Slander! - UPDATED.. Good news!

[Katia]

I got this from another list.. We have been slandered in the New York Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/po.../01scotus.html

"The five Ohio inmates who brought the case belong to nonmainstream religions, including one, Asatru, that preaches that the white race needs to use violence and terrorism to prevail over the "mud races." "

I have written an email to the editor of this article expressing my discontent with her generalizations and lack of proper research. Another point I made was that the KKK was a Christian based terrorism group, so should people generalise Christianity as this type of faith as well? This article just made me so mad!

I think it is our duty to all contact this newspaper and share our distaste with this article. There were many other news articles concerning this matter that reported the news and did not go out of their way to slander our faith -- they need to be made known of this.

Please remember not to use profanity, be firm yet respectful.. and use your spell check! It sounds trivial but it makes a difference.

Ways to contact the New York Times:

To write to the writer, e-mail ligree@nytimes.com
It is also a good idea to CC the editor so they know they are receiving complaints!
The editorial page editor, e-mail editorial@nytimes.com

You may mail your letter to:

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Or fax it to: (212) 556-3622.

[Teufelhunden]

These were my 2 cents......

I take serious issue with your paper branding "Asatru" as a racist faith, based on one person whom you cam across in prison. You obviously know nothing about Odinism or our faith, The KKK was a christian based group, would you label all Christians as such? I think not. You took no time to research it, and just used a typical liberal media knee jerk reaction to something you took no time to understand and it is slanderous. We pride ourselves on Honor, integrity, and self reliance, many things that are lacking in today's society. Next time you write about our God's or people I would hope you actually look into it before you go branding an entire faith. Christianity conquered Europe by the sword and used torture and murder to convert. Islam has done much the same and is still doing so today, and I will bet you that you would not dare write anything disparaging about either faith because it is so un PC, but go out of your way to bash whites and a faith that is centuries older and northern European based. I would ask that you write a retraction to such allegations but I am realistic, and expect you probably will not. You can not possibly label a whole faith off the basis of one misguided person, I take particular offense since I am also of German ancestry, and our faith has nothing to do with Nazi's, or racism, and is the oldest Germanic faith also followed by the Viking peoples.
Next time try showing us the same consideration you would to and Islamic or Christian, after all I do not run around bashing other faiths.
Regards,
Chris
will it make a difference, probably not they are way too PC left leaning, but at least you can be heard...
Teufelhunden

[Scramaseax]

Katia, is there a word limit on letters to the editor? there usually is, otherwise they'd get innundated with essays. I don't suppose they'll give a **** about a letter from New Zealand, but I suppose there's no harm. Except maybe getting on some list as a violent terrorist who wants victory over the mud races

[aud_friggsdottir]

I got this from another list.. We have been slandered in the New York Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/po.../01scotus.html

"The five Ohio inmates who brought the case belong to nonmainstream religions, including one, Asatru, that preaches that the white race needs to use violence and terrorism to prevail over the "mud races." "

I have written an email to the editor of this article expressing my discontent with her generalizations and lack of proper research. Another point I made was that the KKK was a Christian based terrorism group, so should people generalise Christianity as this type of faith as well? This article just made me so mad!

I think it is our duty to all contact this newspaper and share our distaste with this article. There were many other news articles concerning this matter that reported the news and did not go out of their way to slander our faith -- they need to be made known of this.

Please remember not to use profanity, be firm yet respectful.. and use your spell check! It sounds trivial but it makes a difference.

Ways to contact the New York Times:

To write the editorial page editor, e-mail editorial@nytimes.com

You may mail your letter to:

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

Or fax it to: (212) 556-3622.

OH Good Gods! How do these people get their jobs...? Letter WILL be sent today!

FFF
K

[Scramaseax]

What is the title and date of the article, and the author's name? I'm not interested in registering with them to find out.

[Katia]

Well that is strange, I don't understand why it won't let some read the whole article without registering.. let me post it here so all have access to it and the author, title, etc. I would limit the replies to 150 words or less, more than that probably wouldn't get read anyways.. and I think our point can be made in 150 words or less.


Supreme Court Rules in Ohio Prison Case
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: June 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 31 - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday that a new federal law requiring prison officials to meet inmates' religious needs is a permissible accommodation of religion that does not violate the separation of church and state.

The Opinion The court rejected arguments by Ohio officials that the law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, violated the Constitution by elevating religion above all other reasons a prisoner might seek special privileges.

The state had said that by requiring prison officials to cater to the demands of adherents of Satanist or white-supremacist religions, the law would result in attracting new followers to these sects, to the detriment of prison security.

The five Ohio inmates who brought the case belong to nonmainstream religions, including one, Asatru, that preaches that the white race needs to use violence and terrorism to prevail over the "mud races."

In her opinion for the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the state's fears were unfounded. The Congressional sponsors "were mindful of the urgency of discipline, order, safety, and security in penal institutions," she said, and "we do not read" the law to "elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution's need to maintain order and safety."

Justice Ginsburg said that under Ohio's constitutional argument, which the federal appeals court in Cincinnati accepted last year in invalidating the statute, "all manner of religious accommodations would fall." She noted that many accommodations have been widely accepted: Ohio itself provides prison chaplains for "traditionally recognized" religions, and Congress has authorized military personnel to wear yarmulkes and other religious apparel while in uniform despite a Supreme Court ruling that such an accommodation was not constitutionally required.

The Supreme Court has had a sometimes troubled history of defining where the two religion clauses of the First Amendment overlap: the Free Exercise Clause, which protects religious practice from government interference, and the Establishment Clause, which in Justice Ginsburg's words "commands a separation of church and state."

From the tone of this latest decision, Cutter v. Wilkinson, No. 03-9877, it appeared that the court was seeking to defuse the tension inherent in the two clauses. "Our decisions recognize that there is room for play in the joints between the clauses, some space for legislative action neither compelled by the Free Exercise Clause nor prohibited by the Establishment Clause," Justice Ginsburg said.

The ruling marked the latest chapter in a 15-year dialogue among the court, Congress and the states over the degree to which the government may take religious interests into account in law or official policy. The statute in question, passed in 2000, is a direct outgrowth of that dialogue, which began with a 1990 Supreme Court case from Oregon, Employment Division v. Smith.

The court ruled in that case, about American Indians' religious use of an illegal substance, peyote, that the government's refusal to grant religion-based exemptions to the general application of its laws did not violate the Free Exercise Clause.

Congress reacted swiftly and, by large margins in both houses, passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which required the government to accommodate religious practices unless it had a "compelling" reason not to do so.

In 1997, the Supreme Court, taking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to be an assault on its institutional prerogatives, declared it unconstitutional on the ground that Congress lacked authority, at least in the circumstances of that case, to define the meaning of a constitutional provision and to impose that meaning on the states. The full impact of that decision, City of Boerne v. Flores, continues to play out across the court's federalism docket.

The law's supporters regrouped and arrived at a different approach. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act addressed only two types of government action: zoning and the rights of inmates of prisons, government-run mental hospitals and other public institutions.

[Scramaseax]

Dear Editor,

I am writing to voice my objection to the article "Supreme Court Rules in Ohio Prison Case" dated June 1st. In this article Linda Greenhouse comments on two Asatruar inmates. She states that Asatru "preaches that the white race needs to use violence and terrorism to prevail over the "mud races"". This assertion is simply absurd and has little basis in reality. The other newspapers covering the story did not describe Asatru in this manner, so it seems the synopsis came from Mrs. Greenhouse alone. I wonder what her source was as I have attended Asatru gatherings and never once heard this alleged ideology preached. It is this type of prejudice that Asatruar don't need perpetuated by a newspaper making a pretense of being accurate and unbiased. If this description of Asatru came from the inmates themselves then they are at odds with the majority of the Asatru community worldwide. Asatru is the ancestral religion of the Germanic people; it is no more racist than a Jew following Judaism or a Japanese following Shinto. It displays an appalling lack of research on behalf of the New York Times to summarise an entire religious tradition extending back some forty thousand years in such a manner. Most religions have their fringe elements; the Middle Eastern religions especially come to mind. All it would have taken was a simple internet search to determine that this explanation of Asatru is tantamount to slander.

[Scramaseax]

It was only one inmate too late now though

[Draconian Umpire]

The New York Times? SLANDERING???

Well, golly, that's new to me....[/sarcasm]

[Jay]

My letter to them is this:

I do not agree with your generalizations of the Asatru faith. *In your
article about the Supreme Court decision in the Ohio prisons you post an
irresponsible comment such as this: *"The five Ohio inmates who brought the
case belong to nonmainstream religions, including one, Asatru, that preaches
that the white race needs to use violence and terrorism to prevail over the
"mud races." "

Asatru does not teach that; violence and terrorism is taught by people to
each other and although every faith system has its extremist wing it is false
to categorize Asatru as a faith that teaches violence and terrorism. *

If you did some research into my faith you would see we preach the Nine Noble
Virtues. *The Nine Noble Virtues are: *Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity,
Discipline, Hospitality, Industry, Self-Reliance, and Perseverance. *I don't
think I need to explain them to you. *Nowhere do we teach that anyone of a
different race is our enemy and should be dealt with violently. *That is
injected into our faith by individuals with their own agenda.

I am the webmaster of www.odinist.com and we have a specific policy there of
not allowing the racist element of Asatru to be known on that bulletin board.

You could say the same thing about the Christian faith as well, since over
the years they have proven far more racist than any Asatru group with the
Christian Inquistion and other genocidal-type crimes. *You could even go back
into the 50's and 60's - and in some cases still find certain Christian
churches in the South - that still practice segregation.

I would suggest that you further your research into my faith before printing
false statements that demonize my faith and further creating ignorance and
close-mindedness.

Jay Ashman
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--
Jay Ashman
Odinist.com Forums - http://www.odinist.com/forum
Odinic Rite - http://www.********rite.org
++++++++++++++
"Lo' there do I see My Father,
Lo' there do I see My Mother
and my Sisters, & My Brothers.
Lo' there do i see the line of My People, back to the Beginning
Lo' they do call to me,
They bid me take my place among them,
In the Halls of Valhalla,
Where The Brave May Live Forever!"
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