A South Florida Marriott Hotel canceled a Muslim group’s conference at the last minute after a protest group claimed the coalition was promoting Hamas, terrorism and antisemitism.

The South Florida Muslim Federation, a coalition of about 30 mosques and Islamic groups, said Friday that it was told by the Marriott Coral Springs Hotel and Convention Center that its conference was being canceled because of security concerns after it received 100 calls demanding it bars the group. This weekend’s second annual conference was expected to draw more than a thousand people.

Kakli said that even before Marriott raised security concerns, his group hired Coral Springs police officers and private guards for protection. He said he told Marriott that the federation would hire more, but was rebuffed.

Kakli denied that he or his group supports terrorism or antisemitism. He said those accusations are often made against Muslims who criticize Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and its treatment of Gaza to strip them and their arguments of legitimacy.

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    They’ll of course cancel any Christian conferences if people protest that the insurrectionists were largely Christians, right? Right?

    • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They win in Australia by holding massive protests calling for Jews to be exterminated and our government protects them. Which reality do you prefer?

      • lingh0e@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        You’re suggesting that the group trying to have a conference in Florida is tied to whatever zionist bullshit you’re spouting about Australia?

        Or are you suggesting that simply being Muslim is a reason to think they’re anti-semetic?

        Or are you suggesting that we have to pick either jews or muslims?

        Or are you suggesting that the conference deserved the threats of violence?

      • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Only people crying about jews being exterminated are people like you who can’t distinguish between calling israeli actions in Gaza a genocide vs. Retaliating against Hamas specifically. How deliberately do you people muddy the waters so people can’t question the clearly more powerful force of IDF?

        It’s not like people who hate what the IDF is doing are completely oblivious to some level of antisemitism. Extremists shouldn’t be spared. But people that shout about Jews being targeted in hate speech seem to either be too daft to separate the wheat from the chaff or have their own agenda when they can’t stop and say “wait a minute… The government of Israel is commiting genocide. Even their own citizens have been jailed and harrassed for stating as such. If that is true then there must be similarly anti-hamas palistinians on the other side. We are fighting for the same things!”

        Do you think the world has suddenly forgotten about what Jews went through? Or is it a more realistic situation were people are aware of that past and yet found it important to criticize Israel for repeating history?

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Here’s what makes this weird though. I looked up the owners of that hotel.

    An entity controlled by Malik Abdulnoor and Sahir Malki Abdulnoor bought the four-story, 110-room hotel at 620 North University Drive in Coral Springs, according to records and Vizzda. The deal breaks down to roughly $155,000 per room.

    https://therealdeal.com/miami/2023/03/30/michigan-hoteliers-pay-17m-for-courtyard-by-marriott-in-coral-springs/

    They have Middle Eastern names and they’re from Michigan. That makes them highly likely to be Muslims.

    I’m not saying this would be the first time someone chose money or power over their religion, but you must admit that makes it weird.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      They cancelled it because they received threats of violence. I don’t see anything weird about it? They may be Muslims (not really relevant), and they scheduled a Muslim conference. They received threats from Zionists, and decided to cancel to be safe.

      How is that them choosing money/power over their religion? Seems like they were just afraid of violence after being threatened with violence.

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      In the cities it’s fine. In the country it’s rednecks. In the legislature it’s reactionary backwards idiots because they gerrymander the state to advantage conservatives. Getting worse in some ways as we get overrun with northern conservatives but cities still pretty diverse and tolerant.

  • massacre@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    So we’ve progressed from Cancel Culture to Cancel Terrorism? Threats to judges, prosecutors, politicians and now hotels. Cowards

    • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I don’t fault the hotel for wanting to stay out of any controversy. They are a business that offers a safe place to stay. I wouldn’t want to endanger my other guests or cause concern over any possible protests.

      • flamingarms@feddit.uk
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        10 months ago

        They didn’t stay out of controversy - they sided with the terrorists and cancelled the conference.

        • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I don’t think a private institution canceling a conference constitutes “siding with terrorists”.

          But hey if you want to use inflammatory language for fake internet clout be my guest.