Can Farrakhan help us get along? As an East Indian immigrant originally from Trinidad, I have lost the tremendous sympathy I once had for African-Americans. Not all, but too many have become blatant and often hostile incarnations of the same forms of narrow-minded intolerance that characterized the white rednecks and Archie Bunkers who once tormented them ("Allah Drops In," Sam Eifling, August 17).
The mosque builders should fight this in two ways. One, if the City of Pompano Beach makes excuses or a flat denial, sue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and possibly approach the Saudi consulate for financial help with attorneys' fees. Two, ask Minister Louis Farrakhan to send a few black American Muslims to Pompano to answer Dozier and energize law-abiding Muslim citizens.
Saudi Arabia itself is a sickening medieval society, and Farrakhan may or may not be the anti-Semite some Jews consider him. Yet in this situation, I don't give a damn, because women's rights and innocent Jews are not involved or endangered. Victims of anti-immigrant bigotry in a nation that conveniently forgets that immigrants built America need to fight fire with open militancy and lawsuits and to fight bigots with allies of their same racial kind.
Vivek Golikeri
Dania Beach
Just a few lousy inflammatory statements: I was deeply disappointed in the piece written about the Rev. O'Neil Dozier's fight against the Pompano mosque. In the quest to attack the credibility of the Rev. Dozier, the author totally ignored the potential threat this mosque — a radical mosque, to be exact — poses to the community. Last month, this mosque hosted Hatem Bazian, an individual who has called for a Palestinian-like "intifada" against the United States and has defended the likes of convicted terrorist Sami Al-Arian.
In addition, the article painted an entirely false picture of the imam of the mosque, Hassan Sabri, and his chief defender, the executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Altaf Ali. In the beginning of 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, Imam Sabri stated on a local radio show his wishes for Allah to rid Jerusalem of all its Jews and his belief in an Islamic prophesy announcing an impending extermination of Jews, à la Hitler.
Altaf Ali, exactly one month after the attacks on 9/11, on the same show, made a derogatory comment toward Jews and repeatedly refused to answer the question of whether the people who perished in the World Trade Center were innocent. In addition, his organization, CAIR, which is the product of a recently shut down Hamas front, is currently the defendant in a 9/11 lawsuit put forward by the family of former FBI chief of counter-terrorism, John O'Neill, who was murdered during the attacks.
None of this should have been ignored.
Joe Kaufman
Chairman, Americans Against Hate
Coral Springs
Dozier just looks like a rich preacher: The Rev. Dozier's cries and howls are telling of a man and movement that is bankrupt of any ideas or truth. Just like "shock jocks," he needs to yell, scream, slander, and insult his way on to the public airwaves. I say the public should face him down just like we did with the KKK, David Duke, the Skinheads, and now the neo-cons.
Name withheld by request
Seattle
Let the tax man take a look at the church's politics: Regarding the black racist who wants to destroy Islam, I feel like writing a letter to the IRS to have the tax-free status removed from his racist church with its racist members.
Brian C. Hoff
El Paso, Texas
Legalese
Would a lawyer need an escort? I read Jeff Stratton's article "Rub, Tug, Repeat" (August 17) referring to me in several locations. Although most of the article is accurate as pertains to me, I take exception to some references that are incorrect and, in my opinion, may tend to hold me in a false light.
Although I do represent several men charged in the La Place Lotion Parlor case, I am not, as the article reads "specializing in representing dabblers in the escort world." There is no recognized Florida Bar certification in that area of criminal practice, nor did I tell your writer that I specialized in that area. I believe your writer used the word specialized as a term of art, but the Florida Bar takes a different view of the word.
I have been a criminal defense attorney for more than 20 years and defend all types of people, charged with a wide range of criminal offenses. A lawyer can represent someone charged with a crime without sanctioning the act itself, since the focus of criminal defense practice is to require the state to prove its case, not to judge your clients or their hobbies.
Most important, I must make it crystal clear to you and your readers that I do not participate in escort activities. My presence on the Independentgirls.com website is purely professional and is designed solely to discuss legal issues and to offer my legal services. Any posts that I make on the website are for these purposes only.
Jonathan B. Blecher, Esq.
Miami
Needed: Caped Avenger
Can we get him to clean up the whole state? Great article ("Witness for the Intimidation," Bob Norman, August 10). You can tell by reading it that you like the guy, and I like him too — a lot.
I would like to invite him to Daytona Beach after he finishes off [Riviera Beach] Mayor Brown. We have a bunch of "assholes" of our own here in our government.
Florentin Vasiliu
Daytona Beach
