Oh, you thought there was going to be a Tea Party and nobody was going to invite The Hindus? Oh, The Hindus are INVITED. The thing is, this particular Hindu is booked with other, more rational and less racist political affiliations. I have to wash my hair that day, Tea Partiers. AND FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, WHENEVER ANYONE LIKE YOU CALLS. Because guess what, I have lots of Muslim friends and they are awesome, and I am not going anywhere where they are not ALSO invited.
The short version is that Tea Party Express chairperson Mark Williams, who is a CNN commentator, made a comment in which he slammed Muslims for (get this) worshipping “the terrorists’ monkey god.”
According to the NY Daily News’ first story on the topic:
“A National Tea Party leader protesting a proposed mosque near Ground Zero set off a firestorm of anger Wednesday by saying that Muslims worship “the terrorists’ monkey god.”
Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, blogged about the 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center planned at Park Place and Broadway, calling it a monument to the 9/11 terrorists.
“The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god,” Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, wrote on his Web site.”
(The article on his website is now password-protected, and to get the password, you have to buy his book, which is not on GoogleBooks as far as I can tell. Possibly because Google’s slogan is “don’t be evil.”)
BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER.
Williams APOLOGIZED. But not to, I don’t know, HUMANITY and especially Muslims, but to his “Hindu friends.” (Who ARE you, dudes? You Hindu Friends of Mark Williams? I imagine an extremely small club.) From his blog:
“I was wrong and that was offensive. I owe an apology to millions of Hindus who worship Lord Hanuman, an actual Monkey God.”
Oh, an ACTUAL Monkey God. You’re bending your opportunistic reality to accommodate an Actual Monkey God, as opposed to the one you concocted from the space in your brain where your education was supposed to go.
BUT IT CONTINUES!
“Moreover, Hanuman is worshiped as a symbol of perseverance, strength and devotion. He is known as a destroyer of evil and to inspire and liberate. Those are hardly the traits of whatever the Hell (literally) it is that terrorists worship and worthy of my respect and admiration not ridicule.”
NY Daily News story on his apology
A whole bunch of folks (like the Manhattan borough president and some other political types) denounced what he said… but I don’t see any Tea Partiers doing it. (Counterexamples? Comment thread away.)
Let me just say, I for one do not accept his apology, because it is offered in a spirit that is completely antithetical to the Hindu faith and the Hindu community in which I was raised, and because it demeans Islam, a religion that is important to so many of my friends and loved ones.
Also, while we’re at it, I dislike the Tea Party for associating tea, my favorite beverage, with racism and discrimination. South Asian-American folks, let’s reclaim tea and stand in solidarity against this kind of asshattery.
Sugi for Chai Party president!
Well, let’s see if the Internet Hindus descend on the Tea Baggers like the legions of Hanuman
Unfortunately, the Internet Hindus are over at HuffPo accepting Williams’s apology and offering their regret at a mosque being dedicated near the WTC site on 9/11. That’s a slap in the face of America, you know.
Islam haters: Even if most Islamic countries and institutions do not offer aid to our Hindu communities in America and globally, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stand up for regular Muslims who just want to go through their lives sans marginalization for being Muslim. It’s not very Hindu to turn into that which you abhor.
Sick of all the crap done in the name of religion, including building places of worship using taxpayer money. Where’s the Tea Party outrage there?
Why is people being genuinely being uncomfortable with the Mosque next to the propsed WTC site a slap in the face of America, like I said there is already a mosque at Warren street which is a few blocks from there. It is still an emotional issue for a lot of people, the last company I worked at lost almost 300 people and I have colleagues that still don’t come downtown. This is an avoidable issue as there are 10000 other spots this mosque can be built.
whats this about, Maitri?
I actually thought they were a one issue party – protesting tax issues. Slowly we’re seeing them coming out as also xenophobes, islamophobes and worst of all anti-Hanuman. Who doesn’t like monkeys? I vote to change their name from Teabag to Dbag.
And by the way, why didn’t the attempted mosque bombing in Florida not make bigger headlines? I heard about it via Reddit. It looks like it had some coverage in Florida.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/23620286/detail.html
How outrageously stupid of Mark Williams. How on earth did he get into CNN? Hasn’t he learned anything about “checking facts” before being politically incorrect, apart from being outrageously stupid?
He must have an imaginary army of Hindu friends.
Manju: It’s just that while I find myself defending the scores of law-abiding Muslims who have to deal with all this bs, it makes me sick to have to do it. Religion is such a personal thing; it’s so uncouth how much of it is dragged into politics and shoved in people’s faces. Spring cleaning starts at home, yadda yadda.
white people don’t like getting poorer…oh well:)
In the (even recent) past Christian-Indian-American organizations such as FIACONA and Muslim-Indian-American organizations have been AWOL when hate mongering sleaze artists like Frankiln Graham or Ravi Zacharia (Living Water Ministries) have dumped on Hindus/Buddhists and their traditions. However this has nothing to do with what individuals among these communities think or feel. I will never mistake the actions of organizations for the opinions of the latter.
Mark Bhaiyya, could you try to make your points without insulting or demeaning those you disagree with?
yeah lets start the GLOBAL chai party, with jelabi and ghatiya, and other necessary treats. suger wali rotli, or some chevro, mmm. could name it nastho party?
@DizzyDesi:
Dammit. You’re on to me. 😉
@ my comment in 47… surprise, surprise. my comment wasn’t approved by the site. I swear I did not use impolite/inflammatory language.
@ anony.. i just read this disclaimer on their website:
(DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that we are by no means affiliated with any other organization trying to build anything new in the area of downtown Manhattan.
Since 1970, Masjid Manhattan has been a peaceful, not-for-profit organization located in the area of downtown Manhattan. Our members are City, State and Federal employees, as well as professional employees of the Financial area who come to our Masjid to perform their daily prayers.
Masjid Manhattan and its members condemn any type of terrorist acts. In particular, the attacks of 9/11 where non-Muslims as well as Muslims lost their lives. Islam always invites for peace; therefore Islam is not responsible for the actions of some ill individuals who, independently from what Islam advocates, have hatred against humanity. As Muslims and as Americans, we will never forget the beloved ones who perished that terrible day of September 11, 2001.)
It’s interesting how they have to distance themselves from people who are doing something obviously psychotic and something that is a sin in their religion (killing innocent people, committing suicide)…if a quarter of the world’s population is muslim, does every one of those people have to make a statement when people they don’t know do something awful because they do it in the name of their religion (when the terrorists aren’t practicing the religion)?
really? a $100M mosque 2 blocks from ground zero? Is that the most p.c. way to be peaceful and open a dialogue? I’m for someone’s suggestion of starting a center of multifaith dialogue and cultural expression. Imagine, rather than a mosque hosting prayers, if there was a Muslim-led center that hosted islamic art shows, sufi dancers, kathak dances, chinese calligraphy, it would do a world of good in “building understanding”. What baffles me is that the Corboda House Project headed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says its mission is as follows:
Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.
Commendable. But how will this mission be achieved by building a grand mosque near the ground-zero site?
I hate this guy Mark Williams. If it werent for racist bigoted idiots like him, people could have looked at the underlying issue of whether building a mosque there is the right thing in a more objective manner.
It’s time to start facing a well know truth in Britain…Americans are naturally stupid….
@ SM Intern 40:
Apart from bad grammer (“your” done) you also seem to have no regard for freedom of speech and somebody voicing their opinion. Its evident that majority of New Yorkers living and working downtown wouldn’t want an Islamic center after 9/11 and the recent bomb scare, also related to Islamic extremists. Why a simple comment like “not wanting to hear Allah uAkbar when downtown” deserve such intolerance from the blog-managers is beyond me.
Ummm.. it’s spelt grammAr.
Unless you believe that Islam and extremists are indistinguishable or at least synonymous, well, yeah, it is a bigoted idea. I guess freedom, property rights, right to contract and all that are good for everybody… except Muslims.
Asshattery indeed!
Also, I agree with this post: “Why is people being genuinely being uncomfortable with the Mosque next to the propsed WTC site a slap in the face of America, like I said there is already a mosque at Warren street which is a few blocks from there. It is still an emotional issue for a lot of people, the last company I worked at lost almost 300 people and I have colleagues that still don’t come downtown. This is an avoidable issue as there are 10000 other spots this mosque can be built.”
I think it is a completely insensitive to build one near or on ground zero. I wonder how those who suggested the idea missed the huge “DUH” in the picture. Of course something like this would cause controversy and provoke idiots like Mark Williams. This would do nothing to facilitate or bridge relations between east/west cultures and religions. An inter-faith or multicultural center would be a better alternative.
The Kominas are NOT an “Islamic band”. If you read their interviews, none of them are practicing Muslims and at least one of them is openly ATHEIST.
It would be revolutionary to see PRACTICING Muslims do something like what they did – fundraising for a Hindu Temple. However, I wouldn’t expect it because iconography is HARAM in Islam.
Building a $100 million mosque near Ground Zero makes about as much sense as opening an Enola Gay exhibit in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
I’m surprised the Bahais or Scientologists haven’t proposed a center of their’s be built there.