Friday, August 24, 2007

Losing the Propaganda War III


Two previous columns in this series described Islamic propaganda in American public schools – middle schools, high schools and colleges – and some of the textbooks that are used, as related by Richard Thompson, president and general counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. This column looks at Thompson’s remarks on what he details as a double standard.

“Well, what you have here is a double standard, I think, where there is one standard for Christians and Jews and people of other faiths where you cannot promote religion in any fashion; and there seems to be a second standard for Muslims, who are allowed to get away with promoting their religion and their religious observances in the public schools, whether it be a university or a secondary school.

“And a part of this that concerns me is the overall agenda that a lot of these Islamic political action committees have: and that is, although they do not want to assimilate in America, they don’t want to be Americans – they want to maintain their Islamic culture – they are willing to use American politics, the Constitution and American law to seek accommodation and continue to force the majority to accept the religious propositions of the minority.

“You may have heard this quote from Omar Ahmad, who is the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Back in 1998, he said: ‘Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.’ This is an organization that promotes itself as a Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Its representatives have been used on a lot of mainstream media to talk about the Islamic affairs and what’s happening in our culture. They’re not there to be equal to us. They’re there to be dominant, and if you look at what history does – what history instructs us – is that when they do become dominant, that they then persecute every other religion.”

“You may have heard that they were planning to put foot baths at the University of Michigan, Dearborn campus,” Thompson continued. “When that became public, we [started] obtaining the facts to find out how those foot baths are going to be funded, and there is a good possibility that we may bring a lawsuit against the University of Michigan for utilizing, again, public taxpayer money for a specific religious purpose.

I asked if the university had any plans to put in holy water fonts alongside the foot baths. “Well, baptism fonts…I mean you can go on and on and on, but if the law in fact says that publicly-funded universities and schools cannot promote a particular religion, then that should apply to everybody.”

“It would seem pretty simple on its face,” I said. “But apparently it isn’t.”

“Well first of all, we’re dealing with universities and you probably know that the Saudi Arabian government or princes from Saudi Arabia are giving out a lot of money to these universities developing these Middle Eastern departments which then, you know, spout out their propaganda.

Some colleges and universities remove American flags because they may be “offensive” to foreign students. The College of William and Mary removed a cross from its chapel because it made students from other religious traditions “unwelcome.” Meanwhile, the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) is pushing for “accommodations” for Muslims attending American schools both public and private. According to a July USA Today article: “At least 17 universities have foot baths built or under construction, including Boston University, George Washington University and Temple University, and at least nine universities have prayer rooms for ‘Muslim students only,’ including Stanford, Emory and the University of Virginia, according to the MSA's website. The association did not return calls seeking comment.”

Most of the September terrorists were Saudis, but an increasing number of terrorists planning and carrying out attacks in Western countries are home-grown. They get radicalized in mosques and madrassas in Europe, Canada and the United States. “Back in 2000,” said Thompson, “a sheik by the name of [Muhammad Isham] Kabbani said there were about 3000 mosques in the United States and 80% of the mosques are controlled by extremists. . . . [and] a great percentage of those mosques are being funded by Saudi Arabia.”

Should we be concerned? If only 10% were controlled by extremists, we should be concerned, very concerned. Two years ago, then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney suggested that we should be monitoring what is said in extremist mosques in the United States, even if it means wiretapping them. His suggestion was condemned by CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in a Washington Post article: “It's irresponsible for the top elected official in any state to suggest blanket wiretapping of houses of worship.”

CAIR has since been named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a Texas case where a CAIR affiliate, the “Holy Land Foundation,” is accused of funding the Radical Muslim terrorist group Hamas. Meanwhile, Romney has become a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.

American schools and other institutions are bending policies to accommodate Muslims while they purge accommodations associated with other religions. About this, Attorney Thompson said: “What is concerning me is that, in one of the states, it was ruled that a person could swear on the Koran rather than the Bible and make an affirmation. And then, I understand this congressman – the first congressman who is Muslim, swore on the Koran, right? Well, it’s interesting to note that the Koran itself approves of lying.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. There’s a word called “kitman” or “taqiyya” which means lying or deception. And it has been ruled by their theologians that it is appropriate for them to lie if it is in the interest of achieving an objective for Islam. That’s in their own, in the Koran.

“Unbelievable.”

“So, they’re taking an oath on a book that approves lying.”

The idea of “taqqiya” is indeed quite different from our own “Thou Shalt Not Lie”; and it is equally different from the attribution to George Washington, father of this country, “I cannot tell a lie; I chopped down the cherry tree.” So for those of us who are not in familiar territory when it comes to denial, deceit and dissimulation, we are at a distinct disadvantage in this propaganda war.

But just as others use our laws to harm us, we can use our laws to protect ourselves. Attorney Richard Thompson said: “We are a public interest law firm and I would hope – hopefully in your article someplace you will mention that we’re willing to look at cases and file lawsuits.”

If you see or hear anything suspicious where you live, contact Richard Thompson at Thomas More Law Center.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Recently Canadian MP Dalton McGuinty disallowed the introduction of Sharia law into Ontario family law -- it's come that far. I track the Saudi funded expansion of militant, extremist Wahhabi (Salafi) Islam at my blog, Wahaudi. http://wahaudi.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Your assertion that "Some colleges and universities remove American Flags..." calls for some specific examples. Likewise you provide no evidence to support your assertion that, "Institutions bend policies to accommodate Muslims while purging accommodations for other religions."

The cross was returned to the Wren Chapel at William and Mary earlier this month. It might be noteworthy that before this donated cross was placed in the chapel around 1940 the chapel had no cross for well over 200 years.

Are we really supposed to be concerned that out of over 2,400 4-year colleges and universities in the US "at least 17" are making foot baths available and another 9 have designated prayer spaces for Muslim students?

Emory University was one of the unwitting schools you implicated in this vast conspiracy. Home of the Candler School of Theology, you can be assured that provisions are made for all kinds of religious observances. The Emory U. home page lists 19 on-campus Christian organizations...and one Muslim. I think you'll find a similar circumstance at BU.

Where's your double standard?

Doug Hjelmstad

Anonymous said...

Will this country ever wake up to what is happening right under our noses? In the name of political correctness we "bury our heads in the sand" and ignore reality. I wonder what will happen when we have the next major Islamist attack on our own soil? Believe me, it is only a matter of time before that happens.

Harvey in North Baldwin

Tom McLaughlin said...

A cross was returned after alumni threatened to withhold donations. The multiculturalists lost that round.

Flags removed from campuses? Go here:
http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2001/nov_2001_1.html

Emory University is also the home of the Carter Center, some of whose senior staff people resigned after publication of Carter's latest book on Israel and radical Islamist terrorists, though he doesn't call them that. They couldn't honorably remain associated with the Center the former president's claims.

Carter is in la-la land too Doug. Perhaps you've bumped into him there. You don't have to be concerned about anything if you don't want to be - at least until the next attack. Meanwhile, have fun.

Anonymous said...

Tom, If you are against multiculturalism, then what are you for? A right wing conservative country that exhibits a lot of the quailties you condemn here? This country was founded on the freedom of all cultures that live here, unlike Muslim countries.
So, you are saying that you have to become them to defeat them. This has been Bush's stance along along. Osama had Bush on a string from 9/11 on.
Skillful leadership can see the good in people and navigate through the mess. Unskillful leadership takes the bait, and uses billion dollar weapons to rout out hiding Muslims, which it can't do.
This world can't afford a president who is led by the nose by his enemies down a road of high tech violence.
Violence has its place in covert operations, not ruining millions of lives to "keep up with the Abduls."

Tom McLaughlin said...

I'm against multiculturalism and I'm for the old melting pot model. It should not be replaced by a "salad bowl" model where everybody celebrates what makes them different from other Americans around them. They should celebrate being Americans - living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. If they don't want to do that, why come here at all? If you don't like what is going on, run for office. See if you can convince a majority to endorse your vision of things. If you can, good for you.

That's the way it's supposed to work. No, I'm not saying you have to become them to defeat them. Far from it. We have to kill them to defeat them. We can't "celebrate" radical Islam under the veil of multiculturalism as so many on the left want to do. They're out to destroy western civilization. That's not just my analysis; that's what they want to do. They say it. They write it. They demonstrate it. What part of "Death to America!" do you not understand?

Anonymous said...

Globalization has broken down borders. From the land of the free and home of the brave, we are now world citizens.
Lag has always been part of the human condition. Like Civil War tactics not catching up with their weapons in time.
Bush has lagged behind in understanding the nature of the world now. Though he is promoting globalization, he acts as if we were in the 1950's.
What kind of system allows stupidity to reach the highest office?

Tom McLaughlin said...

Terrorist groups have broken down borders too. It's difficult to declare war on Pakistan because al Qaida resides there, or on Iran or on Syria though they sponsor Hezbollah and Hamas. People who think as you do rely on the United Nations to defend them against terrorists.

Ask Israelis in Galillee how well the UN works. Ask Rwandans. Ask black Christians in Darfur. Ask Kurds in northern Iraq. Ask Bosnians.

We're now world citizens, huh? God help us. You want to be hanging by the neck waiting for the UN to rescue you? I don't.

Let's finish the border fence in Mexico.