Category: free speech

American Congress for Truth urges citizens to contact Loews Hotels and complain about decision to cancel conference

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Brigitte Gabriel’s American Congress for Truth (ACT) is filling an important void in our movement to bring attention to creeping shariah in America.  This is a powerful and rapidly growing grassroots organization and I encourage readers to consider signing up at ACT’s website here.

Free speech being threatened!

I told you the other day that I was one of those conference attendees given the boot from the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville.  Today I see ACT is calling on its members to contact the public relations office of Loews Hotels and voice concern about the decision in Nashville to silence free speech.

By the way, I was very fortunate to meet some of ACT’s grassroots coordinators in Nashville and can assure  you they are top notch citizen activists—genuine activists, as opposed to the phoney activists created by Nashville’s Open Borders community organizers.

From ACT’s action alert this a.m.:

Hotel managing director Tom Negri was quoted in The Tennessean newspaper: “We canceled the group for both the safety and the health of our guests and employees here at Vanderbilt hotel.”

Negri refused to provide any specific examples of “threats.” Even if such occurred, if all that was necessary to get hotels across America to cancel conferences was some threats, then free speech as we know it would be gone.

Whether threats from Islamists actually occurred, or whether Negri cancelled the conference for other reasons that he is not revealing, this occurrence is a perfect illustration of the early stages of “cultural jihad” in a free society like ours – and makes the case why conferences like the one Negri canceled are so necessary.

During the early stages, Islamists and their apologists speciously claim that those critical of radical Islam are engaging in what they call “hate speech.” They use threats and other forms of intimidation to prevent speech they don’t agree with from occurring. With every victory, as in this case in Nashville, they are emboldened, increasing their demands and intimidation tactics.

Just ask Austrian Member of Parliament Susanne Winter where this road ultimately leads. In January Ms. Winter was convicted of the “crime” of publicly insulting Islam.

We stop that road from going there by acting now.


We are therefore urging every ACT! for America member to either phone or email the national Loews Hotels Vice President of Public Relations, Emily Goldfischer. (A phone call is preferable). When you do, in a respectful but clear and concerned manner, communicate the following:

ACTION ALERT

Express your disapproval of the action Tom Negri took in cancelling the conference.

Ask that Loews Hotels publicly investigate the action Negri took, disavow Negri’s action, and apologize to the New English Review, the organization that sponsored the conference.

Let Ms. Goldfischer know that until Loews corporate offices issues such a public repudiation of Mr. Negri’s actions you will not do business with or stay in a Loews Hotel.

Ms. Goldfischer can be reached at the following phone number and email address in New York:

Phone: (212) 521-2833
Fax: (212) 521-2379
Email: egoldfischer@loewshotels.com

If Ms. Goldfischer is unreachable (which may be the case if enough of you take action!!) contact Ellen Gale, Vice President of Public Relations for the Loews Nashville Regional office at her contact information below.

Ellen Gale
Phone: (202) 587-2686
Email: egale@loewshotels.com

 

Conference on radical Islam is forced to move to undisclosed location

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The New English Review is holding a symposium, “Understanding the Jihad in Israel, Europe and America.”  It is in Nashville, and had been scheduled since December to be held May 29 and 30 at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.  That’s today and tomorrow. On Tuesday the hotel cancelled the event for reasons the personnel refused to discuss.

Ken Timmerman looked into the matter and reports at Newsmax:

The manager of a prominent Nashville hotel cancelled a contract with a conservative foundation to hold a conference this weekend on radical Islam, apparently after learning that the group would feature a keynote address by controversial Dutch parliamentarian and filmmaker, Geert Wilders.

….Thomas A. Negri, managing director of Loew’s Vanderbilt Hotel and Office complex in Nashville, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he had taken the extraordinary step of cancelling the conference at the last minute “for the health, safety and well-being of our guests and employees.”

Negri refused to say why he felt the conference would adversely affect the “health, safety and well-being” of the hotel’s guests and employees, except to refer to the website of the New English Review, the group organizing the conference.

It turns out that the reason is certainly ideological. The New English Review publishes articles on radical Islam, and one of the presenters, Jerry Gordon, had written an article about the Somali refugees at the Tyson’s plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee — something we’ve covered extensively.

Negri appeared at a 2003 pro-immigration event on the same dias with a well-known Somali warlord, Gordon told Newsmax.

Negri seems to be deeply involved in pro-immigration and anti-assimilation activities.

Negri also serves on the board of advisors of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, TIRRC, an activist group that states its mission “is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice” and “defend their rights.”

The coalition helped defeat an English-only amendment in Nashville. It won an award from the Migration Policy Institute, which is funded by a foundation involved in left-wing causes.

The New English Review folks found another location for their meeting, which they are not disclosing. We’re big fans of the New English Review, and wish them the best of luck in holding their symposium unmolested. And kudos to the unknown location that allowed them to come at the last minute.

Geert Wilders to be prosecuted for inciting hatred

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have no time to comment on anything today, but I want to do a couple of posts just to present some news. We’ve been following the case of Geert Wilders, the Dutch political leader who speaks the truth about Muslim immigration. The Dutch News reports:

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam party PVV, will definitely be prosecuted for inciting hatred against Muslims and Islam, news agency ANP writes on Wednesday.

A request by Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moscowicz to have the decision to prosecute quashed has been rejected by the Dutch supreme court.

Amsterdam appeal court said in January Wilders should stand trial for hate speech and discrimination. The public prosecution department had said earlier there were not sufficient grounds to prosecute the MP.

The anti-immigration MP said he expected ‘a political trial’. ‘I am being prosecuted for something millions of Dutch people are thinking… Freedom of speech is being sacrificed on the altar of islam. But I am ready to fight back with my head held high’, he added.

Hat tip: Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch.

Phyliss Chesler to speak about radical Islam at NYC demonstration today

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Phyllis Chesler wants you all to come out and join those fighting to defeat radical Islam.

On Sunday, May 3rd, at noon, in Times Square, in New York City, a gathering of eagles and of angels will take place. Come rain or come shine, the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam is holding a rally. Please join us. The coalition is composed of Muslim, ex-Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, atheist, and human rights leaders who are “calling for the defeat of radical Islam.”

As fundamentalist Islam continues to expand around the world among the most persecuted are the women, says Chesler whose experience in Afghanistan makes hers an important voice in the movement.

Radical Islam’s greatest crimes are Muslim-on-Muslim crimes and include the cruel subordination and persecution of Muslim women, Muslim apostates, and Muslim independent thinkers. Islam is the world’s largest and only practitioner of both gender and religious apartheid. Such apartheid and barbarism is indigenous to Islam. It was not imported by western colonial powers. Now, Islamic gender and religious apartheid have penetrated the West and have grown even harsher, more barbaric in Muslim lands. Children, as young as five years-old are used to blowing themselves and others up. Women are raped, then forced into becoming human bombs to “cleanse” their shame. Both Palestinians and Al-Qaeda are doing this.

Radical Islam is an obvious threat to human rights all over the world.

Chesler feels a special kinship with women in Afghanistan who are standing up to the most stifling and oppressive form of Shariah Law.

Here’s one reason, among many, that I will be speaking on Sunday.

Today in Kabul, when women march for women’s rights and for women’s lives, they risk being beaten, arrested, and murdered—by the mob that stalks them, by the police, by the Taliban. Still, they have marched twice now in the last month.

They could not be here to join us today. Although I lack their bravery, I am here to speak for them.

For those of you who do not know this:

In December of 1961, I escaped from captivity in Afghanistan.

Read her story.

So why is this important to us?  As refugees/asylees and immigrants from Muslim countries pour into the US we must guard against this radical and fundamentalist form of Islam creeping in with them.    I always thought it would be women like Phyliss Chesler (not that men aren’t in this war too), those who have fought so hard for the rights that women have in the West. who aren’t going to let those rights go easily to men who want to see them covered head to toe, want to marry little girls, or murder sisters and daughters for disobeying them.

“Culturist” — a useful word for Geert Wilders, and for us

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ann posted the other day on the term “culturist,” a word coined and defined by John Press in a publication called Global Politician.  I browsed around its website and came across another article by Press which adds more detail to his concept, called Culturist Geert.  He begins:

Geert Wilders, a Dutch parliamentarian, was refused entry into the UK. The Muslim community threatened to riot if his film FITNA screened in parliament. Ironically, the Muslims objected to the film’s portrayal of them as intolerant! And since freedom of speech is so central to a functioning democracy, this censorship threatens the continuance of western civilization. In appreciation of Wilder’s efforts, I would like to offer him the intellectual gifts of ‘culturism’ and ‘culturist.‘ Using them will ease and hasten his victory over multiculturalism.

We’ve posted on Geert Wilders here, here, here and here.  

Press’s point is that our side has no term to counter the idea of multiculturalism, which has such resonance in the west that it is considered heresy, or perhaps treason, to oppose it. And without a positive term, we sound entirely negative — we are against multiculturalism, but what are we for? Press’s answer: We’re for culturism.

Because multiculturalism is already a household word, citizens of Britain would instantly know what he means by culturism and culturist when he used them. Multiculturalism holds western nations have no core traditional cultures to prefer, promote and protect. Intuitively understanding the opposite of multiculturalism, the Brits would say “Yes,” we do have a core traditional culture and a right to protect it.” They would recognize that all nations are culturist and that our schools and our laws should reflect and protect our traditional cultures. And they would be able to communicate this sentiment as easily as multiculturalists now do theirs.

Culturists take diversity seriously, and wish to protect and preserve their culture.  Using the word “culturist” makes it clear that race is not involved, just culture. Here is what he suggests for Geert Wilders:

Then, once the distracting charges of racism were diminished he can focus on the positive culturist agenda. He can explain that western schools should teach western virtues and history. He can convey that western nations should only recognize western legal systems. Culturism’s taking diversity seriously will give him a basis upon which to argue that freedom of speech is a western value that needs protection. Culturist logic will give him a rational basis upon which to discuss border regulations. He can affirm his language. Rather than just be against multiculturalism, Wilder’s using the word culturism will teach people about the positive western agenda and history he promotes.

I don’t give the project much of a chance, since nobody else is using the word. But it’s a good idea, and we can start using it right here. Maybe other people will pick it up.  If you want more on culturism, here is John Press’s blog, Culturism.