In going around a few sites on the blogosphere today, I was amazed to learn that several thousand New Yorkers showed up for a massive demonstration yesterday, June 6, against plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York.
Why do I say amazed? Because the mainstream media for some reason failed to cover it.
This rally included Americans from all races (don’t worry, they will still be called “racist” even though Islam is not a race), as well as families of people murdered in 9-11, an African man enslaved by Muslims in the Sudan, and many others.
You can see footage and pictures of this demonstration at:
Having seen the footage, I estimate that there were thousands of demonstrators, although I will admit that 8000 to 10,000 seems a bit excessive. But considering that the group organizing this was originally denied a permit and that the entire protest was put together on s shoestring, the turnout is significant.
But I can find practically NO examples of coverage of this demo in the mainstream media. I would love to find out I am wrong, so if you have examples of major media coverage, please let me know.
As for why it didn’t make bigger news, my personal guess is that it takes a lot more than a few hundred people protesting something in NYC to make big news. I could get a few hundred people in NYC to protest stale bagels, given a few hours’ notice. It’s a big town.
Umm, could it be because these people don’t really have a case? Islam as a whole, contrary to what many believe, is not a criminal organization, and therefore they’re allowed to build a mosque wherever they please. In fact that right is pretty much enshrined in the First Amendment. Personally I’m surprised we’re even having a discussion about this in America.
That doesn’t make it un-newsworthy. Actually, I think it makes it more newsworthy that that many people are so upset about something so innocuous.
I’ve heard bits and pieces about the controversy over the past weeks, but actually am a bit surprised this protest didn’t get a little more media coverage.
The New York Daily News reported the “crowd” at about 1,000–which appears to be an overstatement based on the photos on Geller’s blog site. That is hardly news.
Then there is the point that nearly everything that the loons have said about the Islamic center have been lies: it is not on the site of the WTC; it is not planned to open on September 11; and so on ad nauseam. Westboro Baptist Church does not get national coverage for every one of their “rallies,” so why should these nuts get national coverage? If they had actually prompted a riot or had actually collected a crowd, I guess I could see it, but this is a non-story, local to NYC.
I’ve gotta say, yet another thread in which some person or other demands to know why the media doesn’t calibrate its stories to exactly what they want to hear, isn’t the most interesting of subjects. On the other hand, I’d love to hear what someone who thinks the placement of this mosque is such an outrage is outraged about, specifically. Do such people believe that this is actually being done to somehow celebrate the destruction of the World Trade Center? If two blocks away is too close to position a mosque for our delicate sensibilities, how many blocks away makes it OK? Three, ten, twenty? Staten Island?
After that, maybe we can get into the issue of whether 300, or 1,000, protesters accurately reflects the wishes or concerns of several million New Yorkers, or 300-odd million citizens.
Has anyone noticed that this centre that the Muslims want to build near ground zero is named “Cordoba House”? But wait, Cordoba is in Spain, is it not? The same Spain that has been subjected to bloody attacks by Muslim terrorists in recent years?
It is true that Cordoba was the capital of a major Caliphate when the Muslims occupied Spain, before the Spanish fought off their rule. But modern Spain is not a Muslim country, and has not been for over four centuries. So why name it Cordoba House?
Because, in the Muslim vision of world conquest, once a land has been conquered for Islam, it must be taken back for Islam. This is why Muslims can never accept Israel. This is why Muslims seriously discuss taking back Spain.
And they got full approval for all of that months ago. Because there was no legal impediment to them building where they’re building.
Gee, you have to wonder what message we’re sending to the world when a Muslim congregation wants to help heal the damage from 9/11 and is basically faced with crowds of people, demagogued to hell and back by loonies, telling them, to paraphrase, “Go home, sandnigger!”
This whole thing makes me angry. What, there were no New York Muslims who were emotionally affected by 9/11? Are we supposed to impose a completely illegal moratorium on building mosques anywhere south of Houston Street?
I love how right-wingers are always more knowledgeable about Islam than Muslims are. All these hidden meanings and secret commandments…some would call a belief in Conspiracy Theory Islam more than a little loony. I’m surprised you haven’t brought up dhimmitude yet.
In the first place I am a left-winger. But as someone who believes in gender equality, freedom of speech (including the right to draw cartoons), freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and as a gay person and an atheist myself, Islam scares the f****g crap out of me. The reason I am abandoning the left is that THEY have sold me out in the name of political correctness. Tell a leftist that Islam is brutally, murderously homophobic and what do they tell you? You can’t hold them to the same standards, they need time to change, jaddda, jadda, jadda. Why do you think organizations like the English Defence League have an LGBT wing?
In the second place, has it occurred to you that there is a difference between what Muslims know about Islam and what they are willing to tell you?
I have never believed 9/11 was done by anyone but Muslims. But I cannot count how many Muslims have told me on the internet that it is the Jews, the CIA, etc. etc.