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|  Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?Blogs dedicated to protecting America against terrorism are troubling the Muslim community.
By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published January 16, 2006
It's 4 a.m. Somewhere near Coral Springs, Joe Kaufman is still at his computer.
Blurry with fatigue, he types:
It has been said that 80 percent of all the mosques ... inside the United States are ... tied to a radical form of Islam. ... One of the American locations that ... influence has been prevalent is the Tampa-St. Pete area of Southwest Florida.
Kaufman is 35, clean-shaven, a lawyer's assistant. He goes inline skating and writes love songs on guitar. But his passion is his Web site, AmericansAgainstHate.com, where he monitors the activities of Florida's Muslim community, looking for terrorist links.
Kaufman's site is only one of a constellation of blogs with names like JihadWatch.com, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and WesternResistance.com that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman's.
He claims he has not found a single mosque in Florida that is not linked to terrorists.
A lot of people are listening.
Last month, after Kaufman called a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a "jihad camp for children" and wrote that the speakers were "linked to al-Qaida," death threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event.
Muslims say the blogs breed hate.
"He's spreading lies, slandering individuals," said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "These are vigilantes."
Kaufman and other bloggers say their work is vital to the country's safety.
"I don't hate Muslims," Kaufman said. "But I'm going to fight to have the public understand that there are enemies of America ... that are living in America as we speak."
* * *
As a boy, Kaufman says he was tormented for being Jewish, which shaped his view of himself.
"These kids turned me into an animal," Kaufman said.
In college, things were better with more friends, especially his roommate, he said. Then he came back to his dorm room one day to see a swastika flag on the wall.
"It was like time stopped for me. And I thought to myself, either I'm going to go through this for the rest of my life, or I'm going to fight it."
Kaufman said he got his roommate kicked out of school for smoking marijuana.
"It made me feel ... that I finally punished the people who were punishing me all of my life."
On Sept. 11, 2001, watching the World Trade Center's twin towers fall, he said it felt again as if time had stopped.
"I decided, like I'd decided in college, to fight against hatred."
* * *
To Kaufman and other bloggers, the events of Sept. 11 were born of Islam's teachings.
"We want to wake up the people of the Western world to the dangers of Islam," said Miami's Sorge Diaz of WesternResistance.com.
The bloggers cite verses in the Koran that encourage believers to kill enemies of the faith. But Muslims say these passages are taken out of context and refer only to historical times.
"It's not an open-ended edict to go out and kill people," said Bedier, the CAIR spokesman. "There are hundreds of thousands of verses that talk about peace."
Bedier of Tampa is familiar with the blogs. His name often appears as a supporter of terrorism on Kaufman's site.
"It's a clearinghouse for defamation and attacks against Muslims," Bedier said.
"I like to go out and reach out to folks and build bridges," he added. "These types of people, they want to be able to wedge a gap between Muslims and the rest of society."
To fight back, Bedier is starting his own blog, AhmedBedier.blogspot.com. He said he wants to set the Internet record straight.
"Nowadays when you meet people, they go home and Google your name," he said. On the search engine, the top hits for Bedier's name are articles by Kaufman.
"I'm not going to let bigots like that define who I am," Bedier said.
* * *
The bloggers say they're safeguarding the country.
Kaufman said he has worked with law enforcement to uncover terrorists, leading to deportations and arrests.
Daniel Sutherland of the Department of Homeland Security said the government is more interested in forging bonds with Muslims.
"There is no clash of civilizations going on here, there is no "us' and "them,"' he said.
William Carter of the FBI said the bureau wants citizens to pass on helpful information. But, he added, "It's not like we have people who are scanning the Internet, looking at bloggers."
Daniel McBride, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, sees a different picture. His mosque has tangled with Kaufman, especially last May when a member was arrested on terrorism-related charges. (McBride himself is facing criminal insurance fraud charges, but that case is unrelated to his religion.)
Now, McBride said, he and others sometimes hear from FBI agents who are following up on something from a blog - often Kaufman's.
"They check out all that stuff," he said. "They'll tell you, "Joe said this' or "Joe said that.' They say, "We have to follow up on it, because if we don't and something did happen ..."'
* * *
Jennifer Valko opened her e-mail and saw a message of hate.
I will undress you paint your body with pig fat & light you. America is on to you! Watch your back!
It was the Thursday after Christmas. In two days, the Muslim spiritual retreat she had helped plan was scheduled to take place at Cedarkirk, a Presbyterian camp and conference center in eastern Hillsborough County.
That morning, Kaufman had appeared on Fox News to talk about the retreat.
On his Web site, he had posted articles about it. He posted computer-altered images of masked terrorists standing in front of the Lithia campsite.
He said these images were meant to be "tongue in cheek." But some readers took them seriously. Hate mail and death threats poured in to the Tampa Muslim American Society.
The conference center's director also got death threats and closed the center for the weekend, forcing the retreat elsewhere.
Kaufman called the threats "disgusting," saying he gets death threats because of his blog.
"I know what I went through growing up, and it was never my intention to cause any type of hatred against anyone."
But he added, "I can't let it stop me from what I'm doing. ... I'm assisting in the safety and security of the American people."
Other bloggers agree.
Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com said his blog sometimes attracts racists. He bans them, he said.
But he won't stop blogging.
"If I give it up and go away and take up the saxophone, then what the heck is going to happen to society and to the rest of the world?" he asked.
* * *
Last month, while Kaufman was researching his story about the Tampa retreat, he found himself reading about a man named Mazen Mokhtar, a scheduled speaker. Then Kaufman began to recall a Mazen he once knew.
One of his closest friends in high school was a Palestinian named Mazen, he said. They had never discussed politics.
"He seemed like a very good person," Kaufman said. "I believe he was a true friend."
They lost contact, he said. Kaufman thought of looking him up. Then he thought better of it.
"I don't really know what he would think about what I do," he said.
--Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 813 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com
Source: SPTIMES |
News Story has 8918 Reads
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on January 19, 2006
Joe Kaufman's response on January 19, 2006
January 17, 2005
S.I. Rosenbaum - Biased and Irresponsible
Recently, I called up one of your writers to complain about two of the articles she had written for your publication, dated December 31st and January 1st. Both of the pieces insinuated that my appearance on Fox News, an article I had written for Frontpage Magazine, and my group's website, AmericansAgainstHate.com had caused death threats to come to a Tampa-area Presbyterian-owned campgrounds (Cedarkirk) and a Muslim organization (Muslim American Society of Tampa) that was planning on using the campgrounds for a "retreat." This was irresponsible journalism at its worst, as the violent nature of the organization and its speakers were given a pass.
Following my complaint, the writer of the articles, Sara Rosenbaum, sent me an e-mail saying that she wanted to do a piece on me. I agreed, understanding that, given the past two, it was probably going to be biased against me, and unfortunately, I was correct. In 'Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?' dated January 16th, once again, Rosenbaum insinuated that I had caused the threats. She went as far as to say that images placed on my group's website had been responsible for death threats "pouring [sic] in to the Tampa Muslim American Society." No mention was made of the material found on MAS-Tampa's website discussing the murder of Jews or about the waging of holy war against Christians and Jews. No mention was made of the fact that one of the speakers of the "retreat," Mazen Mokhtar, had created a website that raised funds and recruited terrorists for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or that his website was also used as a portal to the official site of Hamas. All of this information was presented to Rosenbaum, but once again, I was the bad guy, and the terrorists were given a pass.
Miss Rosenbaum devoted much of her article to quoting Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for the organization CAIR. She quotes him as calling me a "vigilante" and a "bigot." She quotes him as saying that I am "spreading lies," when she knows that I put extensive links to source material in every article that I write and every press release that I send out. None of this was challenged by Rosenbaum. Nowhere does she say that this man is a member of a group that is the defendant in a 9/11 lawsuit, a group whose former representatives include those that have been convicted in and/or deported from the United States for terrorist activity, a group that was created by a front for Hamas. Nowhere does Rosenbaum mention that Bedier recently stated that, prior to 1995, there was "nothing immoral" about Palestinian Islamic Jihad. She gave him a pass as well.
To many readers, Rosenbaum made it seem as though I was using my feelings towards the anti-Semitism I experienced growing up as a catalyst for my present activities. Nothing could be further from the truth, as none of the incidents I cited had anything to do with the Muslim community. Rosenbaum also laced her article with inaccurate information. She stated that I was considering contacting an old Palestinian friend of mine but then I "thought better of it." I never said that I was not going to contact this individual, who happened to be my best friend in high school. That was fabricated by Rosenbaum to bolster her story and to vindicate her bias.
My work has contributed greatly to the safety and security of America. From what she has written, by making light of my work and by giving a forum to those that threaten American society, it appears Miss Rosenbaum has shown that she is oblivious to the threat of terrorism. In doing so, her distortions, which were spun as fact, have misled the readers of the St. Petersburg Times. Miss Rosenbaum owes me and all of those counter-terrorism experts, which she derisively labeled and dismissed as "bloggers," an apology. This includes Robert Spencer, an accomplished author whose present book about Islam was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 15 weeks.
In the future, the St. Petersburg Times should thoroughly scrutinize and 'fact check' its writers' work, so that your publication does not become synonymous with this type of sloppy journalism.
Sincerely,
Joe Kaufman
Chairman
Americans Against Hate
http://www.americansagainsthate.com/StPeteTimesLetter.htm |
on January 19, 2006
Abdullah on January 19, 2006
Joe Kaufman himself is a terrorist supporter, he supported terrorist organizations, that are ON the US Dept of State's site: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/2450.htm
Joe Kaufman supported and even venerates such terrorists as Kach and Kahane Chai.
So, why is he now going on a rampage about another person, who supposedly does what Joe Kaufman does? hmmm.... |
on January 19, 2006
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on January 19, 2006
I commend and applaud the Jews for taking a stand against the Muslim terrorist people and their terrorist religious doctrines.
Hve you noticed none of them speak out? That simply means they are guilty, period! They have no defense!
They should all be in jail, the uncivilized ****s! |
on January 19, 2006
Christian for jews or jews for jews. Jews always chose names to make it sound like christians support their perverted idiology. Every Christian I know hate jews with passion. So don't fool fool yourself Khazar garbage.
Answer what? hate speech and trash?
You sons of pigs and swines should be exterminated like the vermins and the world cancer you are.
Too bad it was in Florida, a zionist haven, they should show up in NYC and open they're filthy swine mouths. |
on January 19, 2006
Presbyterian.. Are jews blackmailing your for children molestation racking your church too? we know what they did to Catholics.
The reason many church people support jews is because jews have many evidence against them...things like child abuse, money laundering, drug trafficking and many many crimes. They even got the pope to say that jews didn't "kill" Jesus when the christian books like the new testament says they did. So where do you think the support comes form. |
on January 19, 2006
"I don't hate Muslims," Kaufman said. "But I'm going to fight to have the public understand that there are enemies of America ... that are living in America as we speak."
Hey Joe Kaufman, I don't hate Jews either, I just detest what the zionists are all about! Don't even try to make it sound as if Jews are Zionists, haha, there are Christian zionists as well as Jewish Zionists...all you liars and deceivers are from the same pot.
Any moron could start a blog like you, after all, you lost twice for state rep right? LOL |
on January 19, 2006
Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com said his blog sometimes attracts racists. He bans them, he said.
But he won't stop blogging.
"If I give it up and go away and take up the saxophone, then what the heck is going to happen to society and to the rest of the world?" he asked.
I don't know Robert, maybe they will not be filled with hatred and anger that you incite them with?  |
on January 20, 2006
From this Ex-jew to all of you sycophant christians, please stop kissing our a** it will not get you in heaven, jesus will not love anymore and it only helps the zionists to continue their murderous attitude against Muslims and Goyims ( christian cattles).
Please stop kissing our a**. |
on January 20, 2006
"They should all be in jail, the uncivilized ****s!"
Very "Christian" of you. |
on January 20, 2006
Hidaayah
Well, if you people don't say you are against terrorism, I think and almost every American believes you are all to held accountable, for such terror activities. If you did make a differentiation between Islam and Muslims and those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam, then we would have a different viewpoint on you people, but up to now, I do not see such statements!
So, again, you all should be put in jail!  |
on January 20, 2006
Recently, I called up one of your writers to complain about two of the articles she had written for your publication, dated December 31st and January 1st. Both of the pieces insinuated that my appearance on Fox News, an article I had written for Frontpage Magazine, and my group's website, AmericansAgainstHate.com had caused death threats to come to a Tampa-area Presbyterian-owned campgrounds (Cedarkirk) and a Muslim organization (Muslim American Society of Tampa) that was planning on using the campgrounds for a "retreat." This was irresponsible journalism at its worst, as the violent nature of the organization and its speakers were given a pass.
Mr. Kaufman, irresponsible journalism is what you are doing pal. You have the habit of enticing hatred and prejudice towards the people of the Islamic faith. I am an Agnostic, but looking towards accepting Islam. Ironically, I started looking into Islam after reviewing some of your articles.
Responsible journalism is not the baseless allegations you can concoct in your bedroom late at night. Responsible journailism is not the repetitious of unwarranted claims against organizations, such as CAIR or MAS. Responsible journalism is not acquiring biased insinuations against legal entities who disagree with your paranoia of the Muslim faith! Get a grip on reality. This is not Israel and please do not make it so by indulging us with your fear tactics!
Responsible journalism, Mr. Kaufman, is a combination of principles such as promoting the truth, justice, freedom, humaneness, and stewardship; qualities you obviously have no possession of.
Without truth, a journalist has no credibility. The principle of justice relates to a reporter's responsibility to be fair. A story should be complete, relevant, honest, and straightforward. The freedom principle means that a journalist should be independent both politically and economically.
After hearing you on the radio, seeing you on TV, and reading your articles, I have concluded you are a zealot, who's ideals are governed by Israel's politics and you could care less to those whom your vengenge hurts. |
on January 22, 2006
We have said we are against terrorism...time and again. Even long before 9/11, we stood against terrorism. Immediately after it, and ever since, we have issued thousands of press releases, given lectures, talked to all we can about it, even issued fatwas (religious rulings against it http://www.isna.net/index.php?id=316), and more.
Yet no matter how much we cry out, it isn't covered by the media, or if it is, not by the national media.
For the record (although I have said countless times): I stand against terrorism; I stand against violence; I stand against suicide bombing; I stand against those who support any of those things.
What about you? Do stand against the religious and intellectual terrorism being perpetrated by Joe Kaufman and his supporters?
You know, the funny thing is that I went onto several of these radical right websites, to try to dialogue with them. To address their concerns. But whereas we Muslims leave your hatefilled posts on our websites - never afraid of letting others speak - never afraid of the thoughts of others - my posts were always systematically deleted.
I think that just shows the true cowardess of the radical right and all those other intellectual terrorists like them, who feed hate, intolerance, and lies. |
on January 22, 2006
p.s. Jeffrey, I appreciate your search for the truth, and that you do not let anyone spoonfeed you anything. It is a reminder to me that any thoughtful, rational person will see through his hate to what drives it...and the lies he uses to support it.
It gives me hope that his intolerance will never take over.
Take care. |
on January 23, 2006
Hidaayah on January 22, 2006
We have said we are against terrorism...time and again. Even long before 9/11, we stood against terrorism. Immediately after it, and ever since, we have issued thousands of press releases, given lectures, talked to all we can about it, even issued fatwas (religious rulings against it http://www.isna.net/index.php?id=316), and more.
Yet no matter how much we cry out, it isn't covered by the media, or if it is, not by the national media.
For the record (although I have said countless times): I stand against terrorism; I stand against violence; I stand against suicide bombing; I stand against those who support any of those things.
What about you? Do stand against the religious and intellectual terrorism being perpetrated by Joe Kaufman and his supporters?
You know, the funny thing is that I went onto several of these radical right websites, to try to dialogue with them. To address their concerns. But whereas we Muslims leave your hatefilled posts on our websites - never afraid of letting others speak - never afraid of the thoughts of others - my posts were always systematically deleted.
I think that just shows the true cowardess of the radical right and all those other intellectual terrorists like them, who feed hate, intolerance, and lies.
This is one reason why I like islamophobia.org because the same thing that happened to you, also happened to me, with regards to getting posts deleted that does not agree with the propaganda by the right-wing zionists and muslim bashers! The zionists on jihadwatch.org not only removed my post, but also banned me and all because the post had facts, which not onl opposed the lies and deception of the site's owner, but of Joe Kaufman and his parading of well documented lies.
Dawood |
on January 23, 2006
I just posted my comments on http://www.militantislammonitor.org/
Your comments have been recorded and you will be notified by email if and when they appear online.
Back to Robert Spencer and Joe Kaufman refute journalistic bias and distortions found in article depicting 'counter terrorism bloggers'
Should I hold my breath?  |
on January 24, 2006
Jeffrey on January 23, 2006
I just posted my comments on http://www.militantislammonitor.org/
Your comments have been recorded and you will be notified by email if and when they appear online.
Back to Robert Spencer and Joe Kaufman refute journalistic bias and distortions found in article depicting 'counter terrorism bloggers'
Should I hold my breath?
Well, still no sign of my post on militant's site... |
on January 25, 2006
good luck |
on May 04, 2006
Anti-Muslim Hateful Bloggers Exposed:
Kaufman and Spencer Crying
Anti-Muslim bashers like Joe Kaufman (AmericansAgainstHate.com), Robert Spencer (JihadWatch.com) and others are exposed by a mainstream newspapers for what they really are, hate machines that fabricate hate 24/7. At least in Kaufman's case his fabrication machine is pumping lies at 4:00am according to the article.
Apparently when it comes to mainstream media Kaufman and Spencer are clueless and just say whatever comes to mind. In the article Joe Kaufman admits that he's an "animal." Spencer admits that his website is visited by racist all the time, that he has to ban them. He's yet to ban the number one racist on his site - HIMSELF.
Really, the best part of the article is it exposes the hatred these guys have for anyone who they disagree with. But extremism is nothing new to the likes of Kaufman, in 2003 the Council on American Islamic Relations exposed his ties and sympathy for pro zionist violent terrorists and terror groups. Since then, Joe Kaufman has been discredited by mainstream media, they won't touch him.
So how are the haters taking all the attention? They're all crying, lol. Super hero Robert Spencer (who wants to make us safer by his super blog http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/009809.php) wrote a lengthy defensive blog (A notch above child molester) trying to justify his comments and claiming the reporter lied about his quotes. At the same time they attack the reporter and call her all types of names.
South Florida Radical Joe Kaufman chose to send a letter (http://www.americansagainsthate.com/StPeteTimesLetter.htm) to the St. Petersburg Times to send a letter to the editor, claiming to be a "counter-terrorism expert" (I guess it takes one to know one) and he wants the reporter to say sorry.  Poor Joe, he's sad. C'mon Joe, you're really not sad now are you? Kaufman would rather have bad publicity than none anyday.
There you have it folks Kaufman and Spencer who are trying to saver the world with their hate blogs, continue to spread their hatred.
The full article from the St. Petersburg Times is below, enjoy, thanks to  the contributor who sent me the link:
Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?
Blogs dedicated to protecting America against terrorism are troubling the Muslim community.
By S.I. ROSENBAUMPublished January 16, 2006
It's 4 a.m. Somewhere near Coral Springs, Joe Kaufman is still at his computer.
Blurry with fatigue, he types:
It has been said that 80 percent of all the mosques ... inside the United States are ... tied to a radical form of Islam. ...
One of the American locations that ... influence has been prevalent is the Tampa-St. Pete area of Southwest Florida.
Kaufman is 35, clean-shaven, a lawyer's assistant. He goes inline skating and writes love songs on guitar. But his passion is his Web site, AmericansAgainstHate.com, where he monitors the activities of Florida's Muslim community, looking for terrorist links.
Kaufman's site is only one of a constellation of blogs with names like JihadWatch.com, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and WesternResistance.com that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman's.
He claims he has not found a single mosque in Florida that is not linked to terrorists.
A lot of people are listening.
Last month, after Kaufman called a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a "jihad camp for children" and wrote that the speakers were "linked to al-Qaida," death threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event.
Muslims say the blogs breed hate.
"He's spreading lies, slandering individuals," said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "These are vigilantes."
Kaufman and other bloggers say their work is vital to the country's safety.
"I don't hate Muslims," Kaufman said. "But I'm going to fight to have the public understand that there are enemies of America ... that are living in America as we speak."
* * *
As a boy, Kaufman says he was tormented for being Jewish, which shaped his view of himself.
"These kids turned me into an animal," Kaufman said.
In college, things were better with more friends, especially his roommate, he said. Then he came back to his dorm room one day to see a swastika flag on the wall.
"It was like time stopped for me. And I thought to myself, either I'm going to go through this for the rest of my life, or I'm going to fight it."
Kaufman said he got his roommate kicked out of school for smoking marijuana.
"It made me feel ... that I finally punished the people who were punishing me all of my life."
On Sept. 11, 2001, watching the World Trade Center's twin towers fall, he said it felt again as if time had stopped.
"I decided, like I'd decided in college, to fight against hatred."
* * *
To Kaufman and other bloggers, the events of Sept. 11 were born of Islam's teachings.
"We want to wake up the people of the Western world to the dangers of Islam," said Miami's Sorge Diaz of WesternResistance.com.
The bloggers cite verses in the Koran that encourage believers to kill enemies of the faith. But Muslims say these passages are taken out of context and refer only to historical times.
"It's not an open-ended edict to go out and kill people," said Bedier, the CAIR spokesman. "There are hundreds of thousands of verses that talk about peace."
Bedier of Tampa is familiar with the blogs. His name often appears as a supporter of terrorism on Kaufman's site.
"It's a clearinghouse for defamation and attacks against Muslims," Bedier said.
"I like to go out and reach out to folks and build bridges," he added. "These types of people, they want to be able to wedge a gap between Muslims and the rest of society."
To fight back, Bedier is starting his own blog, AhmedBedier.blogspot.com. He said he wants to set the Internet record straight.
"Nowadays when you meet people, they go home and Google your name," he said. On the search engine, the top hits for Bedier's name are articles by Kaufman.
"I'm not going to let bigots like that define who I am," Bedier said.
* * *
The bloggers say they're safeguarding the country.
Kaufman said he has worked with law enforcement to uncover terrorists, leading to deportations and arrests.
Daniel Sutherland of the Department of Homeland Security said the government is more interested in forging bonds with Muslims.
"There is no clash of civilizations going on here, there is no "us' and "them,"' he said.
William Carter of the FBI said the bureau wants citizens to pass on helpful information. But, he added, "It's not like we have people who are scanning the Internet, looking at bloggers."
Daniel McBride, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, sees a different picture. His mosque has tangled with Kaufman, especially last May when a member was arrested on terrorism-related charges. (McBride himself is facing criminal insurance fraud charges, but that case is unrelated to his religion.)
Now, McBride said, he and others sometimes hear from FBI agents who are following up on something from a blog - often Kaufman's.
"They check out all that stuff," he said. "They'll tell you, "Joe said this' or "Joe said that.' They say, "We have to follow up on it, because if we don't and something did happen ..."'
* * *
Jennifer Valko opened her e-mail and saw a message of hate.
I will undress you paint your body with pig fat & light you. America is on to you! Watch your back!
It was the Thursday after Christmas. In two days, the Muslim spiritual retreat she had helped plan was scheduled to take place at Cedarkirk, a Presbyterian camp and conference center in eastern Hillsborough County.
That morning, Kaufman had appeared on Fox News to talk about the retreat.
On his Web site, he had posted articles about it. He posted computer-altered images of masked terrorists standing in front of the Lithia campsite.
He said these images were meant to be "tongue in cheek." But some readers took them seriously. Hate mail and death threats poured in to the Tampa Muslim American Society.
The conference center's director also got death threats and closed the center for the weekend, forcing the retreat elsewhere.
Kaufman called the threats "disgusting," saying he gets death threats because of his blog.
"I know what I went through growing up, and it was never my intention to cause any type of hatred against anyone."
But he added, "I can't let it stop me from what I'm doing. ... I'm assisting in the safety and security of the American people."
Other bloggers agree.
Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com said his blog sometimes attracts racists. He bans them, he said.
But he won't stop blogging.
"If I give it up and go away and take up the saxophone, then what the heck is going to happen to society and to the rest of the world?" he asked.
* * *
Last month, while Kaufman was researching his story about the Tampa retreat, he found himself reading about a man named Mazen Mokhtar, a scheduled speaker. Then Kaufman began to recall a Mazen he once knew.
One of his closest friends in high school was a Palestinian named Mazen, he said. They had never discussed politics.
"He seemed like a very good person," Kaufman said. "I believe he was a true friend."
They lost contact, he said. Kaufman thought of looking him up. Then he thought better of it.
"I don't really know what he would think about what I do," he said.
--Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 813 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com |
on October 13, 2006
Joe Kaufman, a South Florida Jewish extremist and head of the radical group Americans Against Hate, stays true to form. Rather than address the issues at hand (Walid Shoebat) in this post and answer Bedier's valid questions as to why some Jews are sponsoring hate speech events, Kaufman attempts to smear Bedier's good reputation with lies and deception. Joe Kaufman should know that Bedier's reputation is solid and he is considered by our community as a civil rights leader and a man of peace. Unfortunately the same can not be said about Joe Kaufman. Joe Kaufman should consider the saying "if you live in a glass house don't throw stones."
For the past couple of months, Joe Kaufman has been smearing Muslims in the Tampa Bay area, if one didn't know any better one would think that Joe lives in our community, but he doesn't. So why the interest in Tampa, Kaufman?? A reason maybe the fact that Kaufman has discredited himself in South Florida so much that not a single mainstream media outlet would dare quote him. He's proven to be a very bias and unreliable source.
However, Kaufman's hateful work has not gone unnoticed. Just last month one of the most prominent constitutional rights organizations Americans United gave Kaufman the dreaded "Onion Award" for "his consistent record of trashing everything Muslim with a broad brush of innuendo, association and excessive rhetoric." Source: http://www.archive.org/details/JoeKaufman_Onion_Award
The great irony is that while Kaufman accuses just about anything Muslim to terrorism using baseless fantasies, he himself was investigated for terrorist ties to the terror organization Kach/Kahane Chai. In 2003 he was exposed (Source: http://radicalwatch.blogspot.com/2003/04/islamic-council-rebukes-joe-kaufmans.html) for promoting violence and terror by providing intellectual support by promoting Kach and Kahane on his website http://www.joe4rep.com, since being exposed the website, once used for his own failed FL house rep campaign, was shut down. According to the U.S. Department of State, Kahane Chai and Kach are known terrorist organizations and are banned in the United States. Source: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/2450.htm
The organization (Kahane) Kaufman praised and promoted shares the State dept's terror list with groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Kach and/or Kahane was placed on the list via presidential order and for using violent terrorism to promote a political agenda. Kahane was added to the Department of State's List of terrorism Organizations after one of its members Baruch Goldstein gunned down and killed 29 unarmed Muslim worshipers in a cold blooded homicide operation. Like Kaufman, Baruch Goldstein is an American born extremist and member of both Kach and Kahane Chai. source: http://www.newsfrombabylon.com/index.php?q=node/1843
On new year's day 2001, seven years after Goldstein's terror act and while most people were making their new year resolution, Kaufman was making his by praising the founder of the Kahane terror movement in a column titled "A Kahane Legacy Lost." In the column Kaufman praised the violent terrorist Meir Kahane and said: "It was perfectly understandable, if he were to have hated Arabs. Just like, during the Holocaust, it was perfectly understandable for a Jew to hate Germans...If the Kahanes' memory serves us any purpose, it's to show that trust (and peace) is ultimately between only ourselves."
As Kaufman's true colors started showing, close friends like the Florida office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) distanced themselves from Kaufman and have refused to work with him 'publicly' since 2003, evident by their refusal to remark on Kaufman's terror website links.
Readers should not be surprised by Kaufman's accomplishments, he's not stranger to hatred of Muslims and Arabs, in fact it's part of his sick ideology to hate anything Arab and Muslim. Immediately after the tragic acts of 9/11, Kaufman advocated the use of Nuclear Weapons to achieve "peace." In a commentary on 11/18/01 titled 'Making Friends with the enemy...The Nuclear Way.' Kaufman said: [Question: If the decimation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do, in response to Pearl Harbor, then why the heck are we saving our nuclear weapons now? And furthermore, if we're not using them, why do we have the nukes in the first place? After all, there is no more Soviet Union to compete with. If the attacks are not a good enough reason to use them, then what are we holding on to them for?!!! Now, at this point, you may think of me as being no less than a madman, but hear me out, for I have a method to my madness.] source: [url]http://www.floridajewish.com/speakout_display.asp?title=Making+Friends+with+the+Enemy...+The+Nuclear+Way[/url]
In the same hate-filled article Kaufman is dead wrong on his facts and encourages using nuclear bombs on Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. He also claims that Iraq was behind the anthrax scare in America.
More recently Kaufman has spewed hatred against Muslim youth events, like falsely accusing a recent Muslim youth retreat in a the Tampa area, as a 'Jihad camp.' Kaufman circulated the wrong information encouraging other radicals to threaten both the youth and the venue owners. It turns out that kaufamn lied and made up the stories which he pitched to local media. A St. Petersburg Times reporter discussed the issue in an article earlier this year titled "Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?" source: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/16/State/Are_bloggers_against_.shtml
Joe Kaufman has proven to the world that he is a militant ultra-violent biased extremist that can not be trusted. |
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