I'd like to host my own New York-based conference this week: "Did Christmas Ever Happen?" You wouldn't know it from the headlines this December. Let's see now: Security Wall Beats Carter. Mahmoud's Counterfactual History of World War II. Prager Says No To Koranic Oath-Taking for Muslim Rep.
In case you'd missed the simmer soup our old friend Dennis Prager has found himself in, he recently said that Keith Ellison, the Muslim Congressman-elect from Minnesota, shouldn't be allowed to swear on the Koran when he takes office — he should be made to so on the Good Book, like all Judeo-Christian pols.
If this sounds like bigotry plain and simple it's because it is. Ed Koch has responded publicly and in tones a little more plangent than "How'm I doin'?"
In a telephone interview yesterday, Koch said, "I believe that the great mission of the members of the [U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council] commission is to spread the word you may not engage in bigotry directed on the basis of religion or on the basis of sexual orientation or on the basis of political disagreement. For Dennis Prager to take the position on Mr. Ellison not using the Bible is wrong. That's the mission of we who are on the board and his statements are 180 degrees from that mission statement."
And to think, Tehran can't say no to anybody who wants in on their Holocaust-themed minyan.
Koch and Prager are to have a point-counterpoint pair of interviews published in tomorrow's Forward, but even the above-cited Washington Post piece misses the real story.
What sets Ellison's career apart from most representatives is not that he worships Allah (no greater offense that going on bended knee before Hashem) but that he was once aligned with the Nation of Islam and lied about how long ago the alignment ended.
As Scott W. Johnson of PowerLine demonstrated in the Weekly Standard, Ellison, upon becoming a candidate for public office in 1998, chose to fudge his level of involvement with the notoriously thuggish group, going so far as to assure local Minnesota Jewish leaders that he is not any longer, and only briefly ever was, a follower of its great Hebraiotroph-in-Chief Louis Farakhan. I'm only slightly exaggerating. Ellison has in the past defended Farakhan against charges of Jew-hatred, and he did so well after the point at which he insists the scales had fallen from his eyes about the good minister's true beliefs. Here is Johnson:
Ellison was born Catholic in Detroit. He states that he converted to Islam as an undergraduate at Wayne State University. As a third-year student at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989-90, he wrote two columns for the Minnesota Daily under the name "Keith Hakim." In the first, Ellison refers to "Minister Louis Farrakhan," defends Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and speaks in the voice of a Nation of Islam advocate. In the second, "Hakim" demands reparations for slavery and throws in a demand for an optional separate homeland for American blacks. In February 1990, Ellison participated in sponsoring Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) to speak at the law school on the subject "Zionism: Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both?" Jewish law students met personally with Ellison and appealed to him not to sponsor the speech at the law school; he rejected their appeal, and, as anticipated, Ture gave a notoriously anti-Semitic speech.
[…]
Ellison first emerged as a candidate for public office in 1998, when he ran for the DFL nomination for state representative as "Keith Ellison-Muhammad." In a contemporaneous article on his candidacy in the Insight News, Ellison is reported still defending Louis Farrakhan:
Anticipating possible criticism for his NOI affiliation, Ellison-Muhammad says he is aware that not everyone appreciates what the Nation does and feels there is a propaganda war being launched against its leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Ellison says now that he broke with the Nation of Islam when "it became clear to me that their message of empowerment intertwined with more negative messages." However, Ellison himself was the purveyor of the Nation of Islam's noxious party line in his every public utterance touching on related issues over the course of a decade.
None of which changes the fact that Prager's an idiot and a reactionary. But are we not handing a free gift of martyrdom to the first Islamic U.S. congressman by not taking a tougher approach in asking him about his past?
As many experts have stated in the past, there are some key differences between Web 3.0 and the current version of the Internet we use today. The Web 3.0 ecosystem will be far more decentralized than the current version of the web, with users having more control over their own data instead of relying on social media giants like Facebook and Twitter to store it for them. This will also allow users to earn money through online content creation and sharing – something that’s not possible now.
The INTEREST RATES doesn’t necessarily compensate appeal for almost any too much tax bill repayments, therefore you are really bringing this inside slacks by simply not altering the duty repayments.
Spot on with this article, I really think this web site needs much more consideration. I’ll probably be again to read more, thanks for that information.
Good day! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!