dangerous. This year's holy month of Ramadan, which ended August 19, was marred by a spate of violence at U.S. Islamic centers that included a fire, a homemade bomb and pig parts. The incidents were unprecedented in scale and scope, says the Council on American-Islamic Relations. At least seven mosques and one cemetery were attacked in the United States during Ramadan, according to the council and other groups that track such incidents. Particularly visible on the anti-Muslim radar has been the state of Tennessee, where a mosque opened during Ramadan after two years of controversy. The new Islamic center in Murfreesboro opened a few weeks ago after delays caused by legal wrangling, community protests and vandalism. Also in Tennessee, incumbent congresswoman Diane Black found herself publicly opposing Sharia after her opponent Lou Ann Zelenik made it a campaign issue. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter State senatorial candidate Woody Degan's website also mentions Sharia: "VOTE CONSERVATIVE! VOTE Anti-Sharia, VOTE Against Internet Taxes, Vote FOR Gun Carry Rights! VOTE for your PERSONAL RIGHTS!" And Gov. Bill Haslam recently came under fire for hiring lawyer Samar Ali, a Muslim woman from Tennessee, to work in the international division of the state's economic development department. Ali's critics called her Sharia-compliant and a website called Bill H(Islam) attacked the governor for pursuing "a policy that promotes the interest of Islamist (sic) and their radical ideology." The website links to another that discusses, among other things, Islamic infiltration of public schools. "I cannot stress enough the seriousness of their push to spread their religion to all non-Muslims throughout our country," says website author Cathy Hinners, another speaker at next Tuesday's 9/11 event in Franklin. Why do Muslims pray five times daily? "Why? Why are Muslims so adamant that we accept their religion? The answer is simple. The answer is in black and white. The answer is in the Muslim brotherhoods "Strategic Goal for North America." It's called a global caliphate. One religion, one government, one law... called Sharia." In November 2010, more than 70% of voters in Oklahoma approved a ballot initiative to amend the state's constitution that banned courts from looking at "legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or Sharia law." The amendment died after a federal court ruled it discriminatory. "That was very explicitly anti-Islamic," says Glenn Hendrix, an Atlanta lawyer who specializes in international law. "It specifically referenced Sharia." This year, 33 anti-Sharia or international law bills were introduced in 20 states, making it a key issue. Six states - Louisiana, South Dakota, Kansas, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee - adopted such laws prior to 2012. Two Tennessee lawmakers attempted to pass a bill this year that would have made it a felony to practice Sharia, but it failed. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says the anti-Sharia bills are based on draft legislation promoted by David Yerushalmi, an anti-Islamic lawyer from New York. Yerushalmi founded the Society of Americans for National Existence, an organization devoted to promoting his theory that Islam is inherently seditious and Sharia is a "criminal conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. "Ideally," says the center, "he would outlaw Islam and deport its adherents altogether." Hendrix says anti-Sharia legislation is not necessary since U.S. courts ultimately are beholden to U.S. law. But it sends a strong message to the Muslim community. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories The American Bar Association, which opposes federal or state laws that impose blanket prohibitions on foreign laws, says such legislative initiatives stigmatize an entire religious community and "are inconsistent with some of the core principles and ideals of American jurisprudence." Valarie Kaur, a legal advocate and hate crimes specialist, says proponents of anti-Sharia bills are battling an imaginary threat. "There is no push to install Sharia law in the U.S.," she says. "Anti-Sharia bills target the religious principles of Muslim Americans and fuel anti-Muslim rhetoric and bias. As a Sikh American whose community has too often become the target of hate, I believe it's time to stand against all forms of racism and religious bigotry." An attack at a Wisconsin Sikh temple last month killed six people. Many believe the shooter mistook Sikhs for Muslims. A Sikh gas station attendant in Arizona was the first victim of reprisal after the 9/11 attacks. Kaur blames tough economic times and an amplification of hateful speech for incidents like the temple shooting and the momentum behind the anti-Sharia campaign. For Muslims, Sharia - which means "path to the watering hole" in Arabic - is the divine law revealed centuries ago in the Quran that governs all aspects of life. More often than not, it's the most sensational parts of Sharia - like cutting off a thief's hand - that garner the most publicity. U.S. courts bump up against it in cases of divorces, inheritance, child custody, enforcement of money judgments and commercial disputes or tort actions. A trial court in New Jersey, for instance, ruled that a husband, who was Muslim, lacked the criminal intent to commit sexual assault on his wife because Sharia permits a man to have sex with his wife whenever he wants. That's the kind of ruling that fuels anti-Sharia activists. Nashville health-care investor Andrew Miller says there's no room for democracy within Islamic ideology. All you have to do is look to any Islamic state, he says. "If you wanted to pray to a large rock and that was your God, I could care less," he says. "But the minute you want to put a gun to my head and say you will pray to this large rock and your family will or you will pay the price, that's when I see a bully. I see an overbearing ideology that wants to force and coerce people. Miller describes himself as a tolerant person but not when it comes to people dictating how others will live. "That's antithetical to the freedoms that we value, the liberty we value," he says. The message that Islam is evil has been repeated so many times - sometimes directly, sometimes in a more subtle fashion - that it has sunk in as reality in the hearts and minds of many Americans, says Antepli, the Duke chaplain. Part of it is fear of the unknown, he says. "I, too, would have a monstrous image of Islam if I did not know any better." But another part of it is orchestrated, he says, referring to "well-organized and polished" anti-Islam websites that have sprouted in recent years. Marry that with ignorance and the end result is lethal, Antepli says. The Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy organization, published a report last year that attributed the rise of Islamophobia to a "small, tightly-networked group of misinformation experts." The report called "Fear, Inc." lists seven foundations that gave $42.6 million to think tanks to promote anti-Islamic thought. It describes "deeply intertwined individuals and organizations" that "manufacture and exaggerate threats of 'creeping Sharia,' Islamic domination of the West, and purported obligatory calls to violence against all non-Muslims by the Quran." The issue of Sharia, say some Muslims, has become a political hot potato in an election year. GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann mentioned Sharia in their campaign speeches. This year's Republican Party platform makes mention of foreign laws: "Subjecting American citizens to foreign laws is inimical to the spirit of the Constitution. It is one reason we oppose U.S. participation in the International Criminal Court. There must be no use of foreign law by U.S. courts in interpreting our Constitution and laws. Nor should foreign sources of law be used in State courts' adjudication of criminal or civil matters." That's the message Miller hopes people will take away from next week's 9/11 meeting; that the tenets of Islam go against the constitution of the United States. It's diametrically opposed to what people like Antepli and Kaur will be saying as America remembers the horror of terrorism. Hateful sentiment, they say, is not the answer. soundoff (2,383 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=6ygqJ5ZA5ss&NR=1
I love the irony that the USA is so anti-communinst, so proud of its values, yet people below are talking about trying to stamp out religions and are singling out Islam as a target to hate. Go read up on what Stalin did with religions, and then think about what you are advocating for – the USA stood opposed to the USSR for half a century, the stalwart defender of freedom (including religious freedom), and yet you would now have the USA follow Stalins lead, when Russia herself has chosen to move on from that? Get your head out of your butt and read some history, think about what it is you are advocating for, and if you are not prepared to allow others the freedom to choose thier own religion then do everyone a favour and leave the USA.
Not singling out any one religion. Some of us want to get rid of ALL religions! And just because someone like Stalin took the kind of stance he did against religion, does not mean that any other country that does the same (that is, rids itself of religion, and for the sake of argument, WITHOUT military assistance) would end up the same way!
You can't make people give up thier beliefs without coersion, so sorry the only way to actually achieve it isn't very pallatable. I do understand the logic about a world free of religion, but it's unlikely to happen within the next thousand years as religion is too deeply embedded into the cutures of so many countries.
Coercion is not necessary, at least not any violent, militaristic kind, but some kind of confrontation is necessary. I was raised christian and it wasn't until sometime in college when some of the people I was hanging out with finally got fed up with my $h|+ and gave me a piece of their minds. That was a pivotal point for my conversion to atheism. So, I guess you could say, all it takes is a little EDUCATION to change the world.
Sorry there are American's who can't even read and do basic math, if you think education is the way to help overcome religious extremism good luck with that. Religions have always been more important to the poor than to the rich, because they herald a promise of something better than the horrible existence of the present. But unless you can wipe out poverty, educational inequality, overcome the digital divide, and (*gasp*) have actual direct democracy in the USA, forget it religion isn't going anywhere. Especailly with the major political parties using religion as a vote-buying tool ... give up, we're not getting to a rational based society in our lifetimes.
You have valid arguments about education on a mass scale, but what I am talking about is one-on-one interaction with people. Some people had to be jerks to me to get me to realize that it was me being the jerk in the first place by adhering to a stupid religion that accuses everyone else and condemns them for eternity if they don't think the same stupid way.
I love Islam and I love Muhammad (PBUH) and Jesus (PBUH).
Jeezus was cool (sort of), but his followers sure suck @$$! Not much one can say about followers of Mohammed.
I pity this country. It is full of so many people just full of hatred. I am a white former Christian (up until age 12) who was simply atheist for 12 years before just taking up Buddhism in the past couple months. Yes, I am an atheist Buddhist. I have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been stationed in Germany. I am now 24 and stateside and about to be medically discharged in the next 2-3 months before going to settle down and go to college in San Diego. The hatred people feel for others for the actions of third parties is ridiculous. Should I really hate someone just because someone who has the same faith did something bad? In that case, I should hate Christians as they have been some of the most violent and barbaric religions alongside Islam. Neither is any worse than the other when you look at history. Both religions have a HORRIBLE track record. You can claim to be a follower of a religion, but most people are fools who are hypocrites and disgrace their calling themselves a follower of that religion with their actions.
Word. Thank you for your service good brother.
Well said sir, and thank you for your service.
and for your open mind. It's comforting to see there are good people with love in their hearts.
Very well said sir, bravo.
Wow, atheist-buddhists sure are whiny and self righteous.
Islam will quickly spread in America and those who insult Islam will be punished.
Piffle. Anyone afraid of Islam spreading here just wants to be afraid so that they have an excuse to hate. Christians cause 10 times the problems here fighting socially liberal laws.
Islam Is not punishing anybody, Islam is peace
Sounds like a desperate threat from another little Muslim b!tch. What's the matter? Your wife-beater husband late getting home again? Put your mobile tent on get outside to pick up the mail. Idi0t.
And Ishmael, the spurious offspring of Abraham and his wife's maidservant, went on to form the Arabic people, who were obviously just insanely jealous of their Israeli half-brethren. They didn't have their own religion in their own language. Thus, Islam was formed to fill this void. And look at all the good that this product of jealous rage has done for the world......
BOOM!
hinduism, absurdity of a hindu, ignorant, get off of pot of your hindu sanatan, filthy goon man god' and learn to be human.
I'm Iranian Muslim living in the USA and I feel very sad reading comments here by Americans. What happens to first amendment – Freedom of Religion – which includes Islam.
Islam is truly a religion of peace.
Maybe sometimes, but then people get confused with Surah 9:5, which says to slay the infidels where ever you may find them, lie in ambush for them, etc. Of course, the verse also says to welcome them if they convert to Islam, but that's a pretty lame condition for acceptance: believe as we do or die!
Sounds like the introduction of Christianity to the new world at the point of a sword. Same cr@p different religion.
I'm sure you're a nice guy, but look at Europe. When you have large numbers of Muslims, you have ghettoized areas where it's not safe, in either a physical or abstract sense, for Western culture. You have riots and death any time someone sneezes on a Koran. Until an overwhelming majority of Muslims embrace the Enlightenment tenets of free speech and a secular civil society, they will not truly be welcome in the West. It has nothing to do with race or xenophobia, and certainly not with "Islamophobia." We will never accept things like 33% of Muslims favoring the death penalty for apostasy (as in England) and trying to kill our authors and artists for"insulting" Islam (i.e., telling the truth).
Instead of crying about the nation that accepted you as one of their own, you should be protesting against the actions of Iran's backwards government. The problem isn't the West. The problem is Islam. When the mullahs with their archaic amish beards decide to join us in this century, you won't have to worry about it anymore.
I'm an Iranian atheist and I welcome any and all threats, obstacles and problems thrown in the path of religion. Any religion, but ESPECIALLY Islam. Islam is a particularly nasty cancer on humanity and cannot be eradicated too soon.
Great a bunch of Christian fundies are afraid of Muslim fundies. I guess they hate the potential competi.tion in trying to tear down the U.S. Consti.tution.
Guess what? Both Muslim AND Christian religious law are not Consti.tutional. I think what scares them is that if they could successfully force religion into our laws then so could the Muslims. There is an easy answer to that fear:
Defend the Consti.tution from religious intrusion, support the separation of church and state and we will be safe from ALL religious persecution. Simple really.
Thank you! Freedom of Religion and separation of religion and government are fundamental to America. That is the way it should be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FlGGKZJ1E8
thing = think
guve = give
Allah u Akbar!
Atheist call to Arms. Rational and Logical men of good conscious must take action to battle the ignorance of religion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxGMqKCcN6A
"Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people, otherwise there would be no religious people." – house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJwhqhqBtbo&feature=related
I am a muslim too and I cant wait for Sharia to be the supreme law of the land. I hate living with these immoral people who have no concept of dignity or morals. One day we will win this land for Allah
You're hilarious, dude.
I swear, I think at least half the posts here are being written by white, middle-class teenagers who are sitting in their bedrooms in their tighty-witeys.
Tom Tom At least I am far from being a teenager.
By the way I posted a wikipedia link that cites the belief of the J@panese emperor as god.
This should serve to prove that I am not just talking nonsense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_cult#Ancient_J@pan (change @ to a for link to work)
Ancient J@pan
Emperor Hirohito was the last divine Emperor of J@pan
In ancient J@pan, it was customary for every clan to claim descendancy from gods (ujigami), and the royal family or clan tended to define their ancestor as the dominant, or most important kami of the time. Later in history, this was considered common practice by noble families, and the head members of the family, including that of the imperial family, were not seen to be divine. It was not until the Meiji period, that the J@panese Emperor began to be venerated under a system of State Shinto, along with a growing sense of nationalism.
Arahitogami – the concept of a god who is a human being applied to Emperor Hirohito, up until the end of World War II.
Ningen-sengen, the declaration with which Emperor Hirohito, on New Year's Day 1946, (formally) declined claims of divinity, keeping with traditional family values as expressed in the Shinto religion.
Since the belief was only officially disclaimed after WWII it hardly counts as ancient history. And its been less then 100 years since the belief was in full flow.
There are many people still clinging to it. And speaking out openly against the emperor has gotten people killed, by extreme right wingers.
Scott, I did not say you were talking nonsense. I had already read several bits of information, including the one you just posted. I know that the Ja-panese people believed the emperor was a god up until the end of WWII (however some of the information I read indicated that they did not see the emperor as the same sort of 'god' as we may think–you can look it up for yourself) I'm not disputing that. However, you say that they STILL believe this. I said that I thought it was odd that my relative never saw or heard anyone in Ja-pan indicate any such thing. You say that you did. If so, do you have any idea how widespread this notion is? Were most of those who believed this elderly?
I see we are cross-posting. I do not dispute that until the end of the second World War, the emperor was viewed as a deity. But I believe that in your original post you said this belief was still held today.
Tom, it is well doc-umented that men women and children killed themselves up in Okinawa rather than surrender. Many J@ panese soldiers killed themselves up rather than surrender throughout the war to please their god. People across J@ pan expecting the nation was going to lose the war prepared with sword in hand to kill themselves at the order of the emperor as he made his radio announcement. They believe in the most literal of senses, that the emperor is god on earth. And some are still prepared to kill to defend that belief today, and they do kill to defend it.
I have seen the far right wingers driving in the black vans with the loud speakers preaching it. Occasionally they will beat up foreigner so bad they end up in hospital just to send a message. I also learned to speak the language while i was there and before I went I studied it in university as an elective.
It has been less than a hundred years since the official statement, a forced statement i will also say that the emperor had to make after the lose in WWII that he was not god. Many J@panese view that as a forced statement. Many in their hearts still believe that they are of the blood line of holy gods and that the emperor is god.
Yes, Scott, DURING WWII–a war whose veterans are nearly all dead now. People still willing to kill others for claiming the emperor is not a deity? A few crazed extremists, maybe. The great majority? I don't buy it. You can claim it, but unless you can provide some evidence other than your say-so, I don't believe it's widespread or common.
These are bunch of losers looking for something to thrill their mundane lives.
I am a Muzlim man. I just love being able to ra-pe women, blame it on them, telling all the townspeople about HER transgression so they will rise up and stone her to death!
hinduism, absurdity of a hindu, snake from hindered gutter land india, showing nothing else but his hindu filthy color of his hinduism, absurdity.
No you are a sad little man full of hate who thinks he is funny.
oooh yeah! how about your butt-loving, child rapist american Christians?! even your priests commit more disgusting sins than our worst offenders! millions have said worst things about Islam in its earliest days than you can ever say. so i suggest that you don't waste your time saying something that had been said repeatedly and over and over again. hate it or not, Islam will thrive and it might not be in your lifetime but it will surely be one day the dominant religion in america and around the world. writing down something on a piece of paper will not stop the spread of Islam nor your ideologically twisted mind. when i read comments like yours here, i became even more prouder to be a Muslim. bottom line, millions with might have tried before to stop the spread of Islam and each time they failed miserably. i have zero doubt in my mind that one day sharia law will be the law of this land. and what else can you do that you haven't done already to stop Islam or propagate its hate?! you can say all the bad things you want about Islam and Muslims and no matter what you do, Islam will always keep thriving, insha Allah. now go and cry under your blanket!!! Islam is growing faster than any other religion, even here in america. viva Islam.
I have one word for you... Sikhism. Loser.
September 11 was a shocking atrocity. It caused me to really question the influence of religion in the world. I was shocked by what people are capable of when rational thought is discarded and religion goes unchecked. To my slowly dawning dismay I realized that, instead of an increased wariness regarding religion, much of the rest of the country was doubling down on faith and digging in with increasing resolve to push an evangelical Christian agenda. Now, more than a decade later, here we are still dumbly arguing that we should fear and fight THAT religion and THOSE religious people (Muslims), rather than learning the lesson that what should be feared and fought is all religion and all irrational people.
You do realize that 9-11 was Islamic extremists..
right?
I'm sure your use of the generic term "religion" was not an attempt to cast aspersions on anyone other than that one group. Just wanted to call to your attention that inadvertent error..
Oh, right, Chard, because Christian nuts never do anything horrible, do they?
ALL religious extremists are to be feared. No matter what religion they profess. Religion is used to stir up fear and to support suppression of "others". Just read the article above.
Nothing like shooting a doctor in the head in a church in front of his family, say.
Chad, my reference was to all religion. Al Qaeda is a case study of what happens when fellow religious extremists (the Taliban) are in control of government. People from Taliban-run Afghanistan were not some crazy feral form of humanity, they are human beings like the rest of us who have succumbed to the influence of conservative religious beliefs that spread like a virus in a country with no education and no separation of church and state. It should be a lesson in why it's important to be ever vigilant against religious influence in education and government in our own country.
so..
radical Islam and Christianity are the same
cause...
you lost me..
Chad, no one is saying they are exactly the same. What they have in common is that they both represent large groups of people with political agendas, who place "faith" over rational thought, and who believe that they are the special ones – the only ones – who understand the real God and what He wants for them (and the rest of us) to do. That part is the same for both, and that's the part that's potentially dangerous.
You know what? I say get rid of Christians. I mean, Muslums are bad, they blow each other up, attack other countries for no reason, hate anyone who doesn't believe in their God, but Christians are just as bad because they've done all that throughout history. Westborogh Baptist Church, the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc. They overran all of Europe and forced my ancestors to convert to their god or face death. Kill all Muslums, Kill all Christians, and while we're at it, Kill all Jews, just get rid of any trace of that Monotheistic crap, it's caused nothing but trouble.
In case it wasn't clear, that was all sarcasm.
Yes, eradicate all religious freaks from the planet! And start with the confrontational, "You're going to be tortured forever if you don't believe what I do!" cults!
THANK YOU! People just aren't willing to examine the whole picture here.
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O-+-<
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Hey, look, Muslim retards! It's a stick figure! But because I say it's a picture of Mahound lying dead on a pile of pork rinds, and even though you don't know what he ever looked like, you will still get angry and murderous and I will laugh my @$$ off! HA HA HA HA!
anger management training... check into it.
F-V-K off, retard! Why don't you get a brain and then let's talk!
fascinating response..
Fine example of hinduism, stupidity of a hindu, stupid, not wonder hindu, negative word was invented for hindu's, ignorant's like you.