February 16, 2015


News Clips For The Day


ISIS / EGYPT / LIBYA 2015


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/egypt-hits-isis-targets-in-libya-with-airstrikes/

Egypt hits ISIS targets in Libya with airstrikes
CBS/AP
February 16, 2015

Photograph – Relatives of Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by ISIS militants in Libya react after hearing the news, Feb. 16, 2015, in the village of Al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya.
 GETTY

CAIRO -- Egypt has launched airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) targets in Libya after the extremist group released a grisly video purporting to show the beheading of several Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.

A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers."

"Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them," it said.

Egyptian State TV aired military footage of fighter jets taking off at dawn for the airstrikes.

Libya's air force meanwhile announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details.

The video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group. The Egyptian government and the Coptic Church, which is based in Egypt, have said the video is authentic.

The video shows several men in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel and one militant addresses the camera in English before the men are simultaneously beheaded.

The makers of the video identify themselves as the Tripoli Province of ISIS.

The United States condemned the purported killings, calling them "despicable" and "cowardly."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest added in a statement Sunday that the group's barbarity "knows no bounds."

Earnest said the killings underscore the need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya. He said the situation there only benefits terrorist groups, and he called on the Libyan people to unite in opposition to terrorism.

Also Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, offering his condolences on behalf of the American people and strongly condemning the killings. Kerry and the foreign minister agreed to keep in close touch, according to a release from the State Department.

Pope Francis also denounced the slayings, saying the Egyptian Coptic Christians were "assassinated just for being Christian."

The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group - which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate - has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."

The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.

It was one of the first such beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group's core territory in Syria and Iraq.

An Egyptian government official tells CBS News' Alex Ortiz that, by the Foreign Ministry's count, there are around 1.5 million Egyptian nationals currently in Libya -- a common destination for Egyptian migrant workers. The concern in Cairo is not only that things could militarily escalate between Egypt and Islamist groups in Libya, but that there are many, many Egyptian targets who could become victim to more ISIS attacks.

The same official tells Ortiz the focus now is on evacuating those nationals -- but that's a huge number of Egyptian citizens in Libya, and it's unclear how Egypt can evacuate them in a hurry.

Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Qaddafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups.

The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.

Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces.

The Egyptian government declared a seven-day mourning period after the release of the video, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi addressed the nation late Sunday night, pledging resilience in a fight against terrorism.

"These cowardly actions will not undermine our determination" said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals."

According to CBS News' Pamela Falk, the United Nations Security Council issued a statement saying it "strongly condemned the heinous and cowardly apparent murder in Libya of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by an affiliate (ISIS). This crime once again demonstrates the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity."



http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/libya-faces-isis-crisis-italy-wants-nato-intervention-n306896

Libya Faces ISIS Crisis: Italy Wants NATO Intervention
BY CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

LONDON — Italy warned that ISIS is at Europe's doorstep as France and Egypt called for the United Nations Security Council to meet over the spiraling crisis in Libya.

The growing alarm came as Egyptian jets bombed ISIS targets in the North African nation as revenge for the beheadings — documented in an ISIS propaganda video — of 21 Coptic Christian Egyptian nationals in Libya.

The release of the video has underscored fears that ISIS is taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to expand its reach and stake a firmer foothold there.

French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone with his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, to discuss the situation in Libya on Monday, according to Hollande's office. It said the two spoke of the growth of ISIS in Libya and "underscored the importance of the security council meeting and for the international community to take new measures" against the threat.

Libya has been unraveling since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. There are rival governments operating under separate parliaments — each with their own security brigades — and a plethora of armed Islamist groups jockeying for control.

United Nations negotiators have been meeting with representatives from the internationally-backed government and the one which claimed power through force in Tripoli last summer.

But the presence of numerous and competing armed Islamist groups has added fuel to the political fire, and an upsurge in violence has had Western nations increasingly alarmed.

Libya is not only situated close to Egypt and Algeria, but is just across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe. The spiraling violence has sent floods of migrants to European shores — and ISIS has repeatedly mentioned used Rome as a benchmark of its growth.

Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano expressed the growing alarm in an interview with La Republica and urged NATO to intervene "for the future of the Western world."

"ISIS is at the door," he said. "There is no time to waste."

ISIS has been operating in Libya for months. One group of Libyan fighters pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in November and at least two other factions followed suit. Since then, ISIS supporters in Libya have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks — including the November car bombings outside of the Egyptian and U.A.E. Embassies.

In December, a top U.S. general said ISIS had set up training camps in Libya. At the time, Gen. David Rodriguez described the camps as "small and very nascent," with an estimated "couple of hundred" individuals linked to ISIS.

For now, ISIS is competing for influence against the many other Islamist militant groups in Libya. The group might be able to rely on the fact that they're more disciplined and better organized than some of their rivals, according to Firas Abi Ali, who heads Middle East and North Africa forecasting for IHS Country Risk.

The latest video, though, is aimed at an external — rather than internal — audience, Abi Ali said, adding that it will force governments fighting ISIS to make a choice: engage in Libya at great economic cost, or risk looking weak and inconsistent. Either option is a win-win for ISIS, he said.

"This is more about saying to the west that [ISIS] has spread out to multiple countries and therefore showing that fighting ISIS is going to require a larger commitment," he explained.

Libya is strategically important because of its oil and also because of its neighbors. At the moment, ISIS isn't controlling territory there that is important in and of itself, according to Abi Ali.

"The importance of Libya is a lot more about whoever controls it being able to project power into Egypt Tunisia and Algeria," he said. "That's what actually matters far more than Libya."

NBC News' Claudio Lavanga contributed to this report.




http://www.npr.org/2015/02/15/386317782/with-oil-fields-under-attack-libyas-economic-future-looks-bleak

With Oil Fields Under Attack, Libya's Economic Future Looks Bleak
Leila Fadel
FEBRUARY 15, 2015

Photograph – Libya's oil terminals — like the Brega refinery and oil terminal, pictured in March 11, 2014 — are being fought over by militias and by the nation's two rival governments. The conflict is drying up production, and may have a devastating impact on the nation's battered economy.
Abdullah Doma/AFP/Getty Images

The headquarters of the National Oil Corporation in Tripoli are gleaming, the floors marble, the offices decked out with black leather chairs and fake flowers. It seems far from the fighting going on over oil terminals around the country.

But the man in charge looks at production and knows the future is bleak.

"We cannot produce. We are losing 80 percent of our production," says Mustapha Sanallah, the chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation.

He looks like a typical executive, decked out in a suit and glasses. But beneath his calm veneer, he's worried.

"Now we have two problems: low production and low price," he says.

At the current rate, he expects that the country won't even earn 10 percent of the budget money Libya had in 2012, before militias started taking oil infrastructure hostage.

"If there is security in Libya, we can resume production within a few days," Sanallah says.

If there's one thing that has a chance of keeping Libya from totally falling apart, it's oil. It provides nearly all the country's revenue. It's what militias are fighting over. And it's the prize coveted by the two rival governments — one in Tripoli, the other in Libya's east — that claim to be running the country.

The Tripoli faction is seen as Islamist, the eastern government as anti-Islamist — but the fighting is mainly over turf and resources like oil, rather than ideology.

The international community has recognized the eastern government, but it opposes what it sees as the east's divisive attempt to set up a rival national oil company and take control of the industry, something Sanallah says is impossible anyway.

"We are still the NOC [National Oil Company]; the legal NOC is here. I am the chairman of NOC," he says. "[The east] nominated a new chairman of NOC, but there's no staff, there's no people, there's no hardware, there's no software."

International mediators are trying to keep the oil company independent of either side, but oil fields are under attack. One tanker was bombed, and another one was threatened.

Sanallah says he wants to keep oil out of the fight.

"I hope so. I hope so," he says — but he doesn't sound convinced.

His employees are fighting fires at major oil terminals, and with no real security forces, it only takes a few gunmen to shut things down or hold them hostage.

"I think the message was clear to the oil company: There is no security, good security. Otherwise a few people cannot control the vein of the blood of Libya," he says.

And with the terminals closing, Libya's battered economy is taking even more blows because foreign oil companies are pulling out. Libya is only producing about 330,000 barrels a day, increasing the economic burden.

"When you are closing the terminals, it means you cannot produce oil, and if you cannot produce oil, then you cannot produce gas. So we are making up the gas by importing diesel. This is another burden on the shoulders of NOC," he says.

Again, oil is basically what pays for any central Libyan government. How much? "All — 90 to 95 percent. There is no revenue but oil," he says.

If negotiations don't end the fighting, Sanallah says, the country will collapse. A functioning oil industry could be all that stands between Libya as a nation, and Libya as a failed state.




CBS – “A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years. The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers."... Libya's air force meanwhile announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details.... White House press secretary Josh Earnest added in a statement Sunday that the group's barbarity "knows no bounds." Earnest said the killings underscore the need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya. He said the situation there only benefits terrorist groups, and he called on the Libyan people to unite in opposition to terrorism.... The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group - which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate - has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."... Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Qaddafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups. The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.”

NBC – “Italy warned that ISIS is at Europe's doorstep as France and Egypt called for the United Nations Security Council to meet over the spiraling crisis in Libya.... French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone with his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, to discuss the situation in Libya on Monday, according to Hollande's office. It said the two spoke of the growth of ISIS in Libya and "underscored the importance of the security council meeting and for the international community to take new measures" against the threat. Libya has been unraveling since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. There are rival governments operating under separate parliaments — each with their own security brigades — and a plethora of armed Islamist groups jockeying for control. United Nations negotiators have been meeting with representatives from the internationally-backed government and the one which claimed power through force in Tripoli last summer.... Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano expressed the growing alarm in an interview with La Republica and urged NATO to intervene "for the future of the Western world." "ISIS is at the door," he said. "There is no time to waste."

NPR – "When you are closing the terminals, it means you cannot produce oil, and if you cannot produce oil, then you cannot produce gas. So we are making up the gas by importing diesel. This is another burden on the shoulders of NOC," he says. Again, oil is basically what pays for any central Libyan government. How much? "All — 90 to 95 percent. There is no revenue but oil," he says. If negotiations don't end the fighting, Sanallah says, the country will collapse. A functioning oil industry could be all that stands between Libya as a nation, and Libya as a failed state.”

Libya as a failed state is just a stepping stone for ISIS from Italy, which it has recently threatened, if obliquely, and Italy is Europe. That means us, as far as I'm concerned. If the UN doesn't act, what will happen?

NATO's overthrow of Muammar al-Qaddafi is deemed responsible for the uprising of Islamic radical groups in Libya, because while he was in power he was suppressing them. He was ruthless, but he was powerful and maintained control. There is always a danger in eliminating a ruthless head of state in a relatively stable nation. Most feel that Iraq's sectarian violence and the civil war occurred because Saddam Hussein was ousted. Maybe we won, but in so doing insured our being enmeshed in a permanent state of warfare.





TERRORISM IN EUROPE


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/copenhagen-shooting-probe-denmark-police-arrest-2-men-links-gunman/

2 men arrested over alleged links to Denmark shooter
CBS/AP
February 16, 2015

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Danish police say that they have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunman who carried out two shooting attacks over the weekend in Copenhagen.

Police in Copenhagen said the arrests were made Sunday and that the two men would face a custody hearing on Monday.

The suspect was killed in a gun battle with a SWAT team early Sunday. He had opened fire Saturday at a cultural center hosting a seminar on free speech with an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and then later at security forces outside a synagogue, police said.

The suspect, a 22-year-old man born in Denmark,had a criminal record including violence and weapons offenses, Copenhagen police said in a statement.

Police didn't release the man's name, but Danish media, quoting police sources, identified him as Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, reports CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata.

Police said Sunday the man acted as a "lone wolf," but there were investigating whether he had received help from others. It wasn't immediately clear what role police believe the two additional suspects apprehended on Sunday played in the crimes.

A Danish film maker attending the panel discussion on blasphemy was killed in the shooting Saturday at the free speech event and a member of the Scandinavian country's Jewish community was killed outside the synagogue. Five police officers were also wounded in the shootings.

Police said after he was killed, he was found with weapons. "It was the case that when the suspect was shot and killed during police action, he was armed with pistols," said police commissioner Thorkild Fogde at a press conference.

"Denmark has been hit by terror," Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said. "We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech."

Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET, said investigators believe the gunman was inspired by Islamic radicalism.

"PET is working on a theory that the perpetrator could have been inspired by the events in Paris. He could also have been inspired by material sent out by (the Islamic State group) and others," Madsen said.

Islamic radicals carried out a massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in Paris last month, followed by an attack on Jews at a kosher grocery store, taking the lives of 17 victims. The Denmark shooting has stirred fears across the European continent about extremist attacks.

The Danish Film Institute said the 55-year-old man killed at the free speech event was documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard.

The institute's chief Henrik Bo Nielsen said he was shocked and angry to find out Noergaard was gunned down while attending a discussion on art and free speech.

Noergaard directed and produced documentaries for Danish television, including the 2004 "Boomerang boy" about an Australian boy's dreams to become a world boomerang champion and the 2008 "Le Le" about Vietnamese immigrants in Denmark.

Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the 7,000-strong community. He was guarding a building behind the synagogue during a bat mitzvah when he was shot in the head. Two police officers who were there were slightly wounded.




“The suspect, a 22-year-old man born in Denmark,had a criminal record including violence and weapons offenses, Copenhagen police said in a statement. Police didn't release the man's name, but Danish media, quoting police sources, identified him as Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, reports CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata. Police said Sunday the man acted as a "lone wolf," but there were investigating whether he had received help from others. It wasn't immediately clear what role police believe the two additional suspects apprehended on Sunday played in the crimes.... Police said after he was killed, he was found with weapons. "It was the case that when the suspect was shot and killed during police action, he was armed with pistols," said police commissioner Thorkild Fogde at a press conference.... The Danish Film Institute said the 55-year-old man killed at the free speech event was documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard. The institute's chief Henrik Bo Nielsen said he was shocked and angry to find out Noergaard was gunned down while attending a discussion on art and free speech. Noergaard directed and produced documentaries for Danish television, including the 2004 "Boomerang boy" about an Australian boy's dreams to become a world boomerang champion and the 2008 "Le Le" about Vietnamese immigrants in Denmark.... Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the 7,000-strong community.”

On a Sunday news talk show the speaker said that the Islamic radicals who have been committing crimes in Europe are a mixture of religious zealots and common criminals, and are coming from European localities rather than ISIS war zones. Many Islamic people live in Europe now, often in poverty stricken and poorly assimilated situations. They are recruited over the Internet and sometimes by radical Islamic preachers. One in particular was arrested a few months ago in London. I wonder how many of those radical clerics are in the US preaching violent jihad?

I don't want to see hatred against all Islamic people to occur here, but the North Carolina death may indeed be a case of it, whether or not they can prove it to be a hate crime. Our FBI and NSA, etc. do need to track Islamic people who live here as long as this jihadist threat exists, of course, and arrest any who commit any crimes of any kind. I hope we don't see massive roundups of Islamic believers as occurred during WWII with the Japanese. We need to protect ourselves, but maintain moderation.

The problem in a democratic society is to keep control without removing our civic freedoms. The USA Patriot Act is a case that worries me. Some of the problems we are having with our police officers and with the Federal government giving cities such equipment as armored vehicles are sanctioned in the Patriot Act.





ANTI-THEISM AS A VIOLENT HATE GROUP:

I have seen some comments on my Google + site from people I would describe as anti-theists who do seem to be very angry about the current rise of fundamentalist religion, both Islamic and Christian. Atheism has been around longer in society, but other than writing books and articles on their beliefs, meeting together to discuss free thought, and working through the ACLU to gain the right not to say “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, they are pretty mild mannered.

Some of them do view religious conservatives as ignorant or even unintelligent. Mostly, they fear the wars that are going on around the world directly as a result of those dogmatically held religious beliefs. Also feared and disliked among religious liberals of all kinds, are the racist tinge of the current Republican Party, the dumbing down and propagandizing that is beginning to occur due to religious influences in our public school systems, the current anti-science wave among the Fundamentalist Christians and anti-environmentalist groups, and a frightening number of political/cultural uprisings both in the US and around the world due directly to religious hatred such as antisemitism. The all too commonly found hatred against blacks, Indians, Amerindians, Vietnamese and Hispanics is not very different from religious hatred. It's still the hatred and fear of “the other” by established majority segments of society. It's still too much like the rise of the Nazis in the years before WWII for my comfort. I believe it to be evil.

This man is supposedly an anti-theist, but unlike most of them he is violent and (almost certainly) a hater of “the other.” He strikes me as being basically insane. His neighbors to a man described him as being a very angry person in general. He is supposedly a progressive rather than a right winger, but toting guns around all the time is much more likely to be done by somebody who is to the right of the Tea Party.

He looks like he may not be too intelligent, or any rate, educated. He certainly isn't like most progressives or for that matter anti-theists. Some of those I have encountered on the Internet recently do seem to be aroused at this time, and angry, however. I would like to stand by my personal feelings that I can't find a logical reason to believe in a god, and that I find fundamentalist religion to be hostile and dangerous in its orientation to those who disagree with it. I absolutely don't believe in confronting people about their religion either verbally or physically. If they show hostility to me or try to convert me I will avoid them or tell them to leave me alone.

I was unable to find but one anti-theist website, and it had no hate orientation. That is called http://www.antitheists.co.uk/, HOMEPAGE. Selections from that site appear at the bottom of this blog. However, "Islamophobia" is, not too surprisingly, on the rise right now. Mentally ill people may latch onto it and act violently. See the three articles below.


http://www.npr.org/2015/02/15/386406810/some-see-extreme-anti-theism-as-motive-in-n-c-killings

Some See Extreme 'Anti-Theism' As Motive In N.C. Killings
Tom Gjelten
FEBRUARY 15, 2015

Outrage over the murder of three young Muslim Americans in North Carolina last week has gone international. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said Saturday that the killings reflected "Islamophobia" and "bear the symptoms of a hate crime," but local authorities say they don't yet know what motivated the murders.

The man held responsible for the killings is an avowed atheist. Whether that's relevant in this case is not clear, but some experts see a new extremism developing among some atheists.

The North Carolina killings have unnerved U.S. Muslims in large part because the victims, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister Razan, were model Muslim Americans, devoted to public service, with friends throughout their community.

The guest worship leader this past Friday at the Dar al-Noor mosque in northern Virginia was Dr. Esam Omeish, a prominent lay Muslim leader in the D.C. Area.

"And so if it's about patriotism, then I know who the real patriot is," Omeish said. "And if it's about loving America and embodying its ideals, then I know for sure."

The victims, Omeish said, were the real Americans, honoring everything we believe is good about this land.

On his Facebook page, Craig Hicks, the alleged gunman, criticized all religions. His wife said he had nothing against Muslims in particular, but Hicks described himself as a gun-toting atheist.

Religion scholar Reza Aslan says ordinary atheists just don't believe in God. Hicks, Aslan says, was an anti-theist.

"An anti-theist is a relatively new identity, and it's more than just sort of a refusal to believe in gods or spirituality; it's a sometimes virulent opposition to the very concept of belief," Aslan says.

The anti-theists have their own heroes; people like the outspoken writer Richard Dawkins, who appears often on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher condemning religion generally and Islam in particular.

"I mean these people have a holy book that tells them to kill infidels," Dawkins once said on the show.

Reza Aslan says the anti-theists are few in number. But just as mainstream Muslims must confront the extremists in their communities, Aslan says, it's time for mainstream atheists to do the same.

"To recognize that there is a small fringe element that has a belief system predicated on the inherent nature of religion as insidious, as needing to be removed from society," he says.

Writer Asra Nomani, herself a Muslim woman, says the North Carolina case doesn't yet answer the question of whether anti-religion extremists can be motivated to kill, just as religious extremists sometimes are. She thinks concern about anti-theism — or Islamophobia generally — is going too far when Muslim leaders start feeding a culture of fear.

"A safety campaign has been started to escort Muslim women in headscarves around college campuses, making it seem as if their lives are in danger, that Muslims are just sitting ducks [and] that we have targets on our backs," Nomani says.

When Muslim Americans see themselves as victims, Nomani argues, they're less likely to take charge of their own lives and communities.

But right now the feeling among Muslim Americans seems to be that the North Carolina killings were clearly a hate crime.

President Obama on Friday released a statement, saying no one in America should be targeted because of who they are or how they worship. That statement followed a decision by the FBI to launch its own hate crime investigation in North Carolina.



Antitheism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antitheism (sometimes anti-theism) is active opposition to theism. The term has had a range of applications; in secular contexts, it typically refers to direct opposition to organized religion or to the belief in any deity, while in a theistic context, it sometimes refers to opposition to a specific god or gods.

Opposition to theism[edit]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines antitheist as "One opposed to belief in the existence of a god". The earliest citation given for this meaning dates from 1833.[1] An antitheist may oppose belief in the existence of any god or gods, and not merely one in particular.

Antitheism has been adopted as a label by those who regard theism as dangerous or destructive. Christopher Hitchens offers an example of this approach in Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001), in which he writes: "I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful."[2]

Earlier definitions of antitheism include that of the French Catholic philosopherJacques Maritain (1953), for whom it is "an active struggle against everything that reminds us of God" (p. 104), and that of Robert Flint (1877), Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Flint's Baird Lecture for 1877 was entitled Anti-Theistic Theories.[3] He used it as a very general umbrella term for all opposition to his own form of theism, which he defined as the "belief that the heavens and the earth and all that they contain owe their existence and continuance to the wisdom and will of a supreme, self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and benevolent Being, who is distinct from, and independent of, what He has created."[4] He wrote: “In dealing with theories which have nothing in common except that they are antagonistic to theism, it is necessary to have a general term to designate them. Anti-theism appears to be the appropriate word. It is, of course, much more comprehensive in meaning than the term atheism. It applies to all systems which are opposed to theism.” The word "antitheism" (or the hyphenated "anti-theism") has been recorded in English since 1788.



http://www.antitheists.co.uk/
HOMEPAGE

“What a person believes isn't really an issue or any other person's business. It's what a person does with their belief that determines whether it's relevant to anybody else or not. Imposing religion upon others, as in, wanting to see religion taught as fact to impressionable schoolchildren, or lobbying to enact religiously biased laws, by default, makes religion the business of everybody.

We non-violently oppose harmful religious doctrines that promote hate, prejudice and non free thinking. We're not singling out any particular faith. Where faith causes harm, no longer can people of sense and reason stand by and be perceived to respect religious dogma, because of some imaginary unspoken agreement not to speak out to avoid offending the religious. There's nothing we could say or do to come close to how offensive the harmful doctrines of faith are to people with a sense of decency, fairness and love of all humanity. Ironically, unlike the many conditions people of faith place upon their acceptance of certain people and groups, our love for humanity is truly unconditional; beyond neither harming or depriving another. 

Followers of Islam and Judaism are seen as minority groups in the west, and with racist far-right organisations hiding beneath the banner of anti-religion, it's important to make clear, we have and want no association with such groups; whether opposing religion or not. 

We warmly invite you to join one or both of our online communities opposing religious harm FACEBOOK and GOGGLE+, thank you.” 



http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/alleged-murderer-three-muslim-unc-students-was-anti-theist-progressive

Alleged Murderer of Three Muslim UNC Students Was'Anti-Theist' Progressive
Bradford Thomas 
2.11.2015

The man charged with the murder of three Muslim students from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Tuesday was a hardcore "anti-theist" progressive, his Facebook page filled with anti-religion and pro-progressive content.

The Facebook page of self-described "anti-theist" Craig Stephen Hicks (46), the man charged with the shooting death of three students—Deah Shaddy Barakat (23), his wife Yusor Abu-Salha (21), and her sister Razan Abu-Salha (19)—is loaded with content denouncing religion, conservatism, and the Tea Party, and promoting atheism and progressive causes.

Among the organizations and individuals he promoted on his page are the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Forward Progressives, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, the Huffington Post, and The Atheist Experience.

A few screenshots from his Facebook page (including a picture of his revolver):



http://www.quora.com/Do-anti-theists-practice-hate-the-same-way-anti-gays-and-anti-blacks-do

Do anti-theists practice hate the same way anti-gays and anti-blacks do?
Anti-theists as opposed to atheists. Anti-theists being those who actively seek out and attack the belief system of others.

ANSWER WIKI

Most answers suggest no, as anti-theists seek to persuade society that theism is harmful, but they don't attack the people who hold those beliefs, physically or intellectually or oppose the right of people to be religious.

Several answers make the point that being gay or black is not a choice, whereas being religious is. 

Others suggest that the main persecutors of the religious are those holding different religious beliefs.

Several answers make an exception for Communist anti-theism, which was /is coercive.

Peter Flom, Many people think I have found God. I can't find my car keys and there is emprical evidence that they exist - Pratchett
113 upvotes by Todd Allen, Ted Haigh, Jim Ashby, (more)
Let's see:

Have these anti-theists lynched anyone lately?
Beaten anyone up?
How about a burning cross on a lawn?
Kidnapped a theist, tied him to the back of a truck and dragged him until he died?

Noam Kaiser, An atheist - At least until so... (more)
210 upvotes by Dan Holliday, Kris Rosvold, Claire McCabe, (more)
I can't really point out to any anti theists - but rather to anti theism.
As an atheist - and a very outspoken one at that - I oppose the faith in any of the thousands of gods and religions.

But I hold no personal grievance against you, the individual believer.

Maybe that is why neither I nor YOU can think of the last atheist hate crime we've heard of...