Islamophobia Today:
 
* Partner of Group Opposing NY Islamic Center Says Kill All Muslims
* CAIR: Conn. Muslims Requesting Protection from Protests
* Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition (NY Times)
* Mosques in America: Faith and Anger (Photo Essay)
* 'Museum Of Tolerance' Director Opposes Mosque But Built Museum on Muslim Cemetery
 
---------
 
SIOA Co-Founder: Kill Your Liberal Relatives and All Muslims
Loon Watch, 8/6/10

A great post by Daisy Cutter over at Daily Kos. It exposes one of the co-founders of SIOA, John Joseph Jay, who if I am not mistaken is also a frequent commenter on AtlasShrugs. . .

The recent controversy over the not-actually-"at"-Ground-Zero not-actually-a-mosque is sure to heat up now that the first piece of red tape was shredded away. One of the key leaders of the movement to demonize the project, along with every other mosque being constructed in the country, is well-known wingnut blogger Pamela Geller. Along with Robert Spencer, she incorporated a nonprofit known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative. This organization seems to be the umbrella group that operates the more familiarly known SIOA (Stop the Islamisation of America). It is this group that provided the funding for legal counsel in its lawsuit to allow for anti-Islamic bus ads.

The articles of agreement for the non-profit corporation was registered in New Hampshire and can be found here (PDF). One of the founding members of the board is named John Joseph Jay.

A Google search for his name comes up with multiple accounts on right-wing anti-Muslim pro-Zionist web sites. One of which is Israel Insider. This profile further links us to his blog.To put it lightly, this man is clearly very disturbed. . .

Here, he gives his rationale for viewing every single solitary Muslim as a reasonable target for murder.
 
(More)
-----
 
Conn. Muslims Requesting Protection from Protests
Luther Turmelle, New Haven Register, 10/9/10
 
Connecticut Muslim leaders are urging public officials and police to assure they can worship without being harassed after members of a Dallas-based group showed up outside a Bridgeport mosque Friday chanting what have been described as hate-filled slogans.
 
The call for action is in the wake of an appearance by members of Operation Save America outside the Masjid An-Noor mosque on Fairfield Avenue.
 
The Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America, was at the scene of the Bridgeport mosque protest, but was not available for comment Sunday. . .
 
The organization involved in the Bridgeport incident, Operation Save America, is primarily an anti-abortion group that was once known as Operation Rescue.
 
But members of the group stood outside the mosque as worshippers prepared for the upcoming observance of Ramadan, according to Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of Connecticut office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and chanted hate-filled slogans. Dhaouadi said the protesters said things like, "Islam is a lie" and "Jesus hates Muslims."
 
"Our observance of Ramadan starts next week and that means there will be an increase of people coming to Connecticut mosques on a daily basis," said Dhaouadi. "We don't want to get caught in a situation where things might escalate, either by people protesting outside the mosques or Muslims who might become angry at the protests." (More)
 
-----
 
Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition
By Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, 8/8/10
 
[NOTE: Prof. Ihsan Bagby is a CAIR board member.]
 
While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations.
 
In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting.
 
In late June, in Temecula, Calif., members of a local Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a vacant lot nearby.
 
In Sheboygan, Wis., a few Christian ministers led a noisy fight against a Muslim group that sought permission to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor.
 
At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise - the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off.
 
In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.
 
These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America's democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.
 
"What's different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility," said Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. "It's one thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it's different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being undermined by Muslims."
 
Feeding the resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and bloggers - some of them former Muslims - who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently violent and incompatible with America.
 
But they have not gone unanswered. In each community, interfaith groups led by Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, rabbis and clergy members of other faiths have defended the mosques. Often, they have been slower to organize than the mosque opponents, but their numbers have usually been larger. (More)
 
-----

Mosques in America: Faith and Anger (Photo Essay)
By David A. Graham, Newsweek
 
The latest front in America's culture wars: a planned Islamic culture center and mosque in lower Manhattan, a couple of blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. The ado over the center--dubbed the "Ground Zero mosque"--has been particularly loud, drawing protests from Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and others. But the New York case is just one of several controversies about new mosques around the country this year. Since 9/11, American mosques have been the subject of protests, arguments, and attacks, from Manhattan to Milwaukee and Tennessee to Temecula, Calif. In this photo, protesters demonstrate against the planned New York facility. .  .
 
-----
 
'Museum Of Tolerance' Director Opposes Mosque But Built Museum on Muslim Cemetery
Rachel Slajda, TPMMuckraker, 8/6/10
The group behind the recently opened "Museum of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.
 
"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New York.
 
"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why create pain in the name of religion?"
 
It's a topic he knows something about. The Wiesenthal Center caused an uproar in for building one of its Museums of Tolerance on top of an old Muslim burial ground in Jerusalem.
 
The building of that museum has "resulted in digging up the remains of people who had been buried in a Muslim cemetery for generations," according to City University professor Marnia Lazreg. Indeed, in 2006, workers dug up bones, and an Arab group sued to stop the project from going forward. (More)
 
Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CAIR/42590232694
Subscribe to CAIR's E-Mail List
http://tinyurl.com/cairsubscribe
 
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American
Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726,

E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171,

E-Mail: arubin@cair.com