Sunday, June 15, 2008

To discuss "Islamophobia" in the U.S., UN official meets with those who say that condemning Hamas and Hizballah would be "Islamophobic"

Which means that the State Department itself, in classifying them as terrorist groups, is "Islamophobic." I am confident that in his report Doudou Diène will not shy away from that conclusion.

Anyway, it wasn't just Ahmed Bedier. Diène met with a full rogue's gallery: "U.N. Rapporteur Turns to Usual Suspects on 'Islamophobia,'" from IPT News, June 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] Yet a volunteer for the UN Commission on Human Rights met last month in southern California with a group of Islamists, well known for their habit of crying wolf about hate crimes, while at the same time offering more than a winking endorsement for acts of terrorism and broad support for terrorist groups.

Doudou Diène, a UN "special rapporteur," attended a meeting May 28 in Anaheim, organized by the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, to hear about what the Council calls "Islamophobia," racism and discrimination against Muslims, the Council announced in a statement. The UN says special rapporteurs "are unpaid and serve in a personal capacity, [who] receive their mandates from the UN Commission on Human Rights."

Any hate crime is a pox on our nation. But as we reported last fall, the data fails to support the notion that Muslims are being targeted disproportionately. The most recent FBI report, covering 2006, documented 2,640 hate crimes against African-Americans, 1,195 hate crime incidents based on sexual orientation, 967 incidents targeting Jews and 576 anti-Hispanic hate crime incidents. The report cites 156 anti-Muslim hate crime incidents.

These are the statistics, despite the efforts of groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who stay vigilantly on the lookout for any opportunity to promote an alleged hate crime, even when the facts ultimately fall short.

Among those who helped bring Diène to town were Shura Council chairman Muzammil Siddiqi, two representatives of CAIR, and Abdel Jabbar Hamdan – a former fundraiser for the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

According to a statement, Siddiqi praised Diène's visit: "The Muslim community has continually supported law enforcement efforts and condemned terrorism," Siddiqi said in the statement. "However, members of the Islamic faith suffer from ongoing prejudice, discrimination and hate crimes."

CAIR's Hussam Ayloush added: "A comprehensive solution to the growing problem of Islamophobia should involve educational initiatives for the public, as well as persistently challenging anti-Muslim rhetoric by officials and pundits, which sometimes leads to hate crimes against Muslims."

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), CAIR and others have condemned the Al Qaeda attacks on America. But elements of CAIR have pushed conspiracy theories that the attacks were done by others and orchestrated to hurt Muslims. And they resist challenges to condemn attacks by Hamas and Hizballah by name.

Furthermore, it is misleading to claim that they offer consistent support to law enforcement. Siddiqi, Ayloush and their respective organizations issue knee-jerk condemnations of all counter-terror investigations that target suspected radicals and American-based financing of terror committed abroad, as part of a "war against Islam." And it is precisely this mantra which Canadian intelligence cites as the most critical factor in radicalization.

[...]

These are the people with whom Diène met to discuss the depth of "Islamophobia" and what should be done about it -- people who think it is "Islamophobic" to designate Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as terrorist groups. According to the Council statement, Diène intends to issue a report on Islamophobia to the U.N. for release in 2009.
Thanks Jihad Watch

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