Anarcho-Fabulous

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Glenn Greenwald

The FBI has received substantial criticism over the past decade — much of it valid — but nobody can deny its record of excellence in thwarting its own Terrorist plots.  

Time and again, the FBI concocts a Terrorist attack, infiltrates Muslim communities in order to find recruits, persuades them to perpetrate the attack, supplies them with the money, weapons and know-how they need to carry it out — only to heroically jump in at the last moment, arrest the would-be perpetrators whom the FBI converted, and save a grateful nation from the plot manufactured by the FBI. 

Last year, the FBI subjected 19-year-old Somali-American Mohamed Osman Mohamud to months of encouragement, support and money and convinced him to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon, only to arrest him at the last moment and then issue a Press Release boasting of its success.  

In late 2009, the FBI persuaded and enabled Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year old Jordanian citizen, to place a fake bomb at a Dallas skyscraper and separately convinced Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan, to bomb the Washington Metro. 

And now, the FBI has yet again saved us all from its own Terrorist plot by arresting 26-year-old American citizen Rezwan Ferdaus after having spent months providing him with the plans and materials to attack the Pentagon, American troops in Iraq, and possibly the Capitol Building using “remote-controlled” model airplanes carrying explosives.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Tony Murphy, Workers World

 New York - Last year there was an overwhelming response to the International Action Center’s call for an anti-racist demonstration on Sept. 11.

A year ago on 9/11, thousands rallied against racism in downtown New York. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

The demonstration, headed by the slogan, “Unity, Respect, Jobs Justice; No to Racism and Anti-Muslim Bigotry,” vastly outnumbered last year’s anti-Muslim September 11 rally against New York’s Park 51, the Islamic Cultural Center.

Racist forces such as Stop the Islamicization of America and other similar hate groups thought they could use the anniversary to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment but were out-mobilized. The free publicity they received from the corporate media actually helped build the IAC’s anti-racist mobilization.

WW photo: Greg Butterfield

This year the SIOA and their kind are at it again and have called another racist Sept. 11 rally. With all the patriotism and praise for the imperialist military that will accompany the day’s tenth anniversary, this year’s IAC counterdemonstration will be more important than ever.

It will also be an opportunity for building multinational, classwide solidarity at a time when the economic crisis is worsening and a unified fight for jobs is all-important.

Outnumbered in 2010, the anti-Muslim forces thought that this year’s tenth anniversary of Sept. 11 would score them a propaganda victory. That changed when neo-fascist Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway and cited the writings of SIOA’s Pam Geller as an inspiration.

Racists like Geller and Florida pastor Terry Jones — who last year threatened to burn copies of the Quran — are not dominating the news cycle this year. However, the scapegoating campaign against Muslims, as well as other nationalities, is in full force as the capitalist crisis shows no sign of abating.

The Associated Press recently uncovered a campaign jointly organized by the New York Police Department and the CIA to spy on Muslims in mosques, cafes and other gathering places.

Also, a study by the Mother Jones independent news organization and the University of California exposed something suspicious about the vast majority of so-called domestic terrorist plots “thwarted” by the FBI and supposedly organized by Muslims. They were, in fact, manufactured by the FBI — especially through reliance on paid informants and provocateurs.

The atmosphere created by these witch-hunt and criminalizing activities led to incidents like one in late August, when Muslim families attending an amusement park in Rye, N.Y., were attacked by police. Women defending their right to wear the hijab were shoved to the ground and beaten.

“What is being described in the media as a ‘melee’ or ‘brawl’ was, in fact, a police assault,” said IAC co-director Sara Flounders in a press release.

“The attack on people who were simply out to enjoy a day at the amusement park is part of a systematic attempt to criminalize Muslims in order to justify unpopular U.S.wars against countries where Islam is the dominant religion,” Flounders said.

This climate of scapegoating has included a vicious anti-immigrant frenzy in the media and legislation targeting the Latino/a community, along with openly racist rallies like the one in West Allis, Wis., on Sept. 3, against which the Bail Out the People Movement organized a successful counterdemonstration that outnumbered the Nazis at least 50 to 1.

“As the Great Recession deepens, the need to counter the ugly rise of racism has become a necessary part of the fight for jobs and against cutbacks,” said Larry Holmes of BOPM, one of the groups supporting the Unity Solidarity Rally.

“As we fight mass layoffs and evictions, we can’t afford to be divided by racism or bigotry,” Holmes said. “And New Yorkers can’t allow the anniversary of September 11 to be used to promote an anti-Muslim frenzy. This is the time for thousands to come out as they did last year for solidarity, respect and jobs.”

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Mehdi Hasan

Western Muslims have been seen exclusively through the prism of counter-terrorism. Sensitive issues of integration and community cohesion have become entangled in the securitised discourse of the war on terror.

Here in the UK, the effect has been a chilling of speech inside Muslim communities. I have lost count of the number of British Muslim students, activists and imams who have told me of their fear of being labelled as extremists or terrorists if they dare take an unconventional, unorthodox or radical position on a political or religious issue.

It is ironic, if depressing, that a doubling of the number of Muslim MPs in parliament and the appointment of a Muslim woman to the cabinet has been matched by a narrowing of the range of opinions and views expressed by ordinary British Muslims in public.

For example, many Muslims have melted away from the antiwar movement, which they collaborated in creating. There is a growing belief that dissent by politically active Muslims has not just been stigmatised, but criminalised. From new laws cracking down on the so-called “glorification of terrorism”, to the excessive sentences handed out to British Muslim teenagers protesting against Israel’s Gaza war, to the use by counter-terrorism police of 150 surveillance cameras in just two Muslim areas of Birmingham, the past decade has seen ordinary Muslims disproportionately targeted by the authorities.

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The UK government, in yet another Islamophobic step, has instructed university staff including lecturers, chaplains and porters to report Muslim students who are depressed or isolated to the police.

As part of the government’s new strategy and under its new guidance to combating extremism, university lecturers and student union officials are obliged to inform the police in case they witness a Muslim student behaving as if he/she is depressed or isolated, or there is fear the student might become radicalized. 

 But, student union officials and university lecturers expressed shock at the new guidelines, which have resulted in deep discomfort among them and are seen as an infringement of students’ civil liberties.