The city of Hamtramck, Michigan, a Detroit area suburb, has set a disturbing precedent. In a landmark decision, the City Council voted unanimously to give final approval to an ordinance that permits area mosques to broadcast calls to prayer over loudspeakers. During a town hall meeting, hundreds of citizens voiced their concern and their disappointment in the decision. According to Bob Golen, a resident of Hamtramck, the protest seemed to fall on deaf ears. “They had made up their mind before any public meeting," he said in referring to the council. (to read the story, click – here)
This is very disturbing on so many levels. There are those who say that it is not any different then church bells or the Sabbath alarm that’s sounded in Brooklyn. If you base your argument on this, then it is easy to see the councils’ point. After all, it is an affront to the people who are of a religion different from the one being accommodated. However, this is like comparing apples to oranges. The Sabbath alarm notifies a community, by way of a siren, that the Sabbath has begun. There is no “call for prayer”. If the notification were instead the playing of the Sabbath prayers in Hebrew, then there would certainly be a similarity. The same goes for the church bells. In fact, many churches have stopped ringing bells as a means of telling the community that church is beginning, for the simple reason that they do not want to upset people of other faiths. Instead, the bells just ring on the hour.
Personally, I agree that both the church bells and the alarm are wrong. On one hand, I loved hearing the alarm on Friday evenings as a reminder that Sabbath is beginning. It is a beautiful sound for many Orthodox Jews. On the other hand, we live in a country whose laws protect its citizens from being treated differently based on their religion. Sounding this alarm could give the impression that the government elevates Judaism over any other religion. But here again there is a difference between these two issues. The alarm is only sounded in specific communities that are predominantly Jewish. In the case of the Muslim call to prayer, it will be sounded throughout the town, regardless of the will of the majority of its citizens.
This prayer call will be broadcast 7 days a week, 5 times a day, sarting at 6am until 10pm. It will be broadcast entirely in Arabic. It is truly a testament to how far people will go towards appeasement. I’m not saying every Moslem is a terrorist and I’m not saying every Moslem wants to destroy our way of life, but to quote Mr. Golen, "One of their religious leaders from the Al-Islah Islamic Center states, 'Hamtramck is going to be a pioneer city for the whole United States.' So apparently there is going to be a movement afoot to get that call to prayer everywhere," You will be hard pressed to find anyone who will disagree with this statement. According to Omar Ahmad, the co-founder of CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations), “Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
Ibrahim Cooper, a spokesman for the organization, when asked recently about CAIR’s stance on Hamas and other terror groups in the Middle East, “CAIR does not support these groups publicly." This leads to the very strong insinuation that CAIR supports those organizations privately!
There is a reason that I mention CAIR. This organization is considered the mainstream voice for the Arab-American community. CAIR is one of the groups that met with President Bush following the September 11th terror attacks. The others were American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. All of these groups are part of American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC) and have yet to denounce organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah and have argued against the U.S. for their shutting down institutions that have been proven to be aiding terror groups. None of these groups have openly condemned the terrorist attacks on America.
But that gets away from my point.
My point is this: how far do we have to go before we finally realize that Islam is only a peaceful religion if you are Islamic? Not every Moslem is a terrorist. However, a large majority of terrorists are Moslem. You cannot ignore the threat to World peace posed by Islamifacism. How politically correct do we need to be before we give up our heritage for theirs?
The city council of Hamtramck is imposing the will of one religion over the rest. They are giving into Moslem demands under the guise of “political correctness”. Americans need to stop worrying about “upsetting the sensibilities” of the Arab world. In 1991, President Bush (the former) did not allow Israel to join the coalition in Iraq for this very reason. It was appeasement then and it’s appeasement now. All Israel got for its trouble was 39 scud missile attacks.
It’s time to stop fooling ourselves. Domination of the World is something to fight against. Appeasing those who seek it will not make it go away.
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