Pig Flying Moment: Journalist Actually ……. Practices Journalism, Finds Fear in Muslim Community

“This kind of campaign and Americans support of it could assure these
frightened Muslims that they have the rights that every other American
has, that they will be protected, not abandoned or exposed to their
leaders should they act upon their desire to be free,” the Dearborn teacher said.

There is a story today in the Washington Times on the SIOA freedom bus ad campaign. This bus ad campaign has been covered by every major network, ABC, NBC, CBS (NY), the LA Times, FOX, CNN, Russian Television, UK fleet street, the Daily Mail ……….too many news outlets to list here.

Today, in the Washington Times, Michal Elseth wrote a news story and actually did…… research. SHOCKA! The reporter sought out Muslims who might speak openly and honestly about and safe leaving Islam. No other media outlet thought to look at the desperate struggle of apostates. I asked Lou Young of CBS (whose news report CAIR is running), but he wanted me to turn over people. I would never do that. He is blissfully uninformed.

It is shocking what Elseth, interning with the National Journalism Center, turned up about apostates, and what a liar unindicted co-conspirator, Hamas-tied CAIR’s Walid is. But he knew my ads were rejected in Detroit and was confident that SMART transit would not be running them. I wonder who the thugs strong armed.

Detroit
transit sued for nixing ‘Leaving Islam?’ ad by Michal Elseth THE
WASHINGTON TIMES

A bus-ad campaign that seeks to offer resources to those considering
leaving Islam already has stirred up controversy in Miami and New York,
but its next city may create the most fireworks – Detroit, the U.S.
metropolitan area with the heaviest concentration of Middle Easterners.

The
Detroit-area bus authority has refused to run the ads from Stop
Islamization of America, an organization headed up by conservative
activist and anti-jihad blogger Pamela Geller, prompting SIOA to file a
federal lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan.

Mrs. Geller said the transport authority’s
refusal to run her ads violates her First Amendment right of free
speech, and she will take the lawsuit to the Supreme Court if necessary.

“It
is against the law, and I tell you, those ads will go up whether they
like it or not,” Mrs. Geller said.

SIOA initially encountered a
similar refusal in Miami, but Mrs. Geller said a lawsuit prompted the
transport-authority there to relent in less than 24 hours.

Several
calls to the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation,
which operates the bus system serving Detroit and two surrounding
counties, were not returned Thursday.

Dawud Walid, executive
director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan, said
he expects that even if the ads do run in Detroit, they will not elicit
any response besides puzzlement. The Detroit area, centering on
Dearborn, is home to a quarter-million Muslims, whom Mr. Walid does not
expect to react favorably to the presence of SIOA’s ads in their city.

“If
she’s planning to put those Islamophobic ads in Detroit, she’s wasting
her time,” Mr. Walid said.

The Detroit area also has a large Arab
and Middle Eastern Christian population, centering on suburbs north of
the city proper.

Mrs. Geller said SIOA began its national
city-by-city ad campaign in response to bus ads in Florida inviting
people to convert to Islam.

[…]

Part of the conflict centers on whether Muslims are free to leave
Islam without retribution, and whether their families will punish or
kill them for conversion.

One such case that has made national
headlines in the U.S. involves 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, who fled her
parents’ Ohio home to stay with a Florida Christian minister after she
converted. In the ensuing custody and foster care disputes, her Muslim
parents deny that the girl will be harmed if she returns home.

Abdul
Rahman, an Afghan citizen, was arrested in 2006 for converting to
Christianity there, and members of his family asked prosecutors to seek
the death penalty. But the international outcry over Mr. Rahman’s case,
and the fact that the Afghan government was installed by the U.S.
invasion – plus doubts about the case and Mr. Rahman’s sanity – combined
to prompt the court to release him.

The
consensus view among Muslim jurists worldwide is that apostasy, unless
mitigated by such factors as mental illness or duress, is punishable by
death. Mrs. Geller cited a fatwa, or ruling point on Islamic law, issued
by the authoritative Al-Azhar University in 1978, that said: “This man
has committed apostasy; he must be given a chance to repent, and if he
does not, then he must be killed, according to Shariah [law].”

Mr.
Walid denied Mrs. Geller’s claims, though he provided no authoritative
citations, and attacked Mrs. Geller’s character.

“She’s a
well-known anti-Muslim bigot,” he said. “She makes no distinction
between extremist Muslims and mainstream Muslims.”

Mr. Walid said
that although there have been a few cases of violence against Muslims
who convert away from the religion, there is no retribution for those
who choose to leave Islam.

“People are free to leave Islam or any
religion at any time. This is the United States of America,” he said.

But
a public educator in Dearborn, speaking on the condition of anonymity
owing to fear of retribution, said there is a climate of fear in the
Detroit area’s Muslim community.

“The fear is palpable. I know there are things I am ‘not allowed’ to
say. A discussion of religion with a Muslim person is often prefaced by
the statement, ‘Dont say anything about the Prophet [Muhammad].’ In free
society, open and honest conversation is not usually begun by a
prohibition. Threats and intimidation are just part of life here.”

CAIR’s
denial of the dangers of apostasy are part of the reason behind Mrs.
Geller’s campaign, which she defined as a religious-freedom issue.

“We’re
not encouraging people to leave Islam,” she said.

Whether or not
the ads actually encourage apostasy, the furor elsewhere already have
received a considerable amount of negative attention from American
Muslims.

“The ads are to serve a purpose – to incite
Islamophobia,” Mr. Walid said. “The average person here will see them
for what they are.”

The Dearborn educator, however, said the ads
serve a positive purpose.

“This kind of campaign and Americans
support of it could assure these frightened Muslims that they have the
rights that every other American has, that they will be protected, not
abandoned or exposed to their leaders should they act upon their desire
to be free,” the teacher said.

Here
is the fatwa, proof that death “is a very normal part of
Islamic law for apostasy
and for every muslim its an honor to CLEAN the umma if Rifqa is dead”.

Obama
describes Al-Azhar University this way: “For
over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo
University has been a
source of Egypt’s advancement.” Here is the actual fatwa issued at Al-Azhar University
in Cairo, the most important institution of islamic law in the sunni
world, and where Obama
made his speech to the Muslim world. (More on Obama’s speech here
and here.)
Fatwa
committee concerning the case of a
man who converted to Christianity:
“Since he left the Islam, he will
be invited to express his regret. If he does not regret, he will be
killed
pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law.”

Update:  Check out Newsmax

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