Toronto Islamist Website Calls Sandy a 'Divine Slap' in Face of U.S. 'Arrogance

Screen shot from Crescent International's unsigned blog post

A pro-Islamist website in Toronto is calling Hurricane Sandy “a divine slap on the face” of American “arrogance.”

The website of Crescent International, which calls itself the “newsmagazine of the Islamic movement,” published an unsigned post which concluded by saying: “Hurricane Sandy, as a divine slap on the face of arrogance, is smashing its way through the Eastern Coast of the US.”

The post also criticizes the U.S. for allowing women the right to vote.

Canada’s National Post reports that Crescent International “often promotes the worldview of Iran’s repressive regime.” The paper writes:

The website is run by the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought. Zafar Bangash, director of the institute, said Tuesday he did not write the post, headlined: “Hurricane Sandy delivers slap on US face.”

“We have a number of bloggers that put on stuff on our website but that particular writer perhaps felt that it was a slap on the face of the U.S. government and its policies,” he said.

Asked to elaborate, Mr. Bangash, who was reached at the Islamic Society of York Region, the federally registered charity that lists him as a director, said he did not believe he would be quoted accurately and hung up.

In the Islamist group's post, the unidentified contributor derides the fact that women enjoy the right to vote in the U.S., because it might be “housewives” who end up casting the deciding ballots in swing states:

The real cliffhanger is Ohio where housewives will decide who becomes the next US president.

While the overwhelming majority of Americans are quite ignorant about issues beyond their concern for jobs, the fact that Ohio housewives will determine who should occupy the White House to decide on such weighty matters as dealing with the Middle East, Iran’s nuclear program or US relations with Russia is quite amusing, and revealing.

This is what American democracy is all about.

The blog writer also mocks President Barack Obama’s behavior in the wake of the storm:

In the meantime, as the storm batters homes and cities, Obama tries to look and act presidential pretending that he is more interested in people’s well being than worrying about electioneering. This of course is nonsense. He is trying to act presidential because he thinks it would garner him more sympathy and therefore support.

The writer took the opportunity to also slam Wall Street: “Even the Wall Street sharks were powerless before God’s fury.”

Writer Steve Merti of the Daily Brew blog on Yahoo cautions against using the intolerance Crescent International is promoting to jump to conclusions about the response of all Muslim groups and even Islamist extremists to the hurricane. He writes:

Even Islamic terrorist leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the architect of the 2008 Mumbai attacks who has a $10-million U.S. price on his head, said his organization is ready to help Americans cope with Sandy.

"We are ready to send food items, medicines and doctors to the US for the people affected by the storm," Saeed said, according to India's First Post.

He said though the United States had put a bounty on his head, it was the duty of Muslims to help fellow human beings, irrespective of their faith, during a natural catastrophe.

Merti also reports that Islamic Relief USA sent a “disaster assistance response team” to help those in New Jersey impacted by the storm.

(H/T: Jihad Watch)