Reuters: US ambassador to Libya dead

[Viking]

Anyway, pity about Dave Chapelle. I used to like him. Same with Will Smith and scientology. Too many nuts.

Me too I'm a great fan of Chapelle's work.

[Solmyr]

Edit: although to be honest, I was originally thinking about white Europeans converting to Islam - as happens to some odd nuts in Poland, for example. For the American blacks, I think it's more of a fad based on desperately looking for a cultural identity that goes beyond slavery, the same way they did with the silliness that is Kwanzaa, or claiming that Cleopatra is black.

Because Islam and enslavement of blacks have absolutely nothing in common.

[garbon]

I love the notion that because I noted some black people (2 of whom also altered their names) as a quick reply back to the notion that you must sacrifice Western culture when you convert to Islam, that said examples don't really count.

[grumbler]

I love the notion that because I noted some black people (2 of whom also altered their names) as a quick reply back to the notion that you must sacrifice Western culture when you convert to Islam, that said examples don't really count.

A classic example of the "No True Scotsman" argument. 

[garbon]

I love the notion that because I noted some black people (2 of whom also altered their names) as a quick reply back to the notion that you must sacrifice Western culture when you convert to Islam, that said examples don't really count.

A classic example of the "No True Scotsman" argument. 

Which weird as I thought we'd have gotten beyond those by now.

[dps]

Well, if you want an example of a white American who converted to Islam who isn't obviously nuts and didn't reject Western value, I guess you could go with Lewis Arquette.  I admit that I really don't know anything about him, but if he was nuts, at least he wasn't spectacularly, publicly nuts like, say, Tom Cruise.

Gotta agree, though, that Cat Stevens is probably not a good example, because he does seem to have rejected a lot of Western values.

[CountDeMoney]

Oh noes, America apologizes.

US spends $70,000 on Pakistan ad denouncing anti-Muslim film

The U.S. has bought $70,000 worth of air time on seven Pakistani television channels to air an ad showing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the anti-Islamic video that has sparked violent protests in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the 30-second ad that began running Thursday, Obama says, "Since our founding the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate religious beliefs of others."

Clinton appears after Obama and says, "Let me state very clearly that the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. America's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation."

The ad is subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language.

A U.S. seal is also displayed in the video. The comments by Obama and Clinton are from previous public statements and were not taped specifically for the ad.

"It is common and traditional to have to buy air time on Pakistan TV for public service announcements," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

[Martinus]

Oh noes, America apologizes.

US spends $70,000 on Pakistan ad denouncing anti-Muslim film

The U.S. has bought $70,000 worth of air time on seven Pakistani television channels to air an ad showing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the anti-Islamic video that has sparked violent protests in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the 30-second ad that began running Thursday, Obama says, "Since our founding the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate religious beliefs of others."

Clinton appears after Obama and says, "Let me state very clearly that the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. America's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation."

The ad is subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language.

A U.S. seal is also displayed in the video. The comments by Obama and Clinton are from previous public statements and were not taped specifically for the ad.

"It is common and traditional to have to buy air time on Pakistan TV for public service announcements," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

I'm glad I don't have to vote in the US Presidential Elections - Romney and Obama are doing so much lately to make me hate them.

[Neil]

Gotta agree, though, that Cat Stevens is probably not a good example, because he does seem to have rejected a lot of Western values.

Indeed, rejecting Western values was the whole point for Stevens.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm glad I don't have to vote in the US Presidential Elections - Romney and Obama are doing so much lately to make me hate them.

It's called "outreach".  We all know you're about as tolerant as a fag-killing skinhead curb stomping fairy cock smokers in white-laced Dr. Martens, but we try to make friends with people who hate us.  It's the higher road.

[Viking]

Gotta agree, though, that Cat Stevens is probably not a good example, because he does seem to have rejected a lot of Western values.

Indeed, rejecting Western values was the whole point for Stevens.

This is also the point of the NOI and suggests that is the motive of it's converts.

[Tamas]

I'm glad I don't have to vote in the US Presidential Elections - Romney and Obama are doing so much lately to make me hate them.

It's called "outreach".  We all know you're about as tolerant as a fag-killing skinhead curb stomping fairy cock smokers in white-laced Dr. Martens, but we try to make friends with people who hate us.  It's the higher road.

but it's so fucking pointless. You really think that it matters? For them, having the video on Youtube is proof that America is out to conquer the world for the Jews. The 70k ad campaign is a clever and shameless plot to hide their true agenda, which is of course conquering the world for Jews.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

should have launched the nukes instead.

[garbon]

Great, I can't wait to have these in the subway.



http://news.yahoo.com/anti-jihad-savage-ads-going-nyc-subway-220228596.html

A provocative ad that equates Muslim radicals with savages is set to go up in the city's subway system as violent protests over an anti-Islamic film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad sweep over much of the Muslim world.

A conservative blogger who once headed a campaign against an Islamic center near the Sept. 11 terror attack site won a court order to post the ad in 10 subway stations next Monday. The ad reads, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

The ad was plastered on San Francisco city buses in recent weeks, prompting some artists to deface the ads and remove some of the words, including "Jihad," or holy war. The blogger, Pamela Geller, said she filed suit Thursday in the nation's capital to post the ad in Washington's transit system after officials declined to put up the ad in light of the uproar in the Middle East over the anti-Islam film.

Abdul Yasar, a New York subway rider who considers himself an observant Muslim, said Geller's ad was insensitive in an unsettling climate for Muslims.

"If you don't want to see what happened in Libya and Egypt after the video — maybe not so strong here in America — you shouldn't put this up," Yasar said.

But "if this is a free country, they have the right to do this," he said. "And then Muslims have the right to put up their own ad."

Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and publisher of a blog called Atlas Shrugs, called an order by a federal judge in New York allowing the ads "a victory for the First Amendment" and said she wasn't concerned that her ad could spark protests like the ones against the depiction of Muslims in the video "Innocence of Muslims." Violence linked to the movie has left at least 30 people in seven countries dead, including the American ambassador to Libya.

"If it's not a film it's a cartoon, if it's not a cartoon it's a teddy bear," she said. "What are you going to do? Are you going to reward Islamic extremism? I will not sacrifice my freedom so as not to offend savages."

New York police aren't anticipating adding any security to subways when the ads go up and have received no threats or reports of violence relating to them, chief spokesman Paul Browne said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York initially refused to run Geller's ad, saying it was "demeaning." But U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled last month that it is protected speech under the First Amendment.

"Our hands are tied," MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. "Under our existing ad standards as modified by the injunction, the MTA is required to run the ad."

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, backed publication of the "patently offensive" ads.

"More offensive would be their censorship because that would violate the guarantee of free expression of all ideas regardless of how distasteful they are," she said.

Geller said the subway ads cost about $6,000. Donovan said they will be up for a month.

Opponents say the ads imply that Muslims are savages.

"We recognize the freedom of speech issues and her right to be a bigot and a racist," said Muneer Awad, the executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

But he said he hopes elected officials and the MTA, which runs the nation's largest mass transit system, "take on a leadership role in denouncing hate speech."

Geller, as head of a group called Stop Islamization of America, helped spur a monthslong campaign two years ago to remove a planned Islamic community center blocks from the World Trade Center site, which she called the "ground zero mosque." Plans to build a larger center are pending, although Muslims still have regular prayer services at a mosque in the building.

When the ad ran in San Francisco from Aug. 13 to Sept. 4, transit officials took the unusual step of running disclaimers on the sides of the buses, while some artists painted over "Jihad" or photoshopped pictures that said instead, "Defeat Racism."

Geller's group has also placed ads in Metro-North Railroad stations north of New York City that read: "It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism."

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority hadn't seen Geller's lawsuit on Thursday, spokesman Dan Stessel said. The agency told Geller the ad would be "deferred" because of the ongoing violence in the Middle East, he said.

"To be clear, we have not rejected the ad," Stessel said, but "merely asked the advertiser to be sensitive to the timing of the placement out of a concern for public safety, given current world events."

[derspiess]

Saw that yesterday.  Should be fun!