On the night of March 18, anti-military radical protesters smashed the windows of the embattled Marines Recruiiting Office in Berkeley:

Windows were smashed and red paint was splashed Wednesday night on the Marine Corps recruiting center, which has been the target of protests for the past 18 months.

The incident, which came on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, was caught on tape by a surveillance camera about 8:55 p.m. at the center in downtown Berkeley, police said.
Police have not made any arrests but are reviewing the tape, Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said.
…
Police found a sledgehammer and a crowbar in a nearby garbage can that they are reviewing as evidence.

After breaking windows and defacing the Marine Corps logo at the center, the half-dozen vandals wearing dark clothing scattered in three different directions, police said. The suspects’ faces were covered, police said.

The photos above (courtesy of the San Jose Mercury News) were taken on the morning of Thursday, March 19, as the window was about to be replaced.

I went to Shattuck Square in Berkeley a few hours later to take pictures, and found that not only had the windows already been repaired, but — to my astonishment…

…the protesters were already back, brazenly demonstrating in front of the newly repaired windows, just a short time after they had been broken.

Pro-military counter-protesters got wind of the event and showed up as well, creating a defensive line around the office. (Notice the new window behind them; you can see in this photo I took last year during a previous incident that the window used to have a Marine Corps logo on it before it was broken.)

In an interview with The Daily Cal, Code Pink — one of the groups protesting — denied any responsibility for the window smashing, but added,

Joi said she did not know who was responsible for vandalizing the center, but that frustration with the Marines was understandable.

“It is not the right thing for us to do,” she said. “But I cannot tell (anyone) what the right thing is for (them) to do.”

In other words — we didn’t do it, but we don’t mind that it was done.

However, Code Pink wasn’t the only group there — World Can’t Wait was also on hand, and several apparently unaffiliated protesters — some of whom were masked, just like the attackers the night before. Hmmmmmm…

Note also the comical sign, “Racist ,Fa[s]cist, Pro War, Republican!” with an arrow pointing toward the center. Because, as everyone knows, no Democratic president has ever ordered the Marines into battle! They’re purely a Republican branch of the military.

The actual criminals themselves took a photo of their deed moments after smashing the window the night before, and posted it on IndyBay. Since IndyBay is likely to eventually redirect this link (they don’t like “outsiders” linking to their reports), here’s the text that accompanied the above photo:

At 9PM on March 18th, the eve of the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California.

The center has been the target of protests for the last 18 months, and stands as a symbol of U.S. militarism and imperialist wars. The act of property distruction stands alone as the embodyment of frustration of a people whos government does not listen to or care about them.

Police have not made any arrests but are reviewing the tape, said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. A sledgehammer and a crowbar were found in a nearby garbage can nearby, and are being reviewing as evidence. After breaking windows and improving the Marine Corps logo at the center, the group wearing masks and dark clothing scattered in three different directions, police said.

As of the time of this posting, no one involved has been arrested. The act was easy. You and a few friends could have pulled it off any day.

NO MORE IMPERIALIST WARS!!!

NO MORE GOVERNMENT!!!

SMASH THE STATE!!!

Predictably, Cindy Sheehan showed up as well. This is sort of her default location; when she has nothing better to do, she drifts back to the Marines office in Berkeley.

The circus continued all afternoon. Were the perpetrators among the crowd? Probably. But since they had been wearing masks, there was no way to tell.

Spotted in San Francisco:

Tookie Williams was a mass-murdering gang member. Convicted of four gruesome homicides, Williams bragged of killing many more, including police officers. He was executed at San Quentin prison on December 13, 2005. But in the years before his execution, he became the poster child for the anti-death penalty movement in California. I documented the “Save Tookie!” frenzy outside the gates of San Quentin on the night he was executed.

What did he do that turned his public image from that of a notorious unrepentant killer to that of a glamorous victim-hero? Why, he “wrote” a series of children’s books counseling kids not to join gangs, with titles like Gangs and the Abuse of Power. All of his books were “co”-authored by his girlfriend and acolyte Barbara Becnel, but even a cursory glance at any of them reveals that Tookie obviously didn’t write them at all — she wrote them, and put his name on them. Tookie was poorly educated and borderline illiterate, but the vocabulary, sentence structure and political tonality of those (and other) books bearing his name were not the kind of thing Tookie was capable of. But no matter: based on those books, not only did he become a hero of the anti-prison movement, but he was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

These two stencils of Tookie Williams were photographed recently on the sidewalks of San Francisco, but I think they’ve been there since 2005, when there was a spate of pro-Tookie graffiti during the run-up to his execution.

San Franciscans have recently been finding themselves in the uncomfortable position of riding around on public buses plastered with the words “ISLAM – Submission to God.” I say “uncomfortable” because San Francisco is famously amongst the most secular and non-religious cities in the nation. But there has been nary a peep of comment or protest about these ubiquitous in-your-face ads, which are shown here in photos taken on March 2 in San Francisco.

Such was not the case a few weeks ago in Ft. Lauderdale, however, which is one of the cities where the ads first appeared on buses. As reported in the Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle joined a protest against the same ad campaign. While the protest did not succeed in getting the ads removed, it highlighted the fact the the ads were co-sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — a fact which can be easily confirmed with a little research: The ads themselves link to www.whyislam.org, which states at the bottom of the page that it is a project of ICNA; ICNA’s local chapter has a page on its own site about creating the ISLAM ad campaign in San Francisco; that page also lists CAIR as a co-sponsor (along with many other Muslim groups); and CAIR’s own site “Calling Islam” has many photos, links, and press releases about the ad campaign on its home page. So there’s no question that the ads are an ICNA and CAIR co-project.

Why is this noteworthy? Because ICNA is not your run-of-the-mill Muslim group, but rather is the North American branch of Jamaat-e-Islami, the fundamentalist Pakistani political party whose goal is the imposition of sharia law, and who are closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the primary fonts of Islamic fundamentalism in the modern world. ICNA’s mission statement on its own Web site says

The goal of ICNA shall be to seek the pleasure of Allah (SWT) through the struggle of Iqamat-ud-Deen (establishment of the Islamic system of life) as spelled out in the Qur’an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

The phrase “establishment of the Islamic system of life” means living under sharia (Islamic law) in a caliphate (Islamic political structure). Even the briefest of Web searches turns up any number of links about ICNA which show that it is among the most extreme of all fundamentalist Islamic groups in the United States.

(The proprietor of the zTruth blog also noted the San Francisco Islam bus ad campaign and tried to engage ICNA in a conversation about the cost of the ads — with predictable results: ICNA refused to answer his journalistic questions, even though they specifically invite email exchanges.)

But even more noteworthy is the involvement of CAIR in this concerted effort at dawah (Islamic proselytizing). CAIR derives its political credibility from supposedly being a respectable civil rights nonprofit organization:

CAIR’s literature describes the group as a “leading advocate for justice and understanding”, a mission which includes promoting the understanding of Islam, and protecting Muslim civil liberties. Their stated core principles include supporting freedom of religion, protecting the civil rights of everyone, and encouraging inter-faith dialogue.

But as their association with ICNA and this ad campaign now reveals, CAIR’s real goal is to convert Americans to Islam — with the eventual goal of turning the United States into a fully Islamic society (i.e. one operating under sharia).

In fact, on CAIR’s own “Calling Islam” site, they reveal their true agenda with several pages devoted specifically to dawah, such as this one called “How to Convert to Islam and Become a Muslim.”

There’s nothing wrong or illegal about religious groups trying to convert non-believers, but such activities become unethical when the groups try to pass themselves off as something else entirely — for example, when Scientologists set up innocent-looking “personality assessment” and “stress testing” booths in shopping malls, or when CAIR tries to pretend that it is a civil rights organization.

Later in the same day, I took this photo in San Francisco’s Castro District, at the corner of 18th and Castro streets. As everyone knows, the Castro is the epicenter of gay activism in the United States (note the rainbow flag in the bank window). And even in this neighborhood, the ISLAM bus ads appear prominently and frequently.

Now, whenever any Christian group tries to “cure” gays of homosexuality, or (as happened recently) campaigns to ban gay marriage in California, there are invariably eruptions of outrage in the Castro and throughout the San Francisco gay community, often culminating in protest marches, citizen forums, lawsuits, and more. Which is to be expected.

However, I have not heard the slightest peep of protest about these ISLAM ads appearing in gay neighborhoods. But, you may ask, why should anyone protest? Because, as it turns out, ICNA is virulently anti-gay. On ICNA’s own Web site is this passage, calling homosexuality “a pollution of the soul”:

Marriage is the proper form of satisfying the sexual activity. Adultery, fornication or homosexuality and such things are a pollution of the souls and the purity of genealogies.

Elsewhere on ICNA’s “Why Islam?” site, an essay is posted which says,

Islam teaches that homosexual acts are sinful and punishable by God. This teaching comes not from human beings, but from the Creator of all humans. God tells us in His own words how He punished the people of Lot for their homosexual behaviour.

The story of prophet Lot, on whom be peace, finds mention in several Qur’anic passages, especially Chapter 26:160-175 which reads:

[Qur’anic quote describing the destruction of Sodom.]

From these passages we learn that God saved Lot and the righteous ones of his family, and rained on the rest a shower of brimstone, so they were utterly destroyed. This is mentioned in the Qur’an not only for the sake of information, but mainly to serve as a warning to anyone who dares to repeat such acts.

Clear enough for you?

Furthermore, at major Muslim conferences co-sponsored by ICNA, various speakers and presenters said things like,

Dr Hathout told his audience that the materialism that has captured American society and to which Muslims are not exempt, troubles him. Also troubling is the impetus in modern society to accept the homosexuality as just another lifestyle choice. He reminded his audience that Islam does not accept homosexuality, and he reminded them that people have the choice to make and are mandated by Islam to reject homosexuality.

Moreover, clerics associated with ICNA have issued fatwas against homosexuality. Again, even cursory Web searches bring up many links of all sorts suggesting that ICNA — like most fundamentalist Islamic parties — is unapologetically opposed to homosexuality, and advocates strict adherence to Islamic law, under which the penalty for homosexual acts is death.

And yet — there is a resounding silence from San Francisco’s gay community about these ads, which are paid for by a group whose ultimate goal is to outlaw homosexuality in the United States. Imagine, for a moment, if a Christian group with similar goals had paid for and displayed proselytizing ads in the Castro. The outrage would be deafening. And yet when a Muslim group does it — silence. Why? There’s only one possible answer: Fear.

The cowardice and hypocrisy of the gay activist community on this issue is deeply troubling.

Other cities:

When the same ad campaign appeared on the New York subway system, the New York Post exposed the terror connections behind the ICNA-associated imam who was promoting the ads. Even so, as Weasel Zippers pointed out, the media continued to write puff pieces about ICNA.

The “Creeping Sharia” blog had an extensive post about the Ft. Lauderdale bus ads which had some excellent background research on the issue — pointing out, for example, how the ads (and CAIR’s Web site associated with the ads) are insulting and offensive to Christians and Jews. The Creeping Sharia post also has a great deal more evidence conclusively proving that ICNA is an offshoot of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Pakistani religious party seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate.

The controversy over the ads in Ft. Lauderdale led the County Commission to consider banning all religious advertising on local buses.

In addition to San Francisco and Ft. Lauderdale, the same ad campaign has also appeared in Miami and Chicago. This article says the ads have also run in Orlando, Jacksonville (FL), Portland (OR), and San Antonio.

Zomblog readers report seeing ISLAM ads from this campaign on buses, trains and billboards in New York, Baltimore and Seattle. Have you spotted them in your town?