Left: No Separation & State for Islam in America

John R. Houk
© August 13, 2010

ACT for America has picked up on a Washington Times article [See Below] that might explain the reason the Obama Administration has done little to dissuade the building of a Mosque near the site of the Islamic terrorist attack on the World Trade Center now dubbed Ground Zero. Apparently the driving force behind the Ground Zero Mosque is receiving taxpayer funded money to travel to Saudi Arabia allegedly to foster a greater understanding of Islam in America.

Is it just me or does the publicized reason for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf taxpayer financed trip to Saudi Arabia sound suspiciously idiotic? How does a Muslim cleric go to Saudi Arabia and foster American understanding of Islam? Would it not make more sense to have a Muslim Cleric come to America to talk to non-Muslims in some sort of seminar to bring a greater understanding of Islam?

The Washington Times article implies Rauf’s trip is closer to a fund raising effort related to his Cordoba Initiative to build a Ground Zero Mosque which seems to have passed through the hoops of Official Channels to be built. Why would Rauf go to Saudi Arabia for fund raising? That is because Saudi Arabia is the number one financier (Saudi private and Saudi government) of Mosques in America. Can you name the lineage of the Islamic school of thought that Saudi Muslims diligently and fervently follow?

The Saudis have institutionalized Salafism or Wahhabism (Since they hate the term Wahhabism, I more often write as such) in the Saudi Arabian nation. Salafis/Wahhabis consider themselves a part of the smallest yet most conservative school of thought known as Hanbali. There are a significant amount of Sunni-Islamic scholars that believe Salafism is a practice in conflict with all four Islamic schools of thought including Hanbali. In rejecting the Salafi connection to Hanbali, these Islamic scholars would say Salafi/Wahhabi is an aberration and thus not Sunni and thus not authentic Islam. The reality is these guys have read their Quran and even though they may be the minority among Sunnis, they are indeed practicing an Islam that Mohammed and his companions taught. In saying this people have to realize the Salafi demand for a purist Islam is a reactionary reform movement that looks back to the days of Mohammed and the following successful Islamic empire builders that utilized theopolitical concepts to drive fanatically devoted adherents to conquest. Following the conquest theopolitical Islam used harshness to subdue the conquered in which the only deliverance was to convert (or die if refused to adhere to Islamic Supremacism).

Saudi funding for Rauf’s Ground Zero Mosque would thus be arriving from Muslims who promote a theopolitical concept of Islam that is very anti-American and anti-Semitic.

America’s Left is all up in arms about keeping Government money out of religion in America. Hmm … Let me amend that sentence: America’s Left is all up in arms about keeping Government money out of Christian America. The lame reasoning is the non-Constitutional imposition of the mythical “Separation of Church and State.” Remember who is paying for Rauf’s trip to promote so-called American understanding of Islam? It is you the American taxpayer who is told that any form public contribution to a Christian faith based public service is a violation of the law because of Separation of Church and State. So how does this Separation of Church and State thing rationalized when help a (probable radical) Muslim Cleric to fly to Saudi Arabia seeking money for a better understanding of Islam? Is not Islam considered a religion and the Leftist view of the Constitution?

Perhaps the Left (i.e. the Obama Administration) takes a political view of a Mosque that is built in America. If that is the case, would that also signal a belief that validates Islam (or at least Salafism) is a political ideology that America needs a better understanding of?

If Islam is a political ideology more than a religious theology, it would seem aspects of the ideology can be made illegal if they contradict the constitutional Law of the Land. Then would it not follow that the aspects of Political Islam that break the law can be banned such as subversion to overthrow the Constitution and replace it with intolerant racist Sharia Law?

Now that is something to think about.

JRH 8/13/10
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Your tax dollars building mosques

Sent by: ACT for America
Sent: 8/13/2010 9:58 AM

The Ground Zero Mosque controversy continues to stir up new revelations.


Now we learn that tax dollars have been used to build mosques around the world (see column below).


And yesterday, Fox News reported that the Ground Zero Mosque imam has rejected an offer by New York Governor David Paterson to help move the mosque to another location. What does this tell us about the imam’s alleged commitment to interfaith bridge building? About his “sensitivity”?


A CNN poll this week revealed that 68% of American voters now oppose the Ground Zero Mosque! Driven by new revelations and increasing media coverage, this is an increase of nearly 10 points in the past 30 days. For example, since April Brigitte Gabriel has conducted nearly 200 radio and TV interviews about the Ground Zero Mosque! The rising opposition of public opinion certainly contributed to Paterson’s decision to try to mediate a solution and get the mosque moved.


You can help fuel this rising opposition by signing our petition if you haven’t yet done so AND forwarding this email to everyone you know!
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/10/tax-dollars-to-build-mosques/


Tax dollars to build mosques

U.S. underwrites fundraising tour for Islamic shrine at Ground Zero

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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The Washington Times

7:46 p.m., Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative, addresses a gathering as groups planning a proposed mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan to be named Cordoba House showed and spoke about their plans for the center at a community board meeting in New York Tuesday, May 25, 2010. Community members both for and against the plan spoke during the meeting. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)


The State Department is sending Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf - the mastermind of the Ground Zero Mosque - on a trip through the Middle East to foster "greater understanding" about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States. However, important questions are being raised about whether this is simply a taxpayer-funded fundraising jaunt to underwrite his reviled project, which is moving ahead in Lower Manhattan.


Mr. Rauf is scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar, the usual stops for Gulf-based fundraising. The State Department defends the five-country tour saying that Mr. Rauf is "a distinguished Muslim cleric," but surely the government could find another such figure in the United States who is not seeking millions of dollars to fund a construction project that has so strongly divided America.


By funding the trip so soon after New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the go-ahead to demolish the building on the proposed mosque site, the State Department is creating the appearance that the U.S. government is facilitating the construction of this shameful structure. It gives Mr. Rauf not only access but imprimatur to gather up foreign cash. And because Mr. Rauf has refused to reveal how he plans to finance his costly venture, the American public is left with the impression it will be a wholly foreign enterprise. This contradicts the argument that a mosque is needed in that part of New York City to provide services for a burgeoning Muslim population. If so many people need the mosque so badly, presumably they could figure out a way to pay for it themselves.


Americans also may be surprised to learn that the United States has been an active participant in mosque construction projects overseas. In April, U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso E. Lenhardt helped cut the ribbon at the 12th-century Kizimkazi Mosque, which was refurbished with assistance from the United States under a program to preserve culturally significant buildings. The U.S. government also helped save the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque in Cairo, which dates back to 642. The mosque's namesake was the Muslim conqueror of Christian Egypt, who built the structure on the site where he had pitched his tent before doing battle with the country's Byzantine rulers. For those who think the Ground Zero Mosque is an example of "Muslim triumphalism" glorifying conquest, the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque is an example of such a monument - and one paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds.


The mosques being rebuilt by the United States are used for religious worship, which raises important First Amendment questions. U.S. taxpayer money should not be used to preserve and promote Islam, even abroad. In July 2009, the Office of the Inspector General published an audit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) faith-based and community initiatives that examined whether government funds were being used for religious activities. The auditors found that while USAID was funding some religious activities, officials were "uncertain of whether such uses of Agency funding violate Agency regulations or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution" when balanced against foreign-policy objectives.


For example, our government rebuilt the Al Shuhada Mosque in Fallujah, Iraq, expecting such benefits as "stimulating the economy, enhancing a sense of pride in the community, reducing opposition to international relief organizations operating in Fallujah, and reducing incentives among young men to participate in violence or insurgent groups." But Section 205.1(d) of title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations prohibits USAID funds from being used for the rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for "inherently religious activities." It is impossible to separate religion from a mosque; any such projects will necessarily support Islam.


The State Department is either wittingly or unwittingly using tax money to support Mr. Rauf's efforts to realize his dream of a supersized mosque blocks away from the sacred ground of the former World Trade Center, which was destroyed by Islamic fanaticism. This ill-considered decision will raise the ire of millions of Americans and illustrates the limits of what the denizens of Foggy Bottom know about diplomacy.
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Left: No Separation & State for Islam in America
John R. Houk
© August 13, 2010
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Your tax dollars building mosques

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