Abusing Freedom of Religion

Islam is, first and foremost, an ideology which is the antithesis of American principles and, as such, is not entitled to First Amendment rights. Nevertheless, in this posting I'll abide by the assumption that Islam is a religion.
According to CAIR, some of the practitioners of Islam are particularly pious and intend to disrupt traffic at a busy airport. Not only do these practitioners want to leave their cabs in order to bow in the direction of Mecca, but also they want to leave their cabs at the curb so that they can go inside the airport to complete the ritual ablutions.

http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=36803&theType=NB :

CAIR-OH: Prayers Lead to Tickets for Muslim Cabbies
Source: Associated Press
"CLEVELAND - Somali immigrants who work as cab drivers at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport say police are ticketing them when they step out of their cabs for traditional Islamic prayer. Police say they are enforcing a requirement that all drivers remain in their vehicles outside the terminal and are trying to maintain order in an increasingly competitive airport cab scene. A sign warns taxi drivers not to leave their vehicles within 300 feet of the terminal or their automobile will be towed. Police aren't towing, but are ticketing for loitering near a public hack and misuse of a cab stand. Those offenses carry a $150 fine, plus $69 in court costs. Members of the Islamic religion are required to have five formal prayers daily, which must be done facing the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, considered the most holy city in Islam. In America, that's usually northeast. Muslims are required to be freshly cleaned with water and recite the prayers in various positions, including standing and kneeling on the ground. The cab drivers say this is why they must leave their cars to wash up in the airport restrooms and to pray in certain areas. 'By law, under the First Amendment, Americans do have the right to freedom of religious expression,' said Julia Shearson, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Cleveland office..."

We're talking about a security threat here! How difficult would it be for a terrorist to leave his cab in time to avoid the detonation of a bomb or other weapon? Furthermore, an airport cab lane is not the place to abandon a vehicle, and signs prohibiting this type of disruption have been in place for years. If these practicioners of Islam are so devout, then let them leave the cab lane and assemble elsewhere. After all, their faith is supposed to matter more than any financial gain or loss, right?
Would any other religious group be accorded consideration in the way that CAIR advocates?
I'm getting fed up with these overreaching accusations of the persecution of Muslims. Another sentence from the article reads "'We are very concerned about any possible profiling,' [Julia Shearson] said. 'Overall, I think that law enforcement, they do try to understand other cultures and religions and we hope that they will work hard to reach out to this particular community and open a channel of dialogue with various leaders.'"
The right to freedom of religion does not apply to the situation at the Cleveland Airport. Let the practitioners of Islam adjust their work and prayer schedules to conform with airport and security regulations.

In the mid-1990's, I took a class of upper-elementary, Christian-school students into Washington, D.C., for a tour of the Capitol Building. Because our Congressional Representative was in a meeting, the tour was delayed, and these very lively students were becoming restless. I could see that some of them were going to get into mischief, and I had to come up with a way to keep them constructively occupied.
Having recently directed this group in a school program, I lined them up on the steps and began directing them in the singing of "America the Beautiful." Several tourists stopped to listen, and a few Hell's Angels bikers removed their skullcaps and covered their hearts--not because the choir of untrained voices was so excellent but because listening to children sing about their nation moves every patriotic heart.
As soon as the students had finished singing, along came the Capitol Police. "You must have a permit to sing here. If you don't cease and desist, we'll have no choice but to arrest you for unlawful assembly." For singing "America the Beautiful"? I suppose it's a good thing that the choir didn't break into "Amazing Grace"!
Of course, not wanting to cause trouble for my school or for myself, I dismissed the choir and used alternative methods to keep the students occupied. But if a similar situation were to arise for me today, I'd let the authorities take me away in cuffs, and I'd go to court to fight for my rights.

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Alleged Event? Story Retracted? Facts Don't Matter!

From http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44432 :

FLUSH TO JUDGMENT
Muslims plan anti-American protestsExtremist Islamic groups behind unrest over Newsweek story
By Sherrie Gossett

"Despite Newsweek's retraction of its Quran-in-the-toilet story, plans are proceeding for a global anti-American protest Friday involving leading Islamic organizations. Since the story broke, evidence shows that supporters of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban have been at the forefront of fomenting the protests around the world, and they are continuing to do so....In a follow-up story in the May 30 issue, the story takes another strange turn, as Isikoff and Newsweek assistant managing editor Evan Thomas report that Command Sgt. John VanNatta, who served as the prison warden at Guantanamo from October 2002 to the fall of 2003, documented a case of a detainee – or suspected terrorist – dropping a Quran near his toilet. Other inmates misinterpreted what happened, VanNatta said, and came to believe that U.S. military guards had thrown the book on or near a toilet. Newsweek said this led to unrest that was quelled only after the inmate was taken cell to cell to explain what really happened..."

Let's list all the Muslim organizations supporting this protest. Any which have an office here in the United States should be closed down, forthwith.Will the protest begin after morning prayers at the mosques? Any U.S. mosque supporting this protest should also be closed down, forthwith.

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The Toilet Caper

I have refrained from blogging the flush-the-Koran story because the entire blogosphere is aflame with responses, witty and otherwise. This morning, however, I read two excellent articles on the topic. Due to my recent car accident, in which I was rear-ended by a duck-and-run Ghanian cabbie who gave false information and will not answer his phone, I don't have the time, energy, or pain-free existence to do more on the topic of the alleged flushing of a book which has some kind of talismanic value to some apparently superstitious people, other than to cite the items below.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20050520.shtml :
..."First, the obvious: Newsweek messed up....Conservatives are also suddenly molly-coddling Islamic fanatics as if they can't help themselves from rioting. Look, birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and jihadi nutbags have to riot. Such is the nature of things. Normally, conservatives grasp this - but that's when the riots are inadvertently caused by something President Bush does or says. When Newsweek accidentally causes riots, the "gotcha" logic kicks in....Condescension toward the Muslim "street" is bipartisan. Indeed, liberals aren't saying the jihadi riots are inexcusable, they're saying the protests were justified because America is surely guilty of things just as bad....(Still, the idea that a Koran-sized book could be flushed in the first place never passed the smell test; if the U.S. military has such toilets and is keeping them secret, I'm filing my FOIA request tomorrow.) America has not been playing by Queensbury rules with captured terrorists....The one person who cannot be defended in any way is the guy who leaked the Koran story in the first place. If it were true, he'd be a jerk. That it's false makes him something even worse."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20050520.shtml :
"...Muslims can be incited to violence by anything or nothing. It's as if they live poised for outrage. In 2002, the Miss World Pageant had to high-tail it out of Nigeria after rioting took more than 200 lives. Angry Muslims rampaged through the streets after a young fashion writer penned an article wondering how Muhammad would have reacted to the pageant, and suggesting that the Prophet (who had 14 wives) might have chosen a wife from among the assembled beauties. The offices of the newspaper were firebombed. A few weeks later, after many deaths, the Islamists remained unsatisfied. The deputy governor of a northern Nigerian province issued a "fatwa" declaring it the duty of religious Muslims to track down the 21-year-old author of the story and kill her. Recall that Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death while bicycling to work in Amsterdam last year. His offense? Producing a movie that exposed Muslim mistreatment of women. Salman Rushdie remains a marked man for writing a book Muslims detest. Norwegian/Swedish Pentecostal preacher Runar Sogaard received death threats last month -- not anonymous ones, but direct threats from an organized Islamic group, for using highly insulting language about Muhammad. Sogaard was impolite to be sure. But since when is the proper punishment for impertinence death? Isioma Daniel, the Nigerian journalist whose musings sparked the Nigerian riot, remains under 24-hour-a-day guard....The underlying truth is this: We are at pains not to fight a religious war. The trouble is, our enemies are fighting a religious war...."

The toilet caper may or may not be solved. What's of great importance is what this alleged event at GITMO has revealed about the followers of Islam.

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Open Letter To President Bush (Copy to Condoleeza Rice)

Mr. President:

I object to Ms. Rice's referring to the Koran as "holy." The book may be regarded as holy by the followers of Islam, but I am a Christian and do not regard the Koran as holy. Rather, I view it as the militant and plagiaristic text of an ideology sworn to our destruction.

I urge you to read some of the information at this web site:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006152.php

Many Americans are offended by your Secretary of State's remarks, the essence of which is pandering to Islamists. In fact, some of us are beyond offended. We are enraged! Nevertheless, we have not taken to the streets to oppose Ms. Rice's words, as the Islamists have overseas in the last few days, over an ALLEGED AND UNPROVEN INCIDENT.

Your administration is playing into the terrorists' hands. When I voted for you in November, 2004, I expected better of you, particularly with regard to confronting the hateful ideology of Islam.

I urge you to pray over this matter.

Sincerely,

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I'm More Than a Little Offended Myself

The other day, unannounced, Yasser stopped by my house to discuss a real-estate matter. I had no idea that he was going to stop by, but the fact that he did so shouldn't matter.

As is my custom when getting ready to head out in the convertible under what I now call "A September 11 sky," I had donned one of my caps. The one I was wearing shows an embroided image of the Twin Towers and reads "Ground Zero, 9.11.01."

Yasser and I tended to business, and he went on his way. Then, as I was getting ready to dash out the door, I glanced in the mirror and realized that he had seen my cap. Oh, well...

Just to test the waters of political correctness, every client whom I saw later in the afternoon heard my story of Yasser and my cap. The reaction from each client, each one an American, was a gasp, as if to say, "You've committed a faux pas!" [To be fair, one of my clients saw some humor in the situation.] The gist of the words actually spoken: "Do you think you offended him?"

Now, in and of itself, the story of Yasser and my cap is not a significant occurrence. But the reactions ARE. My observations:
1. I'll wear what I please, particularly in my house and in my car.
2. If Yasser is a moderate, my cap shouldn't have offended him.
3. If Yasser is a supporter of the jihadists who killed some 3,000 innocent Americans here on our home soil, he needs to leave the United States--and the sooner, the better.

The travesty of 9/11 did a lot more than offend me. It enraged me and opened my eyes to the truth!

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Dearborn--Mecca of the United States?

A few weeks ago, an interesting item appeared on www.thearabstreet.com

http://www.thearabstreet.com/interviews/Dearborn04-25-05.htm

FEATURE: Arab American Capitol, April 25, 2005

A few excerpts from the article:

"Every Arab American should make at least one trip to Dearborn, Michigan, the unofficial capitol of the Arab American community."

"Today's Dearborn is not much different from the 1960s, although the Arab community's success has driven it into larger homes and deeper into Detroit's cultural and societal history."

"If you haven't visited Dearborn or Metropolitan Detroit. you must make the hajj. If you have been there, you'll want to go back and return to the heart of your cultural roots."

Using the term hajj, in effect, makes Detroit the American Mecca. And don't the Koran and the haddiths specifically state that Islamic holy land is subject to sharia law? At this point, the author of the article takes the position that the Arab American districts around Detroit are tourist attractions, which provide diverse cultural experiences. No harm there, as long as these districts remain loyal to the United States.

But Islam, in all its forms as far as I know, teaches that adherents do not owe allegiance to a nation with borders; rather, their allegiance is to the Nation of Islam, an ideology without borders. If Arab Americans follow that line, we have a nation-within-a-nation. Remember Abraham Lincoln's words, borrowed from the Bible: "A house divided against itself cannot stand"!

Ethnic communities have long been a part of the diversity of the United States, and I often enjoy visiting those communities. Think Chinatown in San Francisco and Olvera Street in Los Angeles. But labeling such a visit to a city here in the United States a hajj, a "holy pilgrimage" and a "religious obligation," is dangerous, especially if jihadists use that visit as a rallying place for a movement whose ideology is antithetical to American principles.

Beirut, Lebanon used to be a city of cross-culturalism. Not so, any longer. Could the same thing happen to Dearborn, Michigan?

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Has the Weapons' Buildup for World War III Begun in Earnest?

Just how fast are we headed for World War III? Dangerous developments are moving rapidly now.

The following information appeared this evening in a link on www.jihadwatch.org:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050509-1503-iran-nuclear.html

Iran confirms converting 37 tons of raw uranium into gas
By Ali Akbar Dareini
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 p.m. May 9, 2005

"TEHRAN, Iran – Iran confirmed for the first time Monday that it converted 37 tons of raw uranium into gas, a key step ahead of enrichment, before it suspended all such activities in November under international pressure. The confirmation means Tehran is in a position to quickly start enriching uranium if it chose to end its suspension of enrichment-related activities. It comes at a crucial time... Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told The Associated Press that Iran had processed the uranium into UF-4 gas. If processed further into UF-6, the material could be fed into centrifuges and enriched, allowing it to be used either to produce electricity or make nuclear weapons...."

The remainder of the article contains several jaw-dropping revelations, among them the implication that Iran may not hesitate to produce UF-6, "the material could be fed into centrifuges and enriched, allowing it to be used either to produce electricity or make nuclear weapons."

It seems that the horse is out of the barn and well down the road--to coin a cliche. And the people living in the house don't even know that the horse has made its escape.

Another significant revelation in the above news release is as follows: "Iran's nuclear program has turned into a matter of national pride for both reformers and hard-liners."

So much for the hope that Iranian reformers (whatever that means) will be trustworthy allies!

We simply cannot depend that megalomaniacal ideology will rein itself in. All the so-called negotiations have been delaying tactics, allowing the forging ahead of scientists dedicated to developing weapons which have the ability to annihilate thousands, if not millions, of people.

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Precursors to World War III?

Consider these facts, all over the news (I haven't bothered with any citations because this information is common knowledge):
(1) North Korea has nukes. The leader of this country is a megalomaniac and puts one in mind of Hitler and Stalin.
(2) Iran is fast developing nukes. Forget about that "peaceful purposes" nonsense--it's a smokescreen.
(3) As Iraqi nuclear expert Mahdi Obeidi has pointed out in The Bomb in My Garden, various scientists from the fallen Soviet Union and from Iraq have been unemployed since the fall of their regimes. These scientists have knowlege about nuclear weapons and bioweapons.

In the weeks following 9/11, our media evinced concern that such scientists and their weaponry knowledge are "on the loose." Lately, we haven't heard as much about those dangers, but they are still out there. Who is motivated to hire these scientists and to implement their weapons? Intelligence reports indicate that various Islamic terrorists are shopping around for such capabilities. Are we going to ignore that information?

Have we forgotten how, in the years leading up to the invasion of Western Europe, nations not directly affected ignored Hitler's and Hirohoto's buildup and expansiveness? The world was very fortunate in that those two megalomaniacs did not have access to nuclear weaponry. As awful as World War II was, the devastation then created was nowhere near the potential for destruction we face in the 21st century.

Negotiations with armed psychos does not work! History, both ancient and modern, proves that fact.

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The Double Standard--Again

The following information appears in today's Washington Post @
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/30/AR2005043000672.html in an item entitled "Falwell's 'Pit Bull'":
"The new dean of the theological seminary at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., is a former Muslim who has been called the "intellectual pit bull of the evangelical world," according to his Web site. And Falwell's appointment of Ergun Mehmet Caner to take over the 2,000-student seminary in July has Muslim and Arab American groups bristling."

I rather think that Falwell could care less about the "bristling" of these groups. After all, he has made no secret as to how he feels about the tenets of Islam.

Again quoting from the article:
"[Caner] been around a long time and has a very strong conservative view that is more hostile to Islam than understanding of it," Ray Hanania, managing editor of TheArabStreet.com, told the Associated Press. "If Falwell wanted to send a strong message to Muslims, he might have done it by reaching out to mainstream Muslims, rather than extremists."
Notice here the implication that Hanania still considers Caner to be a Muslim, albeit an extremist, which also may imply terrorist to the careless reader. Hanania's statement harkens back to that Islamic tenet of once-a-Muslim-always-a-Muslim, and he does not recognize the existence of conversion to Christianity. Perhaps he believes that the only possible conversion is that of Christian to Muslim?

Now, whatever one thinks of Falwell, we all know that he is a Baptist evangelist. As such, he strives to fulfill the Great Commission ("Go ye to all the world"...), and having a former Muslim as dean of the seminary at Liberty University would certainly enable the fulfillment of the Great Commission. No doubt, Caner has excellent insights as to how to reach Muslims on a faith-to-faith level. It seems to me that training Christian missionaries to reach Muslims is a worthy goal, not only on a faith-level but also on an anti-terrorism level.

Beyond the issue of Falwell's new dean, why is it completely acceptable for Muslims to say what they wish about the Christian faith yet it is not acceptable for Christians to analyze and criticize Islam? Can you imagine the outcry if Falwell were to object to a teacher hired by a mosque? "Freedom of religion! Freedom of religion!" The item in the Washington Post implies that Caner is hateful. Will we see some liberal group target him for practicing a hate crime as he speaks out against the barbaric practices and theological inconsistencies of Islam?

Whatever one thinks of Falwell, he operates a CHRISTIAN college and hires Christians to teach there. Furthermore, unlike Al-Timimi (former teacher at the mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, and convicted traitor), Falwell does not advocate the overthrow of the United States government.

Frankly, I don't care what the Arab street thinks of Falwell's new dean! And I will continue to read books such as Caner's Unveiling Islam, Anis Shorrosh's Islam Revealed, and Ibn Warraq's Why I Am Not a Muslim. These authors have excellent insights, particularly Caner and Warraq, who left Islam for common reasons although Caner is a Christian and Warraq an atheist.

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Muslims Are Not Westerners

One of the biggest problems with understanding the realities of dealing with Muslims concerns the Western perception of Muslims. We Westerners, Christians or not, believe that the concept of the Golden Rule is an inherent part of world philosphies in general. Not so! This difference should make us wary of many statements uttered by Muslims. As the expression goes, "We not on the same page."

Robert Spencer wrote the following on his web site:
"Islamic law is at variance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in several important particulars; Ali [Sina] here emphasizes and explores the core reason why this is so: Islam does not teach the Golden Rule."

Sina explains:
"According to Muslims it is not the Golden Rule that defines the good and bad but it is Muhammad who does it. They believe what is good for Islam is the highest virtue and what is bad for Islam is the ultimate sin. This is the ethos of all cults. From Asahara’s Aum Shinrikyo to Jim Jones’ People’s Temple; from Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Chruch to David Koresh’s Davidain Branch, the recurring theme in all of them is that the cult’s interests overshadow the human understanding of right and wrong and to advance the interest of the cult, which is regarded as the ultimate good, everything, including lying, even murder and assassinations are permissible. The end is deemed to be so lofty that it justifies the means. This is the same idea of fascism where the glorification of the state and the total subordination of the individual are enforced. In fascism, “the state is defined as an organic whole into which individuals must be absorbed for their own and the state’s benefit. This ‘total state’ is absolute in its methods and unlimited by law in its control and direction of its citizens.” [The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001] ...Like Satanists, and the skinhead neo-Nazis, Muhammad did not believe in the Golden Rule. He instructed his followers to lie to their victims to win their trust and when they lower their guards, kill them...."

Read more about this @ http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/005959.php

If only our schools would point out what Sina is explicating! Today, our children are being taught that Islam is "just another religion." It is NOT! The differences are such that calling Islam "a religion" is questionable. Better to call it an ideology, and thereby enable our law-enforcement to investigate mosque-activities more thoroughly without violating First-Amendment protections.

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