Vigilant Squirrel Brigade: NYC Muslim Parade 2016 "One Umma , For God and Country"

The 31st Annual Muslim Day Parade (Sept. 25, 2016)

"One Umma - For God and Country.”

Nine years ago I first covered this annual Muslim "parade with no audience"
('cause anyone interested is IN the parade).

Even so , "Takbir's" and "Allahu Akbar's" would ring through the air.

Block after block. Down Madison Ave

Madison Avenue -from 38th to 26th St-

Starting around 2011, five years ago, a Turkish Muslim Day Street Festival
was held just a few blocks west of the of the "26th annual Muslim Day Parade"
(at the same time as the Muzzie Parade) Was this as a mistake of timing?
Or a reason for the diminishing parade.

Turkish Days Street-Fest (Taste the Turkish Hospitality)
by celebrating the Great Seljuq Empire

Perhaps it was a red-flag denoting trouble amongst the Muslim factions.

(see Facebook nudge below, "We intend to bring 10,000...) Did NOT happen.

This year's press conference stressed how difficult it is to be a Muslim - American, maybe they were trying to explain the missing groups. (Fear? Intimidation?)

VIDEO of press conference

Those who came out to celebrate were mostly Indonesian Muslims. I've noticed that the Indonesian women are often the ones in niqabs - not just hijabs.

Some marched against abuse. (Hoping to end Sharia abuse?)

Will the Turk-undertaker, Erhan Yildirim, a respected Community Co-ordinator for the NYPD (seen on his phone below) educate the NYPD to fight (or to ignore) Sharia abuse? They'll probably learn that abuse is the problem, not Islam.

The Puerto Rican Muslim above, wearing the "fakestinian" scarf, did a lot of talking with the press. Wonder if he would have been so chatty if asked about Sharia vs American Law.

OR is that not a POLITE question?)

Missing were the many colorful multi-ethnic costumes and hijabs BUT, these two new participants on the sidelines, were peaceful protestors with a serious message.

The woman on the left said her father, a NYC fireman, died in the Twin Towers

As for the many Indonesian groups, they added lots of color by carrying (and wearing)
an abundance of American flags along with their "Peace for All/Justice for All" signs.

With so few Muslim schools and masjids marching,
this intimate parade was spread out, with huge gaps between groups.

(see my parade VIDEO for the distaff marchers)

There were children ..... AND hijabs and niqabs ...

(Lots of niqabs)

LOTS of American flags marching for "One Umma - God and Country"

And an abundance of "Peace Roses" for the people 'watching' on the sidelines.

Such a beautiful child. With a Peace Rose and Old Glory....

But, FIRST, BEFORE the parade kicked-off, there was the zuhr prayer - at 1 pm

With the women kneeling behind the men...

Madison Avenue, once again, converted into a very public masjid. (see VIDEO next)

Then we marched, lead by the NYPD Marching Band (No mounted color guard this year)

Lots of NYC Muslim officers carried banners for each group. One NYPD banner seemed WAY too religious. (What if that had been a BIBLE instead of a Quran?)

The parade marshals I'd seen before, except for this year's Grand Marshal, Khazir Khan.

Khan is the Pakistani Muslim-American father of
United States Army Capt. Humayun Khan, killed in Iraq in 2004.

Khan walked with celeb, Russell Simmons and Imam Shamsi Ali. However, the politicians did NOT march down Madison Ave. They joined up at the END of the parade - for photo ops . Like David Weprin (NY State Assemblyman). Wonder why he didn't march.

Many of the usual political faces were missing: Linda Sarsour (running for office soon, I hear), Debbie Almontaser, Rabbi Michael Feinberg and his Leftie Jewish associates. Councilman Jackson (a Muslim revert) and Marxist loving, Charles Barron.

10,000 in attendance? Not as they marched. (Or prayed)

Nor when they assembled to hear the speakers at the end of the parade (26th St to 25th St )

(BTW- New this year- the merchant booths were in a short block going east on 26th St)

Found an interesting article about Imam Shamsi Ali? Ali is an Indonesian Muslim who, in 2o11, was"fired" from the the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th Street . Did the parade shrink because of Ali and a religious conflict on how to be a (moderate) Muslim-American?

Shamsi Ali: The rise and fall of a New York imam

"An imam once regarded as one of New York's leading religious figures had a sudden fall from grace. So what does the story of one man's attempt to adapt Islam to modern America tell us, asks Sune Engel Rasmussen.

Before the controversy that cut him down, Shamsi Ali was the leading figure of moderate Islam in New York, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

For a decade, the biggest mosque in New York, the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th Street in East Harlem, was his stage. Here, the diminutive Indonesian with a brusque demeanour praised democracy and vigorously condemned extremism, to thousands of worshippers. Outside the mosque, he taught the FBI and congressmen in Washington about inter-religious co-existence.

He befriended presidents too. In the days after 11 September 2001, the city of New York picked him to represent the Muslim community on President George W Bush's interfaith visit to Ground Zero. Another president, Bill Clinton, wrote the foreword to the new memoir, Sons Of Abraham, that Ali co-authored with a Jewish rabbi he counts among his close friends.

Although many of his conservative peers interpret the Koran to prohibit the use of music, Ali listens to rap and hangs out with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. He even shrugs, disinterested, at cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

In short, Shamsi Ali is the Muslim that liberal America wants. But he is not the leader all New York's Muslims want. Ali is a divisive figure in New York's Islamic community, and two years ago, the same mosque that gave him a platform to grow influential and popular, suddenly pulled the rug from under him."

"How to be a Muslim- American"... Who is winning? ... (Who is losing?).... Can we tell?

As usual, there were a couple of non-Muslim factions marching. About 6 people from a multi-faith group of Christians and Jews (Expecting Miracles) With two familiar hard-core lefties who always march for "fakestine".

Since it's considered unseemly to conflate Islam (the Religion of "Peace") with anything negative ... They (and the press) "negate the negative" with lots of dawah; community and inter-faith outreach with the ubiquitous memes like: "Muslim-Americans want PEACE." They support "God and Country."

The news coverage of the 2016 parade focused on "One Umma, For God and Country.... and a Desire to Show Dedication to God and U.S." (As did a couple of speakers) Guess there's nothing like a Live Rap duet video (from Muslim Day Parade Facebook page) to say "I am a Muslim-American". [This leads to a time coded excerpted transcript of live feed)

https://www.facebook.com/MuslimDayParade/posts/1068867173161780

Imam Shamsi Ali said it was important to show "there’s no contradiction between being a good American and a good Muslim at a time when some people are conflating the actions of terrorists with Islam. “Inherently American values and Islamic values are in line,” he said. “It is about democracy, it is about freedom, it is about religious tolerance, it is about working together with all people. Justice for all.”

Zaki Abdul from East Harlem said he [came out] to show what a large gathering of Muslims looks like. “Muslims generally are people of peace, those people who are really subscribed to Islam according to Islam,” he said. “People should see that.”

Found this twitter post/picture of Khizr Khan speaking ....

Rama Issa ‏@ramitcha1 1

"

Be part of interfaith activities, be part of the community and be part of the solution" Khizr Khan, Grand Marshal at the Muslim Day Parade

And from Pamela Geller, who is very much a PART of the solution."

The coming year is a momentous one. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good if the forces of evil have their way in the coming Presidential election. The order of the world, the future of freedom hangs in the balance. The choice could not be more stark or vastly different. Statism vs. individualism. Freedom vs. slavery. Civilization vs. savagery."

The facts - the truth- ignored - denied.

Those Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes 'Soaring to Their Highest Levels' Since 2001. Debunking the media hype.

"It’s been ten days since Eric Lichtblau published his piece about the “under-reporting” of attacks on Muslims. How many attacks on Muslims by non-Muslims in this country have there been in that time? None. And how many attacks on non-Muslims by Muslims have there been in the same time?

And as for under-reporting on a monumental scale, it is only thanks to a leak that we all learned, a few days ago, that in one year the FBI had 7,712 “terrorist encounters.” None of them were reported to the American public until now."

And more - from Facebook :

"Islam is not a religion but an ideology which incites hate, violence, intolerance and terror. Islamists are terminators. You cannot bargain with them. You cannot reason with them. They do not feel pity or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until all the infidels are dead or have submitted to Islam. The only language the Islamists understand is the language of force."