The Maryland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MD) is calling on Marylanders to contact several public officials in that state to request that they withdraw from participation in the upcoming Maryland Conservative Action Network Conference in Annapolis because the leader of a designated anti-Muslim hate group will speak at the event.

An action alert distributed by CAIR-MD calls on concerned citizens to send those officials a letter, which states in part:

"You are one of the few public officials who have chosen to speak at this conference. I believe your appearance with a hate group leader would be a disservice to your constituents and would bring disrepute to your office. I respectfully urge you to withdraw from this conference.

"The headline speaker at this event is Pamela Geller, one of the nation's most virulent Islamophobes. Geller's organization, Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which also named Geller as a member of the 'anti-Muslim inner circle.'

"Geller has bragged online that she uses a Quran, Islam's holy text, as a doorstop. Two hotels, one in Texas and another in Tennessee, dropped scheduled events that featured Geller as a speaker. Her hate blog was cited by Anders Breivik, the terrorist who went on a killing spree in Norway.

"Geller has claimed that 'Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam' and that Islam 'mandates' lies and deception. She has also posted images on her blog that include a fake photograph of then Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform, another fake image of President Obama urinating on an American flag, and drawings purporting to depict Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a pig.

"One image posted by Geller, headlined 'Piss Be Upon Him,' showed one of the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet covered in urine. ('Piss Be Upon Him' is designed to mock the traditional phrase 'Peace Be Upon Him' that Muslims use when mentioning any prophet of God.) In a 2010 blog entry, Geller posted a video claiming that Muslims engage in bestiality."

CAIR-MD is also encouraging concerned citizens to take part in a protest of Geller's presence at the Saturday event.

CAIR press release, 9 January 2013

See also "Kipke rejects group's call to boycott speech by 'Islamaphobe'", Maryland Gazette, 9 January 2013

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Steven Zhou examines the background to the right-wing smear campaign against Justin Trudeau's keynote appearance at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto last month and suggests that Canadian Palestinians and Muslims need their own Idle No More movement.

rabble.ca, 7 January 2013

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Rank-and-file Republicans, including some in the party's suburban Nashville stronghold, have condemned Gov. Bill Haslam for policies that include the hiring of gay individuals, Democrats and a Muslim-American lawyer.

At least two western Tennessee chapters of the Tennessee Republican Party – and possibly as many as eight statewide – have passed resolutions saying Haslam has shown "a consistent lack of conservative values" and calling on state party leaders to sanction the governor.

Meanwhile, the Williamson County Republican Party has passed a more narrow resolution that criticizes the governor for hiring a Tennessee-born Muslim to a trade position. The effort highlights the continued concern about Sharia, or Islamic law, among grass-roots Republicans throughout Tennessee.

The Tennessean, 17 July 2012

The Williamson County resolution (reproduced here) is apparently based on a model resolution promoted by this Islamophobic anti-Haslam website.

The Williamson County Republicans have links to the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, which organised Dutch anti-Muslim bigot Geert Wilders' visit to the state last year. A meet and greet with Wilders was held at the Williamson County Republican Party headquarters in Franklin.

Update:  TPM has received an email from Kevin Kookogey, chairman of the Williamson County Republicans, who states:

"To date, the Haslam Administration has displayed an unfortunate ignorance to the threat of Shariah. They seem willing to accept the claims and defense of the Muslim Brotherhood at face value, refusing to even consider that, perhaps, those bent on destroying Western Civilization might just be infiltrating our institutions.... It is not like this has never happened before. The Muslim Brotherhood is following the blueprint of the Communists, who infiltrated the highest levels of government and society in the 1950's. Shariah, however, is an even greater threat, because it has cloaked itself under the auspices of a religion, thus confusing the uninformed."

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