State House Proselytism

FrontPage Mag | Janet Levy | Feb. 1, 2008

The cultural traditions and values of American society originate from the Judeo-Christian heritage of our Founding Fathers. They pledged allegiance to “one nation under God,” with the Creator as the source of our inalienable civil rights and liberties. In that spirit, Congressional invocations by clergy are a time-honored ritual from the birth of the American republic to the present. Public recognition and celebrations of the role of religion in helping establish our precious freedoms have also long been part of American public life. But now, those traditions are under attack from militant Islamists who have, under the guise of political and religious acceptance, steadily advanced their own messages with the goal of undermining our status as a nation of free individuals and the intent of the Founders to insure liberty and justice for all.

Iowa
Last week, Mohammed Khan, the imam of the Islamic Center of Des Moines, led the opening prayer in the Iowa legislature at the request of Iowa State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, a former Iowa school board member who has worked as a counselor in the Iowa prison system, and has questionable associations with Islamic extremists.

In his four-minute prayer before the Iowa legislative session, Khan made a plea for “victory over those who disbelieve” and “protection from the Great Satan,” comments which sparked outrage. Pastor Steve Smith of the Evangelical Free Church in Albert City took issue with Khan’s appeal for victory, explaining, “This is a request in the Iowa Legislature for God to grant the Muslims victory over every non-Muslim; not a request for salvation.”

Iowa State Representative Gary Worthan, the father of two decorated Army officers with eight combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan between them, was incensed over the reference to infidels or “disbelievers” and “the Great Satan.” He plans to protest to the Speaker of the House. Worthan recognized the phrase, “the Great Satan,” as a commonly used Islamic reference to the United States and, thus, felt the prayer called for the conquest of our nation. People in his district were also upset by the prayer and complained to the Iowa legislature.

Further, victory over “unbelievers” has specific violent references in the Koran. The most well-known is the Verse of the Sword (9:5): “Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”

Another frequently quoted verse is 47:4, “If you encounter the unbelievers, strike their necks until you have bloodied them, then fasten the shackles.” Finally, the term “unbeliever” is interchangeable with “infidel” and refers to the inhabitants of the Dar-al-Harb, the world of war that must be defeated according to the wishes of Allah and Mohammed by the Dar-al-Islam, the world of Islam. […]

Texas
In April 2007, Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque, who has served the Dallas area for 20 years and claims to be a “moderate,” was hosted by Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Senator Florence Shapiro. Kavakci was asked to open the Texas Senate with its first Islamic prayer. This event was attended by members of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, the Texas Conference of Churches, Texas Impact, and the Texas Islamic Council. It was promoted by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization terrorism expert Steven Emerson characterizes as “a radical fundamental front group for Hamas.”

At the invocation, Dr. Kavakci, a board member of the Wahhabist Islamic Society of North America, read from the opening chapter of the Koran, Al-Fatehah. The text included: “All praise is for Allah, our lord, the lord of the worlds, the compassionate, the merciful, master of the day of judgments. Oh, God, Allah, you alone we worship, and you alone we call on for help. Oh, Allah, guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom you have favored, not of those who have earned your wrath or of those who have lost the way….” […]

National Democrats
In yet another example of blindness in the face of the Islamist threat, most Democrats listened impassively in February 2007 as Husham Al-Husainy, Imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Michigan – one of the largest mosques in North America – gave the invocation at a DNC meeting last February. Writer Debbie Schlussel wrote in a column in the New York Post that she observed Al-Husainy at pro-Hezbollah rallies in Detroit and has heard the Imam deliver speeches filled with anti-American and anti-Semitic invective. In his DNC Winter Meeting Convocation, Al-Husainy, like Kavakci in Dallas, intoned, “So, guide us to the right path. The path of the people you bless, not the path of the people you doom.”

According to the teachings of Islam, no “right path” exists other than to follow Islam and be blessed. Those who do not follow the “right path” of Islamic law are doomed. In this passage, Koranic expert Spencer explains that Muslim commentators identify the doomed as the Jews who have incurred Allah’s wrath for “abandoning” Islam and the Christians who through their ignorance have been led astray or away from a practice of Islam.

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