Wednesday, October 05, 2016

October 2016 Bits and Bites: Religious Bigotry Edition

We start with some rather ugly news from Calgary today:
Anti-Muslim posters at University of Calgary prompt rally of supportBy Robson Fletcher, CBC News       Posted: Oct 04, 2016 2:07 PM MT       Last Updated: Oct 05, 2016 6:55 AM MT 
Students, faculty and administrators gathered at the University of Calgary on Tuesday to condemn anti-Muslim posters that were plastered around the campus overnight. 
About 40 posters were discovered in various locations by morning, and the university was asking people to turn in any others that are found to campus security.....The removed posters included wording such as "Dear Muslims ... F--k your Quran" and "go back to the monstrous s--t holes you come from." 
They also included links to one Facebook page calling for Islam to be banned in Canada, and another that purports to "celebrate Canada's European heritage" but is largely filled with posts about Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, and links to American websites that decry "race agitators" and people who wear baggy pants.
The posters' appearance at the University of Calgary comes two weeks after similar posters targeting the Sikh faith were found at the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton.
We haven't found the websites refered to in the articles (we'll add information when we do) but we did check with the usual suspects to see how they reacted.

We think you won't be too surprised:


In other news:


The Topham Charter challenge continued today. There's nothing new concerning the trial itself other than the his supporters seems somewhat scattered given news concerning Anthony Hall of the University of Lethbridge (more on him later), but both Paulie and Topham have decided to comment on the CBC coverage of the trial. Not surprisingly, Paulie keyed on on the part that pertained to himself:



Topham was perhaps a little less subtle in his media critique:


Yeah, that can't be an entirely helpful manner to frame the discussion when you're trying to present yourself and your views as reasonable discourse.

But let's look at that he actually wrote:


We're going to jump in here for a moment to address his last statement about Israel because we continue to see it. There are some legitimate criticisms that can be leveled at the Israeli government (which we share) concerning policies in Palestine, and like many other countries there is racism directed towards minorities which can not be swept under the rug, but to claim that Israel is "Jews-only" isn't actually true.

According to the most recent stats, Israel is, "'Jewish' 75% (of which Israel-born 74.4%, Europe/America/Oceania-born 17.4%, Africa-born 5.1%, Asia-born 3.1%), non-Jewish 25% (mostly Arab)." In terms of religious affiliation, the country is, "Jewish 75%, Muslim 17.5%, Christian 2%, Druze 1.6%, other 3.9%." W suspect that there are a number of cultural Jews who would otherwise be regarded as non-practitioners as well

By comparison, the United States is, "white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61%." The white population also includes 15% Hispanic population. Religious affiliation is Christian 78.5% "Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%."

But we digress....



Well that is certainly NOT a disjointed diatribe that makes the writer appear to be a paranoid nutter who if the Internet didn't exist would be yelling at clouds and accusing them of being Zionist agents.

We also mentioned that the usual suspects are in a tizzy over news about Lethbridge University professor Anthony Hall concerning his social media presence in the wild and wacky world of online antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

Suffice it to say Hall didn't have a great day:
Lethbridge professor accused of anti-Semitism suspendedTenured professor denies responsibility for anti-Semitic post on his Facebook page
CBC News Posted:       Oct 05, 2016 5:06 PM MT        Last Updated: Oct 05, 2016 6:13 PM MT
A professor alleged to be promoting conspiracy theories and denying the Holocaust has been suspended without pay by the University of Lethbridge. 
Anthony Hall is suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation into possible violations of the Human Rights Act, university officials said in a statement.
....
Hall co-hosts a YouTube show called "False Flag Weekly News," which allegedly promotes the notion of a Zionist conspiracy to foster hatred of Muslims through "false flag" terror events, beginning with the Sept. 11 attacks. He also runs his own news website.
Topham, Paulie, Brian Ruhe, and Monika Schaefer have all leaped to Hall's defence which, when it comes from these four stooges, we sort of liken to throwing a concrete life preserver to a drowning man:




We're sure you did Seana.

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