From Sherrie Gossett in Accuracy in Media, with thanks to Daniel Pipes:
While the major media have portrayed the president's faith based initiative as a pay-off to conservative Christians, a controversial Muslim group accused of having an association with an extreme form of Islam has also been getting federal funds. The group, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), considers itself moderate and mainstream but has sponsored conferences in the past that included speakers known for violent anti-Jewish rhetoric.At the beginning of this month President Bush made headlines across the country when he addressed religious leaders who gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington for the White House-sponsored Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Leadership Conference. Bush announced that his administration had awarded a whopping $2 billion in grants last year to social programs operated by churches, synagogues and mosques. A White House official said this was probably the most money the federal government had given in one year to religious charities.
The major media failed to report, however, that ISNA, which was represented at the conference, is under Senate scrutiny. Members of the Senate Finance Committee called on the Internal Revenue Service to turn over private tax and fund-raising records for major Muslim charities, including ISNA, as part of an investigation into possible links between the charities and terrorist groups.
The Senators cited no evidence of such ties in their December 22, 2003 letter to the IRS. But the committee's Republican chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, and its ranking Democrat, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, said in part: "Many of these groups not only enjoy tax-exempt status, but their reputations as charities and foundations often allows them to escape scrutiny, making it easier to hide and move their funds to other groups and individuals who threaten our national society. This support for the machinery of terrorism not only violates the law and tax regulations, but it violates the trust that citizens have in the large majority of charities."...
Mary Jacoby and Graham Brink, writing in the St. Petersburg Times, describe ISNA as "subsidized by the Saudi government" and the "main clearinghouse for Wahhabism in the U.S." The New York Times has described ISNA as the umbrella organization for 300 Muslim groups and about one-third of the mosques in the United States....
Read it all.
This Faith-Based Initiative will turn out to be a fund for fate-based Muslims, a nice supplement, funded by American taxpayers, to Saudi money, and will help support Islam. In other words, American taxpayers will be supporting a system that in every single one of its canonical texts -- Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira -- inculcates hostility, at times amounting to murderous hatred, of Infidels, and furthermandates Jihad as a duty for all Muslims, in order to ensure that Islam comes to dominate the entire globe. This is not a fiction. Everything in the theory and practice of Islam supports this view -- it is only the nonchalance, or ignorance, of some Muslims, that allows them not to participate.
As a belief-system, unlike other "faiths" supported by this Faith-based initiative, Islam is distinguished by the fact that all of its main principles, including the failure to permit freedom of conscience (i.e., the right of apostasy), its hatred of real pluralism ("Islam is to dominate and not to be dominated") thoughj of course the principles of American pluralism will be exploited to the hilt, and above all the Sharia, which is the legal code, derived from both the Qur'an and the Sunna (the latter being the ways and customs of 7th century Arabs, Muhammad and his Companions, derived from the Hadith and Sira).
There is not a single one of the principles that one identifies with the American political system -- not freedom of speech, not freedom of conscience, not equality before the law of all men, or equal treatment of men and women (these last took time to develop, even in the American system). Nor can the principles of Sharia change; Qur'an, Hadith and Sira are immutable; Islam has been essentially immune to interpretive change for the last thousand years, since the "gates of ijtihad" were closed.
The contradiction not between "all religions" and the American polity but rather, between Islam and the American polity, cannot simply be ignored, finessed, laughed away. It is real. And non-Muslim taxpayers will be enraged to learn, as they learn about Islam, that their money is being used to support a system that does not wish them, their legal codes, their Constitution, their political and social understandings and arrangements, their manners and customs, well, but whether Saudi-funded, or taxpayer-funded, offer a doctrine that is not merely instinct with hostility to all non-Muslims throughout every one of its texts, but openly expresses such hostility throughout the Qur'an and the Hadith. This cannot be allowed to stand.
If this President continues to insist, precisely in the same manner as his most vicious attackers (who also find it impossible to understand Islam, and keep thinking of it as just one more religion, with all the good and all the bad of "any" religion), and refuses to see what should by now be staring him in the face, could some grownups in the Administration, or in Congress, please step in?
The Law of Unintended Consequences. *sighs* Idiots.
Yeah, "unintended consequences"... right. After all, how could ANYONE have thought that Muslims would actually try to get in on the taxpayer-funded cash grab championed by the GOPers? LOL. You're hilarious, Gary.
I guess the RNC, the GOP, and MSM wanted us to believe that all that cash would go to worthy, honest "real" Christian charities. Hah.
What I want to know is, when will secularists, humanists, and atheists get their share? Don't we pay taxes? Why is our tax money going to ANY religion? It's all money for proselytizing. If you can understand that "relief" funds for Indonesia will ultimately benifit the Muslim fanatics there, you should be able to understand that all "Faith Based" (taxpayer) grants will be used to fund all flavors of fanatics HERE.
Let me just spell it out for you deniers. The "Muslim charities" will definitely help in tsunami relief, if for no other reason than the fact that doing so is good P.R. Money that "Muslim charities" WOULD have spent on tsunami relief is replaced with money from legitimate charities (mostly from Western nations.) Every dollar NOT spent by "Muslim charities" rebuilding schools, roads, whatever in Indonesia is a dollar they save, which WILL spent on their "other" activities (Jihad, terrorism, sharia, proselytizing, propaganda, etc.)
Likewise will it procede hear. Every dollar that a "charity" receives (from the taxpayers) will free up another dollar that WOULD have been used for charity but can NOW be used for the important purpose: to save souls, shut down abortion clinics, fund terrorists overseas (or at least we HOPE they're all overseas!) and elect more GOPers.
Maybe every dollar given to a church will see a dime handed to the RNC.... to elect more GOPers.... which will give MORE of OUR money to the churches.... who will give more contributions to the GOP...which will (you get the idea.)
By the way, I seem to recall a certain bunch of guys that used to LOOOOVE saying, "Who's money is that, anyway? The federal governments? No. It's OUR money, folks." But of course that was years ago, and now the idealogy of "a certain party" ideology has changed.
I've got a good, sound, old-fashioned, conservative idea. Instead of taxing us and taking our money and handing it out to churches and MOSQUES, why not REFUND that money and let the PEOPLE decide which religious charities get funded?
'I've got a good, sound, old-fashioned, conservative idea. Instead of taxing us and taking our money and handing it out to churches and MOSQUES, why not REFUND that money and let the PEOPLE decide which religious charities get funded?' ~kj
*smiles* Yes. Refund, or nice, Big, Middle-Class tax cut. Getting rid of Estate taxes would certainly help.
We agree! Neat.
In the realm of curious funders, I stumbled across a site while looking up the mystery writer Joseph Hansen (I'm writing a Raymond Chandler-esque novel and am trying to avoid repeating any else's book title), and it turns out one guy with this same name was/is? involved in the Socialist Workers Party (he wrote a glowing introduction to Che Guevara's thoughts on killing people for fun and profit, circa 1970), and on the SWP site, there was a link to socialist Muslims (?), and from that I found the following site:
http://www.msa-natl.org/matf/success2.php?ID=4
For the "Muslim Friendly- Muslim Accomodations Task Force".
What is intriguing is that this site has a little note at the bottom:
"Made possible through funding from the ChevronTexaco Foundation"
Anybody know why?
Payoffs to grease their access to pools of liquified dinosaurs?
P.C. run amok?
Or is ChevronTexaco owned by a majority of Muslims?
In either case, the adage "follow the money" lets me know where not to buy gas.
I'll have to see if other oil companies are silently supporting the ultimate undermining of the West and obnoxious onset of Shariah law.
Meanwhile, glad to know my taxes are being used to provide those members of "the religion of peace", who want to see my infidel head removed for the glory of Allah, with their fair share.
"They are always saying God loves us. If that's love, I'd rather have a little kindness." -Graham Greene.
"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind."
-Bob Marley.
Excellent points - I was also appalled how Sayyid M. Syeed, Secretary General of ISNA and a member of the International Board of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) based in Herndon, Virginia, verbally threatened Sherrie Gossett.
Shameless promotion: See my take in my web log entry "IIIT Board Member Threatens Media Journalist" at http://northernvirginiastan.blogspot.com/2005/03/iiit-board-member-threatens-media.html
I would have liked to see Dub push through a PAYROLL tax....but really I shouldn't complain. My "Tax Day" is Valentine's Day, not May 1st or whatever Rush says it is.
BTW I heard that raising the Social Security cap from 90k to 200k would keep it solvent for 75 years. What do you know about this?
KJ
I'm also glad we agree when we do.
'I've got a good, sound, old-fashioned, conservative idea. Instead of taxing us and taking our money and handing it out to churches and MOSQUES, why not REFUND that money and let the PEOPLE decide which religious charities get funded?' ~kj
kj- Great comment! As a conservative agnostic (with a strong Christian and Euro Pagan background)I firmly believe each person should be able to choose which if any religious charities they whish to support.
Last year in July the ISNA held a weekend
"Muslimfest" and while I looked through the
"Events" menu I discovered a "Youth" seminar
that would "Teach your children to obey the Quran
and use Jihad to fight for an Islamic state in Canada or to make in a Islamic Country".
The workshop dealt with Calahfate ( not sure of the proper spelling) responsibilities,this I found from a posting on Calahfate.com that promoted the event. The true nature of the Muslimfest was kept quiet,this was proven when a Federal Liberal (Carolyn Parrish) from that area
was cited on www.arab2000.net as praising the event and telling non-Muslims to attend so they may be enriched in this peaceful faith that will make Canada a better place.
The JW archives or DW will have my original
post and the links to these articles.
I'll try to find the ISNA Muslimfest info and post it for you.
Oh,and I also found out that CAIR has used a "Racism" course to teach the Quran and Islam in public schools in Toronto Canada and documents
show that all three levels of Government were scammed into giving grants under this guise of
social harmony through anti-racism.
In order to save space on DW's server I found two links that show CAIR's connection to the festival and the Sharia-friendly notice to Muslims attending the event.
www.muslimfest.com will show highlights and
a search on webcrawler.com under "muslimfest"
will give several updated opinions and links
that even have one Muslim calling it "Saudi-fest" because of the Sharia reference.
Remember,CAIR is the main proponent demanding "Shariah" law courts for female Muslims in Canada.
Yikes, we're paying them to do us in! Apparently stupidity is part and parcel of government service.
"Last year in July the ISNA held a weekend
"Muslimfest" and while I looked through the
"Events" menu I discovered a "Youth" seminar
that would "Teach your children to obey the Quran
and use Jihad to fight for an Islamic state in Canada or to make in a Islamic Country".
I would be grateful if the poster above who may have kept information about the "Muslimfest" sponsored by ISNA could forward all information to Robert Spencer at Jihadwatch. It will find its way to the right final address.
And if anyone else has other information about ISNA or similar groups which would make them clearly ineligible for grants from this "faith-based initiative," please forward whatever you have.
The head of the Faith-Based Initiative is Jim Towey. Among the things he has said are the following:
First, in reply to whether a pagan faith-based group could receive a grant, he answers:
Jim Towey
"I haven't run into a pagan faith-based group yet, much less a pagan group that cares for the poor! Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can't be used to promote ideology, the fringe groups lose interest. Helping the poor is tough work and only those with loving hearts seem drawn to it."
Then in response to "Rob, from Chicago" who asks:
"Why can't my Muslim brothers and sisters participate as easily in this Administration's faith based initiatives? Most of the people I know who have any association with the Muslim faith are being harrassed, not helped or supported, at this time."
Towey answers:
"Muslims are welcomed to participate in this initiative. The issue isn't whether a group believes in God or not but whether their program works. So the faith-based initiative isn't faith-specific. I think America needs to do all it can to avoid religious rivalry and competition -that is the beauty of our heritage of pluralism."
There are two things to notice in Towey's statements above. The "beauty of our heritagae of pluralism" that he refers to can be destroyed by the one "faith" -- Islam -- that has no interest in pluralism (except to offer lip service, and to exploit it in the West until such time as Islam has grown powerful enough to throw off any pretense of belief in real pluralism, which is to say equal treatment for all Believers and non-Believers). but only in converting or killing polytheists, and in converting, killing, or tolerating in the status of dhimmi (according to all the disabilities that have been studied and listed by the scholars, including Antoine Fattal and Bat Ye'or).
But more important is a statement contained in the first reply above: "Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can't be used to promote ideology..." Public purposes means: helping the poor. It does not mean inculcating Islam, and what Islam teaches. It does not mean teaching Muslims how to figure out ways to cleverly apply for more grant money. It does not include ways to have Muslims figure out ways to have Infidel governments and taxpayers take up the slack when Saudi or other funding is interrupted, because of all those "charities" that keep being closed down and other acts by a not entirely ingenuous security service.
If Towey and the Faith-Based Initiative can be given information about what goes on at ISNA meetings, that show support for the group is inded support "being used to promote ideology" -- the "ideology of Islam" -- then they will have to rethink their willingness to take our money, and give it to those who, we who have studied the theory and practice of Islam understand, do not wish us well, do not wish for us to retain our own identities, and our own historites, but to "revert" to Islam, or to be treated, ultimately, with the contumely, hostility, and murderous hatred that we apparently deserve.
CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN - STOP THIS MADNESS NOW!!
If you don't know how to contact your reps in DC, go to www.congress.com and follow the prompts. You can e-mail your Senator or House Rep from that site.
Robert Spencer:
I posted the major links to the Muslimfest
on a posting last year in the JW or DW archives
and if your server has a menu to call up all postings based on my ID the topic was related
to a LGF article on Jihad and caliphate protest placards at a rally in Toronto.
BYW,I checked out the Anti-CAIR link and alerted
Andrew Whitehead to CAIR-Canada's agenda to defend detained Muslims suspected of terror connections. CAIR's own archives should still have the ISNA article about them promoting the
Muslimfest in Canada.
Sadly,Politicians actually endorsed the event
and not one of them responded to my emails
with the hypertext links showing the true motives of the weekend event.
My postings are from facts and media articles,I don't dislike islam or Muslims,I just dislike some of the thing done in its name
by self-professed Muslims.
"This past July the ISNA held a weekend conference
at a large mall near me and not only did a Federal
Liberal Politician endorse the even in Arab media,but I found an Islamic site that had a subtle listing for the event and the childrens workshops included the duty to obey the Quran and embrace Jihad in Canada to work towards an Islamic State
or Country under Sharia-Law for the glory of Allah."
Posted on November 18, 2004.
Although they attract jihadis from the Middle East, the ISNA is the North American front line of Jamaat-i-Islami ("Islamic Society," Pakistan). JI's American mouthpiece, Muzammil Siddiqi, attended the infamous Oval Office session of Sept. 15, 2001, which preceded Bush's suicidal "Islam is peace" speech. In effect, Siddiqi scripted innocuous common-children-of-Abraham rubbish, and the leader of the Free World acted it out. The ISNA remains a beneficiary of State Department consultation fees, for advice on "Islamic affairs." Read below what the intelligence website - www.stratfor.org - posted prior to the cancellation of a JI tour of America. JI terrorist leader, Qazi Hussein Ahmad, cancelled after US cruise missiles were launched at Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan. So therefore Qazi became personna non grata in America? No! In the Summer of 2000, while residing at the DC residence of the Pakistan ambassador to the US, he was paid for State Department consultation, with both Michael Shelhan, the State Department's counter terrorism expert, and the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs, Karl Inderfurth. The Clintonites recognized Qazi's diplomatic passport!!!
It is tragic that George Walker Bush cannot be derailed off the mosthly-benign-Islam track. That mentality facilitates mosque-based terrorism. Read the following, if you think that Bush doesn't need to be knocked off the dangerous Abrahamism' pedestal.
Global Intelligence Update Red Alert
October 28, 1998
Leading Pakistani Islamic Party Rallies for Revolution
Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic movement continued to gain momentum over the weekend, with a rally of the country's leading Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami. Jamaat leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad launched the October 23-25 rally in Islamabad claiming, "This grand demonstration of faith is a harbinger of a great movement for Islamic revolution." The tens of thousands of attendees reportedly responded with shouts of "Inqilab (revolution), Islami Inqilab!" The one-time ally of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lashed out at Sharif, claiming he lacked sincerity, courage, and competence to carry out Islamic Shariah law. Ahmad charged that Sharif only pushed for adoption of the Shariah, which has already passed the lower house of parliament, as a means to acquire more personal power. Declaring that it appeared as though there was no government in Pakistan, Ahmad asked, "If today we move to take over the parliament and the government, who can stop this mammoth crowd?" "But we do not want anarchy," he added.
Among the tens of thousands in attendance at the Islamabad rally were guests of honor Syed Salahuddin, chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the pro-Pakistani Islamic rebel organization in Kashmir, Golboddin Hekmatyar, former Prime Minister of Afghanistan, and Ibrahim Ghousha, the official spokesman for HAMAS. Jamaat had also formally invited "the hero of the Islamic world," Osama Bin Laden, to attend, and had formed special uniformed units of mojahedin youth to provide security had he attended. By including these guests of honor, Jamaat sent a message not only to the Sharif's government, but also to India, Afghanistan, Israel, and the United States, that the rise of fundamentalism in Pakistan was not going to stop...