John R. Houk
© July 13, 2011
There are many States in the USA that have passed recent laws to prevent Islam’s Sharia Law from being a standard in American rule of law as stated in the U.S. Constitution and the State Constitutions in question.
The State of Tennessee’s The Material Support to Designated Entities Act became law on July 1, 2011. ACT for America was more than likely one of the huge reasons there was a large grassroots support for the law. Undoubtedly a visit by Geert Wilders to a mega-Church in Tennessee also aided the cause to pass the law.
The newspaper The Tennessean was in the tank to undermine and derail the law that was aimed at prosecuting donators that gave to further Islamic terrorism. It was probably the influence of The Tennessean that extricated mention of Sharia Law and Jihad from the original legislation.
The Tennessean is a Nashville newspaper that does everything in its power to convince their readers that radical Islamic Mosques known to be in the Nashville area are moderate Muslim Mosques that have cleaned up their act from their past. The reality is The Tennessean willfully calls anti-Sharia/anti-Jihad organizations liars by omitting truth often with outright lies. Yet when a fact check is run on The Tennessean, their writers are the ones that omit or manipulate facts or just plain make them up.
Now I am singling out The Tennessean because they recently ran a smear piece on Brigitte Gabriel trying to portray her as a racist without credibility. Now I quickly scanned that article written by Bob Smietana (his email) and he did not actually use the term “racist” in writing about ACT for America and Brigitte Gabriel; however the entire tone of the article is that ACT and Brigitte are placing all Muslims in one category of Islam is terrorism when the reality is the national ACT organization goes out of its way to differentiate between moderate Muslims and radical Muslims. The national organization even works with moderate Muslims who condemn the harsher tenets of the Quran and Sharia Law.
I have a feeling that some of the ACT Chapters have a “we vs. them” mentality toward Islam in totality; however as I have already written that is not the case with Brigitte Gabriel and ACT for America. Indeed, I am probably in the category of Right Wing Bible thumpers that have a great mistrust of Islam in general whether it is radical or moderate. Let’s face it I am devoted to Jesus Christ the Savior and Son of God who came to save the lost from this world system. All those who condemn Christ Jesus as the Risen Savior that brought Deliverance to those who believe are of an anti-Christ spirit. The Believers in the Risen Savior become a new creation in Christ Jesus the Lord. Thus I have a problem with all faiths that deny Christ as the Son of God co-equal in Divine Attribute with the Father and Holy Spirit.
Most religions that are apart from Christianity do not attack the Godhood of Jesus or the Godhead of the Trinity because their theology is not so much based on a personal God as they are in either pleasing their deity (or deities) or escaping a repetitive cycle of life such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Many of those religions might get a little testy with Christianity sharing their Good News of deliverance but their theology does not specifically have an attack the Christians for what they believe mode.
Islam on the other hand does have attack holy book instructions to attack Christians and Jews until they convert of submit to the authority of Islam in a demeaning way. That is what is called the moderate stuff folks. In original Islamic writings Christians and Jews are to be revered as “People of the Book;” however that reverence only extends to the point of submission to the superiority of Islam.
That is the age old Islam that purists are attempting to reform present day Islam to a return of those glory days. Frankly I am not seeing much of a moderate Islamic condemnation of the early Islamic brutality of forced conversions or dhimmi humiliation. When moderate Muslims are willing to condemn the brutality of their past I might be more willing for a peaceful coexistence.
After all, Christian history after Roman Emperor Constantine has its past of brutality in the name of protecting the Universal Holy Church; however the brutality was not based on the Word of God. The Christian brutality of the past was the false interpretation making people pay violently for rejecting or not converting to Christianity. The plan of the Great Commission as instructed by Jesus Christ is to go into the whole world to share the Good News. If the message is rejected kick the dust of that place off your shoes. If the message is accepted then disciple those who believe so that they know how to live a Christian life. Violence in the name of Christianity was and is an aberration to Scripture.
The Muslim path of historical brutality on the other hand was to invade, humiliate, convert or kill. That path may not be the practice of those the West would term as moderate Muslims; however neither is it condemned. Indeed the alternative of violence is a Quranic and Hadith command.
As this becomes more and more realized I am betting Americans will begin to see the light that revered tenets of Islam are not congruent to the American way of life or the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the rights of humankind.
I don’t know about you but I get a little ticked off when any media organization tries to make radical Islam look moderate and those attempting to educate Americans about the full nature of Islam as bigoted racists. THAT is the disgusting written reporting of Knoxville’s newspaper The Tennessean.
ACT for America sent out an email correcting writer Bob Smietana about the nature of ACT educating on the precepts of Islam as well as a condemnation of Smietana for exposing Brigitte Gabriel as a pseudonym by publishing her actual name and place of residence. In America that may not sound like a big deal; however those Muslims that follow the purist line of Mohammed-thinking will seek to assassinate her and/or her family for the perceived insult to Islam. Islamic religious tenets call for any insult to Islam to be met with a death sentence.
JRH 7/13/11
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Newspaper smears Brigitte Gabriel, ACT! for America
Sent by ACT for America
Sent: 7/11/2011 2:48 PM
Newspaper’s smear of ACT! for America laced with lies, fabrications, and distortions.
Please take action below!
Please take action below!
Yesterday, The Tennessean newspaper ran a story by Bob Smietana that is so laced with lies, fabrications and distortions we determined we had no choice but to respond to it.
You can read the “yellow journalism” smear piece for yourself here.
Space does not allow us to respond to every fabrication or distortion in the story, so we will focus on the most egregious. At the end of this email we ask you to take action!
Item #1: Distortion
Smietana opens the story with this:
You can read the “yellow journalism” smear piece for yourself here.
Space does not allow us to respond to every fabrication or distortion in the story, so we will focus on the most egregious. At the end of this email we ask you to take action!
Item #1: Distortion
Smietana opens the story with this:
“ACT! for America sums up its mission in four words: “They must be stopped.”
“The “they” in question are Muslims…”
Smietana takes the name of Brigitte Gabriel’s best-selling book to claim that this means ACT! for America’s mission is to “stop” Muslims, bluntly implying that we believe all Muslims are engaged in a “stealthy jihad” and thus that all Muslims must be stopped.
FACT: The subtitle of Brigitte’s book states what “they” is referring to, “Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It.”
FACT: ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims are engaged in stealth jihad. ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims “must be stopped.”
FACT: ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims are engaged in stealth jihad. ACT! for America does not believe, nor advocate, that all Muslims “must be stopped.”
The truth is that ACT! for America works with and helps promote the efforts of reformist Muslims, such as Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, and others. Dr. Hamid, a guest on the ACT! for America TV show, has praised the work of ACT! for America and provided us a quote for our website. The mission of ACT! for America is to combat the ideology of radical Islam and those who advocate it.
Item #2: Lie
Later in the piece Smietana writes:
Later in the piece Smietana writes:
“Critics say ACT distorts the nature of Islam and labels law-abiding Muslims as terrorists.”
There is no other way to respond to this than to call this a lie.
FACT: ACT! for America does not “label law-abiding Muslims as terrorists.” This is a classic smear technique used in yellow journalism, to refer to some unnamed “critics” who make some unsubstantiated accusations, in order to smear the organization without Smietana directly saying it himself.
Item #3: Lie
In a lengthy section about Brigitte’s personal life, Smietana writes:
In a lengthy section about Brigitte’s personal life, Smietana writes:
“She married a co-worker named Charles Tudor, a former cameraman for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Praise the Lord television show.”
This is a lie.
FACT: Brigitte’s husband has never worked for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Praise the Lord television show.
Item #4: Fabrication
Smietana writes:
Smietana writes:
“Page Brooks, assistant professor of theology and Islamic studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, said ACT! For America confuses radical Islam with the more moderate mainstream version of the faith”
This is intended to reinforce the distortion noted in Item #1 and the lie noted in Item #2.
FACT: If what Brooks was saying was true, why would ACT! for America work with and promote the efforts of reformist Muslims and repeatedly acknowledge that many Muslims do not support jihad and the imposition of sharia law?
On several occasions over the past 18 months we have emailed articles to our national list by reformist Muslims such as Dr. Hamid and Dr. Jasser. It is clear Smietana closely follows what we do, so surely he knows this—so he would know that the statement by Brooks is a fabrication.
On several occasions over the past 18 months we have emailed articles to our national list by reformist Muslims such as Dr. Hamid and Dr. Jasser. It is clear Smietana closely follows what we do, so surely he knows this—so he would know that the statement by Brooks is a fabrication.
As egregious as these lies, fabrications and distortions are, Smietana goes further and exposes Brigitte Gabriel’s real name, names her husband, and identifies the city in which they live. In fact, he uses her actual last name no fewer than six times in the piece, instead of referring to her by her nationally known pseudonym. How was exposing Brigitte like this relevant to this story?
There is a simple reason why Brigitte uses a pseudonym: the board of ACT voted in 2003 to require her to do so in order that she would enjoy some level of protection. This is not a misplaced concern. She has received death threats. We know that al Qaeda has written about Brigitte several different times on its website. Surely Smietana must know that al Qaeda has done this. Surely Smietana must know that Theo van Gogh was killed by a jihadist in the Netherlands.
Today, al Jazeerah picked up a press release posted by CAIR which refers to the story—so now the entire Muslim world that has access to the radical al Jazeerah “media outlet” will know the details about Brigitte’s real name and city of residence.
Surely Smietana must have known something like this would happen. We are thus compelled to ask, is he so driven by an agenda other than journalism that he would expose Brigitte’s name and city deliberately to expose her to danger? Only he knows the answer to that question.
Bob Smietana has written a string of articles over the past many months that have clearly revealed his reporting is, to put it charitably, “factually challenged.” It is difficult not to conclude that Smietana sees his “reporting” on this issue, not as journalism seeking to uncover the truth and report facts, but as a mission to smear, silence and even recklessly endanger those who would dare to speak out against the threat of radical Islam.
There is a simple reason why Brigitte uses a pseudonym: the board of ACT voted in 2003 to require her to do so in order that she would enjoy some level of protection. This is not a misplaced concern. She has received death threats. We know that al Qaeda has written about Brigitte several different times on its website. Surely Smietana must know that al Qaeda has done this. Surely Smietana must know that Theo van Gogh was killed by a jihadist in the Netherlands.
Today, al Jazeerah picked up a press release posted by CAIR which refers to the story—so now the entire Muslim world that has access to the radical al Jazeerah “media outlet” will know the details about Brigitte’s real name and city of residence.
Surely Smietana must have known something like this would happen. We are thus compelled to ask, is he so driven by an agenda other than journalism that he would expose Brigitte’s name and city deliberately to expose her to danger? Only he knows the answer to that question.
Bob Smietana has written a string of articles over the past many months that have clearly revealed his reporting is, to put it charitably, “factually challenged.” It is difficult not to conclude that Smietana sees his “reporting” on this issue, not as journalism seeking to uncover the truth and report facts, but as a mission to smear, silence and even recklessly endanger those who would dare to speak out against the threat of radical Islam.
ACTION ITEMS
1. We urge anyone receiving this email who subscribes to The Tennessean to contact the paper and cancel your subscription—and firmly but respectfully make sure they know why. Forward this email to others you know who receive the newspaper. Here’s who to contact:
2. No matter where you live, please contact the editor or publisher, either by email or phone, and firmly but respectfully express your outrage at this article. Remember, this article is online and available for anyone in the world to read!
a. Publisher Carol Hudler:
b. Editor Mark Silverman:
msilverman@tennessean.com 615-259-8003
3. Post a comment online about the article that points out one or more of the lies and fabrications of the story.
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Tennessean supports Radical Islam – Condemns Anti-Jihad Organization
John R. Houk
© July 13, 2011
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Newspaper smears Brigitte Gabriel, ACT! for America
ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure.
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