Bloomberg vs. CAIR’s Interfaith Friends

Tags

CAIR, Islamic Society of North America, Michael Bloomberg, New York City, Ryan Mauro

The Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an interfaith coalition allied with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), is praising the passage of two bills by the New York City Council aimed at stopping the alleged abuses of the NYPD. Mayor Bloomberg says he will veto the bills, even though they passed with enough support to override it.

The passed bills, the End Discriminatory Profiling Bill and NYPD Oversight Bill, outraged Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The latter bill requires the overseeing of the NYPD by an independent Inspector-General. The former opens the door for the NYPD to be sued in state court for policies that disproportionately affect certain ages, genders, sexual orientations or housing statuses.

Mayor Bloomberg considers the bills to be a matter of “life and death” vows to “not give up for one minute.”

“The bill would allow virtually everyone in New York City to sue the Police Department and individual police officers over the entire range of law enforcement functions they perform,” Kelly explained.

He said the result will be skyrocketing liability costs, the unnecessary use of resources and an overall decrease in effectiveness.

When asked about the so-called problem of NYPD racial profiling, Bloomberg dismissively said, “Nobody racially profiles.” He made perhaps the most politically-incorrect statement of his career in defense of the NYPD:

“…They just keep saying, ‘Oh it’s a disproportionate percentage of a particular ethnic group.’ That may be, but it’s not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the murder. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.”

Bloomberg refuses to apologize. “The numbers clearly show that the stops are generally proportionate with suspect’s descriptions,” he said.

The bills were aggressively supported by the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), joined by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has often allied itself with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that CAIR and ISNA belong to.

CAIR’s chapter in New York is among its more radical ones. Former CAIR-NY director Cyrus McGoldrick has sent out tweets with anti-law enforcement rhetoric and support for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the destruction of Israel.

CAIR-NY board president Zead Ramadan refused to condemn Hamas in December 2011 and has portrayed American-Muslims as a brutally-repressed minority on Iranian state TV. Another board member, Lamis Deek, has praised Hamas, supports the elimination of Israel and claims that the NYPD has a secret alliance with Israel to target Muslims. Deek also supported the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt as a blow to American “imperialism.”

The Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an interfaith political coalition that includes ISNA as a member, celebrated the bills’ passage. ISNA is so proud of its work in putting together the coalition that it highlighted it as a crowning achievement when it met with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in May.

The Campaign’s members include American Baptist Churches USA, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and many others.

ISNA and its interfaith allies’ fight with the NYPD reached out a whole other level when the news broke that officers had been shown The Third Jihad, which Police Commissioner Ray Kelly appeared in. The film discusses the Islamist threat to American and mentions that ISNA and CAIR are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Shoulder-to-Shoulder responded by writing a writing a letter to Mayor Bloomberg blasting the NYPD and the Clarion Project, the producer of the film, for promoting a negative image of Muslims—even though the film is narrated by a devout Muslim.

In its May/June magazine, ISNA fired at the NYPD and made the Department sound like New York City Muslims are being intimidated into silence and are even afraid to pray in public. In an almost comical blow to its own credibility, ISNA’s article said “Muslim terrorism is not a threat after 9/11.”

Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t have the strongest anti-Islamist credentials, but his standing on the side of the NYPD against the CAIR-supported bill is something he should be praised for. He previously defended the NYPD when it faced an avalanche of criticism for its reasonable counter-terrorism efforts, such as investigating Muslim Students Association chapters with evidence of extremism.

Bloomberg’s veto will be overridden if none of the New York City Council members change their mind. It is up to residents to convince them not to believe the hysteria of CAIR and its interfaith allies.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy. It originally appeared on Front Page Magazine and was reposted with permission.

 

The War on Generosity

Tags

Big Government, Christianity, Church, generosity, greed, homeless, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Luke Moon, Michael Bloomberg, New York, Philadelphia, Politics, Poverty, religious freedom, Seattle, Shane Claiborne, statism

Photo credit: http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005spring2011/tag/soup-kitchen/

By Luke Moon  (Twitter: @lukemoon1)

For more than 20 years, Glenn Richter has been collecting food from restaurants and synagogues to donate to the homeless and local soup kitchens.  Not anymore.  Last year, Nanny-in-Chief Michael Bloomberg banned restaurants from donating leftover food to shelters and soup kitchens.  The excuse given by Bloomberg was that the health of the homeless was important and therefore they city must monitor the salt, fat, and fiber intake for the homeless.

If this was an isolated incident or limited to New York City it might not be that significant.  I mean, this is the same Bloomberg who seemingly would have all the citizens of New York become bike-riding vegans (I expect the auto and shoe leather buy-back program to be launched any day now.) No, this attack on generosity is a pattern across the nation.

Last month, MyNorthwest,com wrote about how The Bread of Life Mission in Seattle was told to stop feeding the homeless in city parks.  According to the report, David Takami from, you guessed it, the Seattle Human Services Dept said, “The city does not allow groups of people to feed the homeless outdoors without approval.”  Instead, generous citizens need to go through the government sanctioned “Operation: Sack Lunch” so that the city can “control the nutritional value of what the homeless eat.”

Last year, the city of Philadelphia’s mayor outright banned the feeding of the homeless in public spaces.  Fortunately, this ban was overturned by a Federal judge after several religious charities filed suit to block the ban.  Again, couched in the “good intentions” language of public safety and safety of the homeless, the mayor banned the ability of citizens to “love their neighbor” in the “city of brotherly love.

Rarely does the IRD commend Shane Claiborne and his organization, The Simple Way, but in this instance they acted according to the teachings of scripture.  In his open letter to the mayor of Philadelphia, Shane wrote, “And it was St. Augustine who said, ‘An unjust law is no law at all.’ This [ban on feeding the homeless] is an unjust law and we are obligated not to comply.”

Lest you think this is simply a liberal big-city issue, the state of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals demanded Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission throw away nearly a ton of donated venison.  The deer meat was donated by Hunters for the Hungry, a charity which donates wild game to shelters.  Even though the Louisiana’s own Deer Management Program itself publicly states it donates deer meat to charities, the local hunter’s generosity is banned.

Since the 2009 economic crisis there have been thousands of rules and regulations passed by governments in an attempt to “stamp out corruption and greed.” Last year, parks all over the nation were occupied by angry youth and washed out hippies decrying the supposed greed and corruption of the 1%. Many were calling for wealth redistribution and prison for the guilty rich.  Both of these strategies to overcome greed misunderstand that the true source of greed lies in the human heart.  Greed is not limited to the rich Wall Street banker.  Greed is alive and well on Main Street and my street.

The reality is that greed is not overcome by law, but by generosity and this simple truth is what makes the attacks on generosity so disturbing.  These attacks on generosity are all justified as being for health and safety or some other good intention.  However, C.S. Lewis nails it when he wrote on the Tyranny of Good Intentions,

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

A more insidious problem is that the church, and other religious and charitable organizations are the only real competition to the State.  One of the first acts of dictators in the last century was to destroy the churches.  This is because the church tells the people, “God is the ultimate authority,” whereas the dictator says, “I am the ultimate authority.”  While many States in the Western world have not fallen under the tyranny of a dictator, the attacks on the competition to the State being the ultimate authority is still evident if not more subtle.  On nearly every issue where the States power is challenged there is a dutiful lot of religious leaders who will trot out to affirm the authority of the State.

For example, last year at the Wild Goose Festival, David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, told the audience, “I would like to get churches get out of the business of distributing groceries–put that in the hands of grocery stores.  And get churches involved in working with people to get their lives under control.” The money to buy those groceries, of course, come from the State.

Caring for the poor and being generous is the individual responsibility of everyone and especially every Christian. However, the war on generosity must be exposed for what it is, a subjugation of the church to the State. As the allies of the State strive to perfect humanity they will not just breed more greed, but they will breed resentment too.