XPost: alt.religion.christian, alt.politics.obama, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: bigoted.wimps@atheism.org   
      
   NEW YORK CITY — An anti-Muslim activist group is rallying in   
   numerous cities across the country, marching in opposition to   
   Islamic law, which the group believes is a threat to American   
   society.   
      
   ACT for America, a lobbyist organization with close ties to the   
   Trump administration that has helped pass state-level bills   
   targeting Islamic law and refugees, organized the protests as a   
   nationwide “March Against Sharia.”   
      
   While demonstrators argue they are protecting free speech and   
   defending traditional American values, counterprotesters say the   
   marchers underscore a larger trend of intolerance that is   
   increasingly evident across a politically divided country.   
      
   In New York City, the rally started downtown nearly an hour late   
   with a crowd of around three dozen people, some of them in   
   camouflage fatigues and waving American flags. About a dozen   
   wore shirts identifying them as members of the anti-government   
   Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.   
      
   Across the street, separated by police officers and barricades,   
   a few hundred mostly young people — including labor activists,   
   Jewish and Muslim protesters, and left-wing anarchists — blasted   
   air horns and whistles and held banners that read “Fascists out   
   of NYC.”   
      
   >From a stage adorned with an American flag, Pax Hart, who   
   organized ACT’s march, railed against the left and the media,   
   and branded the rival protesters as violent Marxists and   
   “idiots.” All have conspired to shut the protest down, he said.   
      
   If you feel unsafe “walking around in a hijab, try being a   
   conservative on a college campus,” Hart said. “We're here   
   protecting their rights, and they’re trying to shut us down!   
   It’s insane!”   
      
   The left, Hart said, will criticize everything but Islam:   
   “They're gonna blast a nonexistent rape culture, but they're not   
   going to criticize Islam! … We will not yield to Islamic   
   exceptionalism.”   
      
   Pawl Bazile, who runs Proud Boy, a far-right online magazine,   
   then took to the stage, eliciting cheers. “We understand what   
   Islam is, and we say no,” he said. “You're in the land of   
   Budweiser and bikinis, for God’s sake.” Anyone who doesn't like   
   it can move to Saudi Arabia or Syria, he said.   
      
   Men wearing T-shirts affiliated with the Oath Keepers, which the   
   SPLC has labeled as a “radical anti-government” group, stood by   
   within the crowd and around the perimeter, surveying the crowd.   
      
   Frank Morganthaler, the vice president of the New York State   
   Oath Keepers, said the smaller-than-expected turnout might have   
   been the result of some people being “intimidated” by the threat   
   of violence from opposition protesters. “These people go wild,”   
   he said, glancing across the street. “They're crazy. We've seen   
   what they've done in other cities, breaking windows and other   
   stuff.”   
      
   A dozen young white men with tucked-in dress shirts, sunglasses   
   and slicked-down side-parts stood in back, watching. They   
   identified themselves as “the alt-right,” a small, far-right   
   movement that seeks a whites-only state.   
      
   Across the street and two sets of police barricades, Marjorie   
   Stamberg, a New York City teacher, held up a sign that read   
   “drive fascists out of NYC.”   
      
   “Two people were murdered in Portland a few weeks ago by their   
   people,” she said, referring to a white man who attended far-   
   right rallies and allegedly stabbed three people on a commuter   
   train after he went on a racist tirade. “If they tell you it’s   
   about free speech, they’re liars. They’re killers. They’re   
   haters.”   
      
   Organized in part to memorialize the anniversary of the Pulse   
   Nightclub shooting in Orlando, the multicity demonstrations aim   
   to raise awareness of what ACT sees as the negative effects of   
   Muslim immigration to the United States. ACT frames its cause as   
   a human rights issue.   
      
   The organization, which the SPLC recognizes as a hate group, was   
   founded in 2007, and its leaders have labeled Islam a “cancer,”   
   propagated theories of a secret plot by Muslims, Democrats,   
   communists and the media to destroy America from within, and   
   sponsored lectures on how to monitor and oppose American   
   mosques. ACT’s leader, Brigitte Gabriel, who says that she is   
   anti-Sharia, not anti-Muslim, often appears as a cheerleader for   
   President Donald Trump in conservative media, trumpeting her   
   group’s ties to the White House. Two of Trump’s former advisers,   
   Michael Flynn and Walid Phares, sit on ACT for America’s board.   
      
   In Austin, ACT demonstrators faced counterprotest group Texans   
   Against Islamophobia and anti-fascist protesters masked in red   
   and black bandannas.   
      
   Joseph Weidknecht, a 25-year-old construction worker from   
   Austin, said he felt compelled to join the ACT rally because of   
   the “ongoing rape crisis in Central and Western Europe, where   
   entire sections of the city are no-go zones.”   
      
   “There’s rampant rape happening because of Syrian immigrants,   
   and we have to stop that from coming to America,” Weidknecht   
   said.   
      
   Positioned outside the gates of the capitol alongside a group of   
   protesters wearing “Make America Great Again” gear, Weidknecht   
   said he believes sharia law isn’t a partisan issue, but an   
   American one.   
      
   The protest was marked by brief heated confrontations between   
   the two groups, though it appeared no protesters engaged in   
   violence.   
      
   On each side, there were protesters who identified themselves as   
   liberals, but Annie, 36, a stay-at-home mom from Austin, said   
   liberals protesting against sharia law are either misinformed or   
   “willfully ignorant” of what sharia law is.   
   “They’re saying they’re protecting women or other liberal   
   values, but they don’t realize who they’re standing next to,”   
   Annie said. “If they were more informed I doubt they would be   
   standing in solidarity with a hate group.”   
      
   Roughly 200 demonstrators gathered peacefully for a rally in a   
   Seattle park and later marched toward Seattle City Hall, where   
   they significantly outnumbered those gathered for an anti-Sharia   
   law rally.   
      
   Several homeless people, many of whom live in the neighborhood   
   where the rally was held, cheered as the demonstrators marched   
   by chanting, “Muslims Are Welcome here, no hate, no fear” and   
   “When Muslim rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up,   
   fight back.”   
      
   Lisa Jaffe, 52, who carried a sign saying “loving my Muslim   
   neighbor since 1964” said she wanted to participate in the   
   counter demonstration because she believes the growing lack of   
   tolerance has no place in her America.   
      
   Earlier in the day in front of the capitol building in   
   Harrisburg, Pa., about three dozen anti-sharia protesters were   
   separated from a similar number of anti-fascist protesters by a   
   police barricade.   
      
   The anti-fascist protesters — wearing all black and balaclavas —   
   played drums and cowbells, chanting “no hate, no Nazis.” The   
   anti-sharia protesters, some of whom were also masked and   
   carried handguns, sang “America the Beautiful” and chanted “take   
   a shower” in response.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)