Some of the figures involved in the February 13, 2011 Yorba Linda protest have responded to the press release and video distributed by CAIR. Below is a statement by one of the participants, the North Orange County Conservative Coalition. It is followed by statements by event emcee Karen Lugo and Deb Pauly, who is a Villa Park (Orange County) city council member who spoke at the protest. An hour-long video of the speakers is also included. (My short speech at the end is not on the tape.)
NORTH ORANGE COUNTY CONSERVATIVE COALITION
Important Statement from NOCCC to the Community
"On the afternoon of February 13, NOCCC joined the call for a peaceful protest of ICNA’s fundraiser at the Yorba Linda Community Center. We discovered that the Imam speakers, Malik Ali and Siraj Wahhaj are terrorism activists who are known for their anti-American, anti-Semitic beliefs . These radical Imams, who are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, do not hide the fact that they support Hamas. A popular speaker with the Muslim Student Union on college campuses, Malik Ali openly promotes jihad and dying for Islam. Siraj Wahhaj, supposed co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was a character witness for the convicted blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
While we held our peaceful, organized and informative program on the grass area, away from the building, a group of unknown, uninvited protestors gathered near the entrance to the community center to stage their own noisy protest. CAIR has taken advantage of this situation to produce an extremely edited, greatly distorted YouTube video, giving the impression that all of our invited speakers’ words were filled with rude comments and inflammatory rhetoric against all Muslims.
NOCCC stands behind our participation in the protest. We will not allow this despicable hit job and the intimidation tactics of CAIR to stifle our patriotism or diminish our resolve to educate and expose the bigotry of these and other anti-American Imams and the threat of radical, political Islam and sharia law they represent.
We have publicly denounced these badly behaved protestors. However, we have to wonder who plans and attends a fundraiser hosted by two anti-American, radical Imams in a patriotic community like Yorba Linda and then is surprised and offended when the community demonstrates its righteous outrage."
ICNA Protest Organizer Karen Lugo Responds to "Hate Comes to Orange County"
"As a planner -- and the emcee -- of the protest of the Islamic Circle of North America’s (ICNA) fundraiser featuring radical Islamists Malik Ali and Sirhaj Wahhaj, I am very disturbed by CAIR’s representation of the gathering in Yorba Linda. The video presentation with footage and quotes selected for their sensational and hurtful value, is an intentional misrepresentation of the program that evening.
There were two groups demonstrating on February 13th and CAIR chose to only present video of the splinter group that was not invited and not welcome. The main program was in a completely different area and continued with speakers while the ICNA fundraiser began. Never did the main group dismiss and gather at the entrance to the community center.
The obvious goal of deflecting attention from our clear statements about ICNA’s extremist speakers is an obvious attempt to intimidate, discredit, and silence our efforts to expose the true nature of the Muslim fundraiser’s organizers. This will not work. We are committed to moderate Muslims and will continue to expose groups and individuals that are working against American constitutional freedoms.
Here are the facts that the CAIR video (while CAIR does not take credit for production of the video, they distributed it) did not present. The event was planned, as the flier shows, as a “peaceful and patriotic” protest. Instructions on the fliers even requested that demonstrators bring only flags, and no signs. CAIR has chosen to spotlight only the most incendiary remarks. Furthermore, not one of the protest organizers recognized anyone in the group that splintered off. We do not know who they were or who sent them.
What CAIR also does not address is why hundreds of individual Southern Californians many of whom have never protested against anything before, were out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon waving flags and listening to speakers. These people, many not affiliated with an organization, were all there to express solidarity in declaring that extremist Muslims like Malik Ali and Siraj Wahhaj are not welcome in the community.
Featured speaker, Imam Siraj Wahhaj was named as a possible co-conspirator in the to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and testified as a character witness for the convicted terror mastermind, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Imam Malik Ali frequents America’s university campuses and speaks on the theme of “the convergence of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: we shall overcome by any means necessary.” He is known for his anti-Semitic statements and his credo or pledge including the lines, “Jihad is my spirit” and “I will die to establish Islam.” The sponsor organization, ICNA has been called a friend by the Muslim Brotherhood, is aligned with extremist organization Jamaat-e-Islami, and has been praised by the Brotherhood as an ally that could help teach American Muslims “that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands… so that… God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.” (Arabic translation via Discover the Networks) This is why community members were alarmed and joined in protest.
We applaud the members of Congress: Rep. Ed Royce and Rep. Gary Miller, as well as Mayor Nancy Rikel, for their participation. We also strongly support the efforts of Rep. Peter King to conduct hearings into why and how Islamists are being radicalized in the United States.
The link below is a video of the official program and demonstrates our commitment to moderate and patriotic Muslims as well as our firm stand against political Islam as advanced by the rules of shariah law."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJyt1gC4bNo&feature=related
- Karen Lugo
Statement from Deborah Pauly
"Obviously this 5-minute clip, which has sparked all the controversy, is highly edited and distorts the truth by taking everything out of context.
Of course I am not advocating violence against Muslims or anybody. I support the United States Constitution and the 1st Amendment Rights to Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Religion – that includes all religions…or the right to practice no religion at all. I have Muslim friends and went to their defense, aid and comfort when they were being undeservedly targeted after the 9-11 attacks.
We were not protesting a fundraiser, or the rights of peaceful moderate Muslims to assemble. I am concerned about political Islamists -- a radical element that does advocate violence and terrorism around the globe. They have brought the threat of Sharia Law inside our borders. Sharia is a threat to American freedoms and liberties, specifically the practice of punishing people for speaking their minds freely.
We were protesting the invited and publicized keynote speakers to that event. We call on all Muslims to condemn this radical element and distance themselves from its leaders."
- Deb Pauly
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To that, I will issue my own challenge to CAIR. I would invite you to put out the (unedited) video of my short speech to the audience. I was the last speaker and my talk is not included on the above hour long video. I would put it up myself, but I don't have access to it. So there you go, CAIR; find it and post it (unedited). I also challenge you to find my image among that splinter group of people who were shouting at the dinner guests. Finally, I challenge CAIR and the Islamic Circle of North America to release the full and unedited speeches of Siraj Wahhaj and Amir Abdel Malik Ali at Yorba Linda on February 13.
12 comments:
CAIR is coming off very poorly in the 11 student disrupters and this case.
In the case of the students, the executive director cannot distinguish between people protesting *outside* an event and the students who planned and went *inside* a lecture auditorium with the intent to stifle speech with repeated disruptions during a speech.
In article in the OC Register today:
"Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the students should no more face charges than what he described as the "bigoted mob" that gathered outside an Islamic fundraiser last month in Yorba Linda."
http://www.ocregister.com/news/students-290926-speech-charges.html'
I condemn the protestors in the video who are bigoted against moderate Muslims. They are wrong and there is not justification for chants of things like “go back home.” I have no problem with CAIR or anyone else shining the light on them.
However, I support the majority of protesters who were there to stand up publicly and show their opposition to the radical ideology of Amir Abdel Malik Ali who openly supports Hezbollah (killed 220 US Marines), Hamas (charter calls for the destruction of Israel) and Islamic Jihad (responsible for many of the suicide bombings in Israel).
During lectures at local colleges, Malik Ali also shares his Jewish conspiracy theories that Zionist Jews control the media, Zionist Jews are responsible for 911, Zionist Jews are responsible for the Danish cartoon controversy.
CAIR releases a video that clearly distorts the event. They do not note who were the keynote speakers.
At the same time, they release a statement:
“We further ask residents and elected officials of Yorba Linda, Orange County and other parts of our nation to speak out against such hateful rhetoric”
hhttp://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=26747&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1
It would be nice if CAIR followed their own advice and vigorously spoke out against the keynote speakers.
After reading this blog, I must state that the Islamist organizations e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood and its member groups are very well organized. It is naive to think that they will not try to reduce the validity of a counter-protest organization, to promote their agenda. It is very important to have videographers taking pictures of everything that takes place, including the offending protestors and the other videographers. This way, by being orgnized, one has the evidence to counter the managed message of CAIR or any other NGO that will try to diminish the important message regarding radical Islamists.
Squid
Good challenge Gary. Nothing so effective as calling for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Spin doctors can't handle it.
Otherwise, I was going to say that a comprehensive reply would have said:
1) Yes, there was some anti-Islamic hate expressed.
2) Yes, there was legitimate criticism of the speakers and CAIR, which was respectful of Islam as a religion.
Both statements are true. Neither cancels the other.
Speaking of hate, anyone read about the murder trial of the "Minutemen American Defence Fund" members, who arrived at the home of a family named Flores, announced they were immigration officials, forced their way in, and gunned the entire family? To the credit of Arizona law enforcement, the perpetrators were promptly arrested. To the credit of the jury pool, one has already been convicted and sentenced to death. MADF is to the Minutemen what the "Real IRA" is to the currently pacified IRA. They were hoping to find drugs to sell to finance their activities. There is plenty of hate to go around.
Siarlys,
The lesson to be learned is that you try to control who gets word of a planned protest. As for the murder case in AZ, I fail to see the connection- just as I fail to see most of your connections.
Gary and the gang.
I'm not sure if any of you have noticed this, but the most disturbing thing at the rally was the Israeli flag that was present behind the speakers podium.
Anonymous and the gang,
Among the dozens and dozens of American flags, there were three or four Israeli flags. That's because we support Israel and do so proudly. Anonymous and his gang prefer to wave Palestinian flags.
Failing to see connections is the weak point in your thought process Gary. If you stopped looking at rather minute issues as isolated from everything else in the world, you might make more sense.
Some of Malik Ali's greatest hits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is29KAIHXfA
i would like to preface this by stating that i am a liberal.
i will not associate with the tea party movement, and find most of their views to be misinformed.
i also watched the entire "real" protest, and while i disagree with some of the statements (i believe ms lugo needs to read the constitution again, and also be more informed about the disney case) i found it far from hateful
i find it distasteful when the right edits videos to make their point....and the same with the far left...although, im not sure where cair fits in.
i do know that icna didnt initially seem that bothered by the protest, even the obnoxious one...and it was only two weeks later, after cair put up their doctored vid, that the group became enraged.
i am not surprised that many on the left are grabbing onto this...they all wish to see "islamaphobia" under every rock and shrub.
it is also amazing how, despite both the msu and msa being tied to the muslim brotherhood...icna (which is affiliated with both) has gotten a pass.
and why has not one member of the msm interviewed all parties fully to get the real news out?
Comparing Israel to S Africa and Nazi Germany is absurd and getting very tiresome.
True enough. There is some limited analogy, since Palestinians have been meticulously sorted out from Israelis by a big fence. However, the fence HAS stopped a series of suicide bombings, so its hard to argue with until there is something better with a proven track record.
Also, Palestinians are not seeking integration into a Jewish state. Some still hope to "return" to lands that King Abdullah and some rag-tag Iraqi general ordered them off of, at gunpoint if necessary, in 1948. But in general, they WANT their own country, as distinct from South Africans renouncing the proferred "Bantustans."
bacci40, thanks for noting that there is nothing "left" about the cause of a world wide caliphate, except that the culture vultures who never worked a blue collar job in their lives who collaborate with the notion mistake it for some kind of "anti-imperialism."
The consistent "left" position is Lenin's warming "Beware of a Pan-Islamic movement masquerading as a national liberation front."
please stay out of Yorba Linda. I know yoy do not have what it taks to owne up to your negative belifs but every you come to my town we are worse off from your actions.
You brought a tea party ware it did not belong. Do more good and stay home
Anonymous,
If you would like to do some research on the two ICNA speakers, you might understand why there was a protest. That some people acted inappropriately does not change the facts of the event. The main participants in the event (organizers, speakers and the vast majority of the audience) acted appropriately and have nothing to apologize for.
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