About that British soldier attacked in Exeter

by Sheila Musaji

There was a post on The Daily Mail titled Soldier claims gang of thugs ‘chanted Lee Rigby’ as they beat him up.  However that link takes you to a page that says “The page you have requested does not exist or is no longer available.”  If you google the article title, it comes up as a Daily Mail article, but nothing is there.  This means that the article has been removed. 

There was also a post in the The Exeter Express & Echo Gang chanted ‘Lee Rigby’ as they kicked soldier in Exeter underpass.  This article refers to a “gang” and to “a group of lads”.  The soldier making the claim is identified only as Alexander, and the paper reports that “The victim has described the main offender as mixed race with camouflage clothing, six foot five inches tall, heavy build, wearing a black tracksuit top and had his face covered.”  Nothing more - no mention of Muslims. 

I did find an article on the Western Daily Press that included a photograph of the soldier and identifies him as Alexander Brown, 18, who has been a member of the Coldstream Guards for six months. 

That story was immediately picked up by the Islamophobia echo chamber.  Robert Spencer titled his post UK:// Mob chanting name of jihad beheading victim Lee Rigby brutally attacks British soldier.  Spencer commented “Clearly the members of this mob identify with the jihad murderers of Lee Rigby, and hate British soldiers. But they move about freely in Britain, while Pamela Geller and I are banned.” 

Pamela Geller published English Soldier Attacked on the Streets of Exeter by Gang Chanting Muslim beheading victim, ‘Lee Rigby’.  She commented “More Muslim outreach. Oh, the wonders of interfaith dialogue and mutual respect they are always clubbing us with. And Pope Francis just today urged “mutual respect” with Islam.  And it is Robert Spencer and I who are banned in Britain. Help us fight this here.”

Spencer’s article made subtle insinuations, Geller’s actually blamed Muslims and Islam.  They both refer to the article in The Exeter Express & Echo.  Nothing in the three mainstream articles mentions Muslims.  I tried every way I could think of to find information about this incident through google searches, and turned up nothing else in any mainstream press - only repeats of Geller and Spencer’s nonsense in the Islamophobia echo chamber.  Some of the sites included Stormfront, the EDL, and the BNP - not exactly reliable sources.  Where did Geller and Spencer get the information that the perpetrators of this crime were Muslims?   The only source is their fevered Islamophobic brains. 

This latest story is very reminiscent of another recent Islamophobia echo chamber story exploiting the death of a former British soldier with what Bob Pitt of Islamophobia Watch calls Bare Naked Hatred:

... Last week Bare Naked Islam tried to exploit the case of a former soldier, David Ryding, who died following a violent incident at a taxi rank in Rugby on 7 July. The cause of the conflict and the ethnicity or religious affiliation of Ryding’s alleged attackers were unknown, nor was it obvious what possible knowledge anyone involved could have had of Ryding’s previous military service (he left the army in 2011). The anti-Muslim far right, however, immediately drew parallels between Ryding’s case and the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

The arrest of three men in connection with Ryding’s death was enough to set Benstock-Intall off. She ranted:

“They have the three attackers in custody, yet give no information about their names, nationality, or ethnic origin, just their ages. Are they afraid there will be a well-deserved ‘backlash’ if they reveal that the attackers are Muslims as we have the right to suspect? It seems that a nationwide uprising against UK politicians/traitors who continue to import masses of these Muslim jihadists and parasites from the third world is exactly what is needed in the Islamic Republic of Britain.”

This vile woman didn’t even hesitate to attack Ryding’s grieving widow for issuing a dignified statement appealing to people to avoid speculation about the cause of her husband’s death and await the results of the police investigation. Benstock-Intall sneered: “Oh, excuse us, for speculating that the slaughter of your husband, David Ryding, might have been committed by a Muslim, two of whom made headlines recently for doing the exact same thing to another British soldier in the street, Lee Rigby.”

Yesterday the Birmingham Mail published a report which noted that “right wing extremists attempted to hijack the death of the soldier, claiming that it was motivated by race and religion on websites”. The report quoted Detective Inspector Ally Wright of Warwickshire Police as stating:

“I am aware that some social media outlets are suggesting the tragic death of David Ryding, a former soldier, was motivated by either race or faith. While the criminal investigation is ongoing it would be inappropriate to provide full details of the case at this time. However what is absolutely clear is that the incident was not remotely motivated by race or faith. Whilst I am unable to prevent such speculation on the Internet at source I would ask those who engage in Internet hypothesis conversations to consider the impact on David’s family.”

So far, for some reason, this news hasn’t attracted any attention over at Bare Naked Islam.

This is also reminiscent of a whole series of other recent false claims by the Islamophobia echo chamber.  Based on these,  I have doubts that this incident actually happened, or that the “conclusions” being drawn by the Islamophobes have any basis in fact.  Here are just a few of these recent stories that were either outright lies, or seriously distorted versions of the actual facts: — the story of the British schoolboy “denied water” to avoid offending Muslims observing Ramadan — The Muslim “Youth” looting the dead at French Rail Crash. — The Muslim objections to St. George’s Flag in Britain — The pregnant woman arrested for carrying British flag — The UK teen brutally beaten by 15 Muslims — The attack on a British soldier, David Ryding at a taxi stand in Britain — The schoolgirl who was gang-raped by Muslims in a school toilet in Luton — The Jewish Filmmaker Beaten Unconscious by Muslims at French Film Festival —The Muslims harass Christian & Jewish Neighbors, Police Refuse to Help — The Egyptian Cleric Who Warned Christian Women: If You Don’t Wear a Veil You’ll Be Raped — The Muslim cleric who told converts to bury their Christian parents as if they were dead dogs — The Kosovo Muslims who destroyed a Serbian Orthodox monastery.  — The Jihadist bomb threat forcing evacuation of Lyon metro — The CAIR #myjihad Chicago campaign inspiring “bus jihad” — and a whole series of   fatwa stories that were either fake or misrepresented.

Geller, and her partner Robert Spencer have proven hundreds of times that they have a Tenuous Grasp of the Concept of “Truth Telling”.   It needs to be mentioned that once in awhile their claims turn out to be true.  An example is the Bulgarian Bus Bombing by Hezbolla story.  However, it is not surprising that if you throw out 100 charges that one or two turn out to be true.  This is the same technique used by fortune tellers, who then only focus on their “accurate” predictions.

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RESOURCES FOR DEALING WITH ISLAMOPHOBIA SUMMARY

The Islamophobia Industry exists and is engaged in an anti-Muslim Crusade.  They have a manifesto for spreading their propaganda, and which states their goal of “destroying Islam — as a culture, a political ideology, and a religion.” They produce anti-Muslim films.  They are forming new organizations and coalitions of organizations at a dizzying speed, not only nationally, but also internationally.   They have formed an International Leadership Team “which will function as a mobile, proactive, reactive on-the-ground team developing and executing confidential action plans that strike at the heart of the global anti-freedom agenda.”

Currently, the Islamophobia Industry is engaged in a full-scale, coordinated,  demonization campaign against American Muslims and Arabs. In just the past few months we have seen a series of inflammatory provocations:    There was the Innocence of Muslims film Titanic, a German satire magazine plans an “Islam” cover article to be published later this month.   Charlie Hebdo, a French satire magazine published an issue with inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.   Newsweek published their ‘Muslim Rage’ cover.  Terry Jones held a “trial of Prophet Muhammad”.  SION held a “global” gathering in NYC to plan propaganda strategy.  A group in Toronto publicized a “walk your dog at the mosque” day.   AFDI/SIOA has run a series of anti-Muslim ads on public transportation across the country.   AFDI/SIOA are planning to run 8 more anti-Muslim ads.  There are three more films on Prophet Muhammad in the works by Ali Sina, Mosab Hassan Yousef and Imran Farasat.   They are even bringing their hate messages into public schools.

Daniel Pipes is encouraging publication of “A Muhammad cartoon a day”, and says “So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: Display the Muhammad cartoon daily, until the Islamists become accustomed to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.”.  Pipes joins Daniel Greenfield (aka Sultan Knish) who published an appeal on David Horowitz’ Front Page Magazine Is It Time for ‘Make Your Own Mohammed Movie Month’?.  And, both are following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Pamela Geller, who promoted just such a plan back in 2010 with her promotion of Draw Muhammad Day, even after the cartoonist who drew the first cartoon and suggested the idea, Molly Norris apologized to Muslims and asked for the day to be called off, and American Muslims had issued a defense of free speech.    None of this is surprising as one of the Islamophobes laid out their strategy as “The Muslims themselves have shown us their most vulnerable spot, which is the questionable (though unquestioned) character of the ‘Prophet’ himself. We need to satirise and ridicule baby-bonking Mo until the Muslims fly into uncontrollable tantrums, then ridicule them even more for their tantrums, and repeat the process until they froth at the mouth and steam comes out of their ears.”

The Islamophobia of these folks is very real, it is also strikingly similar to a previous generations’ anti-Semitism, and it has predictable consequences.   The reason that this is so obvious to so many is that rational people can tell the difference between legitimate concerns and bigoted stereotypes.

Sadly, the Islamophobic echo chamber has been aided by some in the Jewish and Christian clergy, and even by some of our elected representatives, particularly in the GOP.

The claim that the Islamophobes are “truth-tellers” and “defenders of freedom” who actually “love Muslims” and have never engaged in “broadbrush demonization” or “advocated violence”, or that nothing that they say could have had anything to do with any act of violence,  are nonsense.  The claim that they are falsely being accused of Islamophobia for no reason other than their legitimate concerns about real issues and that in fact there is not even such a thing as Islamophobia, or their claim that the fact that there are fewer hate crimes against Muslims than against Jews or that some Muslims have fabricated such crimes “proves” that Islamophobia doesn’t exist,  or that the term Islamophobia was made up by Muslims in order to stifle their freedom of speech, or that anti-Muslim bigotry is “not Islamophobia but Islamorealism” are all nonsense. 

These individuals and organizations consistently promote the false what everyone “knows” lies about Islam and Muslims (including distorting the meaning of Qur’anic verses, and distorting the meaning of Islamic terms such as taqiyya, jihad, sharia, etc.).  Islamophobes falsely claim to see “JIHAD” PLOTS everywhere, particularly where they don’t exist.   They, like Muslim extremists, don’t understand the true meaning of the term jihad.  The Islamophobes have uncovered countless examples of “shocking”, non-existent Muslim jihad plots.

Here are just a few ridiculous claims about nonsensical Muslim plots:

An Eid Celebration for Muslim Special Needs Kids was described as a “stealth jihad”.   A children’s page in a newspaper focusing on Eid was described as a toxic propaganda plot.  Joel Hinrichs (a Christian) had a beard and had walked through the parking lot of a campus mosque thus proving that his crime was an example of sudden jihad syndrome.  Leon Alphans Traille, Jr., the Arlington, Virginia Mall Bomber was accused of possible “sudden jihad syndrome” just because he had a beard, obviously, a case of beard jihad.   
Tyler Brehm who carried out the Hollywood shooting jihad was accused of “sudden jihad syndrome” because he shouted something that one witness from the Philippines said he might have shouted “Allahu Akbar”.  This report was not backed up by any other witnesses.  The awful April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech by a Korean student was also called Islamic jihad because Cho’s father had once worked in Saudi Arabia (before he was married and before Cho was born).    A Muslim doctor had a heart attack and died at the wheel of his car which then crashed into a shopping mall and this was described as “vehicular jihad”.   A Muslim cab driver objected to what he considered pornographic ads on the roof of his cab, and that became a stealth-jihad plot to impose Sharia on America.  Any Muslim who has sued an employer for violation of their rights under the EEOC is engaged in employment jihad, or litigation jihad.  Muslim environmentalists are said to be actually engaged in “civilizational jihad”.  A cartoon series “The 99” aimed at young Muslims was described as “cultural jihad”.  The victims of the terrorist attack of 9/11 included Muslims, they were accused of dying as martyrs in an act of jihad. Muslims hoped to open a Muslim hospital in the U.S. and that was called hospital jihad.

The Islamophobes have uncovered countless examples of “shocking” Muslim jihad plots.  They have uncovered:

bumper sticker jihad — Thanksgiving turkey jihad — paisley scarf jihad — marriage to important men jihad — spit jihad —  fashion jihad — spelling bee jihad — rape jihad — defacing dollar bills jihad — population jihad — creeping Sharia jihad —  mosque building jihad — terror baby jihad — “creeping Sharia” jihad — pedophilia jihad — bus driver prayer jihad — forehead bruise jihad — postage stamp jihad — soup jihad —  banning alcohol jihad — fake hate crimes jihad — piggy bank jihad — tv reality series jihad — handshake jihad — prom jihad — interfaith jihad — Arabic language jihad — public school jihad — religious accommodation jihad — Crescent moon jihad — Christmas tree tax jihad — oath of office jihad — immigration jihad — community fundraiser jihad— public school/madrassa jihad — post office jihad — food jihad — pyramid jihad — crucifixion jihad in Egypt — fireworks jihad — computer donation jihad — civic participation jihad — Olympic “judo” jihad— stealth name jihad— pre-violent jihad — Love jihad — fashion jihad 2 — #MyJihad ad jihad — talk show host jihad — art museum jihad — Halloween jihad — DNC Muslim Prayer Jihad — cat crucifixion jihad in Ghana — Scottish Muslim women’s stealth jihad — anti-democracy jihad — un-neighborly Musims in Paris jihad — jihad on Christopher Columbus — Iranian smallpox jihad — Muslim Christmas grinch jihad — #MyJihad twitter jihad — Muslim takeover of National Parks jihad

 

Nothing is too trivial to escape the eagle eyes of these “defenders of Western civilization” against devious Muslim stealth jihad plots.  Christina Abraham (a Muslim) has a name that is not recognizably Muslim enough and so we have stealth name jihad. And, if a Muslim somewhere is not doing anything at all suspicious, then they are engaged in pre-violent jihad.

Islamophobes generalize specific incidents to reflect on all Muslims or all of Islam.    Islamophobes consistently push demonstrably false memes such as:  - we are in danger from creeping Sharia, - the Muslim population is increasing at an alarming rate, - 80% of American Mosques are radicalized,  -  There have been 270 million victims of “jihad”  -  There have been 17,000+ “Islamic terrorist” attacks since 9/11    - Muslims in government are accused of being Muslim Brotherhood plants, stealth jihadists, and creeping Sharia proponents and should be MARGINALIZED or excluded.  Muslim and Arab organizations and individuals are connected to the infamous Muslim Brotherhood document or the unindicted co-conspirator label, or accused of not condemning Hamas, telling American Muslims not to talk to the FBI, of being “Jew haters”, etc.

When Islamophobes are caught in the act of making up or distorting claims they engage in devious methods to attempt to conceal the evidence. 

Islamophobes do not understand freedom of speech or that freedom of speech does not include freedom from condemnation of that speech and they are quick to call for censorship and repression of speech they don’t like.

There is a reason that many, even outside of the Muslim community see such demonization of Muslims as Islamophobic.  There is a reason that the ADL has stated that Brigitte Gabriel’s Act for America, Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’s Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), David Yerushalmi’s Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE)  are “groups that promote an extreme anti-Muslim agenda”.  There is a reason that The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated SIOA as a hate group, and that these individuals are featured in the SPLC reports Jihad Against Islam and The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle.  There is a reason that these individuals and organizations are featured prominently in: — the Center for American Progress reports “Fear Inc.” on the Islamophobia network in America and Understanding Sharia Law: Conservatives skewed interpretation needs debunking. — the People for the American Way Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism.  — the NYCLU report Religious Freedom Under Attack:  The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State.  — the Political Research Associates report Manufacturing the Muslim menace: Private firms, public servants, and the threat to rights and security.  — The ACLU report Nothing to Fear: Debunking the Mythical “Sharia Threat” to Our Judicial System — in The American Muslim TAM Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry.   There is a reason that the SIOA’s trademark patent was denied by the U.S. government due to its anti-Muslim nature.   There is a reason that these individuals and organizations are featured in just about every legitimate report on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. 

See Resources for dealing with Islamophobes for many more reasons that these people cannot be trusted.

Sheila Musaji is the founding editor of The American Muslim (TAM), published since 1989.  Sheila received the Council on American-Islamic Relations 2007 Islamic Community Service Award for Journalism,  and the Loonwatch Anti-Loons of 2011: Profiles in Courage Award for her work in fighting Islamophobia.  Sheila was selected for inclusion in the 2012 edition of The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims published since 2009 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan.    Biography  You can follow her on twitter @sheilamusaji ( https://twitter.com/SheilaMusaji )