America, 2010: Christians hauled to jail for preaching Jesus
'Apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn'
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=169577 FAITH UNDER FIRE
America, 2010: Christians hauled to jail for preaching Jesus
'Apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn'
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Posted: June 22, 2010
9:06 pm Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
One of the nation's top legal teams regarding civil and religious rights has stepped into a dispute stemming from last weekend's Arab Festival in Dearborn, Mich., where police are accused of enforcing Islamic law.
"Officers arrested four Christian missionaries and illegally confiscated their video cameras which were recording the events surrounding their arrests," said a statement today from the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Officials in the police department with the city of Dearborn declined to comment to WND.
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But the law center announcement said the incident has been described as "police enforcement of Shariah law." The organization said it would represent the Christians.
"These Christian missionaries were exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn, where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center.
(Story continues below)
"It's apparent that these arrests were a retaliatory action over the embarrassing video of the strong arm tactics used last year by festival security guards. This time, the first thing police officers did before making the arrests was to confiscate the video cameras in order to prevent a recording of what was actually happening," Thompson said.
Arrested on charges of breach of the peace were Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood, the legal team said.
Mayel, an 18-year-old woman whose parents emigrated from Afghanistan and a recent convert from Islam to Christianity, also was charged with failure to obey a police officer's orders. She was approximately 100 feet away and videotaping a discussion with Muslims when her camera was seized, the law firm said.
"Contrary to the comments made by Police Chief Ron Haddad, our Constitution does not allow police to ban the right of free speech just because there are some hecklers. Not all police officers approve of the way their department treated these Christians," said Thompson.
The Christian missionaries reported police told them they would have to be five blocks away from the festival to give away copies of the Gospel of John.
The law center also is representing Pastor George Saeig, who was prohibited by the festival and police authorities from distributing religious material at last year's festival. That case is ongoing and a federal appeals court ruled prior to the 2010 event that handing out Christian literature in the proximity of the festival was allowed.
WND reported earlier that at least two people claim a crowd was cheering "Allahu Akbar!" while the Christians were led away in handcuffs for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful dialogue and videotaping the event.
The Arab event was June 18 in Dearborn, where an estimated 30,000 of the city's 98,000 residents are Muslim.
The American Arab Chamber of Commerce announced the event was expected to draw "over 300,000 people from across the country, Canada and the Middle East." The festival covers 14 blocks and is free and open to the public.
All the Christian missionaries are from a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics.
Qureshi said people at the festival recognized his group from its visit in 2009. Last year, the Acts 17 Apologetics team was escorted from the grounds while being allegedly assaulted by security personnel and several attendees. The following is the group's footage of the incident:
This year, Qureshi said some attendees who recognized them "would come up to us, accusing us, threatening us, saying we were racists, saying they were going to hurt us and yelling curses and insults at us."
However, he said his group was able to engage in civil conversations with many people who initiated discussion. But then the group was arrested by local police. Each of the four are now free on bond.
"Paul, David, Negeen, and I went to the festival to see and comment on the situation," Qureshi wrote on his blog. "Thankfully, we recorded every second of our activity at the festival."
In Saieg's case, WND reported, a federal appeals court granted an emergency motion allowing him to hand out information about his faith at the same festival.
A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, citing the precedent that even a minimal loss of a fundamental right is irreparable, granted the motion requested by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of the Sudanese Christian.
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Arrested for Being Christian Preachers at Dearborn Arab Festival 2010
Dearborn Police: Defending Islam against the Constitution
Arab Festival 2009: Sharia in the US
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Previous stories:
'Allahu Akbar!' shouted as Christians cuffed
Court: Christian tracts allowed at Arab-fest
City corrals Christians at weekend Arab fest
San Diego withdraws Bible study warning
Pastor waits for final word in Bible study citation
UPDATE: Deadline set in banned Bible study case
Home: No place for Bible study
$20,000 offered for listing 10 Commandments
Christian cross complaint targets nation's faith factor
Whaddya mean, 'America is not a Christian nation'?
Victory against gospel ban in public park
'People were calling America stingy'
Crosses, Bibles banned from hospital chapel
Obama skips church – 11 times
Religion, politics get emphatic 'no comment'
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
A Draft of the Past Remains on Tap in Egypt
Written by MICHAEL SLACKMAN
The New York Times
21 June 2010
Egypt's Outpost of Tolerance
Like the city around it, the Cap d’Or’s better days are behind it. The bar was
opened about 110 years ago by Greek residents.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — These two women were veiled, true. They are religious, too, or at least as religious as their community expects them to be. But do not tell them they cannot stop into Sheik Ali’s bar and sit at a table and eat fried calamari and laugh over a glass of juice while surrounded by men drinking beer and whiskey.
The women, Nelly Rafat, 52, and Magda el-Gindy, 52, are childhood friends who believe that while their religion prohibits alcohol, people are free to make their own choices. That is not the typical view here these days. But they sit, eat and enjoy, guilt-free amid the smoke-filled ambience of a hole-in-the-wall bar.
“If somebody else sitting here wants to drink, it’s none of my business,” Ms. Rafat said, as Ms. Gindy nodded in agreement.
There is a lot of pressure out on the street, here and around Egypt, to at least appear pious. For women to wear a veil. For men to have a prayer bump, a dark callous in the middle of the forehead from bowing to the ground five times a day.
And definitely, especially for women, to stay away from alcohol, and especially in a bar filled with men.
“It’s not a Muslim tradition,” Muhammad Suleiman, 32, complained as he sat in a barbershop next door to the bar. “It should not be there. I don’t like it. It’s not our religion. I’d like it closed.”
But that is not how everyone wants to live, not all the time, not even among people who agree to conform in appearance, like Ms. Rafat and Ms. Gindy.
Especially not here, in Alexandria, a city built to look out to the world, not in on itself. The arc of history has been unkind to Alexandria, taking it on a long slow slide from the center of global learning in ancient times to a rundown, crowded metropolis on the Mediterranean.
But no matter how the conservative social forces of modern Egypt press in, Alexandria cannot fully turn its back on a past so different from the present, when diversity and tolerance eclipsed conformity and tradition. The old Alexandria, the city built by Alexander the Great, set aside cemeteries in the 19th century for all its citizens, with separate ones designated for Muslims, Jews, Christians and “free thinkers.”
Those days are gone, but are still embedded in the collective memory, and desires, of many people who live here, even people who are too young to remember when the tailors were French or Greek, the cooks Italian, and the Jews a large, vibrant part of the city.
“We grew up in the hands of foreigners,” said Francis Zarif, 33. “That’s why I like it here. The feeling is the kindness of people in the past, the humanity.”
There are pockets of Alexandria where residents have held on to, or are trying to restore, a sense of curiosity about the world, a tolerance for diversity and an acceptance of the other. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a public library, research and cultural center, is such a place, where visitors are encouraged to challenge and question each other and themselves in an effort to create a modern version of the ancient library here that was destroyed in 48 B.C.
But so is this little bar, where tolerance and a nice cold Stella (the most popular Egyptian beer, not to be confused with the Belgian beer) are plentiful. Alcohol is fairly easy to come by in Egypt, sold in hotels and restaurants. But there are few neighborhood bars.
“I come here for history, I come here for a light moment,” said an obstetrician-gynecologist as he sat sipping a beer and smoking a pipe. It was after 11 p.m. and he was relaxing, he said, “like in Europe,” as he waved at friends at other tables. But he would not give his name, because out there, he said “the religious current is strong.”
“I’m a woman’s doctor, you know,” he said. “It’s not good if I come here.”
The bar is officially called Cap d’Or, and is described by the hand-stenciled words over the storefront as a “Touristic Restaurant.” It was opened about 110 years ago by Greek residents, before Egyptians reacted to decades of subjugation by foreign powers by forcing foreigners to leave and nationalizing private property.
When the Greeks fled in 1951, Ali Abdel Razeq bought the bar for next to nothing, said his grandson, Mustafa, who now helps run it. Since then, it has been known as Sheik Ali’s, although Mr. Razeq held no such title, which can imply some religious credentials. He was a man who served alcohol and seafood, and liked betting on horse races.
He may have acquired the nickname because he closed the bar on Friday, the Islamic day of prayer and rest.
In the early years, Sheik Ali’s was a gathering spot for intellectuals and artists, actors and cultural leaders. Military men with stars on their shoulders shared beers with artists and professionals.
That is not so much the case anymore, though it still remains a place where people go who want a break from the demands of the community and to find like-minded friends.
“This is a community center for the open-minded,” said Karim, 49, who also said he did not want to reveal his family name because outside of that community it is not considered so respectable to be in a bar.
“The atmosphere is great; that’s why I keep coming back,” he said. He was seated with five other friends eating small plates of salad and seafood.
The bar has 13 tables, each with a red-and-white tablecloth, and a cool, grayish marble bar long enough for about six to sit comfortably side by side. The old brass tap is still there, but has not worked in years. The walls are covered with photos of Sheik Ali posing next to racehorses and a few architectural flourishes that hark back to the faded glamour of the place. The gold-leaf letters CDB, for Cap d’Or Bar, are still on a mirror over the bar.
Like the city around it, the bar’s better days are behind it, a fact that has done little to diminish the loyalty of the remaining long-timers. “Life outside these doors is difficult,” said Osama Tantawi, 40, an accountant who said he visited Sheik Ali’s the day he turned 21 and has been a regular ever since. “The advantage to coming here is it separates you from life out there.”
As he spoke, his friend Dr. Mahmoud Sherif walked through the door. They had met at the bar about a year ago. “It makes me happy when I am in here,” Dr. Sherif said. He took a sip of scotch. And Mr. Tantawi ordered another beer.
Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
70 percent world’s refugees are Muslim
Jun 18th, 2010 | By IHRC | Category: Islam, News
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2009 annual report revealed shocking figures about the world refuge community. According to the figures revealed on 16 June 2010, the total refugee population around the world reached 15.2 million which is the highest since the mid 1990s. Around 70 percent of all refugees, which amounts to 10,792,095, around the world originated from Muslim countries.
The recent figures revealed by the UNHCR have reminded the international community that the overwhelming majority of oppressed people in the world are Muslim. According to the latest report of the UNHCR, there were 15.2 million refugees worldwide and around 70 percent of them, which amounts to 10,462,095, originated from Muslim countries. With their long-lived plight, 4.8 million Palestinians were the largest refugee community in the world. Since the Palestinian refugees are under the responsibility of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) their statistic were not included in the report.
There UNHCR listed 2.9 million Afghani refugees scattered around the world with the majority fleeing to Pakistan. Iraqis also made up a substantial amount of the total refugee population with 1.8 million, predominantly based in the Middle East. Somalis made up the third largest refugee group with 678,000 persons and finally 368,200 Sudanese refugees, the vast majority of them from the Darfur region.
The figures show the US and its allies have turned the Muslim territories into a massive conflict zone and Muslims have become the largest single religious refugee group. Muslim refugees have been deprived of their basic rights and are going through immeasurable difficulties.
http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=13827
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2009 annual report revealed shocking figures about the world refuge community. According to the figures revealed on 16 June 2010, the total refugee population around the world reached 15.2 million which is the highest since the mid 1990s. Around 70 percent of all refugees, which amounts to 10,792,095, around the world originated from Muslim countries.
The recent figures revealed by the UNHCR have reminded the international community that the overwhelming majority of oppressed people in the world are Muslim. According to the latest report of the UNHCR, there were 15.2 million refugees worldwide and around 70 percent of them, which amounts to 10,462,095, originated from Muslim countries. With their long-lived plight, 4.8 million Palestinians were the largest refugee community in the world. Since the Palestinian refugees are under the responsibility of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) their statistic were not included in the report.
There UNHCR listed 2.9 million Afghani refugees scattered around the world with the majority fleeing to Pakistan. Iraqis also made up a substantial amount of the total refugee population with 1.8 million, predominantly based in the Middle East. Somalis made up the third largest refugee group with 678,000 persons and finally 368,200 Sudanese refugees, the vast majority of them from the Darfur region.
The figures show the US and its allies have turned the Muslim territories into a massive conflict zone and Muslims have become the largest single religious refugee group. Muslim refugees have been deprived of their basic rights and are going through immeasurable difficulties.
http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=13827
Friday, June 18, 2010
Egyptian Imam accused of molestation to be deported
Yasser Mohamed Shahade, 35, in Hillsborough County Court, June 17, 2010.
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/hillsborough/imam-accused-of-molestation-to-be-deported-06172010
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/hillsborough/imam-accused-of-molestation-to-be-deported-06172010
Imam accused of molestation to be deported
Updated: Thursday, 17 Jun 2010, 3:43 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 17 Jun 2010, 3:43 PM EDT
MyFoxTampaBay.com staff report
TAMPA - A Muslim imam accused of molesting a boy at a Tampa mosque pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and will be deported.
Yasser Mohamed Shahade, 35, pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation.
He was initially charged with sexual battery on a 13-year-old boy.
Prosecutors said the incident took place last year during an overnight stay at the mosque. At the time, police released few details about the boy's condition. They said the boy's family called the police after the boy spent the night at the mosque.
Thursday, the judge sentenced Shahade to ten years of probation, and labeled him a sex offender.
Shahade is in the United States on a visa, and is now set to be deported back to Egypt.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Of Mosques and Men: Reflections on the Ground Zero Mosque --- vedio
Of Mosques and Men: Reflections on the Ground Zero Mosque
Ground Zero Mosque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAr-_VYxAPw&feature=related
Ground Zero Mosque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAr-_VYxAPw&feature=related
Joys of Muslim Women
Joys of Muslim Women
by Nonie Darwish
In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child, consummating the marriage by 9. The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.
Even though a woman is abused, she can not obtain a divorce.
To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses.
Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and the man does not have to say why he has beaten her.
The husband is permitted to have 4 wives and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.
The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
In the Western World ( America ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.
By passing this on, enlightened American women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law.
Ripping the West in Two
Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose Shariah law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two.
She recently authored the book, Â Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.
Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before immigrating to America in 1978, when she was eight years old. Her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel . He was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza .
When he died, he was considered a "shahid," a martyr for jihad. His posthumous status earned Nonie and her family an elevated position in Muslim society.
But Darwish developed a skeptical eye at an early age. She questioned her own Muslim culture and upbringing. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television.
In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping Sharia law - what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries.
For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose Sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed. Westerners generally assume all religions encourage a respect for the dignity of each individual. Islamic law (Sharia) teaches that non-Muslims should be subjugated or killed in this world.
Peace and prosperity for one's children is not as important as assuring that Islamic law rules everywhere in the Middle East and eventually in the world.
While Westerners tend to think that all religions encourage some form of the golden rule, Sharia teaches two systems of ethics - one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. Building on tribal practices of the seventh century, Sharia encourages the side of humanity that wants to take from and subjugate others.
While Westerners tend to think in terms of religious people developing a personal understanding of and relationship with God, Sharia advocates executing people who ask difficult questions that could be interpreted as criticism.
It's hard to imagine, that in this day and age, Islamic scholars agree that those who criticize Islam or choose to stop being Muslim should be executed. Sadly, while talk of an Islamic reformation is common and even assumed by many in the West, such murmurings in the Middle East are silenced through intimidation.
While Westerners are accustomed to an increase in religious tolerance over time, Darwish explains how petro-dollars are being used to grow an extremely intolerant form of political Islam in her native Egypt and elsewhere.
In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. to elect the President by themselves! Rest assured they will do so... You can look at how they have taken over several towns in the USA .. Dearborn Mich. is one... and there are others...
I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!
It is too bad that so many are disillusioned with life and Christianity to accept Muslims as peaceful.. some may be but they have an army that is willing to shed blood in the name of Islam.. the peaceful support the warriors with their finances and own kind of patriotism to their religion. While America is getting rid of Christianity from all public sites and erasing God from the lives of children the Muslims are planning a great jihad on America ..
This is your chance to make a difference...! Pass it on to your email list or at least those you think will listen..
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Egyptian Couple Shot by Muslim Extremists Undaunted in Ministry
Written by Wayne King
Left for dead, Christians offer to drop charges if allowed to construct church building.
CAIRO, Egypt, June 9 (CDN) — Rasha Samir was sure her husband, Ephraim Shehata, was dead. He was covered with blood, had two bullets inside him and was lying facedown in the dust of a dirt road. Samir was lying on top of him doing her best to shelter him from the onslaught of approaching gunmen.
With arms outstretched, the men surrounded Samir and Shehata and pumped off round after round at the couple. Seconds before, Samir could hear her husband mumbling Bible verses. But one bullet had pierced his neck, and now he wasn’t moving. In a blind terror, Samir tried desperately to stop her panicked breathing and convincingly lie still, hoping the gunmen would go away.
Finally, the gunfire stopped and one of the men spoke. “Let’s go. They’re dead.”
‘Break the Hearts’
On the afternoon of Feb. 27, lay pastor Shehata and his wife Samir were ambushed on a desolate street by a group of Islamic gunmen outside the village of Teleda in Upper Egypt.
The attack was meant to “break the hearts of the Christians” in the area, Samir said.
The attackers shot Shehata twice, once in the stomach through the back, and once in the neck. They shot Samir in the arm. Both survived the attack, but Shehata is still in the midst of a difficult recovery. The shooters have since been arrested and are in jail awaiting trial. A trial cannot begin until Shehata has recovered enough to attend court proceedings.
Despite this trauma, being left with debilitating injuries, more than 85,000 Egyptian pounds (US$14,855) in medical bills and possible long-term unemployment, Shehata is willing to drop all criminal charges against his attackers – and avoid what could be a very embarrassing trial for the nation – if the government will stop blocking Shehata from constructing a church building.
Before Shehata was shot, one of the attackers pushed him off his motorcycle and told him he was going to teach him a lesson about “running around” or being an active Christian.
Because of his ministry, the 34-year-old Shehata, a Coptic Orthodox Christian, was arguably the most visible Christian in his community. When he wasn’t working as a lab technician or attending legal classes at a local college, he was going door-to-door among Christians to encourage them in any way he could. He also ran a community center and medical clinic out of a converted two-bedroom apartment. His main goal, he said, was to “help Christians be strong in their faith.”
The center, open now for five years, provided much-needed basic medical services for surrounding residents for free, irrespective of their religion. The center also provided sewing training and a worksite for Christian women so they could gain extra income. Before the center was open in its present location, he ran similar services out of a relative’s apartment.
“We teach them something that can help them with the future, and when they get married they can have some way to work and it will help them get money for their families,” Shehata said.
Additionally, the center was used to teach hygiene and sanitation basics to area residents, a vital service to a community that uses well water that is often polluted or full of diseases. Along with these services, Shehata and his wife ran several development projects, repairing the roofs of shelters for poor people, installing plumbing, toilets and electrical systems. The center also distributed free food to the elderly and the infirm.
The center has been run by donations and nominal fees used to pay the rent for the apartment. Shehata has continued to run the programs as aggressively as he can, but he said that even before the shooting that the center was barely scraping by.
“We have no money to build or improve anything,” he said. “We have a safe, but no money to put in it.”
Tense Atmosphere
In the weeks before the shooting, Teleda and the surrounding villages were gripped with fear.
Christians in the community had been receiving death threats by phone after a Muslim man died during an attack on a Christian couple. On Feb. 2, a group of men in nearby Samalout tried to abduct a Coptic woman from a three-wheeled motorcycle her husband was driving. The husband, Zarif Elia, punched one of the attackers in the nose. The Muslim, Basem Abul-Eid, dropped dead on the spot.
Elia was arrested and charged with murder. An autopsy later revealed that the man died of a heart attack, but local Muslims were incensed.
Already in the spotlight for his ministry activities, Shehata heightened his profile when he warned government officials that Christians were going to be attacked, as they had been in Farshout and Nag Hammadi the previous month. He also gave an interview to a human rights activist that was posted on numerous Coptic websites. Because of this, government troops were deployed to the town, and extremists were unable to take revenge on local Christians – but only after almost the entire Christian community was placed under house arrest.
“They chose me,” Shehata said, “Because they thought I was the one serving everybody, and I was the one who wrote the government telling them that Muslims were going to set fire to the Christian houses because of the death.”
Because of his busy schedule, Shehata and Samir, 27, were only able to spend Fridays and part of every Saturday together in a village in Samalut, where Shehata lives. Every Saturday after seeing Samir, Shehata would drive her back through Teleda to the village where she lives, close to her family. Samalut is a town approximately 105 kilometers (65 miles) south of Cairo.
On the afternoon of Feb. 27, Shehata and his wife were on a motorcycle on a desolate stretch of hard-packed dirt road. Other than a few scattered farming structures, there was nothing near the road but the Nile River on one side, and open fields dotted with palm trees on the other.
Shehata approached a torn-up section of the road and slowed down. A man walked up to the vehicle carrying a big wooden stick and forced him to stop. Shehata asked the man what was wrong, but he only pushed Shehata off the motorcycle and told him, “I’m going to stop you from running around,” Samir recounted.
Shehata asked the man to let Samir go. “Whatever you are going to do, do it to me,” he told the man.
The man didn’t listen and began hitting Shehata on the leg with the stick. As Shehata stumbled, Samir screamed for the man to leave them alone. The man lifted the stick again, clubbed Shehata once more on the leg and knocked him to the ground. As Shehata struggled to get up, the man took out a pistol, leveled it at Shehata’s back and squeezed the trigger.
Samir started praying and screaming Jesus’ name. The man turned toward her, raised the pistol once more, squeezed off another round, and shot Samir in the arm. Samir looked around and saw a few men running toward her, but her heart sank when she realized they had come not to help them but to join the assault.
Samir jumped on top of Shehata, rolled on to her back and started begging her attackers for their lives, but the men, now four in all, kept firing. Bullets were flying everywhere.
“I was scared. I thought I was going to die and that the angels were going to come and get our spirits,” Samir said. “I started praying, ‘Please God, forgive me, I’m a sinner and I am going to die.’”
Samir decided to play dead. She leaned back toward her husband, closed her eyes, went limp and tried to stop breathing. She said she felt that Shehata was dying underneath her.
“I could hear him saying some of the Scriptures, the one about the righteous thief [saying] ‘Remember me when you enter Paradise,’” she said. “Then a bullet went through his neck, and he stopped saying anything.”
Samir has no way of knowing how much time passed, but eventually the firing stopped. After she heard one of the shooters say, “Let’s go, they’re dead,” moments later she opened her eyes and the men were gone. When she lifted her head, she heard her husband moan.
Unlikely Survival
When Shehata arrived at the hospital, his doctors didn’t think he would survive. He had lost a tremendous amount of blood, a bullet had split his kidney in two, and the other bullet was lodged in his neck, leaving him partially paralyzed.
His heartbeat was so faint it couldn’t be detected. He was also riddled with a seemingly limitless supply of bullet fragments throughout his body.
Samir, though seriously injured, had fared much better than Shehata. The bullet went into her arm but otherwise left her uninjured. When she was shot, Samir was wearing a maternity coat. She wasn’t pregnant, but the couple had bought the coat in hopes she soon would be. Samir said she thinks the gunman who shot her thought he had hit her body, instead of just her arm.
The church leadership in Samalut was quickly informed about the shooting and summoned the best doctors they could, who quickly traveled to help Shehata and Samir. By chance, the hospital had a large supply of blood matching Shehata’s blood type because of an elective surgical procedure that was cancelled. The bullets were removed, and his kidney was repaired. The doctors however, were forced to leave many of the bullet fragments in Shehata’s body.
As difficult as it was to piece Shehata’s broken body back together, it paled in comparison with the recovery he had to suffer through. He endured multiple surgeries and was near death several times during his 70 days of hospitalization.
Early on, Shehata was struck with a massive infection. Also, because part of his internal tissue was cut off from its blood supply, it literally started to rot inside him. He began to swell and was in agony.
“I was screaming, and they brought the doctors,” Shehata said. The doctors decided to operate immediately.
When a surgeon removed one of the clamps holding Shehata’s abdomen together, the intense pressure popped off most of the other clamps. Surgeons removed some stomach tissue, part of his colon and more than a liter of infectious liquid.
Shehata could not eat normally and lost 35 kilograms (approximately 77 lbs.). He also couldn’t evacuate his bowels for at least 11 days, his wife said.
Despite the doctors’ best efforts, infections continued to rage through Shehata’s body, accompanied by alarming spikes in body temperature.
Eventually, doctors sent him to a hospital in Cairo, where he spent a week under treatment. A doctor there prescribed a different regimen of antibiotics that successfully fought the infection and returned Shehata’s body temperature to normal.
Shehata is recovering at home now, but he still has a host of medical problems. He has to take a massive amount of painkillers and is essentially bedridden. He cannot walk without assistance, is unable to move the fingers on his left hand and cannot eat solid food. In approximately two months he will undergo yet another surgery that, if all goes well, will allow him to use the bathroom normally.
“Even now I can’t walk properly, and I can’t lift my leg more than 10 or 20 centimeters. I need someone to help me just to pull up my underwear,” Shehata said. “I can move my arm, but I can’t move my fingers.”
Samir does not complain about her condition or that of Shehata. Instead, she sees the fact that she and her husband are even alive as a testament to God’s faithfulness. She said she thinks God allowed them to be struck with the bullets that injured them but pushed away the bullets that would have killed them.
“There were lots of bullets being shot, but they didn’t hit us, only three or four,” she said. “Where are the others?”
Even in the brutal process of recovery, Samir found cause for thanks. In the beginning, Shehata couldn’t move his left arm, but now he can. “Thank God and thank Jesus, it was His blessing to us,” Samir said. “We were kind of dead, now we are alive."
Still, Samir admits that sometimes her faith waivers. She is facing the possibility that Shehata might not work for some time, if ever. The couple owes the 85,000 Egyptian pounds (US$14,855) in medical bills, and continuing their ministry at the center and in the surrounding villages will be difficult at best.
“I am scared now, more so than during the shooting,” she said. “Ephraim said do not be afraid, it is supposed to make us stronger.”
So Samir prays for strength for her husband to heal and for patience. In the meantime, she said she looks forward to the day when the struggles from the shooting are over and she can look back and see how God used it to shape them.
“There is a great work the Lord is doing in our lives, we may not know what the reason is now, but maybe some day we will,” Samir said.
Government Opposition
For the past 10 years, Shehata has tried to erect a church building, or at a minimum a house, that he could use as a dedicated community center. But local Muslims and Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) agency have blocked him every step of the way. He had, until the shooting happened, all but given up on constructing the church building.
On numerous occasions, Shehata has been stopped from holding group prayer meetings after people complained to the SSI. In one incident, a man paid by a land owner to watch a piece of property near the community center complained to the SSI that Shehata was holding prayer meetings at the facility. The SSI made Shehata sign papers stating he wouldn’t hold prayer meetings at the center.
At one time, Shehata had hoped to build a house to use as a community center on property that had been given to him for that purpose. Residents spread a rumor that he was actually erecting a church building, and police massed at the property to prevent him from doing any construction.
There is no church in the town where Shehata lives or in the surrounding villages. Shehata admits he would like to put up a church building on the donated property but says it is impossible, so he doesn’t even try.
In Egypt constructing or even repairing a church building can only be done after a complex government approval process. In effect, it makes it impossible to build a place for Christian worship. By comparison, the construction of mosques is encouraged through a system of subsidies.
“It is not allowed to build a church in Egypt,” Shehata said. “We can’t build a house. We can’t build a community center. And we can’t build a church.”
Because of this, Shehata and his wife organize transportation from surrounding villages to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Samalut for Friday services and sacraments. Because of the lack of transportation options, the congregants are forced to ride in a dozen open-top cattle cars.
“We take them not in proper cars or micro-buses, but trucks – the same trucks we use to move animals,” he said.
The trip is dangerous. A year ago a man fell out of one of the trucks onto the road and died. Shehata said bluntly that Christians are dying in Egypt because the government won’t allow them to construct church buildings.
“I feel upset about the man who died on the way going to church,” he said.
Church-for-Charges Swap
The shooters who attacked Shehata and Samir are in jail awaiting trial. The couple has identified each of the men, but even if they hadn’t, finding them for arrest was not a difficult task. The village the attackers came from erupted in celebration when they heard the pastor and his wife were dead.
Shehata now sees the shooting as a horrible incident that can be turned to the good of the believers he serves. He said he finds it particularly frustrating that numerous mosques have sprouted up in his community and surrounding areas during the 10 years he has been prevented from putting up a church building, or even a house. There are two mosques alone on the street of the man who died while being trucked to church services, he said.
Shehata has decided to forgo justice in pursuit of an opportunity to finally construct a church building. He has approached the SSI through church leaders, saying that if he is allowed to construct a church building, then he will take no part in the criminal prosecution of the shooters.
“I have told the security forces through the priests that I will drop the case if they can let us build the church on the piece of land,” he said.
The proposal isn’t without possibilities. His trial has the potential of being internationally embarrassing. It raises questions about fairness in Egyptian society during an upcoming presidential election that will be watched by the world.
Regardless of what happens, Shehata said all he wants is peace and for the rights of Christians to be respected. He said that in Egypt, Christians have less value than the “birds of the air” mentioned in the Bible. According to Luke 12:6, five sparrows sold for two pennies in ancient times.
“We are not to be killed like birds, slaughtered,” he said. “We are human
Most Britons 'view Islam as violent, radical and repressive of women'
Written by Jack Doyle
Daily Mail, London
11 June 2010
Osama bin Laden: Behind the Prophet Muhammed, he is the person Britons thought best represented Islam
Islam is linked to violent extremism in the minds of most Britons, according to a survey.
The YouGov poll also revealed widespread concern about the impact of the faith on British values.
It found nearly six in ten associate Islam with radical views, and two-thirds believe it encourages the repression of women.
Behind the Prophet Muhammed, the person Britons thought best represented Islam was Osama bin Laden.
Muslim groups disputed the findings, saying they did not think the poll represented the true beliefs of British people.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadan Foundation said: 'I think this is not a fair reflection of the tolerance, diversity and respect people have for Muslims.
'Christians, Jews and people of no faith recognise Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace and they know that people who carry out terrorist attacks do not represent Islam and are not acting in the name of Islam.'
The poll was commissioned by the Exploring Islam Foundation as part of a campaign aimed at improving the image of Muslims.
Posters of Muslim professionals will appear on buses and the London Underground in an attempt to give a positive slant on their contribution to Britain. Each declares why they are, in the campaign's title, 'Inspired by Muhammed'.
It is led by former MTV presented Kristiane Backer, who declares herself to be an 'eco-Muslim'. She said Islam's values were 'universal' and 'sit well with British values'.
But the poll of 2,152 adults found less than one in seven people regard Islam as a peaceful religion and one third see it as actively violent.
Less than one in five believe it has a positive impact on British society and 68 per cent say it encourages the repression of women.
A third of those polled said the Prophet Muhammed best represented Islam, followed by the Al Qaeda leader with 13 per cent.
Just six percent associated Islam with either justice or protecting the environment.
The charity's patron, Labour peer Lord Patel of Blackburn, said the poll caused him 'deep concern'.
'Islam has been a part of British life for generations and British Muslims make an important contribution to the UK’s economic and social well-being, and its rich cultural diversity.
'Yet as this poll demonstrates today there remains a great deal of misunderstanding and distrust at the role of Islam and Muslim in Britain today. As a British Muslim, proud of my faith and my country, this causes me deep concern.'
A spokesman for the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremism think tank, said: 'This campaign is important because it can help non-Muslims to better understand the faith that inspires and guides their Muslim friends, neighbours, and colleagues.
'This initiative also helps British Muslims reclaim the Prophet Muhammad as a time-honoured guide for peace, compassion and social justice from those who seek to twist his teachings.'
Daily Mail, London
11 June 2010
Osama bin Laden: Behind the Prophet Muhammed, he is the person Britons thought best represented Islam
Islam is linked to violent extremism in the minds of most Britons, according to a survey.
The YouGov poll also revealed widespread concern about the impact of the faith on British values.
It found nearly six in ten associate Islam with radical views, and two-thirds believe it encourages the repression of women.
Behind the Prophet Muhammed, the person Britons thought best represented Islam was Osama bin Laden.
Muslim groups disputed the findings, saying they did not think the poll represented the true beliefs of British people.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadan Foundation said: 'I think this is not a fair reflection of the tolerance, diversity and respect people have for Muslims.
'Christians, Jews and people of no faith recognise Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace and they know that people who carry out terrorist attacks do not represent Islam and are not acting in the name of Islam.'
The poll was commissioned by the Exploring Islam Foundation as part of a campaign aimed at improving the image of Muslims.
Posters of Muslim professionals will appear on buses and the London Underground in an attempt to give a positive slant on their contribution to Britain. Each declares why they are, in the campaign's title, 'Inspired by Muhammed'.
It is led by former MTV presented Kristiane Backer, who declares herself to be an 'eco-Muslim'. She said Islam's values were 'universal' and 'sit well with British values'.
But the poll of 2,152 adults found less than one in seven people regard Islam as a peaceful religion and one third see it as actively violent.
Less than one in five believe it has a positive impact on British society and 68 per cent say it encourages the repression of women.
A third of those polled said the Prophet Muhammed best represented Islam, followed by the Al Qaeda leader with 13 per cent.
Just six percent associated Islam with either justice or protecting the environment.
The charity's patron, Labour peer Lord Patel of Blackburn, said the poll caused him 'deep concern'.
'Islam has been a part of British life for generations and British Muslims make an important contribution to the UK’s economic and social well-being, and its rich cultural diversity.
'Yet as this poll demonstrates today there remains a great deal of misunderstanding and distrust at the role of Islam and Muslim in Britain today. As a British Muslim, proud of my faith and my country, this causes me deep concern.'
A spokesman for the Quilliam Foundation, the counter-extremism think tank, said: 'This campaign is important because it can help non-Muslims to better understand the faith that inspires and guides their Muslim friends, neighbours, and colleagues.
'This initiative also helps British Muslims reclaim the Prophet Muhammad as a time-honoured guide for peace, compassion and social justice from those who seek to twist his teachings.'
Who's the Enemy in the War on Terror?
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Who's the Enemy in the War on Terror?
The U.S. is at war with violent Islamist extremism, and the Obama administration does moderate Muslims no favor by refusing to recognize this.
By JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN
In the new National Security Strategy released by the White House last month, the Obama administration rightly reaffirms that America remains a nation at war. Unfortunately, it refuses to identify our enemy in this war as what it is: violent Islamist extremism.
This is more than semantics. As military strategists since Sun Tzu have appreciated, the first rule in war is to know your enemy so you can defeat it. The 2006 National Security Strategy did this: It correctly identified our enemy as "the transnational terrorists [who] exploit the proud religion of Islam to serve a violent political vision." The Obama administration removed those accurate and important words.
One argument administration officials use to defend their avoidance of terms like "violent Islamist extremism" is that they are imprecise and lump together a diverse set of organizations with different goals, motivations, and capabilities. Yet the administration's preferred alternative term—"violent extremism"—is much more vulnerable to such criticism.
To state the obvious, there are many forms of "violent extremism" with which America is not "at war." The strategies and capabilities needed to counter the specific threat of violent Islamist extremism are very different from those needed to deal with white supremacist extremists in the U.S. or genocidal militias in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet at no point does the 2010 National Security Strategy explain or defend its repeated use of the nebulous euphemism "violent extremism," which also has appeared in other strategy documents over the last year.
The administration has also stated at times—including in its new National Security Strategy— that our enemy in this war can be identified as "al Qaeda," "al Qaeda and its affiliates," or as "al Qaeda-inspired terrorists." While that's a better characterization, it still suffers from a number of serious shortcomings.
First, it is not fully accurate. Defining the enemy by reference to al Qaeda implies that this war is primarily about destroying an organization, rather than defeating a broader political ideology. This war will not end when al Qaeda has been vanquished—though that, of course, is a critical goal—but only when the ideology of violent Islamist extremism that inspires and predates it is decisively rejected. That ideology motivates many other groups and individuals.
For example, the ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism, Daniel Benjamin, recently warned about the growing danger to the U.S. posed by the Pakistan-based Islamist extremist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for the devastating 2008 attack in Mumbai, India. As Amb. Benjamin put it, "Al Qaeda is not the only group with global ambitions that we have to worry about."
Finally, characterizing this war as being against a specific organization risks distracting our government from important policy questions about how to combat the ideological dimensions of the war that is taking place within Islam. It also may send a message to moderate Muslims that they can and should remain on the sidelines of this fight, while governments use conventional means to defeat al Qaeda.
Some in the Obama administration have suggested that—even if all of these objections were true—calling our enemy "violent Islamist extremists" is not wise because doing so bolsters our enemy's propaganda claim that the West is at war with Islam. The logic of this argument is completely unsound. Muslims in fact understand better than anyone else the enormous difference between their faith and the terrorist political ideology that has exploited it.
There is no question that violent Islamist extremists seek to provoke a "clash of civilizations," and that we must discredit this hateful lie. We must encourage and empower the non-violent Muslim majority to raise their voices to condemn the Islamist extremist ideology as a desecration of Islam, responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Muslims and people of other faiths. How can we expect those Muslims to have the courage to stand and do that if we are unwilling to define and describe the enemy as dramatically different from them?
We must recognize the nature of the fight we are in, not paper it over. The United States is definitely not at war with Islam. But a group of self-identified, extremist Muslims has definitely declared war on us, a war which they explicitly justify by reference to their religion. Muslims across the world see the ideological nature of this struggle. I believe it is disrespectful to suggest they cannot understand these distinctions and act on them.
As a former Democratic secretary of state, Dean Acheson, warned a half-century ago: "No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies." This remains the case today.
Mr. Lieberman is an Independent Democratic senator from Connecticut.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Guv endorses imam accused of preaching taking up arms
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=162045
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Guv endorses imam accused of preaching taking up arms
Political heat rising for embrace of controversial Islamic leader
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 05, 2010
11:25 pm Eastern
By Michael Carl
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is catching political heat for embracing an imam who is alleged to have preached the need to take up arms to defend the rights of Muslims.
After vowing to eliminate racial profiling and guaranteeing Muslims their civil rights, Patrick, a Democrat, hugged Imam Abdullah Faaruuq at the meeting with more than 1,000 Muslims at the Muslim American Society-affiliated mosque at Boston's Roxbury Crossing.
The newest Boston-area mosque was dedicated last year and is affiliated with the MAS, an Islamic advocacy organization that public policy group Americans for Peace and Tolerance says has known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a controversial video on YouTube, Patrick is embracing the native Bostonian Faaruuq, who preaches at the Mosque for the Praising of Allah:
What's raising eyebrows is that the YouTube video seems to show Faaruuq urging his followers to take up arms to protest the arrest of terrorism suspect Tariq Mehanna and Faaruuq's congregation member Aisha Siddiqi.
Read about what Muslims want for you. Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore. Special price today only $4.95.
Mehanna was arrested last October for allegedly planning an attack at a shopping mall and Siddiqi was arrested for allegedly plotting to kill FBI agents.
(Story continues below)
When asked about his association with Mehanna, Faaruuq said he didn't know much about the case, but knows the man.
"He went to school here in Boston, I know that he as a degree in pharmacy. I know he was an active Muslim young man. I've known him since he was very young. So what else can I know about him?" Faaruuq observed.
"I don't know much about his personal life. I've never slept over at his house or eaten with him. I've eaten with him here. I've seen how he behaves and he's very respectful," the imam continued.
"That's what I know about him so it's hard for me to believe some of the things they've said about him. I would say that I don't think he would be involved in those types of things," Faaruuq said.
Listen to an interview with Faaruuq:
"They have a full government. They can be involved in investigating a person's life. They might know more about him than I do," Faaruuq said.
"They let him out of jail for a year, but then some other Muslims gave some evidence against him, so I don't really know. I don't know the case well enough to speak about the case. I'm talking about the person," Faaruuq added.
The statements in question are featured in the YouTube video and were the subject of discussion on a Boston talk radio station this week. Faaruuq says his critics have singled out the references to the swords and knives.
"That's not what I said at all. I urged the Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another. I urged them to be American citizens and to take full part in what goes on in this government and this world as American citizens," Faaruuq said.
"I said, 'Take up the pen; the typewriter, the sword, the gun. You can take up a plowshare. You can become a surgeon and do everything you can to contribute to this society in a full way," the imam said.
He continued by playing down the remarks about learning how to use guns.
"The National Rifle Association is a legitimate association and no one says anything about them advocating people use guns. People who go into the United States Army are taught how to use a gun and how to use a typewriter," Faaruuq said.
"You have to be a full citizen. I advocate for people to be full Americans. Become surgeons; become firemen. Join the Navy. Learn how to defend this country and to partake in this country as a full citizen," Faaruuq added.
Faaruuq also claimed that Muslims have served in the military fighting for the United States in every major conflict since the American Civil War.
However, there are few references to Muslims in American history. Writing on the Now Public website, Chantilly, Va., writer Morris Sadek says that contrary to many recent claims, Muslims have made few if any contributions to American history.
Most of the claims about Muslims in American history are on Muslim-hosted web sites. Islam 101 says that Muslims arrived in North America over 100 years before Columbus and about 300 years before the Pilgrims.
In analyzing Faaruuq's comments, Islam expert and Jihad Watch publisher Robert Spencer says Faaruuq is using a smooth technique that masks his real meaning.
"What he's doing is using Quranic concepts that deal with jihad without explaining to you that that's what he's talking about," Spencer explained.
"For example, he said early on, that all he wanted to do was teach Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another. That is something that is in the Quran twice," Spencer continued.
"In chapter three, verse 28 and chapter five, verse 51. In 3.28 it says, 'Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from God,'" Spencer quoted.
"In 5.51 it says, 'O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protecters; they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you who that turns to them is of them,'" Spencer continued.
"In other words, Muslims can pretend to be friends and protecters of unbelievers to deceive them in order to advance Islam," Spencer explained.
Listen to an interview with Spencer:
"Five, verse 51 specifically says that Muslims aren't to take Jews and Christians as their friends and protecters. So when he said to you that was teaching Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another, he's actually telling you that he's telling them to cut off from the larger society, to have contempt for it and to work to replace the laws and customs of the society they are in with Islamic law," Spencer explained.
Spencer says the Imam's comments about Tariq Mehanna are an admission that he was Mehanna's spiritual leader.
"I would certainly think that to speak with such obvious affection and regard for this man in such detail, I think it's clear that they had some kind of a close relationship, certainly," Spencer stated.
Spencer adds that Faaruuq's words encouraging Muslims to be active in society have another meaning.
"When he was saying that all he was saying is that Muslims should be active in society, and there were certain ways to do that, by the pen, by the sword and by the gun, and that's the statement that got him in trouble with 96-9 (one of Boston's three talk radio stations), that those are different forms of jihad," Spencer observed.
"There is no doubt that in Islamic theology there is jihad of the pen and jihad of the sword and those are distinct from one another. Yes, they all have the same goal, the goal is to impose Islamic law over the society in question," Spencer added.
However, there is more.
"What the guy is telling you is that he is preaching jihad. And he just knows that his non-Muslim hearers are not going to understand what he's saying when he's just putting it in terms of just being active in society and just working for justice by the pen and by the sword," Spencer explained further.
"Since he's hearkening back to these concepts, then the context of what he's saying becomes clear," Spencer stated.
"His followers will hear what he's saying and they will understand it in terms of what they've been taught and what they know about Islamic theology. They will understand it as meaning that he's telling them to strive hard in the way of Allah. In other words, he's telling them to wage jihad," Spencer said.
Spencer added that he believes that Patrick's endorsement of Islam at the recent mosque gathering is likely the product of political naivete.
Patrick's office refused comment saying, "We're not going to make any statement on this issue."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related offer:
Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Promoting atheism OK, but not 'leaving Islam'
'Leaving Islam' ads return to Miami buses
CAIR complains, Miami censors bus ads
Justice Department confirms CAIR terror ties
Desperate Muslims launch 'Hail Mary'
Federal judge rules against 'Muslim Mafia'
The First Amendment case the media refuse to cover
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FBI gets 'Muslim Mafia' 'smoking-gun' documents
Hear 'Muslim Mafia' lawyer on CAIR case
CAIR admitted fundraising for convicted terror group
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOMELAND INSECURITY
Guv endorses imam accused of preaching taking up arms
Political heat rising for embrace of controversial Islamic leader
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 05, 2010
11:25 pm Eastern
By Michael Carl
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is catching political heat for embracing an imam who is alleged to have preached the need to take up arms to defend the rights of Muslims.
After vowing to eliminate racial profiling and guaranteeing Muslims their civil rights, Patrick, a Democrat, hugged Imam Abdullah Faaruuq at the meeting with more than 1,000 Muslims at the Muslim American Society-affiliated mosque at Boston's Roxbury Crossing.
The newest Boston-area mosque was dedicated last year and is affiliated with the MAS, an Islamic advocacy organization that public policy group Americans for Peace and Tolerance says has known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a controversial video on YouTube, Patrick is embracing the native Bostonian Faaruuq, who preaches at the Mosque for the Praising of Allah:
What's raising eyebrows is that the YouTube video seems to show Faaruuq urging his followers to take up arms to protest the arrest of terrorism suspect Tariq Mehanna and Faaruuq's congregation member Aisha Siddiqi.
Read about what Muslims want for you. Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore. Special price today only $4.95.
Mehanna was arrested last October for allegedly planning an attack at a shopping mall and Siddiqi was arrested for allegedly plotting to kill FBI agents.
(Story continues below)
When asked about his association with Mehanna, Faaruuq said he didn't know much about the case, but knows the man.
"He went to school here in Boston, I know that he as a degree in pharmacy. I know he was an active Muslim young man. I've known him since he was very young. So what else can I know about him?" Faaruuq observed.
"I don't know much about his personal life. I've never slept over at his house or eaten with him. I've eaten with him here. I've seen how he behaves and he's very respectful," the imam continued.
"That's what I know about him so it's hard for me to believe some of the things they've said about him. I would say that I don't think he would be involved in those types of things," Faaruuq said.
Listen to an interview with Faaruuq:
"They have a full government. They can be involved in investigating a person's life. They might know more about him than I do," Faaruuq said.
"They let him out of jail for a year, but then some other Muslims gave some evidence against him, so I don't really know. I don't know the case well enough to speak about the case. I'm talking about the person," Faaruuq added.
The statements in question are featured in the YouTube video and were the subject of discussion on a Boston talk radio station this week. Faaruuq says his critics have singled out the references to the swords and knives.
"That's not what I said at all. I urged the Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another. I urged them to be American citizens and to take full part in what goes on in this government and this world as American citizens," Faaruuq said.
"I said, 'Take up the pen; the typewriter, the sword, the gun. You can take up a plowshare. You can become a surgeon and do everything you can to contribute to this society in a full way," the imam said.
He continued by playing down the remarks about learning how to use guns.
"The National Rifle Association is a legitimate association and no one says anything about them advocating people use guns. People who go into the United States Army are taught how to use a gun and how to use a typewriter," Faaruuq said.
"You have to be a full citizen. I advocate for people to be full Americans. Become surgeons; become firemen. Join the Navy. Learn how to defend this country and to partake in this country as a full citizen," Faaruuq added.
Faaruuq also claimed that Muslims have served in the military fighting for the United States in every major conflict since the American Civil War.
However, there are few references to Muslims in American history. Writing on the Now Public website, Chantilly, Va., writer Morris Sadek says that contrary to many recent claims, Muslims have made few if any contributions to American history.
Most of the claims about Muslims in American history are on Muslim-hosted web sites. Islam 101 says that Muslims arrived in North America over 100 years before Columbus and about 300 years before the Pilgrims.
In analyzing Faaruuq's comments, Islam expert and Jihad Watch publisher Robert Spencer says Faaruuq is using a smooth technique that masks his real meaning.
"What he's doing is using Quranic concepts that deal with jihad without explaining to you that that's what he's talking about," Spencer explained.
"For example, he said early on, that all he wanted to do was teach Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another. That is something that is in the Quran twice," Spencer continued.
"In chapter three, verse 28 and chapter five, verse 51. In 3.28 it says, 'Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from God,'" Spencer quoted.
"In 5.51 it says, 'O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protecters; they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you who that turns to them is of them,'" Spencer continued.
"In other words, Muslims can pretend to be friends and protecters of unbelievers to deceive them in order to advance Islam," Spencer explained.
Listen to an interview with Spencer:
"Five, verse 51 specifically says that Muslims aren't to take Jews and Christians as their friends and protecters. So when he said to you that was teaching Muslims to be friends and protecters of one another, he's actually telling you that he's telling them to cut off from the larger society, to have contempt for it and to work to replace the laws and customs of the society they are in with Islamic law," Spencer explained.
Spencer says the Imam's comments about Tariq Mehanna are an admission that he was Mehanna's spiritual leader.
"I would certainly think that to speak with such obvious affection and regard for this man in such detail, I think it's clear that they had some kind of a close relationship, certainly," Spencer stated.
Spencer adds that Faaruuq's words encouraging Muslims to be active in society have another meaning.
"When he was saying that all he was saying is that Muslims should be active in society, and there were certain ways to do that, by the pen, by the sword and by the gun, and that's the statement that got him in trouble with 96-9 (one of Boston's three talk radio stations), that those are different forms of jihad," Spencer observed.
"There is no doubt that in Islamic theology there is jihad of the pen and jihad of the sword and those are distinct from one another. Yes, they all have the same goal, the goal is to impose Islamic law over the society in question," Spencer added.
However, there is more.
"What the guy is telling you is that he is preaching jihad. And he just knows that his non-Muslim hearers are not going to understand what he's saying when he's just putting it in terms of just being active in society and just working for justice by the pen and by the sword," Spencer explained further.
"Since he's hearkening back to these concepts, then the context of what he's saying becomes clear," Spencer stated.
"His followers will hear what he's saying and they will understand it in terms of what they've been taught and what they know about Islamic theology. They will understand it as meaning that he's telling them to strive hard in the way of Allah. In other words, he's telling them to wage jihad," Spencer said.
Spencer added that he believes that Patrick's endorsement of Islam at the recent mosque gathering is likely the product of political naivete.
Patrick's office refused comment saying, "We're not going to make any statement on this issue."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related offer:
Get "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous stories:
Promoting atheism OK, but not 'leaving Islam'
'Leaving Islam' ads return to Miami buses
CAIR complains, Miami censors bus ads
Justice Department confirms CAIR terror ties
Desperate Muslims launch 'Hail Mary'
Federal judge rules against 'Muslim Mafia'
The First Amendment case the media refuse to cover
Senator's call to profile angers 'Muslim Mafia'
FBI gets 'Muslim Mafia' 'smoking-gun' documents
Hear 'Muslim Mafia' lawyer on CAIR case
CAIR admitted fundraising for convicted terror group
Muslim group asks Obama for protection
Experts: Lawsuit could end 'cancerous pro-jihad group'
'Muslim Mafia' lawsuit response: Legally, CAIR doesn't even exist
FBI swoops in to halt return of 'Muslim Mafia' documents
Lawmakers ask IRS to investigate CAIR
CAIR boasts of influence on media after Fort Hood
CAIR speaker to Muslims: OK to attack Fort Bragg
Army shooter's mosque run by Muslim Mafia
Judge orders: Return 'Muslim Mafia' docs
CAIR files suit against 'Muslim Mafia' author
CAIR linked to FBI shootout
What happened to CAIR's headliners?
Surprise! Guess who's the real 'anti-Muslim bigot' in D.C.
CAIR coverage ignores terror ties
Congress targets 'Muslim Mafia'
Meet White House adviser who supports Islamic law
CAIR's 'flying imams' strategy: Sue everyone
'Flying imams' rewarded for ominous airline 'stunt'?
Marriott urged to cancel CAIR banquet
D.C. Muslim group's shocking al-Qaida ties
Yes, CAIR is planting 'spies' on Capitol Hill
Is this man Islamophobic?
'Moderate' CAIR to feature radicals at annual banquet
Myrick: CAIR won't renounce Hamas ideology
Guess who's probing 'Muslim Mafia' now
CAIR attempts to torpedo Capitol press conference
House anti-terror caucus wants CAIR probed
'Now we have proof' jihadis infiltrating D.C.
CAIR spent $160,000 to silence Savage
Lawmakers warn of CAIR threat
CAIR branch boasts of getting DVD censored
FBI asked to investigate Muslim group
Islam investigator ejected from D.C. Muslim conference
Nashville boots anti-jihad conference
Claim: CPS ignored child abuse at U.S. mosque
Private terror probe: 50 mosques in 50 days
Are Americans safe from U.S. mosques?
Get an insider's view of CAIR's banquet
Another day, another CAIR defendant served
Lawsuit's claim: CAIR no longer even exists
Surprise! See CAIR officials get slapped with summons
CAIR's demand for fees from Michael Savage rejected
U.S. 'must oppose' Islamic 'anti-defamation demands'
Islamic takeover of U.S. is already under way
Report: Muslims ripped off by CAIR
Savage lawyers aim at CAIR paymasters
Judge sides with CAIR against Michael Savage
CAIR seeks dismissal of Savage lawsuit
Islamic attacks on Savage target advertisers
CAIR backs film praising convicted terror supporter
CAIR: Civil rights advocates or radical Islamists?
Savage lawsuit calls CAIR 'vehicle of international terrorism'
Islamic attacks on Savage target advertisers
Radio host condemned for 'Islam is a cult'
Feds name CAIR in plot to fund Hamas
'Terrorist apologist' CAIR to meet in Capitol
Muslim sensitivity training for 45,000 airport workers
Did CAIR founder say Islam to rule America?
Doubts grow over Muslim lawmaker's loyalty
American citizens aided Hamas terror
Internet, talk radio blamed for 'anti-Muslim violence'
Controversial Muslim group gets VIP airport security tour
Muslims fear 'United 93' backlash
CAIR files FOIA on Bush wiretaps
CAIR issues U.S. 'travel advisory'
Boeing apologizes to CAIR for ad
CAIR urges Congress to honor Ramadan
CAIR condemns Jewish attacker
U.S. Muslims' anti-terror fatwa 'bogus'
CAIR to GOP: Repudiate Tancredo
CAIR distributes Quran banned as anti-Semitic
CAIR: Censure Israeli leader for remarks
CAIR gets apology for Muslim remark
CAIR leader convicted on terror charges
CAIR pressures National Review to nix ads
Fox's '24' airs Muslim disclaimer
CAIR presses Fox TV on Muslim terrorists
Jackie Mason calls Islam 'murderous' religion
Muslim group sues critic for $1.35 million
U.S. Muslims silent on Hamas chief's terror
Muslims publish 'Jesus' ad
Muslim group sues congressman for $2 million
Kucinich headlines Muslim fund-raiser
Dr. Laura: No apology to Muslims needed
Dr. Laura rebuked for 'anti-Muslim tirade'
FBI invites Muslim scholars to preach
Feds accused of 'siege' on American Muslims
Muslim-rights voice indicted in jihad plot
Americans charged in 'holy-war' plot
Muslims grooming candidates for 2004
Should Muslim Quran be USA's top authority?
Group forces censure for 'Islamophobia'
Muslims try to quash Bush nominee
University fires 'terror professor'
Muslims try to bar terror expert
American Islamic lobby gets out the vote
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Albania's Muslim community sues journalist who urged ban on Islam
Written by The Associated Press
4 June 2010
TIRANA, Albania - The main group representing Albania's Muslim majority population says it is suing a journalist who suggested the government should ban their faith.
The Albanian Muslim Community says in a statement released Tuesday that Kastriot Myftaraj allegedly incited religious hatred with his writings in the small circulation, Tirana-based Sot (Today) daily newspaper.
Myftaraj published two articles last month claiming that "Islam harms Albanian national coherence." He wrote that the best response was for the country to "outlaw the Muslim religion in Albania and close down all mosques."
About two-thirds of Albania's 3.2 million population is Muslim. Albanians were not allowed to practice any religion under Communist rule between 1967 and 1990
4 June 2010
TIRANA, Albania - The main group representing Albania's Muslim majority population says it is suing a journalist who suggested the government should ban their faith.
The Albanian Muslim Community says in a statement released Tuesday that Kastriot Myftaraj allegedly incited religious hatred with his writings in the small circulation, Tirana-based Sot (Today) daily newspaper.
Myftaraj published two articles last month claiming that "Islam harms Albanian national coherence." He wrote that the best response was for the country to "outlaw the Muslim religion in Albania and close down all mosques."
About two-thirds of Albania's 3.2 million population is Muslim. Albanians were not allowed to practice any religion under Communist rule between 1967 and 1990
Copts and marriage
Written by The Economist
3 June 2010
You can't just marry anyone. A secular step in a conservative country
And if it goes wrong you can’t try again
EGYPT’S laws governing marriage and divorce are a multi-storeyed affair. For the majority of Egyptians, who are Muslim, they are set by sharia law as interpreted by Imam Abu Hanifa, an eighth-century Iraqi scholar who founded one of Sunni Islam’s four jurisprudential schools. For Christians the rules depend on which church you belong to; Protestant evangelicals are more tolerant of divorce than are the Coptic Orthodox, for instance, and Syrian Orthodox regulations stipulate—among other things—that a man may not marry a woman who breastfed him. Jewish family law is divided between Hasidic and Rabbinical Jews, though both provide that a “foul odour” can be grounds for divorce.
The Muslim marriage ceremony is fully legally binding, since a maazoun, a Muslim marriage registrar, is a public servant, but it is generally then also registered as a civil marriage at the justice ministry. But Christians must always register their religious marriage with civil authorities for it to be legal. This has given churches a lot of power: though Christians can get a civil divorce, the church will not remarry them, so the state cannot recognise a new marriage.
This has affected Coptic Orthodox Christians in particular, as their pope, Shenouda III, has taken his flock on a more conservative path since he became the 116th successor to Saint Mark the Evangelist in 1971. A steady trickle of Orthodox Copts has joined the evangelicals, who are seen as less laden with heavy ritual, more generous with welfare and more flexible over marriage and divorce. In the Orthodox church divorce is rarely granted, and then only through a special petition to the pope.
When the church refused Hani Wasfi Naguib a second marriage after his divorce, he sued Pope Shenouda in Cairo’s Administrative Court, which adjudicates matters of legal procedure. Mr Naguib won his case last year, when the court told the church it must grant him his right to divorce and remarry. The church appealed and lost, with the Supreme Administrative Court ruling on May 29th that “the right to establish a family is a constitutional right, which is above all other considerations.”
Defiant Coptic bishops say “there is no power on earth that could make us violate the teachings of our Lord Christ.” The case will now go to the Supreme Constitutional Court, the highest in the land. In the meantime, the affair has stirred a debate over whether civil and religious law should be separate. Secularists have long argued that Egyptians should be able to marry outside their faiths. Islam, for instance, forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. Egypt is still conservative in such matters, so things are unlikely to change soon. But the latest court ruling may have marked a notable first step.
3 June 2010
You can't just marry anyone. A secular step in a conservative country
And if it goes wrong you can’t try again
EGYPT’S laws governing marriage and divorce are a multi-storeyed affair. For the majority of Egyptians, who are Muslim, they are set by sharia law as interpreted by Imam Abu Hanifa, an eighth-century Iraqi scholar who founded one of Sunni Islam’s four jurisprudential schools. For Christians the rules depend on which church you belong to; Protestant evangelicals are more tolerant of divorce than are the Coptic Orthodox, for instance, and Syrian Orthodox regulations stipulate—among other things—that a man may not marry a woman who breastfed him. Jewish family law is divided between Hasidic and Rabbinical Jews, though both provide that a “foul odour” can be grounds for divorce.
The Muslim marriage ceremony is fully legally binding, since a maazoun, a Muslim marriage registrar, is a public servant, but it is generally then also registered as a civil marriage at the justice ministry. But Christians must always register their religious marriage with civil authorities for it to be legal. This has given churches a lot of power: though Christians can get a civil divorce, the church will not remarry them, so the state cannot recognise a new marriage.
This has affected Coptic Orthodox Christians in particular, as their pope, Shenouda III, has taken his flock on a more conservative path since he became the 116th successor to Saint Mark the Evangelist in 1971. A steady trickle of Orthodox Copts has joined the evangelicals, who are seen as less laden with heavy ritual, more generous with welfare and more flexible over marriage and divorce. In the Orthodox church divorce is rarely granted, and then only through a special petition to the pope.
When the church refused Hani Wasfi Naguib a second marriage after his divorce, he sued Pope Shenouda in Cairo’s Administrative Court, which adjudicates matters of legal procedure. Mr Naguib won his case last year, when the court told the church it must grant him his right to divorce and remarry. The church appealed and lost, with the Supreme Administrative Court ruling on May 29th that “the right to establish a family is a constitutional right, which is above all other considerations.”
Defiant Coptic bishops say “there is no power on earth that could make us violate the teachings of our Lord Christ.” The case will now go to the Supreme Constitutional Court, the highest in the land. In the meantime, the affair has stirred a debate over whether civil and religious law should be separate. Secularists have long argued that Egyptians should be able to marry outside their faiths. Islam, for instance, forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. Egypt is still conservative in such matters, so things are unlikely to change soon. But the latest court ruling may have marked a notable first step.
Coptic Pope Rejects Egyptian Court Ruling on Remarriage of Divorcees
(AINA) -- The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt has rejected a court ruling that orders the church to allow divorced Copts to remarry in the church. In a press conference held on Tuesday June 8, Pope Shenouda, reading from the statement issued by the Holy Synod's 91 Bishops including himself said "The Coptic Church respects the law, but does not accept rulings which are against the Bible and against its religious freedom which is guaranteed by the Constitution." He went on to say "the recent ruling is not acceptable to our conscience, and we can not implement it."
He also said that marriage is a holy sacrament of a purely religious nature and not merely an "administrative act." This statement came in response to the Supreme Court's ruling which said that the duties of the church was administrative. He pointed out that the second marriage for divorcees is a religious issue, governed by the Bible.
Pope Shenouda added that Islamic Law (Sharia) says "judge between people of the Scripture according to what they believe in," and this principle came in all personal status laws. He pointed out that many of the provisions of the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Constitutional Court stressed the principle of the application of Christian law on its followers.
In answer to fears expressed by Copts of the possibility of the Pope being imprisoned for not implementing the ruling, he confirmed that the Patriarch is not a public official and is therefore not bound by civil provisions. "The law of religious leaders is the Gospel and the Church Laws," he said.
During the press conference, he lashed out at the Media which, accused him and the Coptic Church of being "a State within a State" that disrespects court rulings, and misinterpreting facts about the Coptic Church forbidding its followers to marry for a second time. He explained that widowers and those who have obtained a divorce through the Church -- according to the teachings of the Bible -- and who are the "innocent partner" are issued a permit to re-marry, but not the "guilty partner." He said that whoever gets a civil divorce is free to marry but not in the Coptic Church. "Let whoever wants to remarry to do it away from us. There are many ways and churches to marry in," said Pope Shenuda III. "Whoever wants to remain within the church has to abide by its laws."
Pope Shenouda further threatened to defrock any priest who allows a divorced Christian to remarry, except in cases where the divorce was on the grounds of adultery. Those that have remarried after divorce will not be allowed in Church.
At present the Coptic Church does not allow re-marriage except in very limited circumstances of adultery and conversion to another faith. The Church maintains that these rules safeguard the Christian family.
According to Bishop Bola of Tanta, who is in charge of divorce matters in the Coptic church, "there are just over 200 cases of divorce presented to his office every year "and not 20,000 or even 2,000,000 as some newspapers claimed."
Azza Suleiman, director of the Center for Women's Issues, said there are currently five million postponed divorce cases in Egypt, in addition to 13 million cases under consideration by the personal status courts. She added that a divorce occurs every six minutes in the country, and that 250 thousand women resort to the courts annually to obtain divorce.
The Pope evaded answering a question presented by a reporter in the press conference on whether the court would dare order Al-Azhar to agree to a Muslim marrying a fifth wife and not only four, comparing it to the interference of the Court in the Bible teachings through its recent ruling.
A draft of a unified personal status law for all sects of Christianity, which was signed by all churches in Egypt, was submitted to the People's Assembly by Pope Shenouda nearly 25 years ago. All churches agreed that no divorce is permitted except for adultery. "This draft law must be locked away in some one's drawer," he laughed. It is seen by many that passing this law is the only way to put an end to such court verdicts.
When asked during the press conference whether he will appeal to President Mubarak to sort out this controversial court ruling, he said that he does not wish to embarrass him, in case he does not like to interfere with the judiciary. However, he said, that if the President knows that the church and the millions of Copts are not happy with this ruling, he might do something about it. He said that he does not yet know what is his next step.
Ramsis El-Naggar, an attorney for the church, said that since the Administrative Court's ruling cannot be appealed, he expects that the church will appeal the verdict in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court for an interpretation of Article 69 of the denominational regulations, which deals with the remarriage of divorcees.
A sit-in is arranged for Wednesday June 9 in front of the St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo during the Pope's weekly sermon to protest the court's ruling and the interference of the judiciary in the affairs of the Coptic Church.
By Mary Abdelmassih
He also said that marriage is a holy sacrament of a purely religious nature and not merely an "administrative act." This statement came in response to the Supreme Court's ruling which said that the duties of the church was administrative. He pointed out that the second marriage for divorcees is a religious issue, governed by the Bible.
Pope Shenouda added that Islamic Law (Sharia) says "judge between people of the Scripture according to what they believe in," and this principle came in all personal status laws. He pointed out that many of the provisions of the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Constitutional Court stressed the principle of the application of Christian law on its followers.
In answer to fears expressed by Copts of the possibility of the Pope being imprisoned for not implementing the ruling, he confirmed that the Patriarch is not a public official and is therefore not bound by civil provisions. "The law of religious leaders is the Gospel and the Church Laws," he said.
During the press conference, he lashed out at the Media which, accused him and the Coptic Church of being "a State within a State" that disrespects court rulings, and misinterpreting facts about the Coptic Church forbidding its followers to marry for a second time. He explained that widowers and those who have obtained a divorce through the Church -- according to the teachings of the Bible -- and who are the "innocent partner" are issued a permit to re-marry, but not the "guilty partner." He said that whoever gets a civil divorce is free to marry but not in the Coptic Church. "Let whoever wants to remarry to do it away from us. There are many ways and churches to marry in," said Pope Shenuda III. "Whoever wants to remain within the church has to abide by its laws."
Pope Shenouda further threatened to defrock any priest who allows a divorced Christian to remarry, except in cases where the divorce was on the grounds of adultery. Those that have remarried after divorce will not be allowed in Church.
At present the Coptic Church does not allow re-marriage except in very limited circumstances of adultery and conversion to another faith. The Church maintains that these rules safeguard the Christian family.
According to Bishop Bola of Tanta, who is in charge of divorce matters in the Coptic church, "there are just over 200 cases of divorce presented to his office every year "and not 20,000 or even 2,000,000 as some newspapers claimed."
Azza Suleiman, director of the Center for Women's Issues, said there are currently five million postponed divorce cases in Egypt, in addition to 13 million cases under consideration by the personal status courts. She added that a divorce occurs every six minutes in the country, and that 250 thousand women resort to the courts annually to obtain divorce.
The Pope evaded answering a question presented by a reporter in the press conference on whether the court would dare order Al-Azhar to agree to a Muslim marrying a fifth wife and not only four, comparing it to the interference of the Court in the Bible teachings through its recent ruling.
A draft of a unified personal status law for all sects of Christianity, which was signed by all churches in Egypt, was submitted to the People's Assembly by Pope Shenouda nearly 25 years ago. All churches agreed that no divorce is permitted except for adultery. "This draft law must be locked away in some one's drawer," he laughed. It is seen by many that passing this law is the only way to put an end to such court verdicts.
When asked during the press conference whether he will appeal to President Mubarak to sort out this controversial court ruling, he said that he does not wish to embarrass him, in case he does not like to interfere with the judiciary. However, he said, that if the President knows that the church and the millions of Copts are not happy with this ruling, he might do something about it. He said that he does not yet know what is his next step.
Ramsis El-Naggar, an attorney for the church, said that since the Administrative Court's ruling cannot be appealed, he expects that the church will appeal the verdict in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court for an interpretation of Article 69 of the denominational regulations, which deals with the remarriage of divorcees.
A sit-in is arranged for Wednesday June 9 in front of the St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo during the Pope's weekly sermon to protest the court's ruling and the interference of the judiciary in the affairs of the Coptic Church.
By Mary Abdelmassih
MICHIGAN STATE AND MUSLIM STUDENTS - RIGHT ON!
GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
Very interesting -- the University is standing by their professor and not bowing down to special interest groups!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp Professor Wichman E-mail
Claim: A Michigan professor sent an e-mail telling Muslim students to leave the country.
Status: True.
The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indred Wichman.
Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association.
The e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.
The group had complained the cartoons were 'hate speech.'
============
Enter Professor Wichman.
==========================================
In his e-mail, he said the following:
===============================
Dear Muslim Association,
As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest.
I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Muslims to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.'
If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.
Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially,
I. S. Wichman
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
=============================
As you can imagine,
the Muslim group at the university didn't like this too well.
They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded, that the university impose mandatory diversity training for faculty,
and mandate a seminar on hate and discrimination for all freshmen.
Now, the local chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray.
CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe that the good professor
had the right to express his opinion.
==========
For its part, the university is standing its ground in support of Professor Wichman,
saying the e-mail was private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks.
============================================================
Send this to your friends, and ask them to do the same.
Tell them to keep passing it around until the whole country gets it.
We are in a war.
This political correctness crap is getting old and killing us.
==================
If you agree with this,
Please send it to all your friends,
If not, simply delete it.
GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
Very interesting -- the University is standing by their professor and not bowing down to special interest groups!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp Professor Wichman E-mail
Claim: A Michigan professor sent an e-mail telling Muslim students to leave the country.
Status: True.
The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indred Wichman.
Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association.
The e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.
The group had complained the cartoons were 'hate speech.'
============
Enter Professor Wichman.
==========================================
In his e-mail, he said the following:
===============================
Dear Muslim Association,
As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest.
I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Muslims to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.'
If you do not like the values of the West - see the First Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option.
Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially,
I. S. Wichman
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
=============================
As you can imagine,
the Muslim group at the university didn't like this too well.
They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded, that the university impose mandatory diversity training for faculty,
and mandate a seminar on hate and discrimination for all freshmen.
Now, the local chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray.
CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe that the good professor
had the right to express his opinion.
==========
For its part, the university is standing its ground in support of Professor Wichman,
saying the e-mail was private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks.
============================================================
Send this to your friends, and ask them to do the same.
Tell them to keep passing it around until the whole country gets it.
We are in a war.
This political correctness crap is getting old and killing us.
==================
If you agree with this,
Please send it to all your friends,
If not, simply delete it.
GO, MICHIGAN STATE !
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
10000 throng to protest Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground ...
Morris sadek Esq in the protest
National American coptic Assembly- USA
Washington DC
Mr. Morris Sadek-ESQ President
visit&watch our website
http://www. nationalamericancopticassembly .webs.com/
http://nacopticas1.blogspot. com/
http://nacopts1.blogspot.com/
The D-Day at Ground Zero Rally was a success! We honored those who died on the beaches of Normandy and those who were murdered on 9-11 . . There will be many videos posted of those who spoke. Leading off with one of the co-sponsors of the rally, Pamela Geller of SOIA (Stop The Islamization of America). Will write more later…meanwhile, we’ll let the videos “do the talking”:
Pamela Geller
Videos posted
http://nomosquesatgroundzero.wordpress.com/
10,000 protest planned Islamic center, mosque near Ground Zero
Thousands Protest Mega-Mosque on D-Day!
by Pamela Geller
06/08/2010
Despite weather forecasts of thunderstorms, the skies were clear and beautiful Sunday afternoon for our Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) rally against the Ground Zero mega-mosque, but not as beautiful as the patriotic crowd who came out to stand for freedom against this insulting manifestation of Islamic supremacism. It was a real cross-section of humanity: every race, creed, color and religion were out in all their glory.
My SIOA colleague, bestselling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer, and I were expecting 500 people to attend our rally. Imagine our wonder when close to 5,000 showed up. Other estimates ranged up to 10,000. The crowd was so huge that it filled the police pens and Zuccotti Park, and overflowed to the other side of the street.
Despite the huge size of the rally, there was little media coverage at the event, which indicates the media’s bias. The NY News actually ran a segment repeatedly Sunday afternoon about the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender parade, but not a word about our massive rally. And all Sunday, Fox News was running—get this—Greta Van Susteren’s years-old interview with Natalee Holloway’s murderer.
But there were loads of bloggers, including El Marco, Pamela Hall, and others, who put the mainstream media to shame with their thorough coverage and exemplary photojournalism. They showed yet again how essential the new media is today—and how useless the old.
Our speaker list was wide-ranging. We had C. Lee Hanson, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter on 9/11; Anders Gravers of our sister organization, Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE); Simon Deng, the Sudanese ex-slave and campaigner for human rights for Sudanese Christians; James Lafferty of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force; Nonie Darwish, ex-Muslim and author of Now They Call Me Infidel and Cruel and Usual Punishment; Dr. Babu Suseelan, a Hindu leader and human rights activist; Herbert London of the Hudson Institute; and Alan T. DeVona, the patrol sergeant on duty at the time of the jihad terror attack on September 11. Also attending were some politicians who are attuned to the will of the people: Jay Townsend, who is running against Sen. Chuck Schumer for (D.-N.Y.) and has been endorsed by the New York Conservative Party and is on the GOP ballot; Vincent Forras, a candidate for Senate in Connecticut; and Dan Maloney, the New York director of Gathering of Eagles and a congressional candidate in New York’s 4th Congressional District.
And this is just the beginning. We are going to sue to designate as a war memorial the Burlington Coat Factory building, which the Muslims behind the Ground Zero Mosque initiative are already using as a mosque, and which is slated to be torn down to make way for the massive fifteen-story mega-mosque.
This is the right thing to do, since there is a large piece of an airplane in that building. That makes the building a war memorial, no less than Gettysburg or Pearl Harbor. There should be no mosque there, and nothing there but a memorial to the people America lost to that heinous attack on September 11, 2001. Instead of a mega mosque at Ground Zero, let’s build a 911 war memorial to the victims. That will give us the opportunity to redress yet another insult: the current plan for a 911 museum is several floors underground, like a dungeon. And the mosque plan calls for the mosque to be on the top floor, looking down triumphantly on the burial ground of Ground Zero.
I don’t think so.
The Burlington Coat Factory building must be a war memorial, a historic landmark. We will sue to make that happen. We are also planning another SIOA protest against the mega-mosque in September, and will stage sit-ins in front of the mosque should they try to break ground.
And we will never give up.
Three thousand good and decent Americans did not die in vain. And we have not forgotten them, even if Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the New York political establishment have.
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Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer. Her op-eds have appeared in the Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, the American Thinker, Israel National News and other publications.
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Reader Comments: (44)
Here are a few of the comments submitted by our readers. Click to view all
Please remember the opinions expressed by our readers are in no way those of Human Events, nor are they condoned by us, and we reserve the right to remove abusive posts. Report Abusive Post
Thank goodness for people like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, thank you - thank you - thank you.
I attended the rally, it was hard to tell how many were there due to all of us having to move to the pens. The permit problem was ridiculous! I also attended the rally for not having the trials in NYC last December as well as the rally for not having the IFC at the Memorial. I'm trying to show my support but there appears to be way too many that talk the talk but are not willing to walk the walk. Yes, I could have went to a barbeque or to the beach but I figured if Nonie was brave enough to be there, so should I. I do think it's the very least I can do!
My question is, where were the people that worked downtown on that horrific day? Where were all the Conservatives? Where were family and friends of loved ones that were MURDERED on 9/11? There should have been more people, I was disappointed at the turnout. I just don't get it.
Jun 07, 2010 @ 09:15 PM
C. C. , Brooklyn, NY
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Now watch the moslim scum call it one of the Top UN Holy sites and claim it theirs just like they claim Israel/Judea as theirs. and evey where else the infest.
Jun 08, 2010 @ 03:46 AM
Guns & Moses, Mt. Vernon
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Recall Bloomberg..
Jun 08, 2010 @ 03:52 AM
Rocco, Virginia
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NEW 980 PAGE BOOK EXPOSING THE TRUTH OF ISLAM
For new 980 page book exposing the Truth of Islam go to;
www.godofmoralperfection.net
EXCERPTS FROM BOOK
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE
GOD IS NOT A CRIMINAL
BANALITY OF EVIL: BANALITY OF SILENCE
President Roosevelt said in his 1932 inaugural address “Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself”.
Well - IT’S TIME TO FEAR, FEAR
IT’S RONALD REAGAN TIME: SHOW ISLAM NO RESPECT: YOU ARE NOT US
IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM THEN YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE A FREE PEOPLE. FREEDOM IS NOT ONLY A RIGHT- IT IS A RESPONSIBILITY
9/11 AND FT. HOOD MASSACRE ARE QURAN TEACHING 9:111
TRAGEDY OF GERMANY WILL BE AMERICA’S TRAGEDY
WHY THE IGNORING BY AMERICAN POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERSHIP OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE QURAN THAT LED TO THE MASS MURDER OF 9/11 AND ARE BEING USED TO MURDER AND PLOT THE MURDER OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF US SOLDIERS AND TENS OF MILLIONS OF US CITZENS IS CRIMINAL
UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL ARE FIGHTING THE QURAN FOR THEIR NATIONAL SURVIVAL: READ CHAPTER 33 FOR WHAT ACTION ISRAEL MUST TAKE TO SURVIVE PEACE NEGOTATIONS WITH PALESTINIANS
DEFENSE OF AMERICA: DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM ACT
DECLARATION OF A GOD OF MORAL PERFECTION: ONLY A GOD OF MORAL PERFECTION IS GOD
LAWS MUST BE PASSED PROTECTING US BUSINESS FROM MUSLIM LAWSUITS: SEPARATION OF BUSINESS AND RELIGION
Jun 08, 2010 @ 04:24 AM
Jake Neuman, Washington
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Building a mosque on the 9/11 site is their way of confirming domination over the population (not any different than that horrific domed abomination on the temple mount).
If there are any common sense New Yorker's remaining, it would be in your best interest to put a stop to this now.
Jun 08, 2010 @ 06:17 AM
Jerry, Socialist Republic of Maryland
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Congratulations to those folks who attended!! I salute and cheer you from a thousand miles away and take great pleasure in your show of conviction. As the hymn goes, STAND UP, STAND UP for Jesus. And if not for Jesus, then at least against DOMINATION.
Jun 08, 2010 @ 06:26 AM
Someone, Somewhere, USA
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God bless , protect , and guide our nation .
Jun 08, 2010 @ 06:54 AM
ERICH, USA
Saturday, June 5, 2010
THE 911 MOSQUE PROTEST
STOP THE 911 MOSQUE PROTEST
http://nomosquesatgroundzero.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/stop-the-911-mosque-protest-june-6-2010/ STOP THE 911 MOSQUE PROTEST
Date: June 6th
Time: 12 Noon
Place: Ground Zero
On Sat, 6/5/10, Writeatlas@aol.com
From: Writeatlas@aol.com
Subject: Re: protest
To: nonie@arabsforisrael.com, director@jihadwatch.org, morrissadek@ymail.com
Date: Saturday, June 5, 2010, 1:28 AM
Remember, the whole world is watching what you say at the Rally. Hostile international media will be listening to your every word. Your remarks will be parsed to find the most damaging pull quote that they can use to smear the whole rally. The media will be looking for a soundbite they can use in order to defame the entire Rally as a gathering of bigots and hatemongers.
We cannot and must not fall into their trap. You can be just as effective without being inflammatory.
We want to host more conferences and rallies in the future, and we hope you will speak for us again. Accordingly, we ask most urgently that you adhere strictly to the following guidelines:
Don’t say or suggest that all Muslims are evil or terrorists
Don’t say or suggest that all mosques are planning grounds for jihad terrorism
Don’t bash Islam. Don’t refer to it as an evil religion. If you need to refer to Islamic doctrines, be specific and avoid broad characterizations.
If you do not adhere to these guidelines, your address will not help us achieve our goal. You will have helped the media portray the Rally as hateful, and will have just made the mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf look good.
Focus in on talking points that Bat Ye’or articulated in a recent interview with Pamela Geller:
Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground – sacred to the American people
Mosque supporters say the mosque is intended to show good will, but Americans wouldn’t destroy the cemeteries of soldiers in Europe in order to show good will toward the Germans
A mosque at Ground Zero shows a lack of consideration for the victims and their families
The people are against the mosque. The government must listen to the demand of the people
The mosque organizers should respect the feelings of the nation and the memories of the families
This mosque will be an icon in the Islamic world for the global jihad
9/11 has become a symbolic date to accuse the West of Islamophobia – it has been subverted. In the same way, the mosque will stand for the jihad
We should ask the Muslim group for mutual respect and mutual understanding. Muslims cannot put a mosque on top of Ground Zero the way they put a mosque on the top of the Temple Mount. That is how this mosque is perceived, and people have to be sensitive to that.
If you believe in your heart that you cannot adhere to these guidelines, please let us know now that you will speak to press at the Rally.
Please acknowledge receipt of these Guidelines and reply back with your assent to them.
Yours in liberty
Pamela Geller
Robert Spencer
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