I got there early while it was still light so I could take some photos of the area. Charlotte Courthouse is one of the more beautiful locations in the Commonwealth of Virginia, scenic and historic — the home of Patrick Henry — without being overrun with boutiques and tack shops like a lot of other “old towns” are.
“I’ve got a son in the Navy,” she said. “That’s not what he’s fighting for.”
She wondered why the FBI couldn’t do something about the Red House compound. I reminded her that this is a free country, and that unless someone there did something overtly illegal, there wasn’t much that law enforcement could do.
She gave a reluctant assent, but added, “You know, this country is really getting kind of screwed up.”
The media showed up in full force, and Martin was interviewed a couple of times in front of the restaurant before he could eat his dinner.
The demonstration was not at the Courthouse itself, but just down the road in front of the County Administration Building, since that is where the Board of Supervisors meets.
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The state police were there to make sure no one got out of hand (no one did).
I chatted for a while with a representative of the state police. When I told him I was a blogger, he asked me which one.
“You’re with the 910 Group, right?”
“Well… yes, I’m associated with them.”
It turns out that he is a regular Gates of Vienna reader, and has been keeping up with the Jamaat ul-Fuqra news. He had even read today’s post. Hooray for the state police! Christine from the 910 Group was one of the demonstrators, and went over to introduce herself to him.
“Oh, so you’re Christine!” he said. “I know you.”
When I confronted him with Sheikh Gilani’s own words, he said that his friends in the compound think the Sheikh was being taken out of context.
Well, consider this, from a recruitment video:
In a videotape obtained by The Washington Times, Sheik Gilani calls on American Muslims to help him form an “international organization.”
“We have reached out and prepared them to defend themselves in a highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare,” he says, referring to two camouflage-clad black men flanking him. “Life is becoming more hard for Muslims. Therefore, every man and woman will learn to defend himself or herself.”
Must have been some context.
The demonstrators arrived, led by a CAN member dressed as the Statue of Liberty, with another young man leading the chants with a bullhorn. “Sheikh Gilani out of the county!” and “Gilani Lane is insane!” are two that I remember.
The demonstrators circled the complex several times while the media milled around getting video footage and interviewing people.
At least one of the demonstrators was a local Charlotte County resident, a six-year veteran of the military who said that he had to come and speak out against the naming of the road.
A final gathering in front of the building, a big round of applause, and then the demonstration broke up.
The Board of Supervisors knew that CAN was coming, and the had hastily rearranged their schedule to meet for a moment at 7:00 pm, adjourn, and reconvene a little later at a local school, where no demonstration would be allowed. I assume they thought that by this stratagem they could duck all the adverse publicity.
But by absenting themselves so thoroughly from the scene, they made sure that Martin’s folks and the 910 Group people got most of the talking-head time on the news, without a single official representative of Charlotte County on camera.
I’m not a media-savvy person, but given the indefensible case they have to try to make, this doesn’t seem to have been a very wise move on their part.
4 comments:
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant".
Keep shining that light on the cockroaches.
Excellent stuff. Kudos to the Christian Action Network and Gates of Vienna!
Regards,
Snouck
"Must have been some context."
After they get done with their spin -- deceiving everyone, making innuendos, and blowing things out of proportion -- this peaceful demonstration will have become part of the context.
Don't count on the media to set the record straight, either.
ACTION IS NECESSARY!
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