Day: July 7, 2008

British author campaigning against Female Genital Mutilation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Blulitespecial sent me this link within moments of my nice chat over at this post written about honor kilIings in early June.   The commenters there asked me not to use the word “heathen” in connection with anything to do with Muslims because it offended our readers Scandinavian religious heritage.  LOL!  I’ll honor their wishes and describe FGM as savagery and not heathen behavior.

Also, check out this post where we had a comment (no.7) earlier today on FGM.   The subject is obviously a hot one.

Now, back to the British author’s campaign.   Read the whole article about how Ruth Rendell has worked the subject of mutilation of a little girl into a novel soon to be published entitled, “Not in the Flesh.”    Rendell discusses how difficult it is to stop the practice in the UK because it is so secretive.  

Secretive, yes, but here is what I think is the real reason—no one wants to offend Muslim refugees and immigrants by talking about it.  The article describes the practice as coming mostly with immigrants from the Horn of Africa.  There is not one mention of any connection to Islam.   Granted some who are not Muslims practice this mutilation, but the majority of the practitioners are Muslims.

This politically correct tiptoeing around FGM (and other similar abuses) for fear of offending will be the death of us.

Suit filed in Walkersville Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This news is not totally unexpected, the property owners and their lawyer had hinted that a lawsuit might be brought against the rural town of Walkersville, MD when it had earlier ruled against a special exemption request that would have allowed a large Muslim complex to be built in the town.   For background see my post of June 10th and then follow links back for the full story.

From the AP today: 

WALKERSVILLE, Md. – Officials of a rural Maryland town illegally discriminated against a Muslim group by barring them from building a mosque and holding annual conventions on land zoned for farming, the property’s owner claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

The complaint was filed not by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA but by developer David Moxley and his father Robert, who had planned to sell the group 224 acres in Walkersville for about $6 million.

The Silver Spring-based religious group canceled the land purchase earlier this year after the town’s three-member Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously to reject their request for a special exception to land-use restrictions.

Officials of the town of 5,600 based their denial largely on open space preservation concerns and fears that the thousands of people attending the group’s annual, three-day Jalsa Salana national convention would overwhelm the community’s roads and emergency services. 

Think about this next section of the article and the implications of the law that is being used in this suit.  This means, I guess, that no town or jurisdiction could say no to a large or otherwise incompatible religious facility when considering its zoning decisions.  

The complaint alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees free exercise of religion, and the 14th Amendment, which provides equal protection to all.

It alleges violations of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, enacted in 2000 to bar land-use regulations that would discriminate against a religious organization.

I spent years working in the property rights movement in this country and it was no secret that the federal government was seeking (spurred on by environmentalists) to control land use at a federal level and take it away from local governments.    But, here you have the tables turned on the environmentalists because local citizens who are concerned about the quality of their environment could have a large and potentially environmentally destructive facility shoved down their throats in the name of religious freedom.

Can you imagine what fun this case could be on a Supreme Court level.  Would liberal environmental groups side with local government (opposing the feds)  against immigrant groups wishing to build large religious facilities on open space?

By the way, I am not a lawyer, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so the above speculation is just that!

For more go to Citizens for Walkersville here.

Humanitarian groups mucking around with terrorists?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to Richard for sending me this snippet from NRO: The Corner this morning (the short piece is lead-in to this longer article in the Wall Street Journal entitled:  ‘FARC’s Human Rights Friends.’ )   Laugh till you cry. 

As we learn more about the Colombian military’s daring hostage rescue last week, one detail stands out: In tricking FARC rebels into putting the hostages aboard a helicopter, undercover special forces simply told the comandantes that the aircraft was being loaned to them by a fictitious nongovernmental organization sympathetic to their cause called the International Humanitarian Mission.

It may have taken years for army intelligence to infiltrate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and it may have been tough to convincingly impersonate rebels. But what seems to have been a walk in the park was getting the FARC to believe that an NGO was providing resources to help it in the dirty work of ferrying captives to a new location.

So what does all this have to do with us?   Maybe, just maybe, you should look with a jaundiced eye at all these NGO’s running around the world “saving” people “because they care.”

Bosnians with AK-47’s: We aren’t in gangs! Just doing a little target practice!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The city that “welcomes” refugees has a few problems it seems.   The Police in Ft. Wayne, IN say they believe Bosnian refugees are forming gangs and selling guns.  Bosnians deny it.  Hat tip to an observant friend.

“You can’t categorize us.”

Haris Latic was mad.

The image of a Bosnian man holding an AK-47 for an April 22 News-Sentinel story about police allegations of a gun-running gang of Bosnian refugees was blurred, but Latic recognized it. It was Adis Latic, his brother.

Adis Latic said the AK-47 was a friend’s and the picture was from a day of recreational target practice at a Huntington gun range. The Latics say they’re law-abiding U.S. citizens, not gang-bangers. “In every race there are bad kids and good kids, but you can’t categorize us as a community,” Adis Latic said.

The Latics acknowledge they can’t vouch for every Bosnian refugee brought to Fort Wayne by Catholic Charities, 669 officially. The now-defunct Balkan Stylz group, which police labeled a gang, was a club for Bosnians who liked to drive muscle cars, said Adis Latic, 23. 

Read on!

To soften the story and appear to make excuses, the reporter for the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel launches into a lengthy defense of the Bosnians by basically saying they have seen war, so guns and violence are their heritage.  Guess we need to just respect their culture and show our understanding, huh?

By the way, we (primarily under the Clinton Administration) have brought over 100,000 Bosnians to the US.  It is the largest group of refugees from any Muslim country we have resettled so far.

You can learn all about the many problems the city of Fort Wayne is having with its huge refugee population here.