Do you CAIR about Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Bill Handel?
The latest about Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bill Handel. From Drudge Report:
LOS ANGELES RADIO STATION SQUARES-OFF WITH MUSLIM GROUP
Mon Jan 30 2006 10:10:49 ET
Los Angeles's top talkradio station is under fire from a Muslim group because of comments made earlier this month by morning man [Nobel Peace Prize nominee] Bill Handel. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has demanded an apology from Handel for making fun of a stampede that killed hundreds of Muslims during an annual pilgrimage.
But Handel is set to fire back, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Handel will apologize IF the Council on American-Islamic Relations:
1) Decries all acts of terror (described specifically, not generally)
2) Agrees that Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to defensible borders
3) CAIR has no ties of any sort, financially or otherwise, to any terror orgs or individiuals.
MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
KFI-AM does not condone making light of the deaths of people engaged in religious observances. We regret that listeners found the comments of one of our on-air hosts to be insensitive. KFI does not censor its hosts, nor does it tell them what to say or not to say. KFI is a strong and passionate believer in 1st amendment rights and that is at the very core of this radio station.
Developing...
As of right now, the KFI web site includes an MP3 of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Handel's full statement. On the air, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Handel noted that KFI received hundreds of e-mails, all with the exact same wording, and many from areas that are outside of KFI's broadcast area (although I believe podcasts are available, so presumably they could have heard it. As Handel noted, most of the letter writers probably didn't know who he was, didn't know who Clear Channel was, and probably weren't going to rush out and buy a Select Comfort mattress (one of Handel's advertisers).
A tip to all protestors, whether you be Communist, baby seal clubber, fundamentalist, or libertine - your protest is more effective if you at least have some type of relationship with the item that you are protesting. Which is why the Ontario Mountain Village Association has a mailing address on Vineyard Avenue. But I digress.
And Relapsed Catholic includes the following:
Meanwhile, in a related story, Lourdes celebrates its 56,892th stampede free day.
And HolyCoast says:
I've heard [Nobel Peace Prize nominee] Handel and his bunch say lots of things that as a Christian, I could get really worked up about, but why bother? Life's too short to take everything so deadly seriously. Advice to CAIR: cool your jets. No one really cares if you're upset.
And a Midwestern culturalist comments:
[Nobel Peace Prize nominee] Bill Handel makes a joke a fourth-grader would love and becomes CAIR's latest target.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Handel is not alone in criticizing CAIR:
*U.S. Senator Richard Durbin: "[CAIR is] unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect"
*U.S. Senator Charles Schumer: "we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism"...
Since its founding in 1994, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its employees have combined, conspired, and agreed with third parties, including, but not limited to, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (“HLF”), the Global Relief Foundation (“GRF”), and foreign nationals hostile to the interests of the United States, to provide material support to known terrorist organizations, to advance the Hamas agenda, and to propagate radical Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, and certain of its officers, directors, and employees, have acted in support of, and in furtherance of, this conspiracy.
But CAIR supports the First Amendment, at least in certain circumstances:
Dr. Parvez Ahmed (Click Photo)
CAIR Chairman
“Royer's indictment stemmed from his activities after he left CAIR. Certainly no organization can be held responsible for the personal activities of its employees or associates, especially after they leave or before they join an organization.”
“People who make statements connecting CAIR to terrorism should understand the legal consequences of their attempted slander and defamation. The First Amendment does not protect defamation.”
-Parvez Ahmed
To my knowledge, the Free Muslims Coaliation has not said anything about the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bill Handel affair. Here's a little bit about them:
The Free Muslims Coalition is a nonprofit organization made up of American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era.
The Free Muslims was created to eliminate broad base support for Islamic extremism and terrorism and to strengthen secular democratic institutions in the Middle East and the Muslim World by supporting Islamic reformation efforts.
The Free Muslims promotes a modern secular interpretation of Islam which is peace-loving, democracy-loving and compatible with other faiths and beliefs. The Free Muslims' efforts are unique; it is the only mainstream American-Muslim organization willing to attack extremism and terrorism unambiguously. Unfortunately most other Muslim leaders believe that in terrorist organizations, the end justifies the means.
As written recently by Khaled Kishtainy, columnist at Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Newspaper, "I place on the Islamic intellectuals and leaders of Islamic organizations part of the responsibility for [this phenomenon] of Islamic terrorism, as nearly all of them advocate violence, and repress anyone who casts doubts upon this. Naturally, every so often they have written about the love and peace of Islam ? but they did so, at best, for purposes of propaganda and defense of Islam. Their basic position is that this religion was established by the sword, acts by the sword, and will triumph by the sword, and that any doubt regarding this constitutes a conspiracy against the Muslims."
The Free Muslims finds this sympathetic support for terrorists by Muslim leaders and intellectuals to be a dangerous trend and the Free Muslims will challenge these beliefs and target the sympathetic support given to terrorists by Muslims.
The Free Muslims encourages Muslims and Arabs to be proud of their faith and at the same time critical. The community of the faithful must now take steps to bring Islam into the 21st century. As the Free Muslims?s founder recently said, "The only way that we as a people can make a profound difference and improve the quality of life for all Muslims is if all of us make a difference individually."
Other Americans have spoken up against terrorism, but never before has this message come with such clarity from Muslims or Arabs. Muslims are the only ones who can resolve the problem of terror in Islam, and sadly until the founding of this Free Muslims, they were the only group who had not definitively spoken up against the use of terror.
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