Another American “Christian Terrorist!”

He’s referred to as “Giffords shooting suspect!”

Imagine. A heinous act of deliberate intent to massacre innocent people is as simple as “the shooter” or “suspected gunman Jared Loughner.”

As of the time of this post, six people, including a 9 year old girl were massacred by this WHITE CHRISTIAN TERRORIST. Earlier on Saturday, and hours before his act of terrorism, Loughner posted on his MySpace account:

 

“Goodbye, Dear friends … Please don’t be mad at me.”

 

On both the MySpace and YouTube web pages, Loughner mentions his concern over literacy rates and the fact that few people speak English. He also talks about his distrust of the government and suggests that anyone can call anyone a terrorist.

“I can’t trust the current government because of fabrications,” Loughner wrote in a YouTube slide presentation. “The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.”

Ironically, Loughner, who is white and supposedly – and conveniently “religion-less” has not been referred to as Terrorist, Christian Terrorist or any such descriptive name that would associate him with a militant faith or group.

This is always the case with any White American who commits an act of terror!

See Timeline: US gun massacres

Yet, had he been African American, or his name was Abdullah, Mohammed or Ali, he would have been immediately labeled as a terrorist who had some sort of a relationship with Al-Qaeda or Muslim terrorists and so on!

 

 

The Jewish media quickly jumped on the news and cried: Antisemitism!

Jewish media quickly spotted that Hitler’s Mein Kampf is among the “alleged” gunman’s favorite books — an eclectic list that also included Aesop’s Fables.

Giffords is the granddaughter of Akiba Hornstein, the son of a Lithuanian rabbi who in the 1940s moved from New York to Tucson. He later changed his name to Giff Giffords in an effort to avoid anti-Semitism. YnetNews

Giffords, 40, was raised “mixed” by a Christian Scientist mother and Jewish father, but said that after a visit to Israel in 2001, she had decided she was Jewish only. She attended services at a local Reform synagogue. JTA News.

Gifford had once stated:

If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it. Jewish women — by our tradition and by the way we were raised — have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn’t or can’t be done and pull people together to be successful.”

Freedom of Speech: Why not at work?

It’s amusing that we debate and argue the issues of what constitutes Free Speech. Quran burning, attacking the Quran’s text, attacking the Prophet of Islam, dehumanizing Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, or anyone we don’t understand or “relate” to, will – for the most part – fall under “Free Speech!” Try, on the other hand to express your “Free Speech” right on, say, Judaism: you’re immediately an anti-Semite!

Any of you old enough to remember that at one time, here in the U.S., “Blacks” (African Americans) and “Whites” were segregated? Or that there were signs that did not allow Jews and Dogs in restaurants?

Jews Not Allowed

Has anything changed?

In the work-environment, “Free Speech” is anything but!  Or, why isn’t the following “DON’T’s” also considered free speech?

When one wants to bend the rules, one simply renames the issue/ topic to make it “acceptable.”

Enjoy:

Water Cooler Chat

One way to blow off steam and recharge your batteries at work is to chat with co-workers. While talking about topics unrelated to work may seem unproductive, it actually helps to build the relationships that are necessary for good teamwork and workplace morale.

However, it’s important to remember that no matter how comfortable with or friendly toward your co-workers you feel, there are simply some topics that are better suited to Saturday night than Monday morning.

This article explores seven topics that are acceptable, and seven topics that are taboo.

1. 

Water cooler do: Sunday hike

Go ahead and highlight the great hike you took on Sunday morning. Sharing your interests, hobbies, and passions is a good way for co-workers to get to know you.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Sunday service

Don’t discuss the church service you attended on Sunday morning. Religious preferences should never be discussed at work, and proselytizing is even more off limits.

It’s fine to tell someone what religion you practice if they ask, but don’t go any deeper than that.

1. 

Water cooler do: Book group book

Go ahead and enlighten others about the book you are currently reading in book group.

If you’ve recently found yourself enjoying a real page-turner you can’t put down, other readers at work will definitely appreciate hearing about it.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Hot button book

Mentioning the book you are currently reading about health care reform, global warming, or some other political hot button, followed by a 10-minute diatribe stating your opinion is not a good subject for conversation.

Nothing gets people worked up like politics. It will be best for you in the long run if your colleagues, bosses, and supervisors, all of whom have an impact on your career, aren’t aware of your leanings.

1. 

Water cooler do: Travel talk

Definitely report on how you spent your recent vacation (without too many boring details).

Whether you traveled somewhere exotic or explored the local scene on a “staycation,” your  co-workers will most likely love to hear about your experiences.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Pillow talk

Keep to yourself what you and your husband/wife/significant other did in the hotel room.

It’s absolutely verboten to discuss your sex life with co-workers. No one wants to hear about it.

1. 

Water cooler do: Goals and dreams

Sharing your career and life objectives, as well as how you plan to meet them, not only boosts relationships, it can increase your productivity. When you share your goals with someone, your accountability increases.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Personal finances

Sharing how much money you currently make, or how much money you need to make, is unprofessional. Discussing finances is important, as long as these discussions are between you and your family.

1. 

Water cooler do: Family and friends

Share stories about people you spend your time with outside of work, as long as they are  positive.

Talking about your spouse, significant other, kids, or other people outside of work who are important to you gives insight into who you are, and shows how you spend your time.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Personal problems

Avoid addressing marital, boyfriend, or other personal problems. There are enough issues to solve in the workplace.

No one needs the added burden of your personal problems. In addition, sharing personal problems indicates a level of familiarity that most co-workers aren’t comfortable with.

1. 

Water cooler do: Restaurant reviews

Do recount the details of the terrific meal you had last night at the new Tapas joint in town.

Sharing experiences that others also enjoy is a great way to connect.

Water cooler don’t: Drunken disorderly

Don’t notify your colleagues about the six shots of tequila that accompanied your meal.

Never share any information that casts you in a negative light, or highlights your bad habits.

1. 

Water cooler do: Good news

Feel free to disclose a co-worker or colleague’s promotion, engagement, new baby, or other good news.

As long as you have the person’s permission, it’s nice to spread joyful, positive news.

1. 

Water cooler don’t: Bad news

Don’t reveal a co-worker or colleague’s medical problems, financial problems, marital problems, or other personal problems.

Sharing negative information portrays you as a gossip, as well as someone who is not trustworthy.

1. 

Keep the chatter cheerful

Chatting with co-workers and colleagues can be a great way to get to know one another, build relationships, and foster teamwork.

Sharing can be good for the work environment, as long as you are aware of what to share!

NY Times: Moved by a Crescent

Op-Ed Columnist

Moved by a Crescent

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: October 21, 2008

Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words “community organizer”; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to “spread the wealth” was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were “the real America.”

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Maureen Dowd

“Powell represents what is best of America. People from all countries and religions coming together to build a nation of tolerance, hope and unity.”

James, Baltimore, MD

• Read Full Comment »

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.

“I stared at it for an hour,” he told me. “Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?”

Khan was an all-American kid. A 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., he loved the Dallas Cowboys and playing video games with his 12-year-old stepsister, Aliya.

His obituary in The Star-Ledger of Newark said that he had sent his family back pictures of himself playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy.

His father said Kareem had been eager to enlist since he was 14 and was outraged by the 9/11 attacks. “His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go,” Feroze Khan, told The Gannett News Service after his son died. “He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do.”

In a gratifying “have you no sense of decency, Sir and Madam?” moment, Colin Powell went on “Meet the Press” on Sunday and talked about Khan, and the unseemly ways John McCain and Palin have been polarizing the country to try to get elected. It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo.

Even the Obama campaign has shied away from Muslims. The candidate has gone to synagogues but no mosques, and the campaign was embarrassed when it turned out that two young women in headscarves had not been allowed to stand behind Obama during a speech in Detroit because aides did not want them in the TV shot.

The former secretary of state has dealt with prejudice in his life, in and out of the Army, and he is keenly aware of how many millions of Muslims around the world are being offended by the slimy tenor of the race against Obama.

He told Tom Brokaw that he was troubled by what other Republicans, not McCain, had said: “ ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Powell got a note from Feroze Khan this week thanking him for telling the world that Muslim-Americans are as good as any others. But he also received more e-mails insisting that Obama is a Muslim and one calling him “unconstitutional and unbiblical” for daring to support a socialist. He got a mass e-mail from a man wanting to spread the word that Obama was reading a book about the end of America written by a fellow Muslim.

“Holy cow!” Powell thought. Upon checking Amazon.com, he saw that it was a reference to Fareed Zakaria, a Muslim who writes a Newsweek column and hosts a CNN foreign affairs show. His latest book is “The Post-American World.”

Powell is dismissive of those, like Rush Limbaugh, who say he made his endorsement based on race. And he’s offended by those who suggest that his appearance Sunday was an expiation for Iraq, speaking up strongly now about what he thinks the world needs because he failed to do so then.

Even though he watched W. in 2000 make the argument that his lack of foreign policy experience would be offset by the fact that he was surrounded by pros — Powell himself was one of the regents brought in to guide the bumptious Texas dauphin — Powell makes that same argument now for Obama.

“Experience is helpful,” he says, “but it is judgment that matters.”

Blacks, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Jews, Muslims.. who’s next?

Welcome to America: the land of the free. The land of democracy. The land of justice.

Unless you are/ were one of the above and haven’t diluted your heritage to the point that you may have blue eyes or fair skin.

Blacks – African Americans

Starting with slavery, which (in the United States) began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia in 1607, lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.

Chinese Americans

Meanwhile, the Chinese “slave-trade” and Chinese laborer problems were brewing – and the resulting hatred for the Chinese which lasted through the early 1900’s!

Japanese Americans

Yet again and during the same period (1880’s), Japanese slaves and laborers were brought to work on sugar plantations in Hawaii. In May 1892, the first anti-Japanese movement began. In December of 1941, the first Japanese camp was established!  Source.

Blacks – African Americans – still.

Between 1955 and 1968 – (imagine: 103 years after abolishing slavery, supposedly, one would think that the Blacks status in the U.S. would have reached new heights of justice and equality)  the American Civil Rights Movement still aimed at abolishing racial discrimination.

I can’t help but interject that the USA invaded countries on the premise of establishing justice, democracy and abolishing racial discrimination in countries whose existence was not even one-third of the U.S.’s “age.”

Jews

Anti-Jewish sentiment started around the time of the American Civil War, when General Ulysses S. Grant issued an order (quickly rescinded by President Abraham Lincoln) of expulsion against Jews from the portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi under his control. Until the late 1960’s, Jews were still being discriminated against!

Jews Not Allowed

Muslims

And now it’s the Muslims turn… but anti-Islamic sentiment also started early.

1865 During the American Civil War, the “scorched earth” policy of the North destroyed churches, farms schools, libraries, colleges and a great deal of other property. On the morning of April 4, when the Federal troops reached the campus of the University of Alabama with orders to destroy the university, “Andre’ Deloffre”, a modern language professor and custodian of the “Rotunda library” at the university, appealed to the commanding officer, to spare one of the finest libraries in the south. The officer, being sympathetic, sent a courier to General Croxton at his headquarters in “Tuscaloosa” asking permission to save the library, but the general’s reply was negative, so the officer reportedly said “I will save one volume as a memento of this occasion” and the volume selected was a rare copy of the Qur’an.”

Quran

More on Islamic history in the U.S. here.

Of particular interest and the reason for this post, is the shameful re-trial of the Holy Land Foundation, this year. Source

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) — once the largest American Muslim charity — never funded violence. It simply provided food, clothes, shelter, medical supplies and education to the suffering people in Palestine and other countries.HLF: A victim of 9/11 hysteria.

On this blog, there are two posts about the Holy Land Foundation. One showed how the evidence against the organization was fabricated; the other was when a judge declared a mistrial of the same organization.   11 of the 12 jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict against the organization!

History repeated!

Something is very familiar about the HLF case, but that doesn’t make it right. Did Japanese-Americans deserve to be thrown in internment camps? Nope. Did African-Americans deserve to eat at segregated restaurants, sleep in segregated hotels or drink from segregated water fountains? Nope. Does the HLF deserve to be persecuted for feeding Palestinian orphans and widows? Again, nope.

Who should really be on trial?

For nearly half a century, Israel has occupied Palestine and denied Palestinians their basic human rights. The occupation has caused numerous horrifying outcomes such as the destruction of homes, the killing of innocent children and even the establishment of checkpoints around the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. So we ask: If occupation obviously shatters lives, while charity builds them and charity feeds children, while occupation kills them, why is a charity organization — not occupation — paying the price?

Noor Elashi speaks to your heart

Please forward this message around:

This is Noor Elashi, the daughter of a defendant in the Holy Land Foundation Retrial. During the past three weeks, I have felt my heart shatter a few times as I witnessed prosecutors use vindictive approaches such as character assassination, fear-mongering and guilt by association as an attempt to convict my dad. Sitting in the courtroom, I’ve felt my blood boil and freeze and boil again in a few seconds time. And as I looked behind me, my eyes scanning the room in search for faces of encouragement and moral support, I found that it was mostly empty with the majority of the benches unoccupied.

My dad and these men ran the largest American Muslim charity, saving hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. We should be tremendously proud of them. They were honorable leaders in their communities. And now, they are paying a price for sponsoring orphans, assisting widows, equipping clinics, planting trees and wiping away tears.

I know you have your jobs and schoolwork and other priorities. But what if this was your dad, your uncle, your cousin, your husband or your best friend?

Gratitude from the bottom of my heart goes out to everyone who has attended so far. I sincerely hope to see the rest of you soon.

Next week, the retrial will run from Tuesday, Oct. 14 to Friday, Oct. 17. For the following four weeks or so, the retrial will take place Mondays through Thursdays. You can come ANYTIME between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. (There’s a lunch break between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m.)

To read about the case so far, visit http://www.freedomtogive.com

Thanks,
Noor Elashi
A Proud Daughter of Ghassan Elashi

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