CNN’s Mosque Tolerance Roadtrip Backfires!

[Ogopogo]

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/08/31/ ... backfires/


CNN’s Mosque Tolerance Roadtrip Backfires!
2010 August 31
Paul Cooper
by Paul Cooper
tags: CNN, mosque, Muslim, prejudice, Racism, Radical Islam, Terrorism

Pages: 1 2 3 4

At least 1 of 3 Mosques CNN visited has terrorist connections.

CNN has decided to take on the task of helping people learn about and be more tolerant to Muslims. One way to do that was send a journalist and a photographer on a road trip with two Muslim young men from New York who are visiting 30 mosques in 30 states during Ramadan. I don’t think CNN expected that one of the three mosques they visited would have a strong connection to a terrorist organization.

Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq decided they would blog about their 30 mosque visit to teach people that Islam isn’t how it is portrayed in the media.

We’re trying to humanize Islam and give people a three-dimensional experience of what Muslims are like. – Ali

CNN interviewed the duo in Atlanta and decided to go on the Southern leg of the journey with the two men. The two Muslims and the two guys from CNN all were convinced they’d see a lot of prejudice against the two Islamic travelers. They even went to a big Confederate merchandise outlet expecting to have problems. But to their surprise, the only prejudice shown was their own.

We see this huge, massive Confederate flag just waving in the air. We all agreed in the car that this place was too racistly awesome to pass without taking a photo.- Ali

The people at the Confederate shop (which CNN compared to the cast of the movie Deliverance) were exceedingly welcoming and nice to the men. The owner explained how he hates racism and feels the Confederate flag has gotten an unfair bad reputation. They were treated with, as CNN calls it, “southern hospitality”.

One of the Ramadan road-trippers recognized his own prejudice but the other one and the CNN journalist couldn’t let their feelings of these Southerners pass.

Here I was, expecting that people would be prejudiced towards me. But in fact, it was I who was being prejudiced towards them. – Ali

My problem is what do you think they’re saying about us now?- Bassam

I still had one eye toward the back of the car, wondering if someone would give chase.- CNN

Not only were the guys treated well wherever they went, the only truly scary moment came when they went to the final mosque of the CNN trip. The first two mosques visited were big, urban mosques that were called ahead of time about the CNN visit. The two CNN guys were treated graciously in both places. But the final place was a different experience. I’ll let the CNN journalist describe it.

We head to the Islamic Society of Mobile, a nondescript facility not far from the campus of the University of South Alabama. It looks like an old ranch home…

We take off our shoes and step inside. A barrel-chested man with a long beard is putting out fresh dates for breaking the evening fast.

“These guys, they are from CNN,” Bassam says.

Before we can utter a word, the man takes one look at us and, like an umpire tossing a baseball manager from a game, slaps his hands and points toward the door.

“Outtttttttt!!!” he shouts.

We quickly comply…

Aman and Bassam are allowed to pray inside. But they’ve soon rejoined us at the car, embarrassed by what we just experienced.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the mosque has been under scrutiny — a man wanted on terrorism charges once attended there. Omar Hammami, a 26-year-old from the nearby town of Daphne (a town I once lived in), has been charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide support to a Somali terrorist organization with al Qaeda links. Now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, “the American,” he’s believed to be in Somalia, according to the FBI.

I later call the home of the mosque’s president, Shafik Hammami, seeking a better explanation of what transpired…He declines to comment. Not only is he the mosque’s president, he’s the father of the wanted terror suspect.

So CNN’s plan to make mosques seem like wonderful places of peace gets a bit spoiled. This mosque’s President is the father of a radical who is part of a Somali terrorist organization. In early August the US Government charged Omar Hammami and 13 others as being part of “a deadly pipeline” of terrorism to America. No wonder outsiders were not wanted there.

The interesting thing is how the Muslims road-trippers reported this story. Their take was very different from CNN’s.

All four of us enter the mosque and prepare for our shoot. A stoic man with a stunning white beard appears and introduces himself as the Imam of the mosque.

“What are you guys doing?” He asks.

I introduce myself and Aman and then point back at our CNN friends.

“These guys, they are from CNN,” I said.

Robert smiles at the Imam hoping to soften him up.

The Imam looks right at the CNN guys and points to the door.

“Please leave.”

Within seconds, our CNN friends were out the door. Which left just Aman and I with the Imam. An awkward silence takes over the room and then he continues.

“Why didn’t you guys contact us before coming?” he said.

We apologize for the last minute visit we planned but tell him we tried to get in touch with the mosque but no one picked up.

The Imam stayed quiet.

“Is it okay if we pray here?” I ask.

“Ha, of course,” he says. “This is the house of Allah. I can’t stop you from praying.”

That’s it. That is all the young Muslims say about the event. They transform a screaming Imam into a guy asking people to politely leave. They make zero mention of the terrorist connection the mosque has. Ali and Bassam present the event as just a problem of not asking to visit first.

Herein lies the problem with this cultural battle over Islam right now. The side supporting the mosque at Ground Zero can’t seem to see real radicalism when it is staring them in the face. They gloss over it. Moderate Muslims seem to be wearing rose colored glasses when it comes to real issues with more fundamentalist followers of their faith.

We are told by the media and moderate Muslims that Radical Islam is rare. But after seeing one out of three mosques having terrorist connections, just how rare is it? Hopefully we can all (moderate Muslims and journalists too) get to the point where we start taking the dangers of the spread of Islamo-facism a little more seriously.



http://30mosques.com/about/

30 Mosques in 30 States is Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq’s Ramadan road trip across the United States.

Beginning August 11 in New York City, the two will spend each night of Ramadan at a different mosque in 30 states around the country. The two’s 12,000 mile route will essentially take them on an outline of the entire country and conclude in Dearborn, Michigan – home to one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in the country.

Muslims for the month of Ramadan are required to fast, going without food or drink from sunrise to sunset. There are an estimated 7 million Muslims living in the United States that come from a wide mix of ethnic backgrounds including African Americans, South and East Asians, Arabs and East Africans.

Each day during Ramadan, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq will visit a different state and blog about the experience each night, highlighting stories about the people they’ve met, the mosque they prayed in and of course the tasty cuisines each place has to offer.

For more information contact:

Aman Ali
aman@amanali.net
follow: @amanali

Bassam Tariq
bassam.tariq@gmail.com
follow: @curry_crayola

http://30mosques.com/the-route/

8/12 New York, NY
8/13 Augusta, ME
8/14 Boston, MA
8/15 Philadelphia, PA
8/16 Washington DC
8/17 Charlotte, NC
8/18 Atlanta, GA
8/19 Jacksonville, FL
8/20 Birmingham, AL
8/21 New Orleans, LA
8/22 Houston, TX
8/23 Oklahoma City, OK
8/24 Wichita, KS
8/25 Denver, CO
8/26 Santa Fe, NM
8/27 Phoenix, AZ
8/28 Los Angeles, CA
8/29 Las Vegas, NV
8/30 Salt Lake City, UT
8/31 Boise, ID
9/1 Bozeman, MT
9/2 Fargo, ND
9/3 Minneapolis, MN
9/4 Milwaukee, WI
9/5 Cedar Rapids, IA
9/6 Chicago, IL
9/7 Memphis, TN
9/8 Lexington, KY
9/9 Columbus, OH
9/10 Dearborn, MI

[styky]

Mosques, Musallas and Islamic Schools in America (click green dots for details)

http://halalmaps.com/USA/index.html

[J.B. Stone]

Don't you just LOVE it when the liberal ninnies shoot themselves in the foot like this....???

[Ogopogo]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/10/ra ... index.html

2 Muslims travel 13,000 miles across America, find an embracing nation
By Wayne Drash, CNN
September 10, 2010 3:21 p.m. EDT
Click to play
Recapping their road trip for Ramadan

(CNN) -- The blue Chevy Cobalt broke down amid the mountains of Montana in an area where there was no cell phone reception. The Muslims in the car, on a cross-country journey for the holy month of Ramadan, approached a bushy-bearded fisherman.

It would be another test of a question they wondered when they first set off from New York three weeks earlier: Is America still the accepting nation that embraced our forebears or has it reached a new level of intolerance?

Far from the media frenzy dominating headlines, from the so-called "ground zero mosque" to a pastor's planned Quran burning, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq traveled more than 13,000 miles into the heart of America over the last month, visiting 30 mosques in 30 days for Ramadan.

They began in New York, headed south and then cut across the country to California before making their way back, ending today in Michigan in the nation's largest Muslim community.
Video: Visit 30 mosques in 30 states
Video: Surprise, hope amid journey

The fisherman in Montana became the embodiment of their trip -- Ali and Tariq were embraced nearly everywhere they went, from a Confederate souvenir shop in Georgia to the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, to the hills of North Dakota where the nation's first mosque was built in 1929.

Like any road trip, there were strange moments along the way: A Mississippi police officer quizzed them about their beliefs on the ground zero mosque and they were asked to leave a mosque in Mobile, Alabama.

They chuckle about those experiences now and emphasize it shouldn't overshadow the whole trip because, ultimately, they discovered that America still embraces immigrants and the nation is filled with welcoming and loving people.

Ride along on the Ramadan road trip

"After 13,000 miles, I think that America still exists, and I'm happy to know that it does," said Tariq, a 23-year-old American of Pakistani descent. "It's really made America feel like home to me in a way that I've never felt before. The America that we think about [as immigrants] is still actually there. I've seen it! And I'm seeing it still."

When he approached the fisherman after their car broke down, Tariq says, he didn't know how he'd be received. He asked if he could hitch a ride to town and the fisherman "happily does it." When the man asked Tariq what he was doing in Montana, he told him about their 30 mosques journey.

"And he doesn't flinch and doesn't get worried," Tariq said. "For me, it was like, 'Wow! That America still exists.' "
I knew our roots went deep in this country, but it was great to truly experience it.
--Aman Ali

He had a similar experience among Bosnian Muslims in Boise, Idaho, where it took 12 years for the community to build a mosque there "with their bare hands." He saw one man cry on entering the mosque. An elderly couple hugged each other when they walked inside.

"It means so much to these people who've been displaced from their own country, and they come here to this place of worship," he said. "That, to me, is really what this country is about."

For Ali, his favorite moment was Ross, North Dakota, a blip of a town with a population of 48 people. He knew little of the town's rich Muslim history, and it was difficult to try to find someone in the town who did.

A pastor directed them to a woman, who kindly pointed them down a dirt road to where the nation's first mosque once stood. It's no longer there. It's been replaced by a tiny cement block mosque, complete with a gold dome. Nearby, there's a cemetery marking the pioneering Muslims of America, with birth dates of 1882, 1904, 1931.

Follow CNN's Belief Blog

Ali stood in awe. As he approached the mosque, his heart pounded. "I knew our roots went deep in this country, but it was great to truly experience it. Praying in there was like hopping in a time machine," said Ali, a 25-year-old Muslim who was born in Columbus, Ohio. "I literally felt like I was plummeting and falling."

His takeaway from the trip, he says, was seeing how Muslims in America have assimilated in their communities, from Jacksonville, Florida, to Wichita, Kansas, to Oklahoma City.

"It was really cool and refreshing to see people who genuinely love the communities they're in and they're there to stay," Ali said. "They're involved in the community, not just the mosque."

It was also remarkable to have people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, "just bend over backwards and be friendly to us," he said.

Tariq said their blog also helps the rest of America realize "you have to accept Muslims are here in America to stay, and we've been here for awhile. Even the most bigoted person has to accept that."

As for what's next for the young men, they plan to celebrate Eid with their Muslim brethren in Dearborn, Michigan -- happy to have discovered an America that still embraces them, even if that's not always portrayed in the news media.

"It's a small but vocal group of Americans in this country pushing this anti-Muslim rhetoric," Ali said. "And unfortunately in our society, whomever shouts the loudest is going to get the most air time."

[backhoe]

Mosques, Musallas and Islamic Schools in America (click green dots for details)

http://halalmaps.com/USA/index.html

Oh, great!

There's one at Hunter Army Airfield, north of us...

Time to get out the BAR's and practice some more...

[DrWright]

Don't you just LOVE it when the liberal ninnies shoot themselves in the foot like this....???

Hope it leaves powder burns,

[centrestage]

Don't you just LOVE it when the liberal ninnies shoot themselves in the foot like this....???

Bang on although Republicans can shoot their friends but more in da face than in da foot, a lawyer in particular as 'Dead Eye' Dick Cheney while hunting with a lawyer friend, accidently shot him.

Ops, I guess he didnt hear me yell, FOUR!

[Ogopogo]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article ... an-project

30 mosques in 30 days: a Ramadan project
Published on Tuesday July 31, 2012
Share on twitter Share on facebook
Courtesy Himy Syed The call to prayer is made at the Canadian Sufi Cultural Centre.
1 of 5
Noor Javed
Staff Reporter

Himy Syed has set himself some lofty goals this Ramadan: to break fast at 30 mosques in the GTA over 30 days and not gain any weight in the process.

It helps that he gets to most of his destinations by bike.

Already, over the course of the month in which Muslims abstain from drinking and eating from sunrise to sunset, he has made his way to 10 of the city’s mosques, or masjids in Arabic, and has been blogging about his experience so far at 30masjids.ca.

And even though he arrives to his destination hungry, his posts (other than a few pictures) are rarely about the food.

“I didn’t want to just say, hey, this is what I ate,” said Syed, who ran for mayor in 2010. “I am meeting the individuals who built the masjids. This is living history and oral traditions that nobody has been documenting,” he said.

Syed became inspired after following the travels of Americans Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq, as they decided to spend each night of Ramadan at a different mosque in 30 states around the country. Their blog eventually took on a life of its own, with the duo finding diverse and often controversial stories about Islam and Muslims in the United States. The idea, now in its third year, caught on and now has spin-offs within other U.S. cities, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

In Toronto, Syed visits all kinds of masjids. He visits storefront mosques struggling to get established, abandoned basements of apartment buildings that have been converted into prayer spaces, and community centres where singing and whirling dervishes are part of the spiritual experience.

“We are such a diverse community, but I don’t think people realize just how diverse,” said Syed. “We have representatives from every Muslim country here … and when they get here, I think most of them try to set up a masjid of some sort.”

Syed says he has no set method of choosing which mosque to visit and just decides that day. But he has a slew of options. According to torontomuslims.com, there are nearly 120 established mosques or community centres in the GTA.

He says it is unfortunate that most Muslims in the city tend to stick to what they know.

“Muslims go to the same masjid every night, or they might go to three or four in the course of Ramadan,” said Syed. In part, he says it’s because they are busy and because many are scared to go outside their comfort zones and challenge prejudices they may have about certain ethnic communities, or the way some people practise their faith.

At the end of the day, there is always one thing that brings people together — the food.

“People outdo themselves,” said Syed. “The food is often donated, and there is always so much of it.”

But one thing he’s learned early on in the project: Never try to have a conversation on an empty stomach. The best stories always come, he says, when everyone is full.

[backhoe]

[Kate Shaw]

I remember ABC trying to film an "undercover" provocation by Muslims at a NA$CAR race (staged by ABC, as they eventually admitted) that went absolutely nowhere at all. NA$CAR fans don't care what you do outside the track -- if you're a NA$CAR fan, get your butt in your seat and cheer for Junior!

[RedDog]

A mosque in Bozeman, Montana. hmmm I suppose travellers from Detroit visiting Yellowstone have to gather and plot somewhere.

[wildernessvoice]

Kinda makes me think of the Laura Engels series Little Mosque On The Prairie.