Nov 25th attempted bombing, Nov 28th fire at mosque, Nov 30th announcement of healing meeting to get rid of Portland’s Islamaphobia
Dec 3 Fritz claims two assaults against Muslims
Portland City Commissioner, Amanda Fritz, claims that in the days after the arrest of accused terrorist, Mohamad Mohamud (Mo Mo), two Muslim students were assaulted. Both victims were students: one an elementary school student and one a PSU student. Fritz claims the incidents were related to her while on a visit to the Islamic Center of Portland on December 3rd. This mosque is in her neighborhood and the same one which counted a younger Mo Mo as an adherent. This mosque, as we have pointed out, also turned out seven other convicted terrorists in the past few years (see here).
Here’s what Fritz wrote a 5th Listener:
I visited the mosque for two hours on Friday, to talk with my neighbors about
how they are doing. They are scared. One woman reported her grade school child
was spit upon. Another young lady told me a man pushed her and yelled at her
while she was waiting for a bus home from PSU, where she is in school.
See the email below.
Tolerant Portland, Oregon is churning out students who push others and kids who spit at others because they’re Muslim? Hmmm. I suppose it could happen.
But just days after these incidents were related to Fritz we see this being offered at the tolerant Rainbow City Council:
Most Americans are struggling to understand what separates — and what links — Islam, Islamism and Jihadism.
http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/09/18/opinion/doc4c957b7c3c7e0310084254.txt?viewmode=default
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/12/08/the_islamophobia_myth/
“We look forward to learning, exploring, and dialoguing with you about Islam, the Muslim and Somali American experience, Islamophobia in Portland and the U.S., and how we can effectively counter it.”
I know how we can counter it: get their people to stop trying to blow us up and getting that imam over there at Islamic Center of Portland to knock off the violent jihad talk.
But that’s just me, I guess.
From: Piazza, Vittoria
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 12:17 PM
To: Citywide All Employees Distribution List
Subject: Islam in Portland – A Timely Dialogue
Islam in Portland:
An Open Dialogue
Wednesday, December 1st
Noon to 1:30 PM
Portland Building, 2nd Floor, Auditorium
An Open Dialogue with:
Muna Abshir Mohamud
Peace Building Programs
Office of Human Relations
Building Peace. Ending Discrimination.
In light of recent events, Diverse and Empowered Employees (DEEP) and the Office of Human Relations (OHR) invite you to an open dialogue being held tomorrow at the auditorium at 12-1:30pm for city employees.
The dialogue will be used as a safe space where we seek to understand, find commonalities, and share our experiences. We look forward to learning, exploring, and dialoguing with you about Islam, the Muslim and Somali American experience, Islamophobia in Portland and the U.S., and how we can effectively counter it.
Tori Piazza
DEEP ~ Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland
City of Portland
To: L***********@yahoo.com
Sent: Sun, December 5, 2010 11:04:59 PM
Subject: RE: Islamic Center of Portland / Mohamed Osman Mohamud
Dear *****,
Thank you for your message. The Islamic Center of Portland mosque and school is
in my neighborhood. Children of Muslim families attended school with my
children at the elementary and middle schools in the neighborhood. I know many
of the people attending the mosque and living in the neighborhood. They are
nice people. They are my neighbors. I recognize what you read about and see on
the news is scary. It was scary for them when their sister mosque in Corvallis
was fire-bombed. If you were to get to know the mosque attendees as neighbors,
you would see as I do that they are people who share the American dream and
subscribe to American values.
I visited the mosque for two hours on Friday, to talk with my neighbors about
how they are doing. They are scared. One woman reported her grade school child
was spit upon. Another young lady told me a man pushed her and yelled at her
while she was waiting for a bus home from PSU, where she is in school. This
young woman is maybe 19 years old, maybe 100 pounds, maybe five feet tall. Not
a threatening person, and minding her own business when this happened. She
recognized people are scared – she said she would like to be able to get home
from school safely, that’s all. The people at the mosque are horrified about
what the young man may have done. He is, of course, innocent until proven
guilty, as an American citizen. So is whoever fire-bombed the mosque in
Corvallis. No country or culture has a monopoly on peace or on doing outrageous
things. To me the more important issue is how we can work together as
neighbors, coming from a variety of backgrounds to uphold the land of the free
and the home of the brave – no matter where we were born, or the way we
worship.
Our founding fathers put freedom of religion into the Bill of Rights. I believe
that is no less important today than when it first became the law of the land.
Sincerely,
Amanda
Amanda Fritz
Commissioner, City of Portland
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