This is not something to be dismissed lightly. People were reportedly passing out the above referenced flyer at the Schaumburg Township Public Library today. This is a wake up call to decent people in the northwest and westerns suburbs of Chicago. Agents of hate are in our midst. I'm very saddened to see this day come to pass in our part of the state.
DETAILS OF THE COMING HATE SPEECH
According to this flyer a local group of Islamophobes is organizing a meeting to promote the notorious Islamophobe extraordinaire Brigette Gabriel and her self-promoting, bigotry-based profit machine ACT! for America group. Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, November 14, 2009
Time: 1pm to 3pm
Place: St. Charles Public Library, 1 South 6th Avenue, St. Charles, Illinois (Huntley Room)
Topic: "Islamic Radicalism" Discussion
We know the "discussion" is going to be Islamophobic because the local organizers are promoting a prominent purveyor of Islamophobia - Brigette Gabriel. Brigette Gabriel is a hatemonger. Why do I think this to be the case? According to Clark Hoyt, Public Editor of The New York Times, Gabriel's beliefs include the following:
Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.
Although the Australian Jewish News has taken the interview down, we are fortunate that Sheila Musaji of the The American Muslim (TAM) quotes from that interview on her blog as follows:
When asked whether Americans should “resist Muslims who want to seek political office in this nation,” Gabriel said:“Absolutely. If a Muslim who has—who is—a practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day—this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”
LOONWATCH.COM has a very interesting take on Gabriel. The writers at LOONWATCH.COM describe Gabriel as
a notorious apologist for the fascist Phalange group, Kataeb, and the terrorist group, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), who were responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacres that slaughtered 1700 to 2000 Palestinians (mostly women and chidren).
WHAT CAN BE/SHOULD BE DONE?
I do not know who the local organizers are, but one sure way to find out is to go to this meeting on Saturday! Of course, it does no one any good to go to something like this ill-prepared or with anger in their hearts. No, the better approach is to organize more speech to counter the hate speech sponsored by these local organizers.
A group of Americans from various different faith communities should go to the St. Charles Library to peacefully provide counter-points to the hate this local group is promoting. Certainly we can gather a small group of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other faithful people to bear witness to the lies that this local group is promoting.
Safaa Zarzour, chairman of the board at the Council on American-Islamic Relations Chicago, sent leaders of the Chicagoland community an email message this evening saying that his organization is working on a strategy to counter this this group and this meeting. This is a good development. The Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs, a mosque on whose board I sit, is also taking note of this ugly development and is cooperating with CAIR-Chicago and others to help devise and execute a thoughtful response to this local group's hatemongering.
This evening I sent Ms. Diana Brown, Director of the St. Charles Public Library, an email message conveying some of my concerns:
Dear Ms. Brown:Good evening. I am writing to find out about a meeting that is taking place at the St. Charles Public Library this Saturday. It is purportedly begin held in the Huntley Room from 1pm to 3pm on 11/14 to discuss "Islamic Radicalism".
I am a board member of the Islamic Society of Northwest Suburbs and the former executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. I also sit on the board of the Muslim Bar Association. Flyers for this meeting were being passed out at the Schaumburg Township Public Library this week so the organizers are looking to bring people from beyond the St. Charles community to this event.
There are several questions I wish to ask of you. First, given that this meeting is being promoted to the public, do the organizers have the right to exclude people from it on the basis of religion? Second, can you share with me the identities of the residents who reserved this room for the meeting? Third, do you have space in the library where I or others may provide additional corrective information that seeks to balance the hate speech that I believe will be promoted within this meeting in the Huntley Room?
I am an ardent supporter of free speech. While I would rather not have hate speech in my community, I believe that the best way to confront hate speech is to challenge it with truthful and accurate information and open and public debate. I would like to work with you in making arrangements so that we can do just this at the St. Charles Public Library this Saturday.
Please feel free to reach out to me. You can reach me at xxxxxxx@xxxx.com or by calling me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. I hope to hear back from you very soon.
Sincerely,
Junaid M. Afeef, Esq.
CENSORSHIP IS NOT THE ANSWER
As I told Ms. Brown of the St. Charles Public Library, I would prefer that we did not have hatemongering going on in our community. Now that the hatemongering has arrived, however, I am not in favor of trying to chill or censor it.
I would actually like to know who all are behind this effort so that I can talk with them. I grew up in this region and I have met all kinds of folks from the northwest and western suburbs. I went to college with them and I work with them now. We share so many of the same values. We share so many of the same hopes and dreams and interests. I would like to talk to the local organizers because frankly I do not believe they have met many Muslims and that is why they are susceptible to being duped by the likes of reputed radical Islamophobe Brigette Gabriel.
Islam, in its authentic form as practiced by over 1.4 billion people across the world, is a religion of peace and justice. I am not afraid to put up my beliefs and my personal values as guided by my Islamic faith as a counter-balance to the hatemongering that is promoted by Brigette Gabriel. I am also certain that there will be good people from other faith communities who would be willing to stand with me to bear witness to the tolerance, understanding and friendship that is possible between people of different faiths when good people come together.
That is why I hope St. Charles Public Library will afford us the space within the library to provide a forum that provides additional, corrective information to that which I suspect will be spewed by the local organizers for Brigette Gabriel.
Dear Mr. Afeef--I was sad to learn of this meeting at the St. Charles Public Library. On the same day, at Congregational United Church of Christ in St. Charles, a free community event, "Interfaith Cooperation" is being held from 9:30-1:30. Under the leadership of Interfaith Youth Core, we will share our life & faith stories, develop a language to discuss beliefs, discover common values, and plan interfaith service to our community. A newly formed group called Fox Valley Interfaith is committed to interfaith friendship. Prayers for love! Janet B.
Posted by: Janet Bell | November 11, 2009 at 07:22 PM