Demonstrators rally in support of Staten Island Muslims in 2010. On Sunday, scattered pieces of bacon were found during a Ramadan celebration on Staten Island (Photo: Thomas Good /NLN)
The tide of anti-Muslim hatred scaring communities across the country has washed over New York. Staten Island, to be exact.
On Sunday, scattered pieces of bacon were found in a Staten Island field as New York City Muslims gathered to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan. In Islam, pork is forbidden. The use of pork to desecrate an Islamic site is a favored tool of Islamophobes.
The New York Police Department is reportedly investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Despite the targeting of the celebration, it went on as planned.
But it was the latest attack on Muslims during the month of Ramadan. Some Muslim leaders blame elected officials in New York and around the country for creating a climate of hatred towards Muslims in the U.S.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has posted a screenshot of anti-Muslim comments made on a Staten Island news site before the Muslim celebration that read: “I am going to walk my pet pig and i am gonna let him take a nice fat dump in the field ….just in time for morning prayers…They should send in a assault team and rid Staten island of all the muslim terrorists.”
Staten Island is no stranger to controversies over Islam; in 2010, as the ginned-up furor over the Park 51 Islamic center reached its height, a plan to sell a vacant Catholic convent to a Muslim group was scrapped after vocal anti-Muslim protests. (Pamela Geller, of course, was involved.)
But even more alarming than Staten Island’s anti-Muslim problem is the country’s Islamophobia problem. During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a spate of attacks on Islamic religious sites has occurred. “At least seven mosques and one cemetery were attacked in America during Ramadan,” CNN reports. “This is unprecedented in its scale and scope,” a spokesperson for CAIR told the news network.
In a press release, the director of CAIR’s New York chapter, Muneer Awad, said: “These incidents are not a coincidence. We believe the recent surge in acts of bigotry and hatred is directly linked to the words of elected officials and those running for office who have used anti-Muslim bigotry as a campaign strategy.”
Specifically, CAIR singled out “New York State Senator David Storobin and Assembly candidate Ben Askelrod” for fomenting anti-Muslim hatred. Storobin, who created some buzz after being photographed wearing an Israeli army uniform, has raised baseless allegations against a planned mosque in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (as Mondoweiss reported).
Askelrod, another Brooklyn politician running for election, similarly stoked the fires of anti-Muslim hatred when he told a Russian-language daily newspaper that he does “not believe that most representatives and officials from the state and the city approve of the construction of a mosque at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack and in this neighborhood in Sheephead Bay where Muslims certainly don’t live.” In fact, there are about 200 Muslim families in the area, according to residents.
In response to the widespread attacks on Muslims during Ramadan, CAIR asked “mosques and Islamic institutions nationwide to step up security for the upcoming end-of Ramadan holiday prayers.”
Is this New York City 2012 or Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1955?
“Is this New York City 2012 or Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1955?”
Well, it’s always been self-indulgence for those in the Northeast to think they are less racist than those in the Southeast.
New York City is one of the most segregated communities in the country, and in my travels, the level of racial hostility has always been perceptibly highest in the Northeast.
That’s the way it actually is. So yeah, this is New York City 2012. What about it? Weren’t the New York City draft riots of 1863 the largest single outbreak of racial hostility in the country’s history? I’m guessing — but they probably were.
Or Berlin circa 1934?
Mndwss says: ‘Or Berlin circa 1934?’
Let’s hope that turns out to be hyperbole.
Some people definitely want us to go there. To slightly misquote Hemingway, there are Nazis in America. They just don’t know it yet.
“To slightly misquote Hemingway, there are Nazis in America. They just don’t know it yet”….Colin
Yea there are, and sometimes where you least expect to find them. The only real heated encounter I’ve had in 10 years over the whole 911-Isr-ME thing was with the in- law of a friend of mine who said he wanted all the Arabs rounded up and put in camps or deported from the US. When I reminded him that was same thing the nazis had done to the Jews he said he didn’t care. And this guy was a history professor…..so go figure.
American
That history professor did not learn anything from history, he was just mouthing off textes without really understanding what happened.
Attacking mosques is a sign of how bad things are now in the US. Recessions hurt 3 groups particularly brutally – school leavers/graduates, the unemployed and ethnic minorities. Lynches and murders of minorities reflect on all of society. And US history.
And the Gellers, Gohmerts, Berkly, Ros Lehtinens of the world fuel this hatred
Just as there was huge public outrage against the KKK in the past, I want to see an equivalent level of outrage against the Islamophobes. I want them to be viewed with the same disdain as David Duke was. I am looking for public shunning and shaming.
I want people to spit after they utter their names.
To CloakAndDagger: “Just as there was huge public outrage against the KKK in the past, I want to see an equivalent level of outrage against the Islamophobes. I want them to be viewed with the same disdain as David Duke was. I am looking for public shunning and shaming.
I want people to spit after they utter their names.”
Maybe not just yet.
It’s a dangerous game, but the picture above, the response to Geller — doesn’t that suggest that it might be useful to encourage them?
Get them to really strut their stuff. Let Americans see exactly what they and Israel stand for. Make sure everyone gets a good sniff.
The bet is of course that Americans won’t like the smell. Problem is if they do…
Vaguely related.
“N.Y. police: Six years of spying on U.S. Muslims haven’t yielded any terror leads (AP)”
Happily, there are other religions. No one needs to look for another job.
Please correct me if I am wrong, however is it not true that religious jews are also forbidden to eat a pig?