At some point in the future, a political scientist–maybe one not yet even born-will point to Barack Obama’s declaration of war against the Catholic Church as the worst move of many he has made in his inordinately poor campaign for reelection.
Perhaps no other stupid Team Obama move better highlights the gulf between actual Americans and the phony Obama. It reminds us that Obama may (or may not) have been born in America and has spent his parasitical life here, but he is not OF America. He doesn’t understand America, and the overrated schmucks who are advising him don’t either.
They apparently have never bothered to read some basic electoral history. If they had, they would know that no Democrat has ever won the presidency while losing the Catholic vote.
Just as he has done with so many other groups, Obama has not only given Catholics no reason to vote for him, but plenty of motivation NOT to vote for him or anyone who supports him.
In the 2008 election, Catholics voted for Obama 54/46. That margin was, as much as any other, the reason for his election. There are fewer chances that Catholics will be lining up to support Obama this year, as a Pew poll has revealed. What Pew found was that until Obama’s war against the Catholic Church, he was leading with Catholics by 9 points. Today, that lead is gone, and he is behind by 5 points.
This 14 point swing away from Obama translates to 18 million lost votes and major trouble in these states with sizable Catholic populations: Pennsylvania (53%), New Jersey (39%), Wisconsin (29%), Florida (26%), Ohio (24%), and Michigan (24%).
Among Catholics, 29% now say that they are less likely to vote for Barack Obama because of his ham-handed attempt to dictate new secular doctrine to their Church. When juxtaposed to the 13% who say they are now more likely to support Obama’s re-election, the yield is a net minus 16 points. He cannot and he will not survive such a gapping hole in his support. Monday’s 43 lawsuits from Catholic entities was only round one, and Obama is already on the ropes. So far, Cardinal Dolan is way ahead on points.
Andy Garcia’s new movie, For Greater Glory, that focuses on the attack of the Mexican government against the Catholic Church and how the people stood up, echoes the current church vs. government battle. Many have mad the the mistake of attacking the Catholic Church or people of faith and come to regret it!!
You might not meet a dental floss tycoon, but a bunch of far left loons who are eagerly peddling sharia.
One could get the idea that Montana is one of the states that is somehow targeted by the soldiers of Allah. But not to worry, go back to sleep, kafir. Negative thoughts are ‘counterproductive’. This is all about ”removing misunderstandings and hatred”, nothing to do with stoning of women, chopping off limbs on opposite sides or killing homosexuals. Nothing but ‘myths’ concocted by greasy Islamophobes to give Islam a bad name. Right?
Earlier this semester, Jeff Renz, a law professor at The University of Montana, appeared on a conservative radio show to discuss the myths and realities of Islamic law. Accompanying him to Missoula’s KVGO studio were UM professor Mehrdad Kia and Robert Seidenschwarz, president of theWorld Affairs Council of Montana. (WTF is the “World Affairs Council of Montana.?”
According to Renz, the talk stirred up a fair amount of debate.
Nothing but myths:
“It was an interesting conversation,” he said. “A lot of the myths were repeated and we talked about those as well as a lot of the accuracies that are negative.”
This development adds UM to the growing number of American universities offering classes on Islamic law, ranging from the University of Minnesota to Yale. Islamic law, also known as Shariah law, guides the daily behavior and actions of Muslims while influencing the legal code of Islamic countries.
The three-credit class, ANTY 491, will meet three times a week and is open to UM undergraduate, graduate and law students. Renz said the course will examine the development of Islam along with the four principles of Islamic jurisprudence and will address the challenges of applying Sharia law in the 21st century.
Renz said Shariah law is not monolithic and that legal codes vary from one Muslim country to another and are often intertwined with tribal law.
“The most important thing they’ll learn is that what people perceive to be Islamic law is really local and national law rationalized, and falsely rationalized, by reference to the Quran,” he said.
Renz said that Shariah law’s core values are dignity, equality and justice, principles that were overshadowed in the midst of Islamic imperialism and European colonialism. Today, Renz said that Shariah law is in “enormous ferment” with regards to women’s and human rights and that he wants to explore both the negative and positive aspects.
Renz developed an interest in the subject due to his travels throughout Central Asia. After years spent studying books and journals on the topic, last fall he attended a week-long Islamic law and human rights conference in Salzburg, Austria. The conference solidified past talks with UM’s Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center about creating the class.
“Somewhere along the way we said we had to do it,” Renz said. “Once the decision was made to do it, things moved fast.”
Seidenschwarz, who participated with Renz on the radio show, said he’s glad UM would offer the course.
“I would greatly encourage anyone to take this class,” he said. “There’s so much misunderstanding and misinformation about what it is and there’s no uniformity in the Islamic world on interpretation.”
He said that many fears revolve around the question of whether Shariah law will either supplement or subordinate the current U.S. legal system.
Despite experiencing “not a peep” of backlash, Renz contends that there might be some disapproval of the class, and he does expect there will be controversy in the classroom.
It is good to see that there are a growing number of such bills all over the country. They will always be challenged by claims that they infringe upon Muslims’ religious liberties. But they wouldn’t exist at all, of course, were it not for the political and authoritarian aspects of Sharia. Backers of such bills need to familiarize themselves with those aspects and be ready to answer those challenges. “Bill would ban courts from using ‘foreign law,’” by Michael Biesecker for the News & Observer, April 29
It doesn’t show you what Jones is saying or doing, though.
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So yesterday Terry Jones held his protest, but at City Hall. And well… let’s read how the New York Times covers it:
Michigan: Koran-Burning Pastor Draws a Boisterous Crowd
Tensions flared Friday as Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose burning of a Koran sparked violence in Afghanistan, demonstrated Friday on the steps of City Hall in Dearborn, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation. In rambling remarks over three hours, he mostly spoke against what he called “extremist Muslim influences” in the United States. Dearborn police made three arrests for misdemeanors. The department estimated the crowd at 700 people. Mr. Jones’s comments were often drowned out by the horns of passing cars and the boos and chants of protesters, some of whom carried signs saying, “Terrorist Go Home” and “Leave Us Alone.”
You got that? They were boisterous. And only three arrested. Move along, nothing to see here…
Except it wasn’t really that. It was a riot of about fifty people. Of course the local papers, such as the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press couldn’t very well ignore it. So in their news pages they editorialize that all of this is his fault.
Quran-burning Pastor Terry Jones had his say in Dearborn. Few appeared to hear him.
Thunderous boos from a crowd of about 700 protesters drowned out much of his speech Friday afternoon at Dearborn City Hall. The 90-minute event momentarily erupted into chaos when Jones and several dozen of his supporters approached a metal barricade around City Hall and engaged his opponents.
A crowd of at least 50 people surged across Michigan Avenue, breaking a barricade, throwing water bottles and shoes. Riot police restored order within minutes and took at least two people into custody.
Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. said Jones is partly to blame. “Even though we said, ‘Please don’t go to the barricades,’ he just ignored it,” O’Reilly said. “My assessment is this is a man without character.”
Funny, I feel the same way about you, Mayor.
Jones said he approached the barricade to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with opponents, but witnesses said the pastor appeared to egg them on, opening his palms in a provocative manner.
Opening palms is provocative? Opening palms is a peaceful gesture. This is what this site says on the subject of hands and body language:
There are 2 basic rules you have to remember when looking at hand gestures: Open palms (when you can see the palms of someone’s hands) suggests openness, honesty, and a liking, whilst closed palms(when you can see the back of someone’s hands) suggests that they may be hiding something, are closed to your ideas, or are feeling like they are in authority.
And it’s something I have heard over and over again. It is believed that by opening your palm, the cave man parts of our brains recognize that this means you are disarmed and that creates greater ease. It is downright bizarre to tell us that opening your palms is an aggressive gesture.
And of course Mayor O’Reilly continues to be a tool:
“This is not man of great depth,” O’Reilly said. “We saw the extent of his knowledge today. If he comes back and gets coverage by the media, then shame on the media.”
Hey, Mayor O, maybe the media won’t cover it if (1) city hall stops trampling on his speech rights, (2) everyone stops pretending he is responsible when radical Muslims react violently and (3) when radical Muslims stop reacting violently. Seriously, what do you think would have happened to him if the police weren’t there?
Tempers flare at Pastor Terry Jones’ Dearborn rally
Don’t you love these headlines? “Tempers flare”? “Fracas”? They never mention who precisely was being violent, and they don’t correctly label the violence. Shouldn’t the headline be more like this:“Radical Muslims Riot at Terry Jones Protest”? I mean feel free to argue that should be tweaked a little, but isn’t that closer to the mark?
And here’s what they say about it:
Jones repeatedly provoked the crowd and insulted them. At one point, he ignored police requests by ambling down to the front of police barricades while taunting his opponents.
Angered, some of those protesters stormed past their police barricades and marched across Michigan Avenue as they hurled bottles and shoes at Jones’ supporters across from them. One woman spit in Jones’ direction.
Notice, of course the contrast. When a Tea Partier was falsely accused of spitting at a black congressman, this was taken as proof that the entire Tea Party were bigots. But when these people spit and riot, it’s Jones that is tarred.
The young crowd then pushed down a security fence that separated them from Jones’ supporters and surged forward, their faces tight with anger. For a moment, it appeared a major clash was about to break out.
But Arab-American leaders and police pushed back the angry group as dozens of police officers in full riot gear marched out in single file to separate the two sides. At least two were arrested. Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. said afterward that Jones was responsible for creating the disturbance by ignoring city requests not to approach the barricade.
“He refused to comply,” O’Reilly said. “He was asked, ‘Please don’t come to the barricade.’ He just ignored us. … His goal was to start trouble. … That shows his character.”
Yeah, just like those evil black people who sat at lunch counters to protest segregation. Didn’t they know that by just sitting where they were not supposed to they were provoking violence?
And of course I am being facetious. Yes, those civil rights protesters did know. It was a sign of their courage that they knew and they went anyway. And yes, they did intend to provoke violence, to show the world that just sitting at a lunch counter could get those hateful, ignorant idiots to attack them. Yes, it was provocative, but only because the segregationists were easily provoked—unreasonably easily provoked. And we all understand that in that context. And none of us blame those civil rights protesters for the violence that did break out in those sorts of things.
But why don’t we apply those principles to acts like this?
Oh, right because they don’t like his point of view. And I will be first to admit that if this is true…
Jones launched an attack on Obama, questioning the president’s speech in Cairo, Egypt, in which he said Islam was part of the American story.
“Islam has never been part of the American story,” Jones said.
…that Jones is a bigot. I am reluctant to believe it because the media has been so shameful during this entire episode, but if he said it, that is a bigoted thing to say. But the fact remains that they are just words. And it doesn’t justify a riot. And it certainly doesn’t exactly prove him wrong when he says that Islam is a violent religion. Indeed, seriously, someone with moderate PR skills really needs to talk to these protesters…
The crowd grew as they spoke, with more Muslims appearing as the rally took place. Some waved shoes, an Arab symbol of disrespect. Others held up Qurans. American, Palestinian and Lebanese flags also were waved. More than 600 counter-protesters appeared to assemble.
Um, guys, if you want Americans to get on your side, don’t protest a man claiming that you are not part of the American story by waiving flags for Palestine and Lebanon. Consider that a free tip.
And of course they remind us of the injustice last week:
Jones’ rally at City Hall came a week after he failed to get permission to protest at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, the largest mosque in metro Detroit.
On April 22, a jury said Jones was likely to breach the peace if he carried out a rally there. Jones and Sapp were briefly jailed and then released after posting a $1 bond each. They were banned from the mosque and adjacent property for three years.
Well in fact, Jones did not once breach the peace. The protesters did. So they will be lifting that order any minute now, right? No, of course not. And it is a travesty that it remains in place.
All this city has done is make this man, who apparently is an anti-Muslim bigot, into a free speech martyr and put a state endorsement on the idea that Muslims can’t be expected to control themselves. Would it be too much to ask the media to treat these guys as badly as Tea Partiers, or conversely, to treat Tea Partiers as good as rioting radical Muslims?
