When a drunken young white man stabbed a Muslim cab driver in New York early this week, the reaction came swiftly. The New York Daily News termed him a “boozed-up bigot” in the first four words of its story. “Rider Asks if Cabby Is Muslim, Then Stabs Him,” ran the headline in the New York Times. “Was the Muslim Cab Driver Slashing the First ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Hate Crime?” The Village Voice asked.
That alleged hate crime took place in the shadow of a heated and divisive debate over whether a mosque should be built near Ground Zero. It’s not just protesting near Ground Zero — the sentiment against building new mosques has reached from New York’s Staten Island 15 miles away to Tennessee where a debate over a proposed mosque near Nashville has raged all summer….
Other controversies over new mosques in Wisconsin and Kentucky have led some to question: is America becoming Islamophobic, a prejudice against Muslims?
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a fervid supporter of the Ground Zero Mosque, said that the stabbing “appears to have been motivated by anti-Muslim bias,” that he assured the taxi driver that “ethnic or religious bias has no place in our city,” and that “this attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe, no matter what God we pray to.”
Then the left-wing blogosphere fired upits engines and flatly declared the drunken white man a right-wing Islamophobe.
Problem is, Michael Enright, 21, had volunteered for a left-wing outfit, Intersections International, which supports the Ground Zero Mosque. He had just returned from filming Marines in Afghanistan.
The Stabbing, The Reaction
The cabbie’s troubles began when Enright, who was drunk, asked him if he is a Muslim. The cabbie answered in the affirmative. A short time later Enright stabbed the cabbie, shouting “Consider this checkpoint” and “As-salaam alaikum” (peace be unto you). The cabbie escaped, locked him in the cab and called police, who arrested Enirght and charged him with attempted murder as a hate crime, among other things.
The mainstream media and moonbat left then began peddling charges of Islamophobia, implying Enright may have been a crazed tea party member angry about the Ground Zero mosque and reacting to the “hate speech” of conservatives who opposed the mosque and “demonize” Muslims.
Averred Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, “It wasn’t the 21-year-old Michael Enright who drunkenly slashed his New York city cab driver after asking ‘Are you Muslim?’ It was the Republican National Committee.”
Shame on you, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Lazio, and Sarah Palin, and all the other hatemongers. You have blood on your hands, and will have more if you go on this way.
P.S. Hatemonger Michelle Malkin, who also has blood on her hands, says that Enright is not a Glenn Beck type. Of course it is irrelevant what type he is. The question is who created the social and political atmosphere that makes it possible for someone to ask "Are you a Muslim?" and then plunge in the knife. The answer is that people like Malkin are responsible for that atmosphere. She should be ashamed of herself.
Malkin, who dug up the quotes from Cole, provides even more of the incendiary left-wing hate speech at her website. So did Robert Spencer at his Jihad Watch site.
Enright Worked For Leftist Peace Group
Apropos of the headlines and stories in the New York Post, Daily News and Times, the media ran with that meme, or at least did nothing to counter it. But then the truth about the organization for which Enright volunteered finally emerged. Intersections International bills itself as a peace group:
Intersections is involved in a myriad of programs dedicated to promoting peace and understanding. From the Veteran-Civilian Dialogue Project and new partnerships with the Lenape Peoples, to performance arts programs and websites that teach about and provide resources for dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim groups, to programs that help initiate dialogue with religious groups regarding LGBT inclusion, Intersections brings individuals together in conversation, often with startling and profound results.
We are further saddened that the person charged with this crime, Michael Enright, has been a volunteer with Intersections for the past year. Mike’s work with us was generous and responsible. He shared our vision for a diverse and peaceful world and our prayers go out to him and his family as well. This unfathomable incident is profoundly sad on many levels.
As well, again, it supports building the Ground Zero mosque at, well, Ground Zero:
Intersections supports the efforts of its partner organizations, The Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, to develop a Community Center and Muslim prayer space, called "The Cordoba House," at 47-51 Park Place in Manhattan. The vision is to create a place where individuals — regardless of race, faith or ethnicity — will find a center for learning, art, cultural expression and athletics; and most importantly, a center guided by the universal values of all religions — compassion, generosity, peace and human dignity.
The New York Post termed this last an "ironic twist."Indeed. But as the nutty professor, Juan Cole, put it:
It turns out that we don’t have the slightest idea whether Enright is a conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. He has been making a film on soldiers deploying to Afghanistan, so doesn’t sound like a bleeding heart liberal. He may have freelanced for some internet media organization dedicated to international understanding. I suspect that particular freelancing gig is over.
I repeat that it is the [Newt] Gingriches and [Rick] Lazios (and Malkins) who created the atmosphere in which this kind of incident occurs.
Question is, what if Enright’s a liberal? What if he’s not, as some have suggested, a conservative mole who infiltrated the peace group. If, as Cole suggests, conservative commentators have the Svengali-like power to persuade liberals to attack Muslims, then liberals must be as weak-minded as most conservatives think they are.
As well, why didn’t these conservative hypnotists have the power to persuade liberals to vote against presidential candidate Barack Obama?
Photo: Michael Enright during his arraignment in a New York courtroom: AP Images
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