BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
From Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom comes a chilling report that Saudi Arabia's government has been distributing hate literature in American mosques.
The 89-page report, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques," is based on a year-long study of over two hundred original documents, all disseminated, published or otherwise generated by the government of Saudi Arabia and collected from more than a dozen mosques in the United States.
The propagation of hate ideology by Saudi Arabia is known to be worldwide, but its occurrence within the United States has received scant attention until now. Within worldwide Sunni Islam, followers of Saudi Arabia's extremist Wahhabi ideology are a distinct minority, as is evident by the millions of Muslims who have chosen to make America their home and are upstanding, law-abiding citizens and neighbors.
The report concludes that the Saudi government propaganda examined reflects a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence," and the fact that it is "being mainstreamed within our borders through the efforts of a foreign government, namely Saudi Arabia, demands our urgent attention." The report finds: "Not only does the government of Saudi Arabia not have a right – under the First Amendment or any other legal document – to spread hate ideology within U.S. borders, it is committing a human rights violation by doing so."
Such publications that "advocate an ideology of hatred have no place in a nation founded on religious freedom and toleration," write James Woolsey, chairman of the board of Freedom House, in the foreword to the report.
The hate-literature was collected from the following mosques, according to the report's bibliography:
Masjid Abu Bakr, San Diego, CA King Fahd Mosque, Culver City, CA Muslim Community Center, Chicago, IL Daru-Al-Islah, Teaneck, NJ Richardson Mosque, Dallas, TX Dar Al-Hijra, Falls Church, VA Islamic Society of Greater Houston North Zone, Houston, TX Islamic Center of Oakland, Oakland, CA Masjid Al-Farouq, Houston TX Islamic Center of America, East Orange NJ Al-Farouq Masjid, Brooklyn, NY Islamic Center of Washington D.C., Washington D.C. Masjid Al-Islam, Washington, D.C. Herndon Mosque, Herndon, VA
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