The headline on this Reuters story by Ed Stoddard is "Some non-Christians feel left out of election." Guess which non-Christians. A Hindu is quoted in this article, but only to say that he doesn't believe that the presidential candidates are excluding non-Christians from consideration on purpose. No Buddhists are quoted. No Jews are quoted. The featured whiner in the story is Ahmed Rehab of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is of course presented as a neutral civil rights advocacy organization, with no hint of the supremacist statements, the arrests, the unindicted co-conspirator status.
DALLAS (Reuters) - In a U.S. election campaign where presidential candidates from both major parties have talked openly about their Christian faith, some non-Christians feel shut out or turned off.Despite the constitutional separation of church and state, religion plays a big and sometimes decisive role in politics in America, where levels of belief and regular worship are far higher than those in Europe.
Actually, it's a Constitutional stipulation that Congress shall not establish a religion, but there is nothing preventing Christians or any other religious groups to work in the political arena in the United States.
"Non-Christians are concerned that they will be excluded from the process," said Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman with the Council on American-Islamic Relations."I welcome faith values if they inspire candidates to do good things. But I worry if it is used as a litmus test to include someone in political participation." [...]
I worry too, Mr. Rehab. I worry that groups like CAIR will be excluded from the process. I want CAIR to be included in the process. The more scrutiny CAIR receives, the more its origins, and financing, and overall goals are made known, the better. But in the meantime, perhaps you might consider that there is an upside for you to being ignored.
In any case, this whole claim is bogus. The whole premise of this article is bogus. Consider the pandering by the Democratic candidates and Ron Paul at the Arab American Institute convention last fall. Yes, yes, Arabs are mostly non-Muslim in the U.S., and most Muslims today worldwide are not Arabs, but the candidates' unanimous message that the Arab community was suffering from profiling and discrimination in anti-terror efforts, and the Democrats would end all that, had a clear resonance for Muslims. Left out? Hardly. They're being catered to.
That faith, and that of the Republican candidates, is Christian, although candidates have also spoken about the need for religious tolerance.A false rumor that has circulated on the Internet about Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is that he is Muslim who has lied about his religion. The rumor appears to illustrate the importance some voters attach to a candidate being Christian.
No it doesn't. The rumor, although it offers no basis on which to discount Obama's open professions of Christianity, does not in the least "illustrate the importance some voters attach to a candidate being Christian." It illustrates the importance some voters attach to not being led by a believer in the ideology that inspired the 9/11 attacks, and thousands of other terror attacks around the world since then. Although it looks to be a false rumor, its propagation shows that despite six years of politically correct propaganda, many Americans are still wary of the jihad ideology, and they know exactly where it comes from.
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Let's all start a lament for C A I R -- O! Pity the poor, oppressed, persecuted Muslims, who can't slack off but ONE hour at their infidel employers expense on Fridays! Who can't be paid to idle for but TWO eids a year! Who can't be universally accommodated in their rituals and prayers wherever public facilities are provided! Who cannot YET monopolize the skylines and ambient air as their medium, by divine right, to proclaim The Prophet (Son of A Warthog) and The Message!! O! Wail and lament! Woe! Woe Woe!!