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Chicago-area official won’t apologize for anti-Sharia email

Aug 21, 2008 7:22 am By Robert Spencer

Windy City anti-dhimmitude: “The e-mail’s basic message was that people coming to this country should adapt.” And that ain’t “hate.” An update on this story. “Frankfort Township Assessor Paul Ruff stands by e-mail on Islam, immigrants: Official does not apologize for distributing missive in June,” by Mary Owen for the Chicago Tribune, August 20 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Despite outrage from the local Muslim community, a Frankfort Township official did not apologize Wednesday for circulating an e-mail with anti-Islamic sentiments.

“The e-mail’s basic message was that people coming to this country should adapt,” Township Assessor Paul Ruff said in a statement. “This wasn’t a hateful e-mail, but one that touched upon a sentiment in this country and around the world that immigrants have to adapt to their new homes.”

Statements in the e-mail were attributed to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who a few years ago ignited controversy with criticism of Islam and statements asserting that immigrants need to adapt to their new country.

Actually Howard did not say the things attributed to him in the email.

Ruff said he did not write the content of the e-mail, and its origins were unknown.

The flap has drawn the ire of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Chicago and members of a mosque in Frankfort, prompting residents and religious leaders to hold a town hall meeting last week to discuss discrimination against Muslims. Ruff did not attend the meeting.

“It’s kind of a shock,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the council, said Wednesday. “Clearly this is offensive behavior on behalf of a public official.”

It’s kind of a shock to me that a spokesman for a group that has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror funding case, and that has had several of its officials arrested and convicted on various terror-related charges, and has had several of its officials make statements about wanting Islamic government in the U.S., is taken seriously as a moderate group by the Chicago Tribune.

Ruff held a news conference at the township hall to defend himself against critics of the e-mail, which he acknowledges forwarding in June to people he knew.

Two Will County sheriff’s deputies were present at the township hall in case of a disturbance. Before Ruff spoke, officials distributed copies of letters to the editor from a local newspaper and played audio recordings of voice-mail messages from people who agree with Ruff.

Among the voice-mail messages were statements such as: “Thank you for standing up for our way of life” and “It’s about time someone had the you-know-what to speak up.”

Rehab criticized Ruff’s use of the township hall for his news conference and was frustrated by the distribution of letters to the editor.

“If we were unhappy with his behavior before, this is even worse,” he said. “He can’t keep hiding behind somebody else’s name and passing out material that is hateful to support his perspective.”

Ruff said he is not a bigot or a racist, noting he has black and Hispanic neighbors. However, he did reiterate sentiments in the e-mail that denounced Islam and said the religion “institutionalizes discrimination against women and non-Muslims.”

Hmmm, now there’s a phrase that sounds familiar: I used it here and will again below. Might Mr. Ruff drop in to Jihad Watch on occasion? If so, welcome, sir, and bravo!

Tariq Khan, a board trustee for the American Islamic Association, which operates the Frankfort mosque, said he believes Ruff’s response will further strain relations with the Muslim community.

“It’s unfortunate that he’s been so stubborn in not apologizing,” said Khan, who arrived at the township hall moments after the news conference ended. “It’s time to move on. He is a fine public servant, but I feel he made an error in judgment.”…

Rehab and Khan are playing a dangerous game in demanding that Ruff apologize. If it is “hate” now to say that Muslims who want Islamic law should leave the country, then the claims of moderation that CAIR and other Muslim groups have made for years are shown to be hollow. On the one hand we are supposed to believe that every Muslim in the United States completely accepts American pluralism and Constitutional rule, and has no intention of imposing Sharia here at any time in the future. If you don’t believe that, you’re a venomous “Islamophobe.”

And yet if that were true, shouldn’t Rehab and Khan be saying that they agree with this email, and will aggressively resist any agitation among Muslims to replace American Constitutional government with Sharia? By labeling this email “hate,” aren’t they admitting that many, if not most, American Muslims do want Sharia here? And isn’t the presence of a large group that wants to destroy the ideas of the equality of all people before the law and the freedom of speech, and replace them with a legal system that institutionalizes discrimination against women and non-Muslims, something that Americans should be concerned about?

Is it really “hate” to want to defend republican pluralism and resist a totalitarian and draconian system that establishes an elite class and relegates others to permanent inferior status?

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