DNC Interfaith Event Reaches Out to the Muslim Brotherhood
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....
ISLAMIC CRAZE WATCH:Death to England ..
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8a7_1219398687
As in the days of Noah...
Iran's Ahmadinejad in new verbal attack on Israel
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080823205825.ys8eb6lz&show_article=1
Transit of US naval ships causes outrage in Turkey
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 http://www.presstv.com/
As in the days of Noah....
Russia invasion speeds Georgia NATO membership: U.S.
Chad floods force 10,000 from homes, kill 3 - U.N.
Tropical Storm Forms in Pacific, Approaches Baja California
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409443,00.html
As in the days of Noah...
Tropical Storm Fay Makes Fourth Florida Landfall; Death Toll Rises to 10
To read more go to:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409321,00.html
As in the days of Noah...
Forecasters downgrade Fay to a tropical depression
As in the days of Noah...
ISLAMIC CRAZE WATCH:Muslims crack down on transplants for Christians:Report cites plan to ban cross-religion organ donations
DECEPTION WATCH:Duped Christians want their money back
LAND FULL of VIOLENCE:Bodies litter streets of Somali city
Somali rebels seize key port as death toll hits 70
1st time: Entire 'Lost tribe of Israel' allowed 'home':Indian group believes its lineage includes biblical patriarch Joseph
Israel, US and Turkey in Joint Mediterranean Naval Exercise
Terror Victims Sue Bank Of China for Ties with Hamas
Al Qaeda's Influence Grows in Israel; Israeli Bedouin Indicted
UK Loses Memory Stick With Data on 130,000 Criminals...
Confidential information on almost 130,000 prisoners and dangerous criminals has been lost by the Home Office, sparking yet another Government data crisis.
The loss of the details, which were stored on an unencypted computer memory stick, has raised fears that the taxpayer may now face a multi-million pound compensation bill from criminals whose safety may have been compromised and police informants who could be at risk of reprisals.The home addresses of some of Britain's most prolific and serious offenders-including those who have committed violent and sexual crimes-are understood to be among the missing data.A full investigation is now underway to find the memory stick-containing information on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales, including some release dates, plus details of 43,000 most serious and persistent offenders-which was descibed as a 'toxic liability' by David Smith, the Deputy Information Commissioner.The Conservatives have said taxpayers will be "absolutely outraged" and demanded that Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, make a statement on the incident. Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, said he was "absolutely horrified" by the breach and the "government incompetence" that he said caused it. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "Charlie Chaplin could do a better job of running the Home Office than this Labour Government."Mr Grieve said: "The Home Office is entrusted with a great deal of highly confidential material and it seems to be entirely incapable of keeping it secure. And the consequences are very serious. They're serious because it may lead to the identity of the people involved being revealed."One of the possible consequences is that criminals will bring legal actions against the government and the taxpayer will then have to pay damages to people, who appear to be pretty undeserving, because of the government's incompetence."The breach is the latest blow to Miss Smith in her efforts to reform the Home Office, which was described as "not fit for purpose" by her predecessor, John Reid. Miss Smith is said to be furious.The new scandal follows the loss of 25m child benefit records last year and details of millions of learner drivers and army recruits earlier this year. Whitehall departments were ordered to tighten procedures in the wake of the previous crises and the latest loss has stunned insiders.A Home Office spokesman said that the memory stick had been lost by PA Consulting, a private company they employed to track and analyse serious and prolific offenders in the "JTrack" programme. The Home Office sent the personal details on the criminals to the company on a secure encrypted email, which was then transferred in an unencrypted form on to the memory stick, which was then lost.The spokesman said the Home Office was first told by PA Consulting on Monday that the data might be missing, and that this was confirmed on Tuesday. The transfer of any further data to PA Consulting has been suspended pending an investigation.Home Office officials are now in discussions with the Information Commissioner about what steps it may need to take to protect those whose privacy has been jeopardised. The Deputy Commissioner said last night that "searching questions must be answered" before it decides what further action to take.The stick contains information such as home addresses on 33,000 individuals who have committed at least six offences in the past year. There is also data on about 10,000 people regarded as "prolific and other priority offenders" by the Government. Details of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales including expected release dates and dates of home detention curfews - are also on the stick, as well as information about drug treatment programmes.Keith Vaz, a Labour MP and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the implications of the loss of prisoners' data were "very, very serious indeed"."If you hand out memory sticks almost like confetti to companies that are meant to do research for you, then you need to be absolutely certain that when you give such information away, the company concerned have put into practice procedures that are just as robust as the procedures that I hope the Government has followed since the loss of the child benefit data," Mr Vaz said.The Deputy Commissioner said: "It is deeply worrying that after a number of major data losses more personal information has been reported lost. It is vital that sensitive information, such as prisoner records, is held securely at all times."The Home Office has informed us that an internal report will be carried out into the data security arrangements between the Home Office and its contractor, PA Consulting. We expect the Home Office to provide us at the Information Commissioner's Office with a copy of the report and its findings. We will then decide what further action may be appropriate. Searching questions must be answered about what safeguards were in place to protect this information.A spokesman for PA Consulting, which has also helped to develop the national ID card scheme, refused to comment.
By Robert Winnett and Jon Swaine
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2601056/Data-on-130000-criminals-lost.html
As in the days of Noah...
Raw Sewage-Filled Floodwaters Prompt Fay Health Warnings:State Officials Warned About West Nile Virus
Gov. Crist Tours Flooded Cities
Initial damage estimates for a one of the most flooded cities in Central Florida will top $10 million and leave hundreds of homes with water damage.Several hundred homes in Melbourne have three to four feet of standing water inside of them Thursday after days of pounding rain from Tropical Storm Fay, Local 6's News partner Florida Today reported.The city of Melbourne's emergency manager said the $10 to $12 million damage estimate does not include the Lamplighter Village community-which is submerged under chest-high water.Gov. Charlie Crist toured Lamplighter Village-a community of 600 homes near Interstate 95-in a swamp buggy."I couldn't believe all of the water," Crist said.Crist said the area is the worse hit-by far, Local 6's Adam Longo reported."We've lived through several hurricanes and (I have seen) nothing like this," flood victim Timothy Tucker said.There is still about four or five feet of standing water in and around Lamplighter homes."I saw water in my house and I'm like, 'Oh my God,'" Lamplighter Village resident Wayne Wyckoff said. "Cars were stuck and wreckers were pulling them out and I knew that I was going to lose everything. Everything is flooded. I lost everything."The National Guard has been the only personnel allowed into the subdivision to help the remaining people still inside their homes.There are five shelters in the county with about 106 people inside. However, the number was expected to grow Thursday night.Also, the Department of Natural Resources said a preliminary estimate of damage to the Brevard County beaches is about $2.6 million.
Tourist Drowns
A woman on vacation with her husband in Daytona Beach died after being pulled from the ocean, which is producing rough waves and rip currents because of Tropical Storm Fay, Beach Patrol officials said."This is a sad thing for us," Scott Petersohn said. "This is what we've been trying to avoid this whole Fay event."The 35-year-old woman from New York, whose name has not been released, was pulled to shore Thursday afternoon by bystanders and taken to Halifax Hospital, where she later died, Petersohn said.According to Beach Patrol officials, the couple, who was staying at a Daytona Beach hotel, went for a swim in the ocean when a large wave crashed down on them. The woman's husband was able to make it back to shore, but the woman vanished after apparently being knocked unconscious. She was then pulled to shore.No lifeguards were on duty, but Beach Patrol officials have been warning beachgoers to stay out of the water because of the dangers presented by Tropical Storm Fay."It's a sad thing to have something like that happen," Petersohn said.The death marks the first Fay-related fatality in Central Florida.
Typhoon Nuri Weakens After Hitting Chinese Coast
Destroyed vehicles are seen after the scaffolding of a building still under construction collapsed due to typhoon Nuri, in which two people were injured, at a residential district in Hong Kong August 22, 2008.
One passenger interviewed on Hong Kong's Cable television said the situation was "very disorganized" though the backlog of flights was slowly beginning to clear.The city's major carriers Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air had cancelled most of their flights yesterday.The typhoon was the most severe to hit Hong Kong in five years, toppling scaffolding and trees.Dozens of people were injured and one man who went swimming was washed away by heavy swells.The typhoon has now been downgraded to a weak tropical depression.In China's provincial capital of Guangzhou an expressway traffic sign toppled, crushing a van and killing three passengers, the Xinhua news agency reported.The force 8 to 10 winds which hit the eastern part of the province and the Pearl River Delta, disrupted hundreds of flights there and in the gambling hub of Macau.
To read more go to:
Talk of Russia-Cuba ties seen as warning to U.S.
KNOWLEDGE SHALL INCREASE:Surgeons prepare for world’s first full-face transplant
Three years after the world’s first partial face transplant, significant progress has been made with two further successful operations.A 30-year-old man who had part of his face torn off by a bear and another with a disfiguring tumour have had their quality of life transformed after partial transplants using tissue from deceased or comatose donors, surgeons in China and France report.A French woman, Isabelle Dinoire, received the first partial face transplant in 2005 after she was attacked by a dog.British surgeons are among those aiming to conduct the world’s first full-face transplant but this procedure would carry significant ethical and psychological risks, experts say.The surgeons, writing today in The Lancet medical journal, said that partial face transplants can restore sensation, movement and communication for injured or paralysed patients up to two years after surgery.There are risks, however, and any candidates would have to take powerful drugs for the rest of their lives to stop their immune systems rejecting the new tissue, they said.In one case an unnamed patient from a remote village in Yunnan province, south China, was attacked by a bear in October 2004 and lost his left eye, nose and much of his upper lip and left cheek. Doctors decided to go ahead with a face transplant after an initial attempt to repair the damage with tissue from the patient’s left forearm failed. The face donor was a 25-year-old man who had died in a road accident. After consent was obtained from his family, the operation was performed in April 2006.Shuzhong Guo, from Xijing Hospital and Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, led the team of surgeons. During an 18-hour operation they reconnected blood vessels and nerves, and repaired the nose, lip and sinuses. Four drugs were used to suppress the patient’s immune system and to decrease the chances of tissue rejection. Other drugs were given to prevent infection.Dr Guo said: “After transplantation, the patient’s facial appearance was greatly improved...the patient was able to eat, drink and talk normally.”Eight months after the operation, the man was able to feel heat and cold on the transplanted side of his face, he added. Dr Guo said that the patient’s body tried to reject the donor tissue three times, at three, five, and seventeen months after transplantation.
While these reactions could be controlled, the required drugs have side-effects that carry an increased risk of cancer and other diseases, the researchers say. In a second case a French team was able to help a 29-year-old man with a massive tumour known as a neurofibroma that disfigured and paralysed the middle and lower parts of his face.The donor was a brain-dead patient with a beating heart. The operation, led by Professor Laurent Lantieri, from Henri Mondor University Hospital in Creteil, France, took place in January last year and lasted 15 hours.The patient made a good recovery and began full-time work 13 months later.Facial transplants have sparked an ethical debate because of the risks when the condition is not life-threaten-ing, problems of tissue rejection and issues for a donor’s family.Peter Butler, clinical director of surgery at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London, is among those hoping to attempt the first full-face transplant. Ethical permission has been obtained from the hospital and he hopes to carry out the operation within 12 months.
PAGAN WATCH:Crocodile Eats Man Who Sought its Blessing
PESTILENCE WATCH:Jump in US Measles Cases Linked to Vaccine Fears
None of the 131 patients died, but 15 were hospitalized.Childhood measles vaccination rates have stayed above 92 percent, according to 2006 data. However, the recent outbreaks suggest potential pockets of unvaccinated children are forming. Health officials worry that vaccination rates have begun to fall-something that won't show up in the data for a couple of years.The vaccine is considered highly effective but not perfect; 11 of this year's cases had at least one dose of the vaccine.Of this year's total, 122 were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Some were unvaccinated because the children were under age 1-too young to get their first measles shot.In 63 of those cases-almost all of them 19 or under-the patient or their parents refused the shots for philosophical or religious reasons, the CDC reported.In Washington state, an outbreak was traced to a church conference, including 16 school-aged children who were not vaccinated. Eleven of those kids were home schooled and not subject to vaccination rules in public schools. It's unclear why the parents rejected the vaccine.The Illinois outbreak-triggered by a teenager who had traveled to Italy-included 25 home-schooled children, according to the CDC report.The nation once routinely saw hundreds of thousands of measles cases each year, and hundreds of deaths. But immunization campaigns were credited with dramatically reducing the numbers. The last time health officials saw this many cases was 1997, when 138 were reported.The Academy of Pediatrics has made educating parents about the safety of vaccines one of its top priorities this year. That's partly because busy doctors have grown frustrated by the amount of time they're spending answering parents' questions about things they read on the Internet or heard from TV talk shows.In June, the CDC interviewed 33 physicians in Austin, suburban Seattle and Hollywood, Fla., about childhood vaccinations. Several complained about patient backlogs caused by parents stirred up by information of dubious scientific merit, according to the CDC report.Questions commonly center on autism and the fear that it can be caused by the measles shots or by a mercury-based preservative that used to be in most vaccines. Health officials say there is no good scientific proof either is a cause. Also, since 2001, the preservative has been removed from shots recommended for young children, and it was never in the measles-mumps-rubella combination vaccine. It can still be found in some flu shots.
Brown said she wrote a 16-page, single-spaced document for parents that explains childhood vaccinations and why doctors do not believe they cause autism. She began handing it out this spring, and thinks it's been a help to parents and a time-saver for her."People want that level of information," she said.At least one outbreak this year of another preventable disease was blamed on lack of immunizations. At least 17 children were sick with whooping cough at a private school in the San Francisco Bay area, and 13 were not vaccinated against the disease, which can be fatal to children.
On the Net:
The CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
PERSECUTION WATCH:Christian Theology Students Forced off Campus by Mob of Islamic Hard-liners
QUAKEWATCH:Strong earthquake jolts Uzbekistan's capital
Typhoon Nuri shuts down Hong Kong
The last time a storm of such severity hit Hong Kong was in September 2003 with typhoon Dujuan.Over two hundred flights were cancelled or delayed by noon.Howling winds swept across the former British colony early on Friday and white-tipped waves thrashed in Victoria harbor.
Streets were largely deserted, shops shuttered, with trees and scaffolding being toppled by gale force winds of up to 94 kph recorded in parts of the territory.In China, 250,000 people were being evacuated from coastal areas in southern Guangdong province in what weather forecasters there are calling the strongest typhoon to hit the province this year, the South China Morning Post reported.Much of Hong Kong ground to a standstill, with the closure of financial markets and offices, along with schools, courts and most public transport services.