Terrorist Expert Steve Emerson Under Islamic Jihad Attack by California Democratic Leader Art Torres 1/16/2004 6:38:32 AM
This is just toooooooo amazing - that the Leader of the California Democratic party stoops personally attacks Steve Emerson and Daniel Pipes - like Salman Rushdie was by the ayatollahs in Iran. All the time pandering to another Muslim fornt group for the Jihadists:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11786
Jihad in California
By Steven Emerson
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 16, 2004
For years, the Democratic Party, in California and across America, stood for justice and decency and fairness and equality and peace. For years, the Democratic Party embodied principles and beliefs that define America, and led our nation to a better, stronger, freer day. Thus, it is deeply troubling to find that the leader of the Democratic Party in California, Art Torres, has chosen to engage in the most vicious form of demagoguery in his recent appearance before the annual convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) held in Long Beach, California on December 20-21, 2003.
This is not a charge I choose to make casually. But don't take my word -- judge for yourself. So, here are Mr. Torres’ own words, quoted verbatim:
"... there has been a steady stream of attacks in the Qu'ran including specific verses taken out of context and on the Prophet. These attacks are vicious. They're mean spirited and politically motivated."
Sounds familiar, the notion of twisting the Qu'ran and attacking the Prophet Mohammed for evil purposes? This is exactly what Salman Rushdie was accused of; and as a result, a fatwa calling for Mr. Rushdie’s death was issued by Iran and supported by militant Islamic groups around the world. Bookstores were bombed. Translators of Mr. Rushdie’s book were stabbed and assassinated. Mr. Rushdie was consigned to live under the permanent threat of being executed.
But here we have the head of the Democratic Party issuing the exact same language issued by radical Islamic groups against Salman Rushdie.
And, according to Mr. Torres, who are those carrying out the attacks on the Qu'ran and the Prophet Mohammed? Well, to my unpleasant surprise, he named me and Daniel Pipes. Mr. Torres’ comments were rather chilling:
"And a second stream of attacks have been against American Muslims in particular – and this type of attack is focused on tarring the community with the label Islamist, and these attacks have been led by Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson. We need to remember these names because they’re getting away with it, because we don’t confront them with their vitriolic hatred as implemented in our media waves…in America."
So here we have the head of the Democratic Party in California using the same exact tactics as Islamic militants used in claiming that Salman Rushdie defamed Islam. In the typically inverted and conspiratorial logic of Islamic extremists in which they are self-portrayed as the "victims" of hate crimes, Rushdie was deemed the proponent of "hatred" against Muslims. Mr. Torres invokes the exact same murderous conspiratorial logic in claiming that Daniel Pipes, a noted scholar and expert on Islamic fundamentalism, and I have been engaged in a campaign of hatred against Islam.
Indeed Mr. Torres’ demagoguery was lifted straight out of the pages of the campaign by militant Islamic groups in the United States that have attacked me ever since I produced the PBS documentary "Jihad in America" that aired in 1994. The film exposed the threat of radical Islamic groups operating under the radar screen in the United States under the guise of being Islamic "religious," "human rights" or "humanitarian" groups. Of course, it was this very deception—the ability of militant Islam to hide under the radar screen in the United States--that resulted in the mindset that allowed the devastating attacks of 9/11.
The post-9/11 designation of various Islamic "humanitarian" groups, which had previously raised more than $100 million tax-free for terrorist groups, as terrorist fronts and the post-9/11 indictments of various "mainstream" Islamic leaders for secretly operating terrorist organizations in the United States demonstrated how Islamic extremists had murderously immersed themselves for years into American society. The veneer used by Islamic terrorists and militants was the equivalent of a perfect crime: the militants and terrorists publicly claimed themselves to be the victims of "hate crimes" and of "human rights violations."
And so, whenever Islamic militants were exposed, as they were in my film, radical groups claimed that it was Islam that was under attack. It represented a deliberate deceit to have the public believe that criticism of militant Islam was the equivalent of criticizing mainstream Islam.
And so, after my documentary aired in 1994, I found myself the subject of constant attacks by militant Islamic groups that I had t |