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You've got to hand it to the Post for being the first local paper to do its due diligence and cover both sides of last week's Fort Hood massacre. In the kind of story that simultaneously riles up its readers and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of some journalistic basics — akin to quoting the Grinch for fairness in an article about Christmas tree sales — the tabloid today gives ink to a lone Queens man who thinks that Major Nidal Hasan did the right thing when he opened fire inside the Texas base last week, killing 13 and wounding 38. "An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack," Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his website, "Revolution Muslim." "Rest assured the slain terrorists at Ft. Hood are in the eternal hellfire."
The paper sat down with the "America-hater" at a Woodside café and discussed his nuanced perspective. "These people are soldiers in a volunteer army. They expect to see combat. They know the danger." The Jewish-born al-Khattab apparently spends much of his free time "annoying mainstream Muslims in front of mosques around the city, handing out literature and denouncing the US" — a hobby that has angered local imams. "They say that as long as there is not a physical threat, there's nothing that they can do … They say it's a free-speech issue," said Shamsi Ali, an imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, a mosque at 96th Street and Third Avenue.
Though the FBI is aware of al-Khattab's rhetoric, the agency can't stop him. "It's terrible. It's reprehensible. For the mosques it's a p.r. nightmare. He's probably putting members of the mosque in danger from attacks from non-Muslims, but he's not breaking the law," a first amendment lawyer said. In fact, the city's only weapon against such irrelevant fringe discourse is to ignore it altogether — a strategy that has now backfired thanks to the Post's article.
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This al-Khattab character is a real nuisance with incredibly twisted logic. He's been hanging out around moderate mosques spewing hate and picking fights with other Muslims. Tragic.
Nice of the Rag Known as the NY Post to add gasoline to the flames.
That piece of "journalism" is simply designed to get responses on their site like:
Or gems like:Or:Or, My personal favorite so far:All the above are comments on the Rag Known as the NY Post site for that "article".
As an "article", it's simply trash. You can *ALWAYS* find wackjobs lunatics on the Internet. What's the Next Article? "Al Qaida members who hate the US"???
Talk about low hanging fruit.
The only people sicker than this guy are those who blame the newspaper for exposing him.
Yeah, but did they "expose" him or merely publicize him? I mean, it's not like he's ashamed of his views -- he wanted exposure, but no one would listen to his nutty rantings. Now...he's got what he wanted.
Birds of a feather. In this case one of the birds is owned by Rupert Murdoch and squawks loudly, but they're all equally sick with hatred.
is this the pedicab guy?
news alert, the usa is currently occupying 2 countries based on lies and oil, its no feat of journalism to find someone against our country and its actions.
"the usa is currently occupying 2 countries based on lies..."
You mean these lies from Clinton, Albright, Kerry, Biden, et al?
" and oil, "
Really, is there oil in afghanistan? Or just the afghan hash you smoke too much of... (hint, Euros and chinese have almost ALL OF THE OIL CONTACTS IN IRAQ).
"its no feat of journalism to find someone against our country and its actions."
You mean like you, and the moron who wrote this article, and the 300,000 sheeple who marched "against the war" under the leadership of pro-stalinist, NK supporting
commie scum like Cindy Sheehan, NIMN, ISM, etc...?
"In fact, the city's only weapon against such irrelevant fringe discourse is to ignore it altogether — a strategy that has now backfired thanks to the Post's article."
Ignore irrelevant fringe discourse...You mean like the way we did before 9/11? I would think that the city, state and feds would all be monitoring this individual.
Oh, they are. No doubt. He seems to tow the line though and avoid advocating violence. In his blub about the Ft. Hood shooter, he praises the guy, but never says that others should do the same thing. So, what can the authorities do?
"toe" the line.
I preface this comment by saying that I have nothing against Muslims and know many people who follow Islam to some degree or another who are great people. I disagree with a lot of the principles of Islam, but I can find something to disagree with in every religion.
BUT, if this man is so disgusted by America, why is he still here? I just browsed his website, which is a jumble of garbage and s--t, and he truly has a disdain for this country. Why wouldn't he just leave then?
The kicker is that he was on his way to becoming a Hassidic Jew, but was now calls them racists because they live by their own rules. Meanwhile, his wife wears a Burqua and his kids speak Arabic as their first language. So, not only is he a d-bag, but a hypocrite as well.
He's still here because in the minds of some, to fight the infidels, you take the battle to their home.
Cue the lynch mob.
Why doesn't this guy leave since he's living in a place he hates?
Because he's a worthless piece of shit whose life is dominated by hate, just like all religious nutjobs.
QueensCrap, we all appreciate the need for a sober dose of reality so that we can remember there are legitimate terrorist threats out there, but I think it's safe to not get hysterical about this guy.
Well armed and well trained terrorists in other parts of the globe are definitely savvy and capable of plotting bad things here, but there's no way this is their guy. Terrorist proxies stay below the radar and don't waste the time and resources of the authorities trying to track them down by calling attention to themselves.
He, like all converts to a new religion, is half-crazed with zeal and he seriously needs to get the fuck out of my town. Maybe some time with the refugees from the Swat Valley, while dodging random suicide attacks, might change his perspective on American life.
Sick?
Riiiiiiggggggttttt...
'Cause giving that guy free publicity is such a good thing.
I know! The rag known as the New York Post can next run an Expose about Radical whack jobs who vow to overthrow the US Gov't. That's another group that needs free publicity. Then they can cover the KKK.
Like I said, low hanging fruit.
(sigh)
That was supposed to be a reply to "longacre"...
Something tells me the Post is not going to go out of its way to cover right-wing Christian and Jewish extremists (much less publicize ostensibly ideological whackjobs in the same fashion.)
Shame, isn't it? One would think they'd be "Equal Opportunity"...
"Terrorist proxies stay below the radar and don't waste the time and resources of the authorities trying to track them down by calling attention to themselves."
Except the Fort Hood terrorist raised multiple red flags and called quite a bit of attention to himself and nothing was done about it. And then he killed 13 people.
So it seems you need to mind both the squeaky and non-squeaky wheels.
If moderate mosques are tired of having this guy endangering them by legally hanging around and handing out his crazy views, they do have the legal option of hanging around him 24/7. Yousef al-Khattab would have a tough time in NYC with Moslems legally telling everyone about his ideas. Good luck buying food, making money, etc. with a bunch of Moslems telling everyone what a scumbag you are.
Afraid not. IANAL, but targeting one individual in particular with that kind of behavior would seem to be covered by laws against harrassment.
Yousef al-Khattab made himself a public figure by his actions and his website and cannot have any expectation of privacy. Presenting his actions and views to the community, his landlord and his money supply isn't harassment. In any case, if the mosque members move quickly, it's doubtful he would get any sort of legal action started by the time the damage has been done.
Topeka has the Westboro church, and our city has Yousef Al-Khattab as the town idiots.
The FBI is actually happy to have these guys around. They funnel suspects and terror wannabes right into the crosshairs. Wild-eyed muslim wackjobs are good for business.
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
forums.signonsandiego. com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
dallasnews. com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574