Global Incident Map + Find The Muslims
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Technology, The War On Terrorism, The World
Hey kids, do you like to track suspicious activities and potential terrorist acts?
Then look no further than the Global Incident Map, a Google Maps mashup that shows you where the bad stuff could be going down. Stress “could be.” It also updates ever 420 seconds, and all in all it’s not such a bad thing. After all, keeping on top of what’s happening in the world is standard operating procedure.
They also have maps that tracks news concerning illegal alien arrests, Amber alerts, bird flu outbreaks, and USA school incidents. Again, stuff that’s interesting to know.
However, what I find to be disturbing is another mashup they have called The Mosque Map. Because maybe I’m just being silly here, but I don’t think it’s being used to locate a place to worship.
Personally, I’d like to know the reason why the person created a site to keep tabs on where muslims congregate. It seems, well, suspicious.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 and is filed under Technology, The War On Terrorism, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
If you go to the about page on the Mosque Map, you will find that the contact email address is:
[email protected]
Global Security Analysis is all about anti-terrorism activities, although it seems almost like vigilantism:
http://globalsecurityanalysis.com/aboutus.aspx
The situation is a bit like StormFront setting up a SynagogueMap.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Here is more on the owner of Global Security Analysis. She is “Lori Warrenfeltz” and her linkedin page is here:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/299/817
November 21st, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Umm, I don’t know Justin (stroking chin contemplatively), truly a mystery — hold on just a second….
Why would you find it suspicious? I find you finding it suspicious to be suspicious in-and-of itself? Why would a tracking device for mosques be suspicious, Justin? What are you trying to say? What are you insinuating here?
Do you find it suspicious because you believe that someone might think that where Muslims congregate one might fight a terrorist? The fact that you think “someone might think that” is itself extremely offensive to me and, in fact, you lend credence to such a proposterous notion by calling-out your own “suspicion”, which is a thinly veiled confirmation of your own belief that where large groups of Muslims congregate one might be more like to find a terrorist than say…a Catholic Church.
You are such a bigot.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:02 pm
If want a website that tracks the activities of Muslims around the world, go to this one.
Notice the “grim milestone” that was recently surpassed, over on the left frame.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Lori “Warrenfeltz” huh? hmm! I wonder if this woman is Jewish? but Warrenfeltz could be a Japanese surname too, so I don’t know. Perhaps she believes “all” Arabs are suspicious Arabs because, ummm! they are like Arabs? And I will have to agree with her, you just can’t trust “these people” they are just so f’ken weird looking, ya know? Dos, Jimmy?
November 21st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Who is saying they are “weird looking?” That idea came from your mind, not mine.
It has nothing to do with ethnicity, rather that they subscribe to an ideology that includes a tradition of imperialism and arcane civil laws, founded by a medeival tribal warlord who commanded his followers to “wage war against Jews and Christians until they are utterly subjugated and humiliated.”
It might come as a surprise to you that some people who are not evangelicals or Jews might actually believe in what their scriptures literally say. Maybe you don’t acknowledge the possibility of this human frailty for people of the middle-east and south asia because you see them as “so f’ken weird looking.”
November 21st, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Jimmy, either the facetiousness of my statements went right over your head or you know damn well what I am talking about. No, you didn’t so much as “say” Arabs are weird looking, but everything you say in respect to Arab people gives the unmistakable impression that you blame an entire race of people simply because they were born the people they are.
I do not, whatsoever! entertain the idea that Arab people are “weird looking” nor do I entertain the idea that Jews are “weird looking.” My statements were an attempt. albeit, a unimaginative one to show the absolute absurdity of your
characterization of Arab people as a whole.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and try to nail you to an specific statement, I think it’s quite evident that you’ve made some pretty bullshit statements about an entire people, their culture and assumptions based on generalizations. That was my point. You cannot judge an entire people for the mistakes of a few people that were sick and, albeit, happened to be Arabs as well.
If we are going to prejudge an entire people based on the color of their skin or the religion which they practice then we all are guilty, we all have radical factions within our cultures, religions and societies. Now, let me finish by say that if an Arab person in America is suspected of engaging in activities which are credibly deemed as terrorist, then by all means investigation, prosecution and incarceration are unquestionably just and reasonable actions.
Remember, America has been attacked by terrorists before, one of those terrorists was a white, Caucasian, ex-serviceman named Timothy McVeigh. Terrorism is an equal-opportunity employer. No American should be character assassinated based on the color of his skin or the God he praises. Period!
November 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
It seems to me before publishing an article like this that is filled with nothing but assumptions you would have contacted the site owner and asked her what the purpose is/was. Instead you prefer to be just another irresponsible “journalist” and I use that term loosely.
In the event you choose to do so the information email to her company from their website is [email protected] however I doubt you’d take the time to find out the real story and provide the true facts as that just wouldn’t fit with your portrayal of this site.
There are also numerous sites where you can find religious places of worship or teaching on the internet and they cover every single religion, from Catholic to Buddhist and every denomination in between. This site was no different and was used as nothing more than a scapegoat in your attempts to further propriate the stereotype that all Muslims are evil when that is just not the case at all. The facts show however that of the terrorists that are captured or killed, the majority are in fact Islamic extremists and predominantly Middle Eastern.
As far as her other company being described as vigilante, that again seems completely off. What I see is a group of true Patriots who are volunteering their skills to help the government, law enforcement, and the military. Let’s face it – they all need all the help they can get and if there are citizens who can provide this help and do so because it is just the right thing to do I say more power to them.
I gather you and the majority of your readers based on the above comments know nothing about what it means to honor and defend our country. You don’t have to be a member of the military or law enforcement to do that either and if more people thought this way, perhaps we would not be in the shape we are now in here in the US.
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
StrikingBack, I will concede to one of your points, that people shouldn’t prejudge or persecute others until they have all the facts and have taken time to back up their assertions. However, concering your other points, I don’t believe you are being intellectually honest when you say
“There are also numerous sites where you can find religious places of worship or teaching on the internet and they cover every single religion, from Catholic to Buddhist and every denomination in between. This site was no different and was used as nothing more than a scapegoat in your attempts to further propagate the stereotype that all Muslims are evil when that is just not the case at all. The facts show however that of the terrorists that are captured or killed, the majority are in fact Islamic extremists and predominantly Middle Eastern.”
Yes, unquestionably there are “other sites” that deal with religious places, faiths and causes on the internet. However, these “other sites” don’t try to malign a single religion “Islam” by lumping it into a websites that deals with, as Justin stated
“They also have maps that tracks news concerning illegal alien arrests, Amber alerts, bird flu outbreaks, and USA school incidents. Again, stuff that’s interesting to know.”
Tell me? What does Illegal aliens, Amber alerts, Bird flu outbreaks and School incidents have to do with the religion of Islam? It’s quite clear that the purpose of this particular website is to track the unwanted elements of our society, the social pariah and those that this lady deems “a threat.” However, where is the Ku Klux Klan monitoring page? the Catholic Church Child Molestation tracker? Or how about the Excessive Police Brutality tracker?
You seem to want to use wordplay to make this website look innocuous or rational, when in fact, what you really have is a website condoning racial profiling and promoting a de facto isolation of a group of people based on their religion rather than their actions. It would be an entirely different situation, however, if this website had a “Mosque Map” along with other content such as a “Synagogue Map” and or the sites purpose was to inform the public where they could find a mosque for worship reasons. Instead, what we have here is a bigoted cause moon lighting as a “public service” meant to enhance the “peoples” safety. In reality what it does is it endangers “peoples” safety because Muslims are “people” and this site encourages a very dangerous message–that people can maintain their safety at the cost of endangering another.
This very same thing happened to the Japanese-Americans during World World Two. That was wrong, there are no two ways about it, it was just! wrong. Japanese-American families were incarcerated for no other reason than the color of their skin and their descendants nationality, something completely beyond their control. It turns out that some of these Japanese-Americans chose to fight for their country despite the fact their country was treating them like the enemy merely because they happened to “look” like the enemy, never mind that most of these “Japs” were undoubtedly some of the most patriotic Americans you would ever had a chance to meet. The were Americans goddamn it! a they were some of the most fierce, decorated American who fought that war.
So don’t try to give me some line of sh.it justifying this ladies misguided paranoia. Could their be another attack by Muslims on America? You betcha! Does that mean we should round-up, monitor or harass Muslim-Americans simply for their choice of religion they follow? No, not even!
Do us all a favor and please educate yourself. Not all Muslims are Arab and not all Arabs are Muslim.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Obviously you are the one who needs educating. There are plenty of sites that cater to specific religions. Since you refuse to take the time to educate yourself or again go to the source and ask a lady that you or none of us know, but you’ve already labeled her as “paranoid” and “vigilante”, it shows your sheer ignorance.
I also think it is ludicrous of you to believe that the site portrayed Muslims in any bad way. There is nothing on the site to indicate that. You are making some huge assumptions and I’m sure you are at least educated enough to know what happens when you “assume” as opposed to finding out the “facts”.
Now what’s the difference in The Mosque Map and say the USA Christian Church directory located at: http://www.usachurch.com/ or here is a site solely devoted to the Catholic religion and oh my goodness, it even has a MAP – http://www.catholicweb.com/directory.cfm. Based on your “logic” these sites must be rounding up Christians and Catholics like they did the Japanese as you mentioned above?
People want facts when they read something, not assumptions as the ones you’ve leaped to without “educating yourself” and finding out the facts.
November 24th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Okay, then why doesn’t the owner of the site have a site with all the synagogues and catholic churches listed? It would probably be a very easy list to obtain. If she’s not profiling Muslims specifically, then it should be no problem for her to put all sorts of churches on this map, right?
The fact remains that The Mosque Map is on a site that only lists bad things happening or arrests of potentially bad people. My opinion is that it’s suspicious, and that doesn’t need to be backed up by anything but my gut. Again, it doesn’t seem like they’re just trying to help Muslims find their local mosque.
November 24th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
“The fact remains that The Mosque Map is on a site that only lists bad things happening or arrests of potentially bad people. My opinion is that it’s suspicious, and that doesn’t need to be backed up by anything but my gut. Again, it doesn’t seem like they’re just trying to help Muslims find their local mosque.”
I have to agree with Justin on this–this sites purpose is clear-cut as far as I can tell. It arouses suspicion of a subgroup of Americans based soley on their affiliation to a religion that happens to be the religion of the people that attacked America on 9-11. And I will give you one very poignant reason why this sort of blanket profiling is not only counter-productive but also antithetical to American principles.
Firstly, there is America’s historical inclusiveness, meaning that America has historically welcomed immigrants with open arms asking only that newcomers try to work hard, pay their taxes, obey our laws and try to assimilate to American culture. I think this policy of inclusion has undoubtedly worked in the favor to the United States, as evidenced by the
difficulty that other western powers in Europe have with their immigrant populations, for this very reason, they make the mistake of excluding their
immigrants and it breeds nothing but hostility, hostility which often turns into radical opposition.
I argue the reason America doesn’t experience this sort of native-borne radicalism to the extent it occurs in the European countries is because America has a policy of welcoming people of different cultures, religions and ethnicity, whereas some European countries, namely France and to some extent Britain have problems in fully welcoming, accepting and fairly absorbing these newcomers.
Secondly, as Justin alluded to before, this particular site seems to be singling out a specific religion with its “Mosque Map” feature. The association is not meant to be a positive one, but rather a negative one. Everything this site deals with is of a negative connotation, thus its including “only” a “Mosque Map” and excluding any other religion from being “Mapped” points to a clear attempt to malign an entire religion. This is un-American.
If a Muslim is engaged is wrongful doing and authorities have reason to believe so then that is not maligning an entire religion, that is called pursuing justice. But if we are inclined to “suspect” that all Muslims or all Arabs or all Middle Easterners are automatically suspicious simply because they pray to Allah and attend a Mosque, their religious center of their religion, then that is racial-profiling, something that has been proven to be ineffective and more importantly un-constitutional. That’s what makes America the country that it is, we do not arbitrarily harass people based on their looks or which god they choose to pray for. And that is why I think this country is worth fighting for quite frankly, because it’s not easy to maintain this altruistic freedom in the face of outside dangers and people that wish us harm, but we are Americans and I don’t believe American should tuck its tail under its belly and become a paranoid, extreme police state because some pathetic extremists threaten us.
I’m not sure if you have ever heard the this quote, but it means everything to me and I believe it characterizes the American ethos perfectly:
“Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” – Patrick Henry
That means liberty for all, not some but ALL! Whether you be purple, gay, Atheist or Muslim, as long as you treat others with kindness, you are owed kindness in return. Period!