GOP group denies membership to Muslim-American, says religion had nothing to do with decision.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In a contentious public meeting Monday night, the Broward Republican Executive Committee, a Republican group in Southern Florida, voted to deny Nezar Hamze, a Muslim-American Republican, membership. The group maintains that Hamze's religion had nothing to do with their vote, but group members told reporters that the man's affiliation with an Islamic relations group made members uneasy and could have been the basis for his rejection.

In early September, conservatives in Broward County, where the committee is based, were outraged after hearing of Hamze's plans to apply to join their ranks. Hamze, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of South Florida (CAIR), later explained to Salon's Justin Elliott why he applied: "A lot of Muslims I know, their values really line up with the conservative values of the Republican party. I'm a strict social conservative, a fiscal conservative, a very strict constitutionalist. The protection of civil liberties for all Americans is supreme." Furthermore, Hamze told Mother Jones that he wanted to "bring Muslims into the mainstream political process."

At Monday evening's meeting, the committee passed rules to change the application process. Applicants were to now address the crowd and field questions, something Hamze did not expect. "I was blasted with 15 minutes worth of insults. They [crowd members] yelled 'You're a terrorist! You're an Al Qaeda supporter! No way a Muslim is going to join BREC!'" The committee also decided that night to make the voting process more secretive: Voting was private and the ballots were later destroyed (the final tally was 158-11). According to the Miami Herald, the crowd "cheered loudly" after hearing the results of the vote. BREC members also questioned Hamze's organization, CAIR, later telling the Miami Herald that Hamze's affiliation with CAIR was the basis for his denial.

Hamze claims that BREC members handed out pamphlets (pictured below) detailing why Republicans should deny his admission. The pamphlet alleges that Hamze's membership is part of a plot to undermine Florida Rep. Allen West. Some background: In August, Hamze sent a letter to West, asking him to stop working with anti-Muslim advocates like Pamela Gellar. West famously responded with a one-word letter, "NUTS!" The top of the pamphlet distributed on Monday reads, "NEZAR HAMZE WANTS AMERICANS TO STAND AGAINST CONGRESSMAN WEST." It ends with, "We don't need someone who has been attacking Allen West for almost a year from the OUTSIDE to now attack him from INSIDE the BREC!"

Pamphlet distributed at Florida GOP meeting: Nezar Hamze

Others who attended the event, like Javier Manjarres, a Republican blogger in Florida, called the event "regrettable." In a blog post, Manjarres alleges that BREC's committee leader Richard DeNapoli, "orchestrated the rigged chain of events by planting his operatives in crowd, each of whom had a specific task to carry out during the proceedings." DeNapoli says that Manjarres "has a beef with me" and that allegations that he placed people in the crowd are false. As for BREC members handing out pamphlets, DeNapoli says that's something he can't control. "I'm trying to prepare for the meeting and if someone is handing out stuff outside the door, it's difficult for me to know what's going on with that."

Both Hamze and DeNapoli say that this was the first time they had witnessed someone being denied membership to BREC.

http://motherjones.c...muslim-american

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Most Muslims I've known in my life have been Republicans, but that is changing since the GOP has been losing its mind. They don't need our money, and we have lots of it. It will go elsewhere this time.

The GOP has declared war on American Muslims

Sheila Musaji

Posted Sep 27, 2011

If you type GOP or Republican into the search engine of The American Muslim site, you will come up with a lot of articles about the GOP and most involve Islamophobia. Here are just a few of the incidents over the past few years:

There was State Senator Greg Ball (R-NY, chairman of the Veterans, Homeland Security & Military Affairs Committee) who held a hearing titled “Reviewing our Preparedness: An Examination of New York’s Public Protection Ten Years After September 11”, and invited known Islamophobes to testify.

There was the Southwest Broward Republican Organization in Florida that sent out an anti-mosque protest email.

There was the June GOP Presidential Candidates’ Debate in New Hampshire in which Herman Cain Herman once again discussed a test that will show which American Muslims are loyal to the United States and the Constitution. Newt Gingrich suggested that all Muslims should be suspect until they prove their loyalty and they deserve higher scrutiny, like Communists or Nazis.

There was Rep. Sue Myrick’s hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood and her support for the hate group ACT for America.

There were the statements made by four conservative Republicans — Reps. John Shadegg (Ariz.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Trent Franks (Ariz.) and Sue Myrick (N.C.) in the halls of the lawmakers of this country about Muslim interns on Capitol Hill.

There was Rep. Adam Hasner (the head of Florida’s House Republicans) who co-sponsored a so-called “Free Speech Summit” in Delray Beach, Florida along with Pamela Geller of SIOA (designated a hate group by the SPLC). One of the speakers at this event was Geert Wilders who said Islam should not be recognized as a legitimate faith and Muslims should not have religious freedom. Hasner also sponsored a showing of the hate film “Obsession” for Florida State Legislators.

There was Rep. Virgin Goode Rep. Virgil Goode’s hateful rhetoric about the the use of a Qur’an for the ceremonial swearing-in of Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress.

There is a long list of GOP elected officials who have called on known Islamophobes to provide “expert” testimony on Islam and Muslims. For example: — Rep. Carl Gatto (R-AK), Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), Ralph Hall (R-TX) and State Rep. Jerry Madden (R-TX) who called on Pamela Geller, and Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) who defended Geller, — Rep. Michelle Bachmann who has sought advice from Frank Gaffney and Pamela Geller, — Rep. Allen West, (R-FL) who met with Brigitte Gabriel head of anti-Muslim group ACT! for America, — Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) who invited David Yerushalmi of SANE to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill.?

There is a long list of GOP representatives actively pushing anti-Sharia legislation in at least 23 states now.

There is a long list of GOP representatives making statements about the proposed Cordoba House/Park 51 project in New York that go well beyond any sourt of civil disagreement. And, the National Republican Trust PAC even ran an anti-Muslim ad against the proposal.

There is a long list of hateful anti-Muslim statements that have been made by elected representatives of the United States, and most of these are GOP officials, who have forgotten that Muslims are part of “we the people”. And, we have published a summary of such statements divided into categories ranging from “thoughtless ignorance” to “bigotry” to “expressions of outright hatred” that have been made by members of the GOP.

There was the event sponsored by Rep. Allen West (R-FL) in the Rayburn House Office Building titled “Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America,” presented by Peter Leitner of Citizens for National Security (CFNS), located in Boca Raton, Florida. During this presentation CFNS announced that it would be releasing the names of 6,000 active members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But when the big day came, the group stated that the names would actually be kept under wraps and only released to select “responsible parties.” In a response to a query from Wired’s Spencer Ackerman, Leitner conceded that the people on his list had not necessarily been charged with any crimes. Instead, they were just people who are involved with organizations he had connected to the Muslim Brotherhood—like the Muslim Students Association.

There have been political campaigns like that of Lynn Torgerson vs Keith Ellison, Marvin Scott vs Andre Carson, or Rene Ellmers and Bob Turner and Rae Hart Anderson, Dan Fanelli, Rick Torres, and Jill Holzman Vogel that were based on religious hatred. Ellmers and Turner even ran an anti-Muslim ad.

There was the incident in Orange County earlier this year. Congressmen Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly attended and spoke at the protest rally. Some of those who attended the rally began shouting hateful statements at the families entering the event. Deborah Pauly made a statement during her talk that ”

What’s going on over there right now, make no bones about it, that is pure unadulterated evil ... I know quite a few Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in Paradise.” After the event, Congressmen Ed Royce (R-Calif.) who chairs the international terrorism subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee defended Pauly’s statement and the event.

There were the Republican members of Congress Trent Franks (AZ), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Pete Hoekstra (MI) who praised Frank Gaffneys bigoted Sharia report.

There was the incident when Councilman Don Redman of Jacksonville, FL asked the newly elected Muslim council member, Parvez Ahmed to “say a prayer to your God” at a Council meeting. This followed a particularly Islamophobic campaign against Dr. Ahmed’s appointment to the Council’s Human Rights Commission.

There was the incident in which the Republican Jewish Coalition was responsible for mailing the virulently anti-Muslim film “Obsession” to Rabbi’s across the country ahead of the last Presidential election.

There is Rep. Peter King’s ongoing series of hearings about which TAM has an article The American Muslim Community and Rep. Peter King’s “Islamic” Radicalization Hearings which has a great deal of background on Peter King and these hearings, and an extensive article collection. We also have a series of articles breaking down various aspects of the hearings:

- Peter King’s Hearing: What Was the Point? discussing the content of the hearings, with a collection of articles written after the hearing ended.

- Peter King’s Civics Lesson for American Muslims which has a collection of anti-Muslim statements by elected representatives and government officials made during and before the hearings.

- Existing reports and studies on radicalization in the American Muslim Community and Polls, Surveys, and Statistics Relating to Islam and Muslims with actual hard evidence so lacking in the hearing.

- Response of Civic Organizations and Interfaith Community to “Muslim Radicalization” Hearings

- Elected Representatives & Government Officials Who HAVE Questioned Islamophobia with quotes from elected representives and government officials attempting to counter the bias of this hearing both during and before the hearing.

- Peter King’s hearing: witness testimonies - allegations but no facts

- Zuhdi Jasser and AIFD - Identified by Rep. King as the Ideal American Muslim Leadership

- Does Rep. King’s IRA/Terrorist Connection Matter?

- Answers to Peter King’s Claims About the American Muslim Community which lays out all of his claims and allegations and provides detailed answers to each. (e.g. Do Muslims cooperate with law enforcement? Do Muslims speak out against terrorism and extremism? Are most Muslims terrorists? Are 80 to 85% of mosques run by radicals? Have American Muslim organizations responded to the issue of radicalization? Are mosques the source of radicalization? etc.)

- The scope of Rep. Kings Hearings Creates Homeland “in"Security

If a Muslim runs for political office, whether he is a Republican or a Democrat, outrageous charges of “stealth jihadist”, “Muslim Brotherhood plant”, etc. are made by Islamophobes. Congressman Keith Ellison faced such abuse. A Muslim GOP candidate in a Virginia House of Delegates race, David Ramadan faced the same sort of abuse. When Republican Gov. Chris Christie nominated Sohail Mohammed as a judge on the state Superior Court he faced a firestorm of controversy, prompting him to finally say in exasperation “The guy’s an American citizen who has been an admitted lawyer to practice in the state of New Jersey, swearing an oath to uphold the laws of New Jersey, the constitution of the state of New Jersey, and the Constitution of the United States of America . . . .This Sharia law business is #######. It’s just crazy. And I’m tired of dealing with the crazies.”

You don’t even have to be a Muslim to come under attack by the Islamophobes. Gov. Rick Perry was attacked by Islamophobes simply for his friendship with the Aga Khan and not being anti-Muslim enough.

The problem is that sometimes this sort of Islamophobic rhetoric is also coming from GOP elected representatives.

And now we have the case of a Republican Muslim who is facing discrimination by the Republican party itself. Nezar Hamze who as Zaid Jilani reports

Nezar Hamze is both a Muslim American who is the executive director of the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a self-identified Republican. As a way to further his activism in the Republican Party, Hamze campaigned for a position on his local Republican party’s executive committee in Broward County, Florida.

During a “raucous meeting” of the party on Monday night, Hamze’s bid for committee membership was rejected by a vote of 11-158, as he was attacked with offensive questions about his faith and even compared to a terrorist by Islamophobic attendees.

Before the vote even took place, the local party changed its rules to require that each new applicant to the executive committee answer questions for five minutes, a rule change Hamze jokingly told a reporter could be called the “Hamze rule.” And as audience members stepped up to interrogate Hamze, he was told that his organization CAIR was identified as a terrorist organization and asked if he supported terrorism. Following the lead of GOP audiences who have booed gays and condemned the uninsured, one attendee yelled out “terrorist!” as Hamze was trying to speak.

And, through all of this, even those in the GOP who are not actively participating in Islamophobia have been silent. The list of elected representatives who have questioned Islamophobia includes almost no one from the GOP. Gov. Christie and Susan Collins, (R-Maine) are notable exceptions.

It is becoming more and more difficult for American Muslims who are Republican to remain loyal to the Republican Party

As Dr. Hesham Hassaballa said in an article The last of the Muslim Republicans I truly do not want to abandon the Republican party, but unless things change, I cannot keep from asking if the party has already abandoned me.

Kamran Pasha also wrote an article about why he left the Republican Party in which he said And then something started to change within the party. An ugly cancer of anti-Muslim bigotry began to reveal itself during the first Iraq War. I was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where the student body was perhaps the most conservative of the Ivy League schools. At meetings of the College Republicans, I began to hear distressing venom against Muslims. American Muslims were being openly talked of as a fifth column in the country, and my fellow students applauded rumors that internment camps were being set up in the Midwest for Muslim subversives. I was shocked to see my friends suddenly speak of my faith as the enemy.

Brian Beutler reports that “an influential Muslim GOP donor is at the end of her tether, and tells TPM she may eventually have to leave the Republican party over its opposition to the Cordoba House project and other anti-Muslim positions. “I don’t know if I’ll be a Republican a year from now,” says Seeme Hasan, who chairs the Hasan Family Foundation in Colorado, and has close ties to the Republican party leadership. Hasan’s frustration with the GOP was evident, and not just over their public opposition to the construction of a Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan. “Every time a Muslim person becomes famous, they are viciously attacked,” Hasan said. “The past few years in the Republican party has been constant humiliation for Muslims,” Hasan told TPM in an interview yesterday evening.”

And it has been reported that Muhammad Ali Hasan, the founder of ‘Muslims for Bush’ and the biggest Republican organizer among American Muslims has had enough after this past election cycle’s openly anti-Muslim bigotry, and has changed parties after meeting with Nancy Pelosi.

There is at least one encouraging sign this week. Scott Keyes of Think Progress reports that Three weeks ago, Frank Gaffney released a new pledge asking presidential candidates to swear they will fight the non-existent threat of Sharia if elected president. Yet, as of publication time, none of the 10 major Republican presidential candidates have signed Gaffney’s anti-Sharia pledge. (Gaffney’s spokesman told us they are “still in touch with the campaigns.”)

This is encouraging and hopeful, as it still remains possible that the GOP will turn a corner and treat American Muslims as fellow citizens, or perhaps they are beginning to realize that Muslim bashing doesn’t win elections .

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The question is, where do they go?

Obama’s outreach toward Muslims is limited at home

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights organization, occupies one floor of a red-brick office building on Capitol Hill. Visitors must use an elevator pass code to reach the suite, the only one in a building of tenants that is secured against attack.

On the wall of its conference room hangs a framed front page of a newspaper showing a U.S. president, standing shoeless in a mosque and reaching out in dramatic fashion to Muslim Americans.

It’s not Barack Obama, who pledged early in his presidency to combat negative stereotypes of Islam “wherever they appear.”

The clipping depicts George W. Bush. Within a week of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington to remind an angry and frightened nation that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.”

“That was huge,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, who accompanied Bush on his visit. “His statement and his visit made a big impact at home and in the world.”

By contrast, Obama has not visited a mosque in the United States since taking office, although he has done so in Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia as part of his project to repair U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Bold abroad, Obama’s outreach has been largely invisible at home as Muslim Americans confront enduring suspicion and, in some cases, outright hatred a decade after the attacks.

The president’s approach has worked to a degree internationally. Polls show that in some important Islamic countries, Muslim perceptions of the United States improved the year Obama took office, although they have dipped since then.

And it has paid off politically: Two recent surveys show that Obama has the support of more than three-quarters of Muslim Americans, a diverse mix of about 3 million people, most of them immigrants and many of them African Americans disinclined to back Republican policies.

But Obama’s tepid efforts to beat back the public’s negative impressions of the nation’s Muslim citizens in a post-9/11 nation have disappointed Muslim American leaders, who expected more from a president whose rhetoric promised so much. He has not held a single event with Muslim Americans outside the White House, favoring the relative privacy of his annual iftar dinner — the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan — to speak about issues that are important to the group.

Polls show that a large plurality of Americans continues to hold an unfavorable view of Muslims. According to a Pew Research Center poll released late last month, a majority of Muslim Americans said it has become “more difficult” to be a Muslim in the United States since the 2001 attacks — the same proportion who gave that response in the year before Obama was elected.

Another survey makes clear the political risks the president faces in strengthening his connections with Muslim Americans. The son of a Kenyan Muslim who left Obama when he was 2, the president has repeatedly professed his Christian faith. But a poll this summer found that more Americans think Obama is a Muslim than when he was elected.

“Every time he has to say ‘I’m a Christian,’ it makes Muslims feel like he’s saying ‘Muslims are bad,’ ” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal thinking. “Muslims are always asking us about this — why does he have to say it?”

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-outreach-toward-muslims-is-limited-at-home/2011/08/22/gIQAySL74J_story.html

[웃 910]

They don't need our money, and we have lots of it. It will go elsewhere this time.

Where is it going to go? I am thinking about running for office. PM for details.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Most Muslims I've known in my life have been Republicans, but that is changing since the GOP has been losing its mind. They don't need our money, and we have lots of it. It will go elsewhere this time.

The GOP has declared war on American Muslims

Sheila Musaji

Posted Sep 27, 2011

If you type GOP or Republican into the search engine of The American Muslim site, you will come up with a lot of articles about the GOP and most involve Islamophobia. Here are just a few of the incidents over the past few years:

And, through all of this, even those in the GOP who are not actively participating in Islamophobia have been silent. The list of elected representatives who have questioned Islamophobia includes almost no one from the GOP. Gov. Christie and Susan Collins, (R-Maine) are notable exceptions.

It is becoming more and more difficult for American Muslims who are Republican to remain loyal to the Republican Party

As Dr. Hesham Hassaballa said in an article The last of the Muslim Republicans I truly do not want to abandon the Republican party, but unless things change, I cannot keep from asking if the party has already abandoned me.

Kamran Pasha also wrote an article about why he left the Republican Party in which he said And then something started to change within the party. An ugly cancer of anti-Muslim bigotry began to reveal itself during the first Iraq War. I was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where the student body was perhaps the most conservative of the Ivy League schools. At meetings of the College Republicans, I began to hear distressing venom against Muslims. American Muslims were being openly talked of as a fifth column in the country, and my fellow students applauded rumors that internment camps were being set up in the Midwest for Muslim subversives. I was shocked to see my friends suddenly speak of my faith as the enemy.

Brian Beutler reports that “an influential Muslim GOP donor is at the end of her tether, and tells TPM she may eventually have to leave the Republican party over its opposition to the Cordoba House project and other anti-Muslim positions. “I don’t know if I’ll be a Republican a year from now,” says Seeme Hasan, who chairs the Hasan Family Foundation in Colorado, and has close ties to the Republican party leadership. Hasan’s frustration with the GOP was evident, and not just over their public opposition to the construction of a Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan. “Every time a Muslim person becomes famous, they are viciously attacked,” Hasan said. “The past few years in the Republican party has been constant humiliation for Muslims,” Hasan told TPM in an interview yesterday evening.”

And it has been reported that Muhammad Ali Hasan, the founder of ‘Muslims for Bush’ and the biggest Republican organizer among American Muslims has had enough after this past election cycle’s openly anti-Muslim bigotry, and has changed parties after meeting with Nancy Pelosi.

There is at least one encouraging sign this week. Scott Keyes of Think Progress reports that Three weeks ago, Frank Gaffney released a new pledge asking presidential candidates to swear they will fight the non-existent threat of Sharia if elected president. Yet, as of publication time, none of the 10 major Republican presidential candidates have signed Gaffney’s anti-Sharia pledge. (Gaffney’s spokesman told us they are “still in touch with the campaigns.”)

This is encouraging and hopeful, as it still remains possible that the GOP will turn a corner and treat American Muslims as fellow citizens, or perhaps they are beginning to realize that Muslim bashing doesn’t win elections .

Terrorists have largely supported Democrats as they are weaker on that issue than Republicans.

[sandinista! 1,816]

Terrorists have largely supported Democrats as they are weaker on that issue than Republicans.

Pure comedic gold, right here.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Congressman is a class act.

Insane Florida Congressman Allen West Wildly Overreacts to Criticism

Allen West is one of Congress's, um, special people. The freshman tea partier and former Army colonel has criticized President Obama for traveling to Afghanistan in the middle of the night because it wasn't life-threatening enough. He has claimed that Muslim congressman Keith Ellison "represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established." He has warned that those"Coexist" bumper stickers will lead to the downfall of America. During his 2010 campaign for Congress, he told his followers to "make [Democratic congressman Ron Klein] scared to come out of his house." He was fined by the military for intimidating an Iraqi policeman he suspected of terrorist ties by firing a gun next to his head and threatening to kill him. You would think that, as fond as he is of doling out baseless accusations and physical threats, West could handle a little criticism from a Democratic colleague.

But he can't, apparently! Yesterday, West sent this e-mail, regarding fellow Florida representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to party leaders and Wasserman Schultz herself (emphasis ours):

Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige.

You are the most vile, unprofessional ,and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up.

Focus on your own congressional district!

I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior……which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach.

You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!

Steadfast and Loyal

Congressman Allen B West (R-FL)

Wow. What did Wasserman Schultz do to invite such an irate personal attack on a colleague? Did she question his manhood? Did she disparage his religion? Did she fire a gun next to his head? Did she call him a stupid-looking four-eyed square-head or say something mean about his mom? Nope. She criticized his position on Medicare.

Wasserman Schultz ... provoked his tirade with remarks after he left the House floor today, in which she responded -- without naming him -- to the Tea Party freshman's support for "Cut, Cap, and Balance" legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

"The gentleman from Florida. who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries, unbelievable from a Member from South Florida," Wasserman Schultz said, saying the legislation "slashes Medicaid and critical investments essential to winning the future in favor of protecting tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires, and companies who ship American jobs overseas."

That's it. Common partisan rhetoric that members of Congress use against each other every single day. That's what set off West. He can call Obama a "low-level socialist agitator" who shows "third-world dictator-like arrogance," but should a woman criticize his political positions, he turns into

.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Pure comedic gold, right here.

You are right actually. Obama has capped more Muslims than Bush did. Ordering simultaneous headshots on three pirates was awesome! And who, after all, was it that blew off Bin Laden's head?

He increased the soldiers on the ground, kept Gitmo open for torture. I wonder why the Muslims are leaving the Republicans?

[sandinista! 1,816]

You are right actually. Obama has capped more Muslims than Bush did. Ordering simultaneous headshots on three pirates was awesome! And who, after all, was it that blew off Bin Laden's head?

He increased the soldiers on the ground, kept Gitmo open for torture. I wonder why the Muslims are leaving the Republicans?