DNC Interfaith Event Reaches Out to the Muslim Brotherhood

The love-feast is about to begin in Denver. The Democratic National Convention will convene beginning on Monday to anoint The One We’ve Been Waiting For as their candidate for President of the United States.Before the convention proper begins, a small prodromal event has been arranged for tomorrow to create the right mood among the party faithful. It’s billed as an “interfaith event”, the progressive equivalent of a tent revival, and a host of stars has been invited to rouse the crowd with that New-Time Religion.According to The Denver Post:
Convention interfaith event announced

By Electa Draper
The Democratic National Convention Committee today announced the program for its first-ever interfaith gathering, which kicks off at 2 p.m. Aug. 24 at Wells Fargo Theater in the Colorado Convention Center.Keynote speakers include Bishop Charles Blake, presiding prelate of Church of God in Christ Inc. and pastor at the West Angeles cathedral in Los Angeles; Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America; social activist Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking”;and Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union. Grammy-award-winning gospel artist Richard Smallwood & Vision and Denver’s The Spirituals Project will perform the music.The program also will feature readings from diverse religious texts.“Democrats have been, are, and will continue to be people of faith-and this interfaith gathering is proof of that,”((1))said DNCC chief executive Leah Daughtry,herself a Pentecostal pastor.Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is scheduled to address the event, along with local clergy, including Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali of the Northeast Denver Islamic Center, Rabbi Steven Foster of Congregation Emmanuel, the Rev. Lucia Guzman, Buddhist Kathryn Ida and Democratic leader Polly Baca.
Most readers can guess the kind of show that will be put on. A lot of “Social Gospel” and radical politics can be expected, given the resumés that some of the participants will bring to the pulpit. Sister Catherine Pinkerton, head of the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. The Reverend Lucia Guzman, the 2008 winner of the ACLU’s Carle Whitehead Memorial Award.The Black Liberation Theology advocate Leah Daughtry will be the MC of the event.But for our purposes, the most intriguing guest speaker is Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America. As the Traditional Values Coalition notes:
The presence of Dr. Ingrid Mattson with ISNA at this DNC interfaith service should be of grave concern to American voters.The ISNA is a radical Islamist group that pretends to be moderate. TVC’s friend Frank Gaffney with the Center for Security Policy, recently posted a column about Obama’s Islamist Problem and described the radical background of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Gaffney notes that the ISNA is a creation of the Saudi-financed Muslim Students Association and is part of what’s known as the Muslim Brotherhood. According to documents entered into the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, the “work [of Brotherhood members] in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” FrontPageMagazine has more details on the ISNA.
This is Dr. Mattson’s speaker bio :
Dr. Ingrid Mattson is Director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT. A native of Canada, Dr. Mattson has traveled the world and lived in Pakistan where she worked with Afghan refugee women. In 2001 she was elected Vice-President of ISNA and in 2006 she was elected President of the organization. Dr. Mattson is the first woman and the first convert to Islam to lead the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
However, there’s a little bit more to Dr. Mattson than meets the eye. As the TVC mentioned above, she’s connected via the ISNA and the MSA to the Muslim Brotherhood. And it turns out to be more than just a casual connection, since she has promoted the works of Sayyid Qutb in a course she teaches at Hartford Seminary.As a service to all the delegates to the Democratic Convention, not to mention everyone who will watch it over the remote screens and on their TVs at home, I’m happy to present a white paper on Dr. Ingrid Mattson. It was compiled by Christine Brim of the Center for Security Policy, and it hoists the good doctor on the petard of her own words:
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Center for Security Policy Research Brief: August 23, 2008
Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America: In Her Own Words
1)Mattson places loyalty to Islam before loyalty to the United States of America:
“If Muslim Americans are to participate in such a critique of American policy, however, they will only be effective if they do it, according to the Prophet’s words, in a “brotherly” fashion. This implies a high degree of loyalty and affection. This does not mean, however, that citizenship and religious community are identical commitments, nor that they demand the same kind of loyalty. People of faith have a certain kind of solidarity with others of their faith community that transcends the basic rights and duties of citizenship.“
2)Mattson on Americans defining themselves as an ethical nation:
“The first duty of Muslims in America, therefore, is to help shape American policies so they are in harmony with the essential values of this country. In the realm of foreign policy, this “idealistic” view has been out of fashion for some time. Indeed, the American Constitution, like foundational religious texts, can be read in many different ways. The true values of America are those which we decide to embrace as our own. There is no guarantee, therefore, that Americans will rise to the challenge of defining themselves as an ethical nation; nevertheless, given the success of domestic struggles for human dignity and rights in the twentieth century, we can be hopeful.”
3)Mattson denies the existence of terrorist cells in the United States:
“There’s a prejudgment, a collective judgment of Muslims, and a suspicion that well “you may appear nice, but we know there are sleeper cells of Americans,” which of course is not true. There aren’t any sleeper cells.“
4)Mattson defends the extremist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam:
“CHAT PARTICIPANT: What can you tell us about the Wahhabi sect of Islam? Is it true that this is an extremely right wing sect founded and funded by the Saudi royal family, and led by Osama bin Ladin? What is the purpose of the Wahhabi?“MATTSON: No it’s not true to characterize ‘Wahhabism’ that way. This is not a sect. It is the name of a reform movement that began 200 years ago to rid Islamic societies of cultural practices and rigid interpretation that had acquired over the centuries. It really was analogous to the European protestant reformation. Because the Wahhabi scholars became integrated into the Saudi state, there has been some difficulty keeping that particular interpretation of religion from being enforced too broadly on the population as a whole. However, the Saudi scholars who are Wahhabi have denounced terrorism and denounced in particular the acts of September 11. Those statements are available publicly.“This question has arisen because last week there were a number of newspaper reports that were dealing with this. They raised the issue of the role of Saudi Arabia and the ideology there. Frankly, I think in a way it was a reaction to the attempts of many people to look for the roots of terrorism in misguided foreign policy. It’s not helpful, I believe, to create another broad category that that becomes the scapegoat for terrorism.”
5)Mattson on the Islamic Caliphate:
“CHAT PARTICIPANT: Osama bin Laden made a reference that Muslims have been living in humiliation for 80 years. Did he refer to the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 that dismantled caliphates and sultanates?“MATTSON: Yes, he is referring to that, to the overthrowing of the caliphate, which was a plan of European powers for many years. This deprived the Muslim world of a stable and centralized authority, and much of the chaos that we’re living in today is the result of that.“
6)Mattson teaches the Islamist extremists Sayyid Qutb and Syed Abu’l-’Ala Mawdudi in her course at Hartford Seminary — see the syllabus here.
Sayyid Qutb, In the Shade of the Qur’an, translation of Fi Zilal al-Quran by M.A. Salahi and A.A. Shamis (Leicester, UK: Islamic Foundation, 1999), 355-372.Syed Abu’l-’Ala Mawdudi, The Meaning of the Qur’an, translation of Tafhim al-Qur’an by Zafar Ishaq Ansari (Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1993), v. 4, 75-107
7)Mattson is quoted as praising Islamist extremist Mawdudi (aka Maududi):
“In response to another question, ‘Please suggest any comprehensive work of Tafseer (Qur’anic commentary) for us Muslim youth,’ she said, ‘There are different kinds of Tafseers. For e.g. there are ones that contain detailed interpretations of grammatical aspects of Qur’anic language. And there are others that serve to explain the general message of Qur’an, coupled with the experiences and insights of the author of the Tafseer. However, there aren’t really any Tafseers that combine the both aspects. So far, probably the best work of Tafseer in English is by Maulana Abul A’la Maududi.“[Background on Abdul ala Maududi here]
To read more go to:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/08/dnc-interfaith-event-reaches-out-to.html
PS:"Democrats have been and are and will continue to be people of faith-and this interfaith gathering is proof of that"
Well part of the statement above is true:Democrats are people of faith....of faith in anything EXCEPT for JESUS....This statement coming from the lips than non other than leah Daughtry a self proclaimed "pentecostal pastor" is a total disgrace and she gives a bad name to true pentecostal believers...
If you know what Black Liberation Theology is all about you can infere that you cannot be truly born again and follow that man made doctrine...How can she stand for what the democratic party stands and call herself a
pentecostal pastor"???????
The part of "this interfaith gathering is a proof of that"...it only proves one thing...is that they believe in anything BUT truly God......You cannot be a truly born again commited christian and be a democrat WITHOUT COMPROMISING YOUR CORE BELIEFS....
Just like Obama a self proclaimed "devout born again christian that prays daily to the Lord"at the same time SUPPORTS AN INFANTICIDE BILL and is a STRONG ABORTION SUPPORTER and PLANNED PARENTHOOD GOOD FRIEND.....
WHat a shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IF you have the time read the whole post at the Gates of Vienna Blog....Its excellent!!!!!!!!!!
As in the days of Noah....