Fox Report Cites Terrorism Expert Muslim-Basher Steve Emerson To Rip Keith Ellison’s Pilgrimage To Mecca
Fox Report Cites Terrorism Expert Muslim-Basher Steve Emerson To Rip Keith Ellison’s Pilgrimage To Mecca
In December, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) became the first congressman to travel to Mecca on the Hajj, the religious pilgrimage Muslims are expected to fulfill at least once in the course of their lives. “It was a personal trip, a pilgrimage,” Ellison’s spokesman said.
Yesterday, FoxNews.com published a scurrilous article insisting that Ellison is “coming under fire” for the trip from “critics” who allege the trip was paid for by the Muslim American Society (MAS). The “critics” Fox News quotes? Just one: Muslim-basher Steven Emerson — who told Fox that MAS is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and compared the group to Neo-Nazis:
But Ellison, the only Muslim in Congress, is coming under fire for his ties to MAS, which one terrorism expert called “the Muslim equivalent of the neo-Nazi party.”
“It is the de facto arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S.,” said Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “The agenda of the MAS is to … impose Islamic law in the U.S., to undermine U.S. counterterrorism policy.” [...]
Emerson said Ellison’s embrace of MAS was an attempt to legitimize the group, which he called out of the mainstream. “It’s very troubling that he is trying to project an image of moderation, but he is tied to these radical groups,” Emerson told FOXNews.com.
As the Minnesota Independent pointed out, MAS “has earned the respect of the Minnesota Council of Churches, the St. Paul Police Department and former Vice President Walter Mondale.” But Emerson’s “priority is not so much news as it is an unrelenting attack against Arabs and Muslims,” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) noted in a report on Emerson. (It also reminded readers of “Emerson’s most notorious gaffe”: claiming the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing showed “a Middle Eastern trait” because it “was done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible.”)
Fox News — which has expelled untold energy fearmongering on Ellison’s religion — has hosted Emerson multiple times in the last year. Host E.D. Hill has called him “one of the best people” working on terrorism issues and said his latest book “is one of the best books you can read to just get a great perspective on the issues we’re facing.”
An example of that “perspective,” last January, Emerson appeared on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes to accuse an aide to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England of being “an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent.” He posited a conspiracy theory that there was a plot within the Pentagon to help the Muslim Brotherhood take over the United States and impose an Islamic caliphate:
COLMES: When you say Islamic penetration, are you talking about just one person, or are you saying there’s widespread penetration, people who want jihad against the United States working — literally working in the Pentagon.
EMERSON: Yes. We know that from the trials of former military members who were brought up on charges — carrying out jihad. [...]
COLMES: And they want to destroy the United States, these people working internally. It was like a fifth column in there.
EMERSON: You got it.
Fox is virtually the only news organization still willing to host Emerson. When FAIR asked investigative journalist Seymour Hersh “how Emerson is perceived by fellow journalists,” Hersh replied definitively, “He’s poison.”
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Hmmm.. don’t seem to recognize him without his hood and robes….
January 9th, 2009 at 12:21 pmMr. Emerson and the rest of the neocon nutjobs at FUX and elsewhere will not rest until every Muslim on the planet is either forced to wear a red crescent armband – or dead.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:26 pmJanuary 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Also from the link:
yet, from the bush administration:
January 9th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
A caliphate? I’m not positive but I don’t think they have even managed it in their own countries since around 1924.
Was this guy scared by a Sinbad movie when he was little? Maybe he thinks a WMD is a Roc?
January 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pmI think we finally found out who Trajan is -for those of you who remember that troll…
January 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pmThe return of the caliphate is a hopeless dream of the Islamists. Most Muslims themselves don’t want to return to that system. Only dead-enders like Osama bin Laden and the like still think that there is any possibility of re-establishing the caliphate – and if somehow it actually did happen, it would unleash the worst civil war in the Muslim world that there has ever been. Sunni and Shia already despise one another; just think how high the stakes would be if one group controlled the caliphate and used that power to try to wipe out the other.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:39 pm.
When in history has it ever boded well for nut cases who seek to persecute people based on their region?
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January 9th, 2009 at 12:40 pmOoh, I love conspiracy theories.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pmBut his doesn’t hold much water since he has no proof to back up anything he spews.
Ellison was among the sane who did not support the “Israel-can-do-no-wrong-and-is-the-bestist-country-ever” resolution today, voting present. His comments were compassionate, reasoned and sincere. And, the vote was shrewd politics that may insulate him from troglodyte attacks in 2010. Doubt it though.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm“People invited to the Washington-area office gu…They must swear never to reveal its location.
The people who work there call it ‘the bat cave.”
As we all know: bat caves are full of guano – just like Emerson
January 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pmThese merchants of hate are every bit as evil and dangerous as al Qaeda.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pmLeftside Annie Says
January 9th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Mr. Emerson and the rest of the neocon nutjobs at FUX and elsewhere will not rest until every Muslim on the planet is either forced to wear a red crescent armband – or dead.
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Yes, but even if they were successful at eradicating all Muslims from the face of the planet (and that would be about a fifth of the world’s population) — who would they then have to hate? They’d just find somebody else. Emerson and his ilk can’t exist unless they’re putting the hate on some group of people.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:49 pmSome visitors have been blindfolded as they’re driven to his headquarters, where the masks are removed to reveal a warren of rooms piled high with dossiers, transcripts and videotapes, they say.
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Paranoid much, Steve?
January 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pmIt’s called “Projection”….accuse others of doing what you are doing to others or wish to do to others….
January 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pmWhile there may be jihadists among us, there are also neo-nazis’….of which Emerson, Sean Hannity , and many others paraded on fox, can be seen daily…
Bring back the fairness doctrine..
Yes, I do believe Emerson is on to something. We all know quite well that he’s got the inside scoop on what the Islamo-fascist terrorists are plotting and what Islamic organizations they are affiliated with. It’s great that he reported this information first to FOX news. Good Job Steve!!!
Evan
January 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pmhttp://www.beyondrace.com
ealvarez12 Says:
We all know quite well that he’s got the inside scoop on what the Islamo-fascist terrorists are plotting and what Islamic organizations they are affiliated with.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
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We do? And where exactly is Batman getting his information on these fictional “Islamo-fascists?”
January 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pmDoc Rock Says:
These merchants of hate are every bit as evil and dangerous as al Qaeda.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
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Except they’re responsible for FAR more deaths.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pmThe issue I have with Ellison’s hajj trip is not that it was paid for by MAS, but if it was paid for by anyone but Ellison himself.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam (the other four being faith, prayer, charity, and fasting during Ramadan), and as such is a priority for every Muslim WHO IS ABLE TO DO SO to make this pilgrimage once in their lifetime.
The “able to do so” part is not just having the time and energy to do it, but also to have the financial resources necessary. For hajj to be meaningful, the sacrifice must come from the pilgrim himself. Many Muslims save for years so they can afford hajj. Having somebody foot your hajj bill is a little bit like a Catholic sending somebody else into the confessional for them.
However, many Muslim organizations offer “hajj packages” put together by travel agents they work with. This makes it a lot easier for a Muslim to make the trip — they get their flight, accommodations, and meals paid for in one fell swoop. Is it possible that MAS was merely acting as a broker for travel packages and Ellison purchased his hajj travel through them? That’s a far more plausible scenario. After all, these travel packages are quite reasonable — usually far less than going on a cruise of similar duration, for example. Ellison could easily afford hajj on a Congressman’s salary and really doesn’t need anybody else paying for him.
But even if Ellison did have somebody else pay for his hajj travel, that’s between him and God. It’s really not my business. Or Emerson’s.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pm“People invited to the Washington-area office of terrorism expert Steven Emerson say he sets one condition: They must swear never to reveal its location. Some visitors have been blindfolded as they’re driven to his headquarters, where the masks are removed to reveal a warren of rooms piled high with dossiers, transcripts and videotapes, they say. The people who work there call it ‘the bat cave.’“
A more appropriate description methinks would be ‘the bat-sh!t insane cave’.
Just saying…
January 9th, 2009 at 1:10 pmHoodathunk Says:
A caliphate? I’m not positive but I don’t think they have even managed it in their own countries since around 1924.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
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Exactly. Anyone who seriously believes the “global khaliphate” talking point is simply ignorant of Arab culture, let alone the massive variety of cultures in the greater Islamic world. Sure, it may be a pipe dream of a few al-Qa’ida members and supporters, but in the real world it’s impossible.
Even other jihadist groups in the greater Middle East are opposed to the idea – they’re not going to just give up their own goals and struggles and profits and let themselves be ruled by some Yemeni yahoo.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pmI am flabbergasted. Just when I thought FAUX News could go no lower… This is pure and simple hate speech. That’s all it is. This man is insane.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
The issue I have with Ellison’s hajj trip is not that it was paid for by MAS, but if it was paid for by anyone but Ellison himself.
But even if Ellison did have somebody else pay for his hajj travel, that’s between him and God. It’s really not my business. Or Emerson’s.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
__________
According to the Star-Tribune story, Ellison paid for the trip himself. MAS probably just acted as the travel agent.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:24 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
But even if Ellison did have somebody else pay for his hajj travel, that’s between him and God. It’s really not my business. Or Emerson’s.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
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And it wouldn’t just be between him and God. It’d be between him, God, and the House Ethics Committee, as such a gift would constitute a violation of the House Gift Rule.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:32 pmEmerson’s organization has no government affiliation, no security clearance and no access to US intel. Yet somehow he knows more than our gov’t which has limitless intel authority. Sounds like he’s just making this shit up as he goes along.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pmWho is paying this person money? Why doesn’t he live in a cardboard box?
January 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pmOnly the hate propaganda channel would listen to him. Everyone else knows he’s an idiot.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:40 pmhussein toasterhead Says
January 9th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
And it wouldn’t just be between him and God. It’d be between him, God, and the House Ethics Committee, as such a gift would constitute a violation of the House Gift Rule.
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OK, good point. Yes, I would be concerned about a House Ethics violation. I guess I was speaking more about the “spiritual” violation of having someone else pay for his hajj trip.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:42 pmmisshusseinmolly Says:
OK, good point. Yes, I would be concerned about a House Ethics violation. I guess I was speaking more about the “spiritual” violation of having someone else pay for his hajj trip.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
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Right – that’s definitely none of our business. Happily, it looks like Hajji Ellison is in the clear on all counts.
Not that that will stop hatemongers like Emerson from suggesting otherwise, of course.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:47 pmI remember very well when Emerson was making up stories after the Oklahoma City bombing about Arabs and Moslems.
He was invited around noon time by CNN after the Oklahoma city was hit and was introduced as a ‘terrorists expert’..by then Lou Waters of CNN.
Lou asked Emerson after he started blaming
Moslem terrorists: “But why Oklahoma City…?”
Emerson replied:
“Because they(terrorists) want to show us that they can hit inside heart of America”.
ya ya ya
This man is no expert, he is a propagandist.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:00 pmtarazan Says:
Emerson replied:
“Because they(terrorists) want to show us that they can hit inside heart of America”.
ya ya ya
This man is no expert, he is a propagandist.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
____________
And a murderer, since his words inspired a number of hate crimes against Muslims and Sikhs in the days after the OKC bombing.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:03 pmHmmmm. So, according to this nutjob’s standards, any CHRISTIAN who takes a pilgrimage to Bethlehem is a terrorist.
Yeah. Works for me.
*eyes rolling*
January 9th, 2009 at 2:54 pmWhooooaaaaa. Everybody pump your brakes. Emerson may be a nut job but don’t act as though there are no islamists who want you dead. Emerson doesn’t help matters but he is not the problem, sorry folks. Ellison was unwise to have anything to do with MAS, that’s the story here. They’ve tried to use the Arms Export Control Act to force us to quit sending weapons to Israel. I know a significant number of you think that’s great but thinking Americans recognize that as a serious problem for Israel’s very existence. Ellison would be wise not to associate with a group that filed that brief based on the death of Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin, an Islamist who wanted to kill Jews.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:46 pmFred Says:
Everyone else knows he’s an idiot.
He’s much much worse than an idiot. That’s like telling everybody not to worry about neo-Nazis because they’re dumb. The SPLC needs to open a file on this guy.
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drew3rd Says:
Whooooaaaaa. Everybody pump your brakes. Emerson may be a nut job but don’t act as though there are no islamists who want you dead.
Irrelevant. Those aren’t the people Emerson is slandering. Bringing that up is just playing his game.
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drew3rd Says:
Emerson doesn’t help matters but he is not the problem,
We have more than one problem. “Hey, rapists aren’t the problem here, don’t you know there are Islamist terrorists out there? Let’s let rapists off the hook!”
drew3rd Says:
sorry folks. Ellison was unwise to have anything to do with MAS, that’s the story here.
Wrong. Flat wrong. MAS was already a perfectly legitimate religious organization, and slandering them constitutes religious bigotry.
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drew3rd Says:
They’ve tried to use the Arms Export Control Act to force us to quit sending weapons to Israel. I know a significant number of you think that’s great but thinking Americans recognize that as a serious problem for Israel’s very existence.
There are perfectly appropriate reasons not to sell weapons to a country that routinely uses those weapons to murder civilian populations. Maybe they should stop doing that.
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drew3rd Says:
Ellison would be wise not to associate with a group that filed that brief based on the death of Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin, an Islamist who wanted to kill Jews.
Checked ya on Wikipedia…
Yikes! Maybe you’re right! Oh, wait…
Yeah, MAS is a terrorist organization for complaining about that. I guess ThinkProgress is an Islamist terrorist organization too, and everybody on my block should be slaughtered in the name of… whatever death god you sick f**ks bow to.
Yet again, you people prove to be morally bankrupt and beneath contempt.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:15 pm“The people who work there call it ‘the bat cave.’”
It should be renamed ‘the dingbat cave’
January 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pmMuslims of means are EXPECTED to take pilgrimages to Mecca. It is pure bigotry to expect a Muslim to NOT take the tenets of his faith seriously because of THEIR bigotry.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:26 pmEugeneDebs Says:
Muslims of means are EXPECTED to take pilgrimages to Mecca.
To these wingnuts there’s no such thing as a “Muslim.” They’re all “Islamists.” I’ve never seen them say “here’s a guy who’s a Muslim but not an Islamist.”
January 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pmAll good points ElBruce; I remember that assassination, and Israel was widely condemned because Yassin was an advocate of
negotiation, and much needed voice of reason in the middleast.
And for all those piled on Minnesota over crazy Shelly, Keith
Ellison was returned with over 70% of the vote.
Leave it to faux to give a hate monger air time.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:53 pmThe radical jihadists were stuck in harsh terrain in Afghanistan and Pakistan because they were soundly rejected by their fellow Muslims everywhere else in the Mideast. The idea that there is a group of Muslims ready to spread Islam in the U.S. would be laughable if it weren’t part of a patently insane effort to convince us that there is an existential threat to the U.S. and to Israel beyond our own self-destructive tendencies.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:09 pmwiley Says:
The radical jihadists were stuck in harsh terrain in Afghanistan and Pakistan because they were soundly rejected by their fellow Muslims everywhere else in the Mideast.
That information is inconvenient to the neoCrusaders, and will therefore be ignored.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:35 pm“In 2001, the Washington Post reported, “People invited to the Washington-area office of terrorism expert Steven Emerson say he sets one condition: They must swear never to reveal its location. Some visitors have been blindfolded as they’re driven to his headquarters, where the masks are removed to reveal a warren of rooms piled high with dossiers, transcripts and videotapes, they say. The people who work there call it ‘the bat cave.’”
Hmmm, so that’s Dick Cheney’s “undisclosed location” where he goes to hide…or at the least, Cheney has similar procedures in place for anyone visiting him in his “undisclosed location,” although they have nicknamed his secret hideout as “the fruit bat cave.”
January 9th, 2009 at 10:11 pm.
Dhimmis every where, frightening. Emerson doesn’t bash Muslims, he bashes Radical Islam, or more accurately, Islamic Fundamentalism. He knows most Muslims are fine people and are secular and do not want worldwide Sharia, or to live under Sharia themselves. Muslims are the biggest victims of Islam. Just listen to what Muslim Clerics have said, and what the Koran says, you’ll get the truth you claim to respect.
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absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
never mock Hamas
it’s just their religion
you RIGHT-WING INFIDEL
http://thethirdjihad.com/
January 10th, 2009 at 4:42 am.
And furthermore:
A recent UK poll indicated that 36% of younger British Muslims believe death to be an appropriate punishment for renouncing Islam.
Their views are grounded in Shari’a law. All major schools of Islamic jurisprudence stipulate that a sane adult male must be put to death for abandoning Islam, though varying interpretations persist on whether females should be killed or merely imprisoned. Many Islamic states outlaw apostasy and seven list it as a capital offense. However, freelancers such as angry relatives present the greatest danger to ex-Muslims, as Sunni and Shiite scholars largely agree that Shari’a empowers individuals to punish converts. This tradition has followed Muslims to the Western world.
http://www.apostatesofislam.com/
January 10th, 2009 at 4:54 am.