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The hysterical campaign to stigmatise US Muslims poses a far greater threat than radicalisation to America's civic union

A report released this week has at last confirmed what we Muslim Americans have long known to be true: the threat posed to US national security by the radicalisation of its Muslim community is minuscule.

The study, by the Triangle Centre on Terrorism and Homeland Security, found that only 20 Muslim Americans were charged with violent crimes related to terrorism in 2011, and of the 14,000 homicides recorded in the United States in that year, not one was committed by a Muslim extremist.

We are thrilled that an objective, comprehensive investigation has revealed that only a tiny percentage of American Muslims support violent acts. However, we remain concerned that the greater danger to America's civic union comes from an increasingly organised campaign that portrays all Muslims as potential terrorists and traitors.

Yes, there may be some Muslims who resort to violence; but it's clear that these individuals signify nothing more than a statistical aberration, and are no more representative of the Muslim community as a whole than Timothy McVeigh, Jared Lee Loughner, or Anders Behring Breivik represent Christianity.

In recent years a network of politically motivated special interests has emerged that is determined to stigmatise and marginalise Muslims in all areas of American public life. After the Cordoba Initiative's proposal to build an Islamic community centre near Ground Zero were distorted into a manufactured controversy by one such group, we were called "stealth jihadists" and "wolves in sheep's clothing". One person even claimed: "They seem like nice people now, but they will probably turn into extremists in 10, 15, or 20 years."

What began as the work of fringe groups with racist ideologies has moved into the mainstream. The Islamophobic film The Third Jihad was played continuously between training sessions for new recruits to New York's police. The film-makers were linked to an organised movement with a budget of more than $40m and sophisticated lobbying efforts in all 50 states.

Republican congressman Peter King – even as opponents questioned his own ties to IRA and Catholic terrorism in Ireland – convened a series of congressional hearings on the radicalisation of American Muslims that can only be described as a witch hunt. And on the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidates from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have used their platform to demonise American Muslims and question our loyalty to our country.

It was not always this way. Following the 9/11 attacks President Bush, at the Islamic Centre of Washington, said: "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam … When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world … America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country."

Our allies in the interfaith and civil rights communities are working to counteract the fabricated opposition to Islam that is gaining strength in America today. In response to King's hearings, a coalition of 150 interfaith organisations sponsored a rally proclaiming "Today I am a Muslim too". It is the Brennan Centre for Justice at New York University that took a lead in exposing the New York City Police Department's missteps with regards to the Muslim community.

We know that the bulk of the American public recognises the truth of Islamic moderation and tolerance. The hysterical invective may be well-funded, but it does not capture the heart of the nation. By standing tall together we will overcome those who spread hate and suspicion and return respect and trust to their rightful place at the centre of American political and civic life.

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(PRWeb February 09, 2012)

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Leveson inquiry sees editor reject call to withdraw claim actor lied as Max Clifford says phone hacking a 'cancer' by a minority

The editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, refused to retract his accusations that the actor Hugh Grant had lied, during sometimes angry exchanges at the Leveson inquiry on Thursday.

Asked to apologise and withdraw his claim that Grant had made a "mendacious smear" against the Mail group, he said he would only do so if Grant withdrew his own statements attacking his papers.

He claimed: "Hugh Grant was obsessed by trying to drag the Daily Mail into another newspaper's scandal."

The veteran editor, asked to answer allegations that an article about Grant's love life might have been obtained by phone hacking, made plain his resentment that he was being subjected to further cross-examination. He repeatedly interrupted David Sherborne, counsel for Grant and other hacking victims, and talked across him.

Dacre described questions as irrelevant and at one point said loudly: "I'm not going to answer any more questions on that particular point." He had not studied one witness statement immediately before testifying, he said, because he had been busy "trying to edit my paper".

Despite the jousting, the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers shed no more light on the question of how one of his papers, the Mail on Sunday, came to publish a an article in 2007 containing allegations of a non-existent affair involving telephone messages between Grant and a "plummy-voiced woman".

Dacre accused Grant of bad faith, asserting he had subsequently produced evidence "out of a hat" suggesting the story must have been based on a misunderstanding of "flirtatious" late-night phone messages left by a film industry contact. Dacre said: "Hey presto! He conveniently remembers it!"

Dacre said he had been assured the tabloid's story had been obtained by legitimate methods. The paper's editor had told him that a reporter had explained that the story had come from a freelance, Sharon Feinstein, who in turn claimed to have got it "from a source in the Grant camp".

Lord Justice Leveson, who said he was determined to allow Grant's counsel to have a fair chance to put points to Dacre, told the editor that he would not make a finding of fact about what actually happened over the "plummy-voiced woman". His only concern was that Dacre had called Grant's testimony on oath "a mendacious smear". "He's deliberately lying! That's what it means!"

Dacre claimed that the opening testimony in the Leveson inquiry had made it "an extraordinary day … a unique occasion". Grant was the "poster boy for the Hacked Off campaign" who had deliberately brought out his allegations. "He knew the damage it would cause."

Dacre had heard of Grant's testimony on the 4pm radio news while he was in a car and became angry because Grant had been previously put on notice by the Mail group's legal department that his repeated allegations of their involvement in phone hacking were not true.

"We felt we had to respond even more robustly," he said. "We needed to fight fire with fire." He told Leveson: "I don't think you understand the speed of 24-hour instant news."

Residents cut off in Baba Amr with food running out, as Ban Ki-moon condemns Russia and China veto at UN

Syrian troops sealed off the population of a rebel stronghold in the city of Homs on Thursday and bombarded it using tanks, helicopters and artillery, as the international community struggled to find a common voice with which to confront President Bashar al-Assad.

Eyewitnesses said roads in and out of Baba Amr, in the south-east of Homs, were blocked, preventing the evacuation of children or the wounded, and food, water and medicine were running out fast in the besieged suburb.

The international community appeared to flounder over a coherent response. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned the Russian and Chinese veto of a security council resolution on the crisis over the weekend as "disastrous for the Syrian people". He said the failure to agree on collective action "has encouraged the Syrian government to step up its war on its own people".

The UN and the Arab League proposed a joint observer mission, and talks continued over the formation of an ad hoc "friends of the Syrian people" group to put pressure on the Assad regime without help from Moscow and Beijing.

Speaking at an international gathering in Sweden, David Cameron said: "It is quite clear that this is a regime hell-bent on killing, murdering and maiming its own citizens … we need to take the toughest possible response we can."

The options the prime minister listed, however, reflected a cautious, incremental approach the UK and other western governments have pursued after the security council debacle. "We also need to work with the [Syrian] opposition to try and help shape their future and assist them in whatever way we can. We also need to put together the strongest possible contact group of like-minded nations," Cameron said.

In the absence of international consensus, there was no sign of any decisive action that might stop the worsening bloodshed in Syria.

More than 100 people were reported dead in Homs on a day of heavy bombardment by government forces, but the figure could not be independently confirmed in the absence of observers or humanitarian organisations. A local resident, Basil Abu Fouad, said it was impossible to estimate casualties accurately.

"We can't count the number of the dead in the rubble. When we pull someone from the rubble, we don't know if they were killed today, yesterday or before," Fouad said by phone from a basement in Baba Amr. "They are using helicopters and mortars and tanks, T-72 [former Soviet] tanks. Hundreds of homes have been demolished and they have come down on the heads of their owners.

"Communications have been completely cut off between neighbourhoods. The army have blocked access to the city. Some people tried to escape but they found all the roads were closed. There is no food left in the city. We don't have milk. All the water tanks have been targeted. We don't have medicines. If you go to the shops and try to get in, the snipers up on the roofs will shoot you," he said.

"The children will die here. All the people want is to escape. They can smash this place if they want. We just want to get out of there. But they won't allow us."

Another Homs resident, Abu Karam, watching from the nearby Karm al-Zeytoun district, said: "From my roof, I can see rising smoke from Baba Amr. It is surrounded. They can't get anything in or out."

Another man from Baba Amr, identifying himself as Lieutenant Omar of the Free Syrian Army, said the rebel force was powerless to fight back against rocket and shell fire. "All we do is to pull people from the wreckage."

Dani Abdul Dayan, a resident of the Insha'at neighbourhood, next to Baba Amr, claimed the army had taken over the al-Hikma hospital, expelled the doctors and was using the patients as human shields. The claim could not be verified.

Writing in the Guardian, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, defended Beijing's decision to veto the UN resolution setting an ultimatum for Assad to step down.

"Chinese people abhor the violence and bloodshed in Syria as much as those in Britain and other countries. China voted against the resolution for a simple reason: the resolution as drafted will not help cool down the situation. It does not facilitate political dialogue. It does not address distrust, or bring peace and stability to the region," Liu argued.

In Homs, Fouad claimed the security council veto had given the regime a green light to commit genocide against the Syrian people. "The whole world is against us. Nobody is helping us," he said, before the electricity failed. "There is nothing left to pray."