About 300 people gathered in Times Square on Sunday to speak out against a planned congressional hearing on Muslim terrorism, criticizing it as xenophobic and saying that singling out Muslims, rather than extremists, is unfair.
Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and the imam who had led an effort to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site were among those who addressed the crowd.
REAL ENEMY
“Our real enemy is not Islam or Muslims,” said the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. “The enemy is extremism and radicalism and radical ideology.”
US Representative Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee, has said that affiliates of al-Qaeda are radicalizing some US Muslims. He has planned hearings starting on Thursday on the threat he says they pose.
King, a Republican, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that he sees an international movement with elements in the US of Muslims becoming more radical and identifying with terrorists.
Speakers at the cold and drizzly Times Square rally said King was targeting Muslims unfairly.
“American Muslims are as fully American as any other faith community,” said Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
Singling out Muslim Americans “as the source of homegrown terrorism” is an injustice, he said.
US Representative Andre Carson, a Democrat and one of two Muslims in Congress, said he wanted to say “to the Peter Kings of the world: We will not take your xenophobic behavior.”
“We are here today because we love this country,” said Imam Shamsi Ali, the leader of the Islamic Cultural Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“We are here today because we want to see America remain the most powerful and the most beautiful country in the world,” he said.
‘NEW AGE’
Simmons promised “to make sure that this rally is taken to the next generation and to a new age” by enlisting entertainers and sports figures to tweet about it, including Kim Kardashian, who tweeted that she stood with Simmons in “promoting love and compassion.”
A smaller group rallied a few blocks away in support of King’s hearings.
Beth Gilinsky of the Jewish Action Alliance heaped scorn on the Times Square rally’s slogan, “Today I am a Muslim too,” and referenced Rauf, who was given a reduced role in the Islamic center project this year because he had other commitments.
“I want to tell Imam Rauf and Imam Shamsi Ali and all of the rest of them up there that I am not a Muslim today,” Gilinsky said.
“Yesterday I wasn’t a Muslim. Today I’m not a Muslim. I’m not going to be a Muslim for even 24 hours, Imam Rauf, and I’m not going to be a Muslim tomorrow. You will not convert me,” she said.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including