[media-dakwah] Hate Speech: Smerconish: Public prayer by Muslims "wrong" and "a game" to remind audience of terrorist attacks

Sat, 06 May 2006 19:19:17 -0700


http://musliminsuffer.blogspot.com/

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful


=== News Update ===


Smerconish: Public prayer by Muslims "wrong" and "a game" to remind
audience of terrorist attacks

Emacs!



On the November 23 broadcast of Fox News' The Radio Factor, guest host
<http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.mastalk.com/mastalk/front.jspx>Michael
A. Smerconish took issue with a recent
<http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.thebostonchannel.com/sports/5388862/detail.html>decision
by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to provide a designated
prayer area at Giants Stadium. The decision was in response to a September
19
<http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/02/football.muslim.ap/index.html>incident
involving the FBI's detention and questioning of five Muslim men who were
observed praying near the stadium's main air duct during a New York Giants
football game. Smerconish stated: "I just think that's [the men's public
praying] wrong. I just think they're playing a game of, you know, mind
blank with the audience. And that they should know better four years
removed from September 11."

In a November 2
<http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/02/football.muslim.ap/index.html>article,
the Associated Press reported that FBI spokesman, agent Steven Siegel, said
the men had aroused suspicion because they were congregating near the main
air intake duct. Also, security was on higher alert because former
President George H. W. Bush was in the stadium that night as part of a
fundraising campaign he and former President Clinton are leading for
victims of Hurricane Katrina. The AP quoted Siegel as follows:
You had 80,000 people there, Bush 41 was there, and you had a group of
gentlemen gathering in an area not normally used by the public right near
the main air intake duct for the stadium, and a food preparation facility.
It was where they were, not what they were doing.

The men were later released without charge and have since
<http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-1/1131001522116820.xml&coll=1&thispage=3>claimed
that their detention was evidence of racial profiling. The FBI denies these
charges.

Smerconish said that the Giants' designation of a new prayer area "just
seems like a form of capitulation in this instance to -- well, frankly --
to the Arab community ... I think that it's fundamentally unfair that five
Arab guys, Muslim men in their twenties, get together in full view of
80,000 folks and engage in prayer." Smerconish added:
SMERCONISH: Tolerance means I've gotta tolerate that -- the practitioners
of the Muslim faith -- but they've gotta be tolerant of my reasonable
concerns about terrorism four years post-9-11. And their tolerance of me
necessitates that they not gather in prayer when there are 80,000 people in
the house for a football game.

From the November 23 broadcast of Fox News' The Radio Factor with Bill
O'Reilly:
SMERCONISH: September 19, the Giants hosted the New Orleans Saints. The
game was also the site of a Hurricane Katrina fund-raiser. Did you hear
about this? As a matter of fact, number 41 was in the house. Meaning George
Herbert Walker Bush, past president and father, of course, of W [President
Bush]. Eighty-thousand folks were in the house for the Giants and the
Saints and the Katrina fund-raiser.
In an area near food preparation, in an area near air duct work and
venting, folks saw five apparently Muslim men in their 20s praying. Let me
just sort of freeze-frame right there and ask The Radio Factor audience:
Had you been in Giants Stadium that day, you know that it's the Giants and
the Saints, you know that it's a Hurricane Katrina fund-raiser, perhaps you
know that number 41 is in the house, you certainly know that you're a
stone's throw away from Ground Zero; what, if anything, would you have done
if you had seen five apparently Muslim men in their 20s engaged in prayer?

Maybe you would do absolutely nothing. But you can call me on that issue as
I tell you the rest of the story. It's 1-877-9-NOSPIN. Me, I'd drop the
dime. And somebody in this case did drop the dime. And well, you can see,
I'm sure, where this thing is headed.
Before long, it became a focal point in a civil liberties debate. The
Council on American-Islamic Relations got involved -- CAIR -- C-A-I-R is
their acronym. Turns out the guys were just five Giants fans, not up to
anything terrorism-related, but that didn't quell the controversy.
And now, today, comes the news that at Giants Stadium, they will be setting
aside an area for groups to pray. I wonder how you see this. See if you had
told me -- in Philadelphia, we've got Lincoln Financial Field, home of the
Eagles, home of the former, you know, National Football Conference champion
Eagles, although I won't be able to say that this season. If you'd said to
me in Lincoln Financial Field or in Giants Stadium, they have set aside an
area -- you know, non-denominational area -- for prayer. You go in there
and pray for [Eagles quarterback Donovan] McNabb and T.O. [Eagles wide
receiver Terrell Owens] to patch up their wounds or whatever the case might
be, I would have no problem with it.
In much the same fashion that, in just about every hospital in which I have
been, there is an area set aside for prayer. My beef in this particular
case is knowing the history. I mean to me it just seems like a form of
capitulation in this instance to -- well, frankly -- to the Arab community.
I'm not afraid to say it.
And I have another thought. And the other thought is that I think it was
fundamentally unfair, you're not going to believe I'm going to say this,
but this is my view. I think that it's fundamentally unfair that five Arab
guys, Muslim men in their 20s, get together in full view of 80,000 folks
and engage in prayer. I just think that's wrong. I just think they're
playing a game of, you know, mind blank with the audience. And that they
should know better four years removed from September 11.
[...]

WISSAM NASR (Council on American-Islamic Relations): Well, you know,
whether it is or isn't, it's up to the individual person's perception. I
live around Muslims so it's not uncommon for me -- for me to see that. And
you know we just want to basically -- the moral of this story is, is that
we want people to take this as an opportunity to understand that, hey, this
is the Muslim way of praying. We do it five times a day. It only takes a
couple of minutes, but sometimes we have to pray just about -- you know --
wherever we are. Some people are just that devout.

SMERCONISH: See, I can't buy that. I think you can be devout at home, you
know, on game day. You know I think that you ask too much in a post-9-11
world to expect non-Muslims to just walk on by with 80,000 folks around if
five guys are engaged in prayer. That's my view. And now, you know the end
of the story. The end of the story is that at Giants Stadium they will set
aside an area for prayer, prayer of any kind. It will be non-denominational
in focus and so forth. And as I said, I have no problem whatsoever with a
non-denominational location for prayer. Frankly, I think it would be fine
in a public school, that's my view of the world.

But I just don't like the way this one came about.
[...]
CALLER: From '92 to '93, I was in Denver, Colorado. And there's a heavy
Muslim community there. And I transported people back and forth to the new
airport out there when it opened up. And many, many, many cab drivers of --
Muslims would stop, put their rugs out, and would stop to pray. And I don't
think that there's anything wrong with that. Their religious belief says
that it needs to be done at a certain time and they shouldn't be held back
from doing that.
And I think that we need to think back when this whole thing started. We
were told to live our lives as we normally did. And they're living their
lives as they normally do. And, yes, we should be more tolerant, a little
more understanding. And I guess unless they've got a bomb wrapped around
them, we need to just kind of look the other way and let them perform their
duty. After all, isn't that what we do when we go to our services on Sundays?

SMERCONISH: Okay, but wait a minute. Just so I'm clear, because I think
tolerance is a two-way street. Tolerance means I've gotta tolerate that --
the practitioners of the Muslim faith -- but they've gotta be tolerant of
my reasonable concerns about terrorism four years post-9-11. And their
tolerance of me necessitates that they not gather in prayer when there are
80,000 people in the house for a football game. Or you think I'm wrong?
[...]
CALLER: They set out to raise some questions. And I can understand the
motivation, because there are Arab Americans who are absolutely, you know,
pointed out and it's racial profiling. And there are bad things that happen
to these people on a daily basis. But situations like this do not help the
cause.

SMERCONISH: Agreed. And they had -- look, what you're saying is they had to
know what they were doing.
CALLER: Exactly.

SMERCONISH: They had to know -- I can't say it on a family radio program,
but they were -- they were fooling with folks, you know what I'm saying?

­J.M.

source:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200511300005

===


-muslim voice-
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