A four-hour-long orgy of victimhood posturing and deflection of attention from jihad terror activity and Islamic supremacism. “500 attend Muslim tolerance luncheon,” by Melissa Hayes for The Record, March 28:

When Mohamed Younes selected “Religious Freedom and Tolerance” as the theme for the American Muslim Union’s annual brunch, it was long before New York Rep. Peter King decided to hold hearings on “radical Islam.”Younes, president of the union, said the luncheon Sunday at the Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck came at the right time.

“It just happened to be the right subject for the right moment,” he said.

Younes, who founded the Paterson-based grass-roots organization in the hopes of serving the American Muslim community and promoting equality, told the roughly 500 attendees that religious freedom is a constitutional right.

“With the wave of hate speech we hear too much these days, I hope it does not destroy the fabric of our nation and to turn one American against the other,” he said. “We need to put the doubt behind us for good in order to participate and to contribute with the well-being of America, our homeland.”

See, for Younes, King’s hearings were “hate speech,” and somehow threatened his religious freedom. This is pure victimhood posturing, as substanceless as it is offensive. Younes, like so many other Muslim leaders and the useful idiot politicians and media figures who carry their water, have essentially nothing to say about Muslims like Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; and so many other jihad murderers and would-be murderers. By this talk of tolerance, religious freedom and “hate speech,” they are trying to give the impression that for any non-Muslim to be concerned about what is going on in the Muslim community in America because of such people and others like them is bigoted and hateful.

This would be a lot easier to accept if they balanced their cries of victimhood with genuine action against jihadists and Islamic supremacists in their midst; i.e., genuine programs in mosques and Islamic schools teaching against the jihadist understanding of the Qur’an and Sunnah. But there are no such programs, and will not be. But the fact remains: no one is trying to restrict Muslims’ religious freedom. No one is promoting hatred of Muslims, except perhaps people like Younes, whose disingenuousness is obvious, and arouses suspicion. People are understandably concerned about jihad terror activity in U.S. mosques. If Younes were to address that in some honest and effective manner, he would win trust. Instead, he only raises suspicions not only about himself, but about the useful idiot politicians and law enforcement officials who attended his event:

Politicians, former judges and state officials including Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, state Sen. Brian Stack, Sen. John Girgenti, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, as well as representatives from Homeland Security and the FBI sat alongside community members and religious leaders from various faiths.Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, jokingly thanked the Muslim community for welcoming a short Jewish woman with open arms.

“It is important for us to grow understanding with one another and to continue the dialogue,” she said.

On the theme of religious freedom, Ambassador H.E. Youssef Zada of the Egyptian Consulate noted that during the recent protests in Egypt, it was Christians who guarded the Muslims as they prayed in Tahrir Square.

Somehow I doubt that Ambassador H.E. Youssef Zada mentioned that Christians are routinely victimized in Egypt: that Islamic groups told voters to votes yes on the recently approved Constitutional amendments if they wanted to keep Coptic Christians out of government; or that the government may have joined Islamic supremacist groups in planning the New Year’s church bombing that killed 21 people; or that just two weeks ago the army killed nine Christians while firing on a monastery. No, from Christians guarding praying Muslims in Tahrir Square we are supposed to glean some message of religious freedom. For the Christians in Egypt? No, of course not. For the Muslims.

During the four-hour event, many speakers referenced the House Homeland Security Committee hearings earlier this month.Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, said he didn’t have a problem with the hearings because he “knew there would be no evidence presented at the hearings that would embarrass anyone in any shape or form from the Muslim community.”…

This was because King was cowed into not calling anyone who might have even come close to presenting such evidence.

Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, disagreed with Pascrell’s view.”These hearings are just the most recent example of a troubling pattern of unwarranted scrutiny on American Muslims,” she said.

“Unwarranted.” One wonders how many jihad terror attacks and plots would have to take place before Jacobs would ever accept any scrutiny of Muslims in the U.S. as “warranted.”

Jacobs said that unfortunately in America, the oppressed groups are the ones who must fight to bring about change.”It falls on you to redefine American Muslims in the eyes of the public,” she said.

Indeed. But you aren’t going to do it by crying that you’re being victimized by legitimate law enforcement concerns about jihad activity. You’re only going to do it by working against jihad activity yourselves in a demonstrably honest and genuine manner.