{"id":80208,"date":"2015-11-25T12:29:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T20:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=80208"},"modified":"2019-06-20T04:18:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T12:18:27","slug":"the-adl-wants-more-muslims-in-america-and-more-restrictions-on-our-freedom-know-your-enemy-never-forgive-never-forget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=80208","title":{"rendered":"The ADL wants more Muslims in America and more restrictions on our freedom of speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ADLLauterAE_300_200_90\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“National ADL civil rights director Deborah Lauter and NJ ADL director Joshua Cohen said much has to be done to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bias, and hate crime on the Internet.”<\/em><\/p>\n

From the New Jersey Jewish News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League is looking to strengthen hate-crimes laws in New Jersey and across the country in an initiative it is calling \u201c50 States Against Hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prompted by the June murder of nine African-Americans at a historic church in Charleston, SC, the ADL is partnering with civil rights groups and labor unions to press for stronger laws, better training for law enforcement personnel, improved data collection, and increased reporting. <\/p>\n

In New Jersey, the organization will focus on underreporting, on-line bullying, and discrimination against transgender people.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Jersey has very good laws on the books, but we would like to up our game in terms of law enforcement,\u201d said Deborah Lauter, the ADL\u2019s national civil rights director, in an interview at NJ Jewish News offices in Whippany.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned not only about having laws on the books, but making sure communities know about them and law enforcement is taking them seriously,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the ADL logged 107 anti-Semitic incidents in New Jersey \u2014 a 27 percent increase from the 78 incidents reported in 2013. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some cities that are underreporting hate crime,\u201d including incidents occurring on line, said Joshua Cohen, ADL\u2019s NJ director, who joined Lauter for the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish community is very comfortable in the United States. We trust law enforcement and are more likely to report hate crimes than others,\u201d Lauter acknowledged; however, \u201cthe Muslim community may not have the same comfort level in dealing with the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen cited a June incident when a Muslim student came to class at Colonia High School wearing a head scarf. She felt intimidated after a photograph of her was posted on Facebook and Snapchat along with the word \u201cISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt flew through social media, and it took the school four months to investigate,\u201d said Cohen, whose office dealt with her complaint. \u201cThe administration\u2019s first response was to deny it was an incident of bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

…
\n\u201cThe Jewish community is very comfortable in the United States. We trust law enforcement and are more likely to report hate crimes than others,\u201d Lauter acknowledged; however, \u201cthe Muslim community may not have the same comfort level in dealing with the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen cited a June incident when a Muslim student came to class at Colonia High School wearing a head scarf. She felt intimidated after a photograph of her was posted on Facebook and Snapchat along with the word \u201cISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt flew through social media, and it took the school four months to investigate,\u201d said Cohen, whose office dealt with her complaint. \u201cThe administration\u2019s first response was to deny it was an incident of bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late October, Colonia\u2019s schools superintendent told a WPIX-TV reporter, \u201cNot only is it harassment and bullying and intimidating, but it\u2019s hateful. It\u2019s biased and it\u2019s ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauter said the ADL has been working with private Internet companies to focus attention on hate issues. \u201cWe have developed a set of best practices for what we would like the Internet companies to do to define what is and is not allowed on the Internet as offensive material and making sure the companies are taking down offensive material when it is reported,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another growing area of concern is discrimination against transgender people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very disappointed when Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation in August that would have allowed transgender individuals to change their sex designation on their birth certificates,\u201d said Cohen. \u201cWe will continue to advocate for those changes, and we continue to provide anti-LGBT bias resources to our schools.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lauter said the ADL is sometimes caught in a struggle between religious freedom and civil rights, especially when women\u2019s and gay rights issues conflict with conservative Christianity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at LGBT challenges and challenges to women\u2019s reproductive rights, they come from the conservative Right that wants to impose its religious values on the rest of us,\u201d Lauter said. \u201cMany of them believe this is a Christian nation, but while most people are Christians, our founding fathers never conceived of it as a Christian nation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to talk to them in terms of respect for differences and respect for others,\u201d she continued. \u201cThey have an absolute constitutional right to their religious values, but they may not impose them on the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADL leaders said the group\u2019s broader civil rights activities are inseparable from its defense of Jewish interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all,\u201d said Lauter. \u201cIf we want the Jewish community to be safe, we will fight on behalf of making this country more equitable because it serves us all. It is in our self-interest to make sure democracy is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“National ADL civil rights director Deborah Lauter and NJ ADL director Joshua Cohen said much has to be done to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bias, and hate crime on the Internet.” From the New Jersey Jewish News: The Anti-Defamation League is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80208"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127786,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80208\/revisions\/127786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}