Muslims are desperately resisting any open discussion of Islamic teachings (almost makes you wonder if they're worried about what we'll find in the Qur'an and Hadith). The safest strategy for Muslims to date is to play the victim card: "Criticism of Islam is leading to a spree of anti-Muslim hate crimes! So don't question our beliefs!" Of course, the data proves that this mantra is false. The vast majority of religiously based hate crimes are directed against Jews. How are Muslims going to get around the facts? Simple: They need to invent more hate crimes against Muslims.
CALIFORNIA--An anti-Muslim "hate crime" at a Newport Beach cigar store? Could there be a story more in my wheelhouse?
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for the feds to open a hate-crime investigation after a Muslim cab driver said a cigar store owner in concert with three other men assaulted him in front of the store, promising they were "going to f—you up like we f— up your country" as they pummeled him.
When I read news accounts Wednesday morning that one of the accused haters owned the cigar shop on Palm Street on the Balboa Peninsula, I knew the story was suspect. I've known Edgar Uria for several years, and that's just not him. Before I could call Uria, he called me.
Wednesday afternoon found me at his shop puffing on a fine Partagas Serie D, along with Uria's attorney, Victor Cueto. Uria did almost all the talking, telling a story that makes more sense than the one told by the beating victim to CAIR and the police. It goes:
Late on March 19, two women who had been in Uria's cigar lounge called for a cab. One arrived outside, steps away from the front door. Unbeknownst to them, it was not from the cab company they'd called. But they got into it anyway and were about to leave when the cab they did call pulled up.
The second cabbie, a middle-aged Arabic man, hopped out and started yelling at the first cabbie, a Hispanic man, for taking his fare. Uria heard the commotion and stepped outside. He heard the Arabic cabbie call the Hispanic cabbie a "f—ing wetback." The Hispanic cabbie drove away.
At that very moment, three men who had apparently come from a bar around the corner, ran up looking for a cab. One of the three, a Hispanic man, had heard the Arabic cabbie's slur, and said to him, 'What the f—did you say?" The cabbie and Hispanic man started cursing at each other. As the cabbie tried to leave, he brushed his arm against the Hispanic man, who punched him in the face.
As Uria yelled to his patrons inside to call the cops, the two men with the Hispanic man joined in and started beating the cabbie. Uria and one of his patrons, Greg Parker, jumped into the melee and pulled off the attackers, who fled. The cops arrived moments later.
As the cabbie and Uria were talking to separate officers, Uria heard the cabbie say, "That's him!" pointing at Uria.
"My jaw dropped," Uria says. "I was like, 'You have got to be kidding me.' I helped the guy out! I rendered aid!"
Uria also heard the cabbie ask the cop if he wasn't arresting Uria because he was "white." (Uria is Cuban.)
"He was pulling the ethnic card right off," Uria says. "The only derogatory slur was from the cabbie, who said the (other cabbie) was a wetback!" (Read more.)





