February 8, 2007, - 5:22 am
The Dems’ Imam: Why is Sean Hannity Deliberately Ripping Me Off?
By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Top Conservative Blogger Rips Sean Hannity’s Plagiarism of Schlussel on Al-Husainy; VIDEO: NYTimes Best-Selling Islam Expert Cites Schlussel on Al-Husainy ****
Below is the original, unabridged version of the column on Imam Husham Al-Husainy that ran in Tuesday’s New York Post. Readers of my work and of this site know that I risked my life to go undercover to Hezbollah events and rallies in Dearbornistan to bring you exclusive info on Al-Husainy, the man who delivered the invocation on Friday at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting. And that I’ve been writing about Al-Husainy since the beginning of year and before (in the Wall Street Journal).
Sean Hannity knows it, too. And so does his FOX News Channel executive producer, John Finley (direct line: (212) 301-3194).
Yet, while admittedly reading my exclusive work on Al-Husainy, they chose to deliberately steal my work on FOX News’ “Hannity & Colmes,” uncredited for two nights in a row. Tonight will make three. (See video from Nights One and Two of the Hannity Rip-off of Schlussel.)
They also chose not only to rip me off and use my work uncredited, but to repeatedly have on others who are clueless about the Imam to use my work, too. Last night, Mark Steyn ripped me off on the show. Thanks, Mark. If Sean, Alan Colmes or Finley were really truly interested in discussing this imam accurately and getting the message out about him, they’d have actually had someone who knows about him on the show–ME.
The first night, Tuesday Night, I contacted Sean on his cellphone. He was, as usual, “too busy” and couldn’t be bothered to do the right thing. He admitted he knew he used my work uncredited, and I managed to get him to promise to have me on to discuss my original work, he said, “if we talk about this again on the show.” I also suggested having Al-Husainy, himself, on along with myself, since I’m only the single commentator who actually knows something–actually, a lot–about him. Sean promised that if they had the imam on, he and John Finley would have me on, too.
But, as is usual for Sean these days, he did not keep his word. Last night, not only did they rip my work off again, but they questioned it (without mentioning my name or allowing me to be on to defend it). Suddenly, Hannity was saying Al-Husainy “reportedly” was at pro-Hezbollah rallies, and Colmes claimed, “We’ve been unable to confirm that,” and questioned my New York Post column’s accuracy.
Well, that’s interesting to me–they never attempted to “confirm” this in the least. Since I’m the source of the info–I WAS THERE AT THOSE RALLIES and wrote about it in the New York Post column they ripped off–why didn’t they contact me? I have pictures, etc. And why can’t they have me on instead of Steyn and another person who are clueless on this? And are they now questioning the accuracy of their fellow News Corp property, the New York Post? I’m sure Rupert Murdoch would love to know that Hannity & Colmes believe his other news property is an inaccurate news source.
Tonight, they are having Imam Al-Husainy on, without me, also contrary to Sean’s promise. Why can’t Sean Hannity keep his word? And why is he ripping off my work? I called him after last night’s show–the second time he deliberately ripped me off on this particular topic–and politely asked why he did not have me on to defend my exclusive work and/or give me credit. He did not answer. He just hung up. He just can’t be bothered.
Sean’s viewers and listeners are noting this deliberate rip-off of my work, as many have sent me and him e-mails about it. His current and former nationally syndicated radio show producers both e-mailed Sean with my work and asked him to give me credit and have me on. But he won’t listen to them either. For whatever illegitimate reason, Sean Hannity would rather rip me off and deny me what I rightfully deserve for my hard work.
That’s Sean Hannity for you. This is not the first time he’s done this to me, just the latest. Real conservatives believe in property rights, and they don’t steal from others. But those apparently aren’t the beliefs of Sean Hannity and his producer John Finley. And if I’m not good enough to have on the show anymore, then my work (uncredited) is not good enough either, and I’d appreciate it if they’d quit stealing from me. Conversely, if my work is good enough for their show (and we know that it is, or they wouldn’t keep ripping it off), then I should be good enough, too.
Sean was all over Jayson Blair when he plagiarized (and fabricated) at the New York Times. But when the shoe’s on the other foot . . . .
Call ((212) 301-3194) and E-mail John Finley (I have–he won’t return my calls; but continues to use my work), and ask him why they are deliberately ripping off my hard work. Call ((212) 301-3289) and E-mail FOX News Senior Vice President Bill Shine (Sean’s boss and good friend) and ask him why they are deliberately keeping me from getting credit for and defending my work. Neither Finley nor Shine has returned a single call or e-mail of mine regarding this, because they know they ripped me off. Otherwise, they’d deny it.
Fair and Balanced? In my case, it’s more like just plain Stolen.
***
The Democrat’s Strange New Imam
By Debbie Schlussel
Is the Democratic National Committee’s chosen Islamic clergy an insight into the party’s direction?
If the use of extremist Imam Husham Al-Husainy to deliver the invocation at the DNC’s Winter Meeting Friday is any indication, it’s a frightening path.
Al-Husainy’s words asking God to “help us stop . . . occupation and oppression” were jarring enough, since his words likely refer to either American soldiers in Iraq or Jews in Israel, since in the past he’s referred to both as “occupiers” and “oppressors.” But his statements and activity since he’s been in the United States make those words even more ominous.
Al-Husainy heads the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, one of the three largest Shi’ite mosques in North America. He has a long record of support for prominent Islamists at war with the United States and Israel.
His ties to Iran are frightening. Al-Husainy was an advisor to the late Mohammed Bakr Al-Hakim, leader of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution.
Al-Husainy is also an open supporter of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, under whose hegemony American hostages were held for 444 days in Iran from 1979-1981. In 2004, upon the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Al-Husainy led a protest march through Dearborn memorializing him. At the march, Al-Husainy and his followers held posters bearing the enlarged photo of Khomeini.
An open supporter of Hezbollah, he led rallies last summer through Dearborn, arm in arm with his friend, Neturei Karta Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss. Swastikas and anti-American, anti-Semitic posters were displayed by protesters, many of whom were Al-Husainy’s congregants. Al-Husainy said of Weiss–who attended Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial conference–“We make a great team, don’t we?”
He asked that rhetorical question at an anti-Semitic rally of 3,000 Hezbollah supporters at Dearborn’s Bint Jebail Cultural Center, named for the Hezbollah stronghold in South Lebanon, from rockets rained on Israel. I was there and watched as Al-Husainy was among several who delivered hate-filled, anti-American rhetoric. I watched him cheer others on when they called for the hastened destruction of the Jews and when one speaker said Americans and Jews are “diseased.”
Then, there are Al-Husainy’s multiple anti-Semitic, anti-American conspiracy theories. In one interview, he said:
Saddam . . . he handed Iraq to the coalition. I believe he is an agent of America. . . . Saddam created a bunch of gangs who have no faith . . . . We also think some outsiders, with some Iraqis, and, by the way, I don’t want to exclude the Zionists. I think some extremists from the Mossad came in and took a chance to have some revenge, because we don’t know who killed [Imam Mohammed Bakr] Al-Hakim or Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In another interview quoted in the L.A. Times, Al-Husainy said that the current chaos in Iraq is the result of an intentional Jewish Zionist conspiracy theory:
the Zionist special group [opposes] the improvement of the relationship between Christians and Muslims.
America itself is a victim of a special-interest group that doesn’t want it to have a good relationship with the Muslim world.
While always an extremist, Al-Husainy was initially a supporter of America’s War in Iraq. He was photographed in Detroit papers being hugged by President Bush in Spring 2003. But by Summer 2004, he was protesting President Bush and demanding that U.S. troops pull out of Iraq. It was a time of heightened violence against Americans perpetrated by Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Jaish Al-Mahdi, with whom Al-Husainy and his congregants are sympathetic. By removing Saddam, America cleared the path for Al-Husainy’s extremist brand of Shi’ism to take over Iraq.
Conspiracy theories against America and the Jews, support for Ayatollah Khomeini and participants in a Holocaust conference–it used to be that these things would disqualify someone from a prominent role at Democratic Party events.
So what’s changed?
It appears to be the Democrats’ opposition to President Bush in Iraq. And with the choice of Al-Husainy to deliver their opening prayer, they apparently want America to lose at all cost.
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Debbie–
I understand the PR aspects of wanting to be on Sean’s show, but, let’s face it, this guy has always been a lightweight. Thanks for letting us know he also steals the work of others, even if that practice is sadly becoming far too common on both sides of the fence.
Hannity’s claims to fame are that he is not quite as irritating (nor as bright) as Michael Medved, and that he pretty much walked into a huge syndication deal. Sean doesn’t have to think too much, since about all he does is parrot Republican party talking points, and pass valuable air time with such washed up politico-celebs as Newt Gingrich and Bill Bennett.
It is always stirring to hear from the former speaker who had the world on a string, and lost it, about as much as it is to listen to the gambling-addicted chain-smoking pompous fallen moralist.
And, don’t you just hate the grating repetition, that started every new hour of his show, when Sean plays a sliced and diced version of Gretchen Peters’ “Independence Day,” as sung by Martina McBride?
This may come as a shock to many of Sean’s somnolent fans, but the song is about a woman who burns down her house to kill her abusive husband. It was, stupidly enough, adopted by some as a post 9/11 anthem, because of three lines
“Let freedom ring!”
“Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning”
“Let the guilty pay!”
Only in America would a song condoning homicidal arson be used to rally us against terrorists who performed the same act on a much grander scale. And only in America would a clueless jerk play it three times a day, five days a week, for this purpose on nationally syndicated radio.
Talk radio, except for Michael Savage and a very few others is not what it used to be…
Red Ryder on February 8, 2007 at 8:45 am