September 18, 2006 Letters and Announcements to Al-Jazeerah Editor

Glenn Beck's Anti - Muslim Tirade

Dear CNN,

If Glenn Beck had made these same types of comments about Jews, he would have been denounced as Anti-Semitic and fired from the show. Although this is not the first time that he's made negative comments about Arabs and Muslims, these comments concerning the killing of Arabs & Muslims with drones and smashing the Arab and Muslim world into bits, constitutes hate speech. Incidentally, the film Obsession was created and funded by a Pro-Israel group in Canada whose openly stated goal is to marginalize Arab and Muslim leaders and use the U.S to do so.

Why has CNN created separate criteria for defining hateful speech directed toward Muslims and another criteria for Christians, Jews and all other religions?

Timothy Stinson Miami, Florida

http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/

LANCASTER PEACE GROUP MUFFLES ANTIWAR CANDIDATE

John Murphy for Congress

www.johnmurphyforcongress.org

CHESTER COUNTY, PA --

On August 28 the John Murphy for Congress campaign contacted a member of the staff of "The Voice", the bimonthly publication of the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice (LCPJ), in order to place a campaign ad. On August 29 the campaign was told it had a few days to send in the ad. On August 31 the text and graphics were sent to the representative of "The Voice".

Unexpectedly on September 1, the campaign received a message saying that perhaps there might not be enough time for a full-page ad. Then the campaign was told there would have to be a special disclaimer even though the only disclaimer required for a political advertisement is that the ad says "paid for by John Murphy for Congress".

On September 2 the campaign received another communication which actually revealed what was taking place. The e-mail message said "given the political infighting, the LCPJ will not place any political ads in ‘The Voice’ and at this late date the space is filled up". According to John Murphy, "the agent for ‘The Voice’ then let the cat out of the bag by suggesting that it would be a good idea if my ad were to appear opposite an ad from the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 16th District. Finally on September 14 our campaign manager was told that we had missed the deadline of August 12 and our ad would not appear".

Prior to the meeting of the LCPJ last week a request was sent out for additions to the meeting agenda. The John Murphy campaign wrote to the person in charge that it would like to have the LCPJ discuss the possibility of holding a debate between Democrat Lois Herr and the independent candidate John Murphy. No such discussion was even permitted to occur. "The last thing the Democratic Party wants is to have the actual pro war position of Lois Herr exposed", remarked John Murphy.

John Murphy added, "article after article has appeared over the last two years indicating that the Democratic Party has essentially taken over the antiwar movement and instead of having the immediate return of our troops from Iraq as its goal, its goal has become the election of Democratic candidates even when it is quite clear that the Democratic candidate is most emphatically in favor of the continued occupation of Iraq and has a fully developed pro war policy.

"I criticized the local antiwar movement in Lancaster two years ago when it went silent, refusing to hold any demonstrations, during the pro war campaign of the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry who promised to kill more Iraqis faster and cheaper than George Bush. Because I criticized both the Democratic Party and the antiwar movement I was not even permitted to participate in the LCPJ discussion group. Personal insults were exchanged two years ago but only I was removed. Even when I apologized for my part in the verbal exchange," concluded John Murphy "I was still not permitted to return to the discussion group".

"Our campaign has received copies of messages appearing in the e-mail discussion group of the LCPJ", continued Murphy "where people were openly supporting the pro war Democrat Lois Herr who has told 'Project Vote Smart' for the last two years that she supports the 'Bush Doctrine' whereby an entire nation may be held responsible for a terrorist act committed by one of its citizens. The 'Bush Doctrine' was invoked for both the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Ms. Herr also clearly says on her web site that our troops must remain in Iraq until the Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds all feel equally represented, our national interest have been secured, the area is no longer destabilized and when the world community comes in to help us. These conditions can simply never be realized" said John Murphy. "I know that. Ms. Herr knows that. The Democratic Party knows that. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that. Ms. Herr is saying that our troops must remain in Iraq indefinitely but Democrats in the LCPJ are living either in a state of psychological denial, a state of political naïveté or have simply decided to put the election of a Democrat ahead of the antiwar movement's goal of bring our troops home now" concluded John Murphy.

The Democratic candidate Lois Herr was refused an endorsement by the antiwar activist Michael Berg, whose son Nick was killed in Iraq. Mr. Berg along with other outspoken members of the antiwar movement such as Ralph Nader, the historian and World War II veteran Howard Zinn and the world-renowned MIT professor Noam Chomsky have endorsed John Murphy for Congress while the pro war Democrat Bob Casey has endorsed Lois Herr.

Members of the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice are sacrificing the antiwar movement on the altar of the Democratic Party. Just as surely as the Democratic Party has destroyed the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the women's movement; it is even now destroying the antiwar movement. It is where social movements go to die.