Mini Muslim March

Friday, the traditional Muslim day of prayer, at the Capital Mall in Washington, DC, there was a Muslim Prayer Day.

It was controversial because one of the organizers is reported not to exactly adore American traditions.

They expected thousands upon thousands.

And didn’t get them. According to the Washington Post, there were about 3,000 attending.

“We wanted to bring people out to show you don’t need to fear America,” said Imam Ali Jaaber of Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth N.J., the service’s main organizer. At the same time, he said, he wanted to remind non-Muslims that “we are decent Muslims. We work; we pay taxes. We are Muslims who truly love this country.”

This same Imam asked the Christian protestors to tone it down because Friday is sacred.

Free speech is also sacred.

Interestingly, I failed to notice women in the news coverage.

Keith Ellison’s trip to Mecca paid for by Muslim Group

Keith Ellison didn’t disclose the cost of his trip to Mecca last year, since it was a “private” trip; now we learn it was paid for by a Muslim nonprofit that is being sued by the ACLU and should’ve been disclosed as a gift to a public official. It wasn’t a private trip at all. The GOP is calling for him to apologize, pay for it and disclose the cost. Because the provider of the trip receives state funding, it is especially important to have full disclosure. Non-profits pay for congressional trips because they expect to benefit in some fashion.

Islamic nonprofit paid for Rep. Ellison’s pilgrimage to Mecca

The cost of his Mecca trip was covered by a group that got taxpayer funds in a rental arrangement for TiZA school.

By KEVIN DIAZ, Star Tribune

Last update: July 22, 2009 – 6:51 AM

WASHINGTON – Days after his return from an unannounced pilgrimage to the Islamic holy site of Mecca, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison talked about it as a transformational personal experience, saying “I didn’t want to turn it into a politics thing.”

Nearly eight months later, the Minneapolis DFLer faces a House Ethics Committee review of his decision to keep the trip’s costs under wraps — even though it was paid for by a local Islamic nonprofit and typically would be reported as a gift to a public official.

The Jihad is Alive and Well, at a College near you

True in Minneapolis, where it’s reported that a second young Somali man has been killed after having gone home to be part of the Jihad; he is the third who has gone home and died, the first one took part in a homicide bombing, the second was also killed.

Jamal Bana

Jamal Bana is one of several Somali youth who returned to their homeland in November; he was shot, most likely by Abu Shabaad, the terrorist group he went to join. Are they being killed because they’re not Jihadist enough? For planning to return to Minneapolis and their decadent Western lifestyles? Because a return home implies availability to the FBI who will then know the identities of the local recruiters?

While the Somali community has been disgruntled about the investigation, the FBI has the obligation to investigate ties to terrorism as the young men who wen to Somalia have the potential to wreak havoc if they return home.

Prop 8 and the politics of H8

Those Episcopalians who now fancy themselves Anglicans have learned a bitter lesson.  The Mormons this week have learned the same one:  Those who differ with the gay community will be accused of hate. In a time when escalated language is de rigeur, the accusation of hatred is not enough, so it is made more graphic by associating the opponent with a heinous act.  Cue Matthew Shepherd.  So Mormons and Anglican by differing with the gay community, are now often accused of complicity in the murder of Matt Shepard, the countless murdered gays through the ages, gay bashings, Hitler.  It always goes back to Hitler, doesn’t it?

Today I am shocked by one thing only:  that nothing shocks me and that being called worse than Hitler is a kind of badge signifying that someone was actually listening to what I said.  Phony outrage is a rhetorical weapon as old as the hills, but the gay community has mastered the craft.

Beetle on Gay Marriage Prop 8: Mormons Stole Your Rights………Huh?

The Mormons have been unfairly targeted for their position in favor of the gay marriage ban in California.  Beetle Blogger has the facts on the broad coalition supporting Prop 8.

From Beetle Blogger.

1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 LDS out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.