U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SUES TO ENSURE "RELIGIOUS FREEDOM"

At least that's what they say.  The U. S. Department of Justice, the renowned guardians of religious freedom, have filed a lawsuit against Rutherford County, Tennessee in an attempt to force them to issue an occupancy permit for a huge 53,000 square foot mosque recently built there despite a court ordering otherwise.  The U. S. DOJ wants it issued before the start of Ramadan which is either today or tomorrow, depending on which Muslim cleric you listen to.


Let's start with a little background information.


The man behind its construction, Essam Fathy, told a whole series of lies about how long construction would take.  He claimed years, seemingly to garner sympathy to realize a dream, and that just getting the site leveled and the parking lot paved would take one or two years alone.  Instead, construction was very rapid.

In an ABC news ARTICLE from two years ago, Imam Ossama Bahloul said in response to community opposition, "It's not a huge mosque as they are saying."  Apparently, he didn't consider 53,000 square feet huge.

There was a most definite conflict of interest in that Fathy had financial dealings with the Mayor of Murfreesboro, the county seat of Rutherford County.  The Mayor told the county commissioners they had to they had to vote "yes" on the proposed mosque construction or they would all get sued (SOURCE 1).

A stop work order was issued by a court stating construction work had to cease because the county had failed to give the public adequate notice of the plans.  With their usual contempt for American law and American authorities, construction was ramped up to a very rapid rate.  Did any of the authorities do anything to enforce the court's order? No, of course not. Same thing happened in Brooklyn, New York when a mega-mosque was built on a quiet  residential street.  Court order to stop meant continue with construction.  When it comes to the Muslims, it's the old unwritten "do not oppose" policy once again.

Now, a former FBI agent, John Guandolo, whose job was to brief the FBI on terrorism and radical Islamic terrorism provides this information:

"- the Murfreesboro Imam is a recognized leader and "jurist" in the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide. He taught "Dawah" in Europe, and was at the top of his class at Al Azhar University, Cairo (4 out of 200) – the most prestigious and authoritative school of Islamic Jurisprudence in the world, and the oldest.

-  The ICM Bylaws asserting primacy of Islamic law were copied from other "Islamic Centers." Muslim Brotherhood Bylaws and the El Barasse Explanatory Memorandum define “Islamic Centers” or mosques as beehives for activities and supplies for "battalions," and at some point the beginning and center of violence.

-  The ICM "reading list" of the Imam began with Yousef Qaradawi, who issued a "fatwah" calling for killing of U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq.

-  The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro is a "front" organization for the Muslim Brotherhood posing a security threat to Murfreesboro citizens, who are under- educated on the topic of the threat. Both they and the County Commission should have been informed of this threat to enable public participation in the ICM site plan approval meeting."

(SOURCE 2)

There is also the question of who exactly is financing the building of this mosque or why the small town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee was chosen for the site.  There are only 200-300 Muslim families in the area, and only forty-five active paying members of the mosque, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.  No one seems to know from where the money is coming, nor does anyone know why an area with such a small Islamic constituency was chosen.(SOURCE 3)  You can be it is symbolic in some way.  Mosques are built on carefully chosen sites as a general rule to assert Islamic supremacy.  This particular mosque is built right next door to a Baptist church.

  

Back to the U. S. Department of Justice's lawsuit.  Despite the imam being tied to the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, and other serious questions about the ICM, a department memo was quoted as saying the allegations accusing the ICM being connected to a terrorist organization are "unfounded."  Really.  The Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist organization.  OK.  Glad we were able to clear that up. (SOURCE 4)


Statements from the U.S. DOJ get even more ludicrous. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of their Civil Rights Division said, "Our nation was founded on bedrock principles of religious liberty.  The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously enforce civil rights laws that protect religious freedom.  The U. S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Jerry Martin, said, "The United States Attorney's Office will zealously protect every citizen's right to worship and assemble." "  If that's the case Mr. Perez and Mr. Martin, why didn't the U.S. Department of Justice rush to Phoenix, Arizona and file a lawsuit against the city where Michael Salman was prosecuted, convicted, sentenced to sixty days in jail, two years probation, and a $12,000 fine for a having a Bible study on his own property?


Mr. Martin and Mr. Perez apparently don't understand their own doctrine of the mythical separation of church and state.  No matter how it's justified, no matter how you look at it, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a religious organization.  Just where is the hue and cry of the liberal left wingnuts screaming about "separation of church and state?  Where is the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the ACLU?"  


One last thought:  If this were a Christian church, does anyone really so delusional to believe the U. S. Department of Justice would have raced in to file a lawsuit to force a local government to permit occupancy of the building in time for a religious observance or holiday?  Not a chance.

CHURCHES USING SCHOOLS OK, SCHOOLS USING CHURCHES IS NOT

The (very few) AMERICANS UNITED FOR THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE are at it again.  But then, they never stop.  Interestingly enough, they supposedly stand for religious freedom for all.  What they are really doing is trying to dictate to Christians when and where they can worship or even mention anything about Jesus.  They obviously took their cue from the founder of the AMERICAN COMMUNIST LIBERTIES UNION who told his original members not to appear Socialist, but patriotic.  

This organization is now threatening metro Atlanta schools with their dictatorial, agenda-forcing, and taxpayer money wasting lawsuits because a number of schools are renting church buildings in which to hold their graduation ceremonies.  The reason schools are using churches has absolutely nothing to do with anything religious.  Schools are wanting to get their students and their families out of the football stadiums at the mercy of the weather, and limited seating capacity where families have to choose which family members will be able to attend these once-in-a-lifetime events.  Churches rent their facilities at much cheaper rates than other facilities, and there is no threat of cancellation due to weather.  I graduated in a hot, 100+ gymnasium dressed in a cap and gown myself.  I can certainly relate.


According to an ARTICLE posted on One News Now, one school system seemed to make the news more than the other systems.  The Cherokee County School System in Canton, Georgia, has been renting the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WOODSTOCK in Woodstock, Georgia since 2005.  The church building has a capacity of 7,000, and costs literally thousands less than other buildings of similar capacities.  


This is obviously another leftist agenda as the Supreme Court ruled on this years ago when schools were being threatened with lawsuits over churches renting school facilities in which to hold their services.  Now we have the same thing in reverse.

As I have said before, there is only one way to stop this, and that's to stand up to them.  These leftist groups don't like public opposition.  I think one reason is it shows just how much of a minority they are.  The (very few) Americans United for Separation of Church and State, according to their website, have a membership of only 120,000.  There are Facebook pages with more people than that.  Cherokee Countians are taking the right approach.  They are going ahead and preparing in the event the leftists follow through with their threats. Cherokee Countians  are going with the idea of "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."  They have a Facebook PAGE, but have created a WEBSITE, Cherokee County Fights Back.  Facing them down anywhere they show up is the only way to put a stop to this foolishness.  This is why the Christian flag is flying today in King, North Carolina.  These leftist groups have continuously bypassed Congress and the President, and thereby bypassing We The People with lawsuits.  





It has gone on far too long.  People are starting to stand up to them, with thankfully, the help of organizations like LIBERTY COUNSEL and the ACLJ.  Get behind your local politicians and pressure them to stand up for what is right, not just what is most cost effective which is what these left wingnut organizations count on.  The Cherokee County school board has done the right thing and listened to the will of their constituents.  On January 20, 2011, they voted to keep using First Baptist Woodstock's building for their graduation.  

                                    (image clickable link)

NO SEPARATION OF MOSQUE AND STATE IN MASSACHUSETTS

In late May 2010, Wellesley, Massachusetts public middle school kids were taken on a field trip to the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.  This is a Saudi-funded "mega-mosque" operated by the Muslim American Society of Boston.  When the students arrived, they were separated according to gender and asked to join the Muslim adults in their prayer.  Several of the male students did so.

So, just where is the outcry from the liberal left? Where is the ACLU on this one?  It's the old double-standard once again.  If this school had taken the students to a Christian church, the ACLU would have been there filing one of their agenda-pushing lawsuits in about five minutes.  We would have been hearing the progressives screaming "separation of church and state" ad infinitum on all of the leftist media outlets.

Obviously, the leftist lawsuit-filing wingnuts don't apply the same standards to all religion when it comes to the mythical separation of church and state.  Maybe a "mosque" isn't a "church", and the left doesn't consider Islam a religion.

RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE GUISE OF "CULTURAL AWARENESS"

My wife ran across this on a blog talk radio channel. She sent me a link to an article in World Net Daily, TEXAS CHILDREN ROPED INTO ISLAMIC TRAINING. I started my research, and not surprisingly, had a hard time finding anything about it. I finally came across the story on the website of ABC affiliate KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, CULTURAL AWARENESS OR ENDORSEMENT OF RELIGION?

These articles stemmed from an incident on the last day of school of the 2007-08 school year at FRIENDSWOOD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL in Friendswood, Texas. Then principal, Robin Lowe, invited an Islamic civil rights group, the COUNCIL ON ISLAMIC-AMERICAN RELATIONS, against school board policy and without notifying parents, to give a presentation on Islam to the students. According to the KTRK-TV article, one of the parents, Paula Henry, said, "It wasn't just a cultural presentation, because they were telling my child who they believe God is and that Jesus was just a prophet, and that is religious studies." Attendance was apparently required, and it appears this was done during a P.E. class period.

The incident was of course downplayed by Principal Lowe, and the school board was continuing to look into this issue." Many in the community were wanting Principal Lowe to be punished and/or removed. I find it interesting that this was done on the last day of school. I don't know about anyone else, but for my entire school career, there was nothing of importance ever scheduled on the last day. It was generally a field day or something like that. If this was really "cultural awareness", I think it would have been scheduled during the school year. It appears to me it was purposely done on the last day of school to avoid the backlash. Bad idea - it happened anyway.

Once again, just where IS the ACLU on this? A search of their website of course revealed nothing. Regardless of your political leanings, we ALL know that if this had been a Christian pastor giving a presentation during class time at a public school, the ACLU would have blown into town IMMEDIATELY and started their threats and lawsuits. We would have also been bombarded by the mainstream news media every way we turned over those "evil Christians" and the "Religous Right" trying to "force" their beliefs on everyone else. And how dare a public school use taxpayer dollars to endorse Christianity?? We've all heard this mess over and over again, ad nauseum. What ever happened to your "separation of church and state" stance, ACLU? Or is it because there's nothing that refers to "separation of mosque and state?"

Or is it rather no one at the ACLU cares to oppose Islam at all? It would seem that it's OK to have religious presentations in our government schools unless it's a religion that believes the Bible. ACLU, if you're going to take such a strong stance on "Separation of Church and State", then it MUST be ALL churches and ALL religions, not just the ones with which you disagree. Now THAT'S what I call TOLERANCE!

Final notes: I noticed by visiting Friendswood Junior High School's site that Robin Lowe is no longer the principal there. She is now the principal of PERSHING MIDDLE SCHOOL in Houston, Texas.

An unsourced (by me) comment on the KTRK-TV article said, "This is suddenly happening in other schools and recently approved History text books were approved in Lodi, California that had a heavy lean on Islam and very little said of other religions. There is more going on here than meets the eye." I agree.

STORM ON THE HORIZON?

Those who have been reading my journal over the past year may recall a post I did called THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS IS NOT OVER! Click on the title if you would like to read it. Since the left has been attempting to remove all symbols of Christmas from the public eye, even down to greeting each other during the Christmas season with "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas", there may be efforts to attack Thanksgiving too.

I got this through one of my alerts on Google. This appeared in BRIANLEE'S journal, but was originally posted on TOWNHALL.COM by Chuck Norris. His article is called THANKSGIVING - A VIOLATION OF CHURCH AND STATE? that was posted yesterday. It seems there was a recent editorial in NEWSWEEK/WASHINGTON POST by Susan Jacoby called THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATIONS: CRACKS IN THE WALL OF SEPARATION. Mr. Norris's response is excellent, so I am sharing it with you:

Thanksgiving - A Violation of Church and State?
Chuck Norris
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Is the government's observance of Thanksgiving a violation of the separation of church and state?

This past week, a Newsweek/Washington Post editorial labeled presidential Thanksgiving Day proclamations as "cracks in the wall of separation." The author explained, "The problem with these proclamations, it seems to me, is that they pave the way for public acceptance of gross violations of the constitutional separation of church and state." What?!

Forget for a moment that nearly every president since George Washington (and the Continental Congress before him) has given Judeo-Christian proclamations for Thanksgiving (except between 1816 and 1861) and also has declared other national days of fasting and prayer. Secularists, such as the author of the editorial, get almost giddy every time they highlight that Thomas Jefferson rejected the notion of proclaiming Thanksgiving spirituals and prayers. But the truth is Jefferson was far from the modern-day secularist they make him out to be.
Sure, Jefferson was adamant (as we all should be) that there should be no federal subscription to any one form of religious sectarianism. That is largely what the First Amendment is all about -- establishing the free exercise of religion and restricting sectarian supremacy in government, as well as government intrusion in churches.

But secularists make two grave mistakes when it comes to Jefferson and the First Amendment. First, they misconstrue his understanding of separation. Second, they overlook how Jefferson himself endorsed and intermingled religion and politics, even during his two terms as president. Let me explain, as I believe it is a timely reminder, given that we are experiencing a new round of battles in our Christmas culture war, too.

The phrase "separation of church and state" actually comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists. He told them that no particular Christian denomination was going to have a monopoly in government. His words, "a wall of separation between Church & State," were not written to remove all religious practice from government or civic settings, but to prohibit the domination and even legislation of religious sectarianism.

Proof that Jefferson was not trying to rid government of religious (specifically Christian) influence comes from the fact that he endorsed the use of government buildings for church meetings and services, signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians that allotted federal money to support the building of a Catholic church and to pay the salaries of the church's priests, and repeatedly renewed legislation that gave land to the United Brethren to help their missionary activities among the American Indians.

Some might be completely surprised to discover that just two days after Jefferson wrote his famous letter citing the "wall of separation between Church & State," he attended church in the place where he always had as president: the U.S. Capitol. The very seat of our nation's government was used for sacred purposes. As the Library of Congress' Web site notes, "It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church." Does that sound like someone who was trying to create an impenetrable wall of separation between church and state?

Let's face the present Thanksgiving facts. President Bush likely will give the last explicit Judeo-Christian Thanksgiving proclamation that Americans will hear for the next four to eight years, as President-elect Obama likely will coddle a form of godliness in his Thanksgiving addresses (if he indeed gives them) that appeases the masses with a deity that fits every politically correct dress.

But I'm an optimist. And because so much attention is being given right now by the media and the president-elect himself regarding his parallels to and lessons learned from President Abraham Lincoln, I recommend Obama heed Lincoln's Thanksgiving wisdom. Don't mince or water down the God of the Pilgrims, as is being done in public schools across this land through the retelling of the first Thanksgiving.

Obama doesn't even need a speechwriter for Thanksgiving 2009. He simply can recite Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, in which Lincoln thanked the Almighty for America's bountiful blessings and providential care despite enduring a war and grave economic hardships. The content seems divinely timed for even such a wintry season as our own:
"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. … I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens … to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union."

Whatever your religious persuasion, don't hesitate this Thanksgiving to bow your head, give thanks to God, and follow Lincoln's advice. And when you do, don't forget to say a prayer for our troops and their families. While they serve us so we can serve our Thanksgiving feasts safely, the least we can do is serve them a little honor and remembrance.

Well said, Mr. Norris, well said.