An outfit calling itself the Creative Zionist Coalition has announced that it is awarding Pamela Geller with the "Queen Esther Award for Jewish Heroism" and Robert Spencer with the "Shushan Award for Righteous Gentile".

Loonwatch reports on the background of the CZC's founders, Jessica Felber and Orit Arfa, and their links to the Zionist Organization of America.

The CZC's stated aim is to "vigorously support and defend Israel without apology, taking principled positions based on reason, logic, ethics and history". Quite what Geller and Spencer have to do with reason, logic and ethics, or indeed with any honest approach to history, is unclear.

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Religious leaders from all sects and denominations stood shoulder-to-shoulder at All Saints Church in Pasadena on Thursday to denounce a spate of hate mail the parish received for hosting a popular Muslim event at the church.

Church officials claim they received more than two dozen emails from individuals condemning All Saints Episcopal Church for hosting the 12th Annual Muslim Public Affairs Council Convention on Dec. 15.

Church officials produced three of the "close to 30" emails they received. They described many of the others as too "vituperative" to release to the public. At least one email accused the parish of "providing cover and legitimacy to an organization dedicated to overthrowing the Constitution, and substituting Sharia law." Another email warned parishoners to not "be gullible suckers."

During the Thursday press conference, convention organizers and church staff said the conference will go on as planned and denounced the emails as hateful.

"What we hear too often unfortunately, is that what we are doing is a waste of time," MPAC President Salam Al Mayarati said. "What we also hear is people trying to drag us back to the rivalries of the middle East, the bloody rivalries of the middle east."

All Saints Rector Ed Bacon characterized the emails as a tragic reminder of the political and cultural realities of contemporary America. "The fact is our life in America is transacted in a culture of fear, and transacted in a culture of hatred; and a politics of fear and a politics of hatred," Bacon said.

Bacon said he hoped to convert the negative attention from the emails into something positive for interfaith relations. "We are very happy to have this occasion to put on a display of our relations and stand in solidarity," Bacon said.

In one email, a South Carolina man said "Islam is indistinguishable from Nazism," "Islam caused the Dark Ages" and that "every host country that has invited Islam into it has either been destroyed, or is in the process of being destroyed."

Church officials said the attacks came after Institute on Religion and Democracy published a criticism of the convention on its website. "If MPAC's convention is like past ones, Islamists will again be given a platform to rally Muslims to their cause but this time, it won't be in a mosque or a hotel conference room. It'll be from a church pulpit," the Nov. 30 article by Ryan Mauro, the "national security analyst of RadicalIslam.org," who is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel.

MPAC Senior Adviser Dr. Maher Hathout said groups like IRD often cite Hathout's work with the Muslim Brotherhood as a reason to doubt his good intentions. I "was working with the Muslim Brotherhood student movement 60 years ago against the British occupation and against the Nasser (Gamal Abdel Nasser former President of Egypt) dictatorship and I am very proud of that record," Hathout said Thursday. "Since that time I have no connection with any group or party. In the last 40 years in America, I never dealt with any organization outside the U.S."

The MPAC national convention is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 15.

MPAC and the church are working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pasadena Police Department on increasing security for the event, Al Mayariti said.

Pasadena Star-News, 7 December 2012

Update:  In a piece for the Washington Post's Guest Voices blog ("Hate mail over Muslim conference provides opportunity for Christian witness") the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite points out that the Institute on Religion and Democracy article that provoked this outpouring of hate was crossposted from David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine.

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Muslim civil rights groups and community organisations have condemned a series of anti-Islamic advertisements that will be appearing in New York's subway stations next week.

The ads had initially been rejected by the city's Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) but were later allowed after a legal appeal ruled them to be expressions of freedom of speech. One ad reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad."

The ads are set to appear in at least 10 of the city's 400 subways stations and have been designed and paid for by the controversial American Freedom Defence Initiative, which is led by outspoken anti-Islamist activist Pamela Geller. The AFDI has been termed an "active anti-Muslim group" by the civil rights watch dog organisation the Southern Poverty Law Centre.

"You are talking about people like me being called a "savage"," said Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. "It is all bubbling up. I know there is freedom of speech, but with freedom of speech comes responsibility. This promotes hate."

The AFDI first came to prominence during a prolonged fight about the building of an Islamic cultural centre in downtown Manhattan. Its critics dubbed the project a "Ground Zero mosque" and waged a high-profile campaign against it that many said was Islamaphobic. The SPLC termed Geller "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead."

Ads similar to the ones set to appear in New York have already been put on buses in San Francisco. However, the local transport authority in the city, known as Muni, donated the funds raised by the ad to the city's Human Rights Commission and also ran their own ad next to it that stated: "Muni doesn't support this message." The AFDI has also sought to run the ads in Washington DC but authorities there have delayed them for public safety concerns.

Muslim civil rights groups said the ads were coming at an especially sensitive time as world politics are already being rocked by violent protests and attacks on American embassies in the wake of the production of an anti-Islamic film made by an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in California. It also comes after several high-profile incidents in the US, including the burning of a mosque in Joplin, Missouri. "They add to the overall picture of anti-Muslim feeling that is growing up in our nation," said Ibrahim Hooper, a director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The renewed controversy over the ads also comes on the same day as a major global report by the Pew Research Centre identified a rise of religious intolerance worldwide, including in the US. On the two measures the survey used – called "social hostility" and "government restrictions" - the US moved up the scale for the first time in both areas. When it came to official restrictions the US went from a low category to moderate, but when it came to the social hostilities index the country went from the lower end of the moderate scale to the upper end.

Guardian, 20 September 2012

See also "Controversial 'Defeat Jihad' ad to appear in NYC subways", CNN, 19 September 2012

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Last night's protest on Thurnby Lodge estate – spot the fascistA series of late-night protests have been staged against a faith group's plan to convert a disused Scout hut in Leicester into a community centre.

Dozens of police have been stationed in Thurnby Lodge estate for the past few nights to oversee the peaceful demonstrations, which at their height have attracted up to 150 people.

Residents said they were angry the former Scout hut in Nursery Road looked likely to become a community centre operated by Islamic charity the As-Salaam Trust.

They would like the building, which has been empty for several years, to be developed for the wider community. They are also concerned about extra traffic the centre might create.

Opponents have held their protests outside the estate's main community centre, in Thurncourt Road, where As-Salaam's members have been meeting for prayers for the past two-and-a-half years. They said the city council had not asked them for their views on the future use of the Scout hut. Some support a proposal to set up a boxing club in the building.

Maxine Williams, manager of the Stirrup Cup pub, has been taking part in the demonstrations. She said: "People are protesting because they feel that they have not been consulted and that the council has handed the keys to the Scout hut to As-Salaam. There is a lot of concern about the amount of traffic that it will bring and that people's peace will be shattered."

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby was due to meet a group of residents today. He said: "As-Salaam has been meeting in the area for some time and was looking for a permanent home. "If the people who are interested in opening a boxing club can establish themselves, we will help them find suitable premises. "However, our view was they were a long way from being in a position to take this building on."

Mohammed Lockhat, As-Salaam's imam, said: "If we could sit down together and talk, we would be able to understand each other better. "People have said they are concerned about traffic, but most of the people would be walking to the Scout hut because they live here."

The Scout Association told the city council in September last year that it wanted to end its lease of the hut. The council said it then contacted more than 100 community groups which had told it they were looking for premises.

Of the groups that expressed an interest, As Salaam was the only one that could meet the lease criteria agreed with the Scout Association, the council said in a leaflet which was delivered to homes on the estate last week.

A police spokeswoman said: "The police have a legal duty to facilitate a peaceful protest and have no powers to stop a demonstration."

Leicester Mercury, 8 August 2012

For further evidence of far right involvement in the protests, see Leicester Community Voice, 5 August 2012

See also "BNP stirs up resentment over Leicester Muslim centre", East Midlands Anti-fascists, 10 August 2012

And "Griffin parachutes into Thurnby Lodge", East Midlands Anti-fascists, 11 August 2012

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Sheila Musaji notes that many of Congress's leading Republican Islamophobes are members of an evangelical Christian organisation called Capitol Ministries. She writes:

"Looking through information on Capitol Ministries, it seems that they are not only anti-Muslim, but also anti-gay, and anti-Catholic. However, they seem to focus more of their venom on Muslims....

"How is it that of the 46 Congressional sponsors on Capitol Ministries list, at least 23 of them have been involved in anti-Sharia, anti-Muslim, Islamophobic activities? That's at least 50% of the members of this group who seem to believe that it is a 'Christian' value to bash Muslims....

"These are people who have political power, and are using it to demean and demonize members of a minority religion."

The American Muslim, 20 July 2012

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A Southern California interfaith coalition today expressed "deep shock and alarm" over the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles' decision to offer a platform to the leader of an anti-Muslim hate group.

Pamela Geller, who will deliver a lecture this morning on "Islamic Jew-Hatred: The Root Cause of the Failure to Achieve Peace," is co-founder of Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), an organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and author of a book offering step-by-step instructions on how to stop mosque construction in America.

The interfaith coalition released the following statement:

"We are extremely shocked and alarmed to see a mainstream Jewish organization associating itself with one of the nation's leading Islamophobes who doesn't hesitate to share the podium with European racists and whose admirers apparently include Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik. Religious leaders and institutions have an increased and urgent responsibility to promote tolerance and mutual understanding among all Americans, instead of giving aid and comfort to fear-mongers like Geller. Imagine how hurt Jewish community members would be, and rightly so, if they discovered American Muslims hosting an anti-Semitic speaker."

CAIR press release, 23 June 2012

See also Richard Silverstein, "Los Angeles Jewish Federation hosts, endorses Pam Geller's Islamophobia", Tikun Olam, 23 June 2012

Via Loonwatch

Update:  Good news! See "Jewish surrender: LA Jewish Federation submits to Hamas-linked Muslim groups, cancels Geller event", Atlas Shrugs, 24 June 2012

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A Muslim group has reignited the battle for an Islamic community centre in Purley by appealing against the council's decision to refuse it.

In March the Advertiser reported how the plan was defeated by Tory councillors who said the centre, for 5 Russell Hill Place, would be "detrimental" to residents living above and for motorists who use the car park the site faces onto. However, this week we surveyed residents in the flats above the site, with the result suggesting the majority of them support it.

Purley Islamic Community Centre (PICC) has lodged an appeal which could end with a £10,000 bill. A council ruling is expected within the next 10 weeks.

PICC spokesman Usman Sadiq said: "We are determined to establish a centre within Purley and after careful consideration have decided to appeal the council's decision. I am certain the centre will benefit the whole community and aims to provide a number of services targeted for local Muslim families but will be available to all."

Although 226 were against the Islamic centre as opposed to 214 in support, the council's website also reveals only around half of those 440 respondents were from Purley. The others included people from places such as Thornton Heath and New Addington, with several more from people who don't even live in Croydon borough and even one response from Hong Kong.

The Advertiser this week canvassed residents living in the flats above the proposed centre. Of people in the 13 flats we spoke to, 10 said they supported it while three were against the plans.

Mike Hill, 62, said: "I think they're right to appeal. I spent 10 years in Saudi Arabia and so I know what true Muslims are like and they are not a problem at all."

Fellow resident Paul Barnett, 30, said: "I think the council should turn their attention to filling empty shops. As far as I'm concerned the council has got its priorities wrong. I was all for the plan after going down and meeting them. We have the pub which can be quite noisy from people outside but these people aren't drunks."

However, one resident who objected said it would create too much activity, with Purley Youth Centre and the United Reformed Church next door.

Figures released to the Advertiser by the London Ambulance Service show there have been no traffic accidents in Russell Hill Place during the last year.

The town centre site would see the empty Venture photography building in Russell Hill Place converted with room for homework clubs, a senior citizens' club and keep-fit and cookery classes. The partitioned classrooms would also host Koran lessons and Muslims could pray five times a day, with capacity for around 50 to 70 people.

Croydon Advertiser, 21 May 2012

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A leading French Muslim group says three mosques have been vandalized over the past week and is urging authorities to punish the perpetrators.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, said racist insults and Nazi slogans were scrawled on a mosque in the southeastern town of Tarascon and another in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday and Wednesday. It said the mosque in the southern town of Draguignan was vandalized May 17.

In a statement Thursday, the CFCM expressed concern about what it called the "multiplication of these cowardly and hateful acts" and warned against complacency. Muslim and Jewish graveyards and religious buildings around France have long suffered sporadic vandalism.

The group urged authorities to track down and punish those responsible "with all the necessary severity."

Associated Press, 24 May 2012

See also CFCM press release, 24 May 2012

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The Federal Court says an anti-Islam group has the right to give out leaflets from an information booth if it wants – and the local authorities must protect them.

Fribourg Council banned the group – The Movement Against the Islamization of Switzerland – from setting up an information booth Place Georges-Python during the anti-minaret campaign in 2009. It said it refused to give permission because of a fear that violence and unrest would break out as a result, provoking a legal challenge.

The Federal Court upheld the group's complaint that the authorities had impinged on its freedom of expression as well as on freedom of information, newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported.

The court said the local authorities should instead have taken additional measures to safeguard against such an event. In particular, the court said that the authorities could have drafted more police in to safeguard the site. Although public law does grant local authorities powers to ban demonstrations from public spaces, the court confirmed that they may not do so simply because they disapprove of the ideas being communicated.

The Local, 21 May 2012

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The Interior Minister of Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has blamed a far-right group that displayed lampooning cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him) outside mosques for a recent cycle of violence in the European country.

The actions of the extremist anti-Islam group, "Pro NRW", in Bonn on Saturday had been a "deliberate provocation" that had triggered reprisals by Salafists, Ralf Jäger, the NRW Interior Minister, was quoted as saying by Deutsche Welle on Monday, May 7.

Gathering outside the Saudi Fahd Academy in Bonn's suburb of Mehlem, "Pro-NRW" supporters showed caricatures depicting a man said to be the prophet.

Hundreds of Salafi Muslims gathered in response to protest the rightist rally, which developed into clashes that left 29 policemen injured. More than 100 Salafist protesters were briefly arrested.

OnIslam, 7 May 2012

See also Spiegel Online, 7 May 2012

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A new book by Geert Wilders aimed at the American market is not due to be officially launched until May 1, but details gleaned from advance and review copies are already doing the rounds.

The book is entitled Marked for Death, Islam's war against the West and me and according to Wilders' own website 'tells the story of Geert Wilders' fight for the right to speak what he believes: namely that Islam is not just a religion but primarily a dangerous ideology which is a threat to Western freedoms.'

The book will be officially presented at an as-yet secret location in the US, and is regarded by some as Wilders' calling card to America. The Dutch MP has made no secret of his international ambitions and is keen to launch and International Freedom Alliance, he said last year.

Magazine HP/De Tijd looks at one incident in the book in which Wilders writes how he was robbed by "three Arab youths" in the Utrecht district of Kanaleneiland – an area of poor housing and high unemployment.

In fact, the robbery took place in a more upmarket part of town several kilometres away the magazine says, citing references to the incident in a biography of Wilders published several years ago.

Tom Kleijn, Washington correspondent for television show Nieuwsuur says the book is a dry, almost academic recount of "how Wilders has become what he is". The book even contains an index and sources, he points out. "Wilders has a small, rich and fanatical group of followers in America," Kleijn said. "But it remains to be seen if this book will boost Wilders' popularity."

Current Dutch president Mark Rutte is not mentioned once, but Wilders states five times that he and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch Somali Muslim critic who now works for a US think-tank, are of the same opinion, Kleijn points out.

Nos correspondent Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal describes how Wilders emphasises his admiration for former US president Ronald Reagan and states current president Barack Obama is a dhimmi – a submissive non-Muslim in a Muslim state.

Dutch News, 21 April 2012

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This is the headline to a Toronto Star report giving publicity to Jewish Defence League-Canada leader Meir Weinstein, who has attacked the Toronto Transit Commission for allowing the Walk-In Islamic Infocentre to take out an advert declaring that "There is no god but Allah". (To avoid misunderstanding, the WIIC has since amended the ad to read "Your God is but One...the Merciful, the Compassionate".)

The so-called "pro-terrorism Muslim speaker" is Zakir Naik, and his connection with the WIIC is that their website provided a link to his Islamic Research Foundation. As for Meir Weinstein, the supposed opponent of terrorism, this is the same Meir Weinstein that invited former EDL Jewish Division leader Roberta Moore to head the JDL's UK chapter, whose website currently features an article expressing sympathy and admiration for Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.

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The North West Infidels, a breakaway faction from the English Defence League, have proudly announced the adoption of a new banner by their Oldham branch. No doubt they will be hearing shortly from Iron Maiden's lawyers.

Note that this group of ex-EDL activists, unlike the leaders of the organisation from which they sprang, have no hesitation in openly declaring their real ideological inspiration.

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