"Complaints about the proposal, he said, are often based on ignorance. Some residents do not understand that Islam teaches peace." Oh. Yet what John Wilson said about mosques being used as staging grounds for terrorist activities is true, is it not? Why can't the local Muslims deal with that objection honestly and fully, instead of consigning it to "hatred" and "ignorance"?
From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
SOMERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Muslims planned to turn an old sod farm near Memphis into a cemetery, but angry neighbors protested, complaining the burial ground could become a staging ground for terrorists or spread disease from unembalmed bodies.It was not the first time a group faced opposition when trying to build a cemetery or a mosque, but the dispute stood out for the clarity of its anti-Muslim rhetoric.
"We know for a fact that Muslim mosques have been used as terrorist hideouts and centers for terrorist activities," farmer John Wilson told members of a planning commission last month.
Similar disputes have arisen elsewhere when Muslim groups sought to develop mosques or cemeteries, which are often the first Islamic institutions in some communities....
Rabiah Ahmed of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said she noticed more protests of Muslim building proposals after the 2001 terrorist attacks, so she was not surprised by the cemetery critics near Memphis.
"It's not shocking, but it is discouraging," Ahmed said from the council's headquarters in Washington.
Opponents told the Fayette County planning commission in November that power lines would be prime targets for terrorists in the region about 20 miles east of Memphis.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you may think this is farfetched, but that is what the Jewish people thought when the Nazis started taking a small foothold, a little at a time, in their community," Wilson said.
In a telephone interview later, Wilson said he and his neighbors are primarily worried about their property values, but, he added, news reports cannot be ignored.
"I don't think anyone who has read the newspaper or seen what investigations have gone on about other mosques would not have those kinds of concerns," he said....
Complaints about the proposal, he said, are often based on ignorance. Some residents do not understand that Islam teaches peace.
"Our religion stresses acceptance by our neighbors," Halimah said. "Even if the law is on our side, religiously we have to be careful."
"Our religion stresses acceptance -
[by]
our neighbors," Halimah said. "Even if the law is on our side, religiously we have to be careful."
Ahem, did I read this correctly? Their religion stresses acceptance 'BY' our neighbors??
Acceptance goes both ways. . . period.
Personally, I have confidence in the good folks in Tennessee. I vacationed there this summer and was totally taken by their un-PC attitudes. No matter where I went the locals expressed genuine warmth and hospitality. However, it was abundantly clear that they'll call a spade a spade without compunction.
As for the folks seeking to bury their deceased, certainly public cemeteries can meet their needs.
This may seem trivial; it is not. Everything connected with Islam, everything that helps this belief-system's adherents attempt to solidify their position in the Lands of the Infidels, everything that makes the conduct of Muslim life easier rather than more difficult, in the end will have consequences for all those whom the teachings of Islam declare, in a thousand places, are to be killed, or forced to accept Islam, or to be deliberately humiliated (and the jizyah is simply one among a long list of economic, political, and social disabilities) and put in a position where all their rights come, not from God, not from the nature of things, but from Muslims.
In other words, all non-Muslims, all Infidels, are threatened even by something as seemingly minor as this cemetery. And of course mosques have been centers of attack -- in Iraq, where they have been used to fire on American soldiers, while the minarets are used for snipers, and to store huge quantities of weapons -- in mosque after mosque after mosque; in Europe, where the security forces have found stashes of false papers, including passports, propaganda including audio and videotapes, plans for attacks, and, though not quite on the scale of Iraq, caches of weapons and explosives. But neither the explosives, nor the false passports, are necessary to make a mosque a threat to non-Muslims. What is uttered in the khutbas, what is read in the texts, what suffuses all of Muslim doctrine (just go to any Muslim website, and spend a few hours reading aroun, and then go on to another, and read there), is hatred for the Infidel.
How this occurred, the historical circumstances in which Islam was spatchcocked together from pagan Arab lore, Judaism, and Christianity, all mixed up and distorted, is a fascinating topic. Philologists such as Christoph Luxenberg are now examining the early texts and loan-words in the Qur'an. Others, obviously non-Muslim, should begin to investigate what purpose the creation of Islam served -- and how it was used to both justify, and promote, the conquest by the
Arabs of far more advanced, settled, and wealthy populations -- first in Mesopotamia and Syria, and then beyond. Surely this is one of the most interesting of historical questions, and one which even some Muslims might eventually -- if they ever permit Islam to be subject to the same historical investigation that Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism have all undergone -- participate in such study. But such study by Muslims themselves will be far in the future.
I read that in my local dhimmi paper as well and went to google, as is my usual practice, knowing that these innocent victims of our "ignorance" are usually Islamists with an agenda. Sure enough, this is what I found: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Tarshiha/MoreDirectoryService.html
Poor Mr. Halimah, a Palestinian, has quite a history as a member of this group which among other things is against Israel's "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.
I guess AP doesn't have computers with google.
They might use the cemetery as a place to cache weapons.A common guerrilla and insurgent tactic.
Then what about arafat the other day when Blair was there he was above ground this is bad for Israel??
This is a way they can hide things look at all the ammo dumps made in Iraq they were grave yards??
Just a redneck mind at work??
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Strength,Wisdom,Sight, and Courage to Crush ALL Islamic Terrorist and ALL who Support them Give the World the Courage to Stand and Fight before it is to late Amen
Does anyone remember how outraged Muslim were when the 9/11 hijacker's remains weren't treated with respect according to Islamic Laws for dealing with dead Muslims,these were the same people that insisted Islam had nothing to do the the 9/11 attack and the hijackers weren't Muslims.
They really need to get their lies in order,either the hijackers were Muslims or they weren't...pick one.
I believe it's a land-gab and the next step will be a huge Mosque with the tall miranets for calling Muslims to prayer,I DON'T trust them anymore.
we all should buy up as much land as we can.
Are the existing cemeteries full? Is there noone in Tennessee with the courage to ask in public why they need their own cemetery in the first place? Go ahead ask them, I dare you. Be prepared to sit down and take a long deep breath when they respond, assuming they tell the truth of course, but with a religious doctrine that commands them to lie to non-Muslims (taqiyyah), we'll never know, will we?
Let the dead muzzies lie in separate dirt. I wouldn't want them planted in the same cemetary as my family or freinds or eventually me. Besides, it would give the local high school kids some place to go on wild drunken vandalism sprees and who the hell would care?