Category: The Opposition

Linda Sarsour, CAIR’s top gun Nihad Awad, and Imam Suleiman among those arrested on Capitol Hill this week

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story isn’t something I would normally bother posting (it is a ho-hum story), but since I was just introduced, via NPR, to Dallas Imam Omar Suleiman yesterday I thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Omar Suleiman, CAIR Director Nihad Awad and Linda Sarsour arrested. Refugee contractor Church World Service helped organize the protest.

 

Yesterday we learned that Muslim leaders who had once said they would open their mosques to people of all faiths escaping ICE, have changed their minds. 

I described how Suleiman so skillfully deflected and snowed the NPR reporter. He shifted the blame to Trump and his merry band of haters when I suspect their change of heart had more to do with realizing that having a bunch of infidels living in their mosques could be problematic.

But when I looked more deeply into the demonstration story this morning, I saw that one of the nine federally funded refugee resettlement contractors—CHURCH WORLD SERVICE—was an organizer of the media stunt making this story very much of interest to RRW because taxpayers fund CWS to the tune of $62 million a year!

Now here is Al-Jazeera on the demonstration:

Muslim-American leaders have been arrested at the US Capitol while urging Congress to stand against President Donald Trump’s effort to end a programme that protects certain young immigrants.

This is a still shot from the corny CHURCH WORLD SERVICE video from a corny demonstration. I guess they mean ‘democracy’ is sick and weak as the actor is being held up by none other than Nihad Awad (CAIR!) and Suleiman. Who comes up with this stuff?

Omar Suleiman, Dawud Walid, Mujahid Fletcher, Talib Shareef and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Zahra Billoo, and Linda Sarsour advocated immigration reform before getting arrested on Monday.

The protesters participated in an act of civil disobedience at the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, demanding that he meet them to hear their concerns.Muslim-American leaders have been arrested at the US Capitol while urging Congress to stand against President Donald Trump’s effort to end a programme that protects certain young immigrants.

[….]

Quoting Malcolm X, Talib Shareef of the Muslim Alliance of North America said: “Almighty Allah has told us to stand for justice. We are not weak in faith and we are here for a mobilization.

“We stand here in the spirit of Malcolm X with the people who are affected by these policies.”

Imam Suleiman, who I read about yesterday, depicts himself as a moderate Imam deeply involved in the Dallas interfaith community.  But, make no mistake—it is “white supremacy” he sees as the root of all evil (and so must Church World Service!).

“This is creating real fear,” Suleiman said, adding that the imams are fighting white supremacy because Islamophobia, racism and hostility against immigrants all stem from the same roots.

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

Couldn’t figure out how to link the hokey video, but if you go to their twitter feed for March 5, you can find it.

Church World Service was clearly an instigator of this comical demonstration.

It should drive all of you crazy to know that according to a recent accounting, they received 71% of their income from US taxpayers—that amounted to about $62 million for the one year!

They can have free speech all they want, just not with our money!

(Where is Congress? Where is Paul Ryan allowing our money to be used for stunts like this?)

Recently they protested outside the White House as well, see here.  And, this is what I said in that post:

If you belong to any of these churches (below) know that Church World Service was representing you outside the White House in January and this week at the Capitol. 

They also hold the annual “Crop Walk,” so if you disagree with their political tactics you need to start speaking up!

Are they speaking for your church? They obviously believe they are!

And, incidentally it was a Church World Service subcontractor responsible for placing refugees in Western Maryland where I live and so they are directly responsible for birthing RRW (nothing to do with white supremacy and everything to do with transparency and how our government spends our money).

See all of my previous posts on CWS by clicking here.

Here are the churches they represent:

Member Communions

    African Methodist Episcopal Church

Will mosques provide sanctuary to illegal aliens? Nah, we changed our minds

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This interview at New Hampshire Public Radio popped up in my alerts this morning and it gave me a chuckle so I’m sharing it with you.
The gist of it is that last year Muslims said they would open mosques as sanctuaries (housing!) as part of the sanctuary movement that seeks to hide illegal aliens from the Trump meanies in ICE, but have since changed their minds.

omar-suleiman-1024x1024
Imam Suleiman

A Dallas area Imam who thought the idea was just peachy here in January 2017 now skillfully steers a reporter away from what I think is the truth (they don’t want a bunch of dirty kafirs, especially women, living in their mosques) to blame it on Trump-generated haters (people like you and me!) who they say might attack their mosques if they did it.
January 2017…..
Imam Omar Suleiman a year ago (Mosques tackling bigotry!):

Mosques for the first time are being being called upon to join a nationwide interfaith “sanctuary” movement for immigrants who may face deportation after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a prominent Dallas-area imam said Tuesday.

“We really have to stand strong in the face of the bigoted forces that are targeting our communities,” Imam Omar Suleiman, a bilingual professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University, said in a joint announcement with other religious leaders around the nation.

Suleiman said mosques across the nation will be asked this week to join a movement that religious leaders say has doubled to more than 800 mostly Christian congregations since Trump’s election. Among local Christian congregations already vowing to participate are Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Church in Dallas, where about 8 out of 10 adult congregants are foreign-born.

It was unclear exactly how the coalition of congregations plans to shelter or otherwise assist unauthorized immigrants who face the immediate threat of deportation. But the growing number of mosques, churches and temples is working out details on who will give refuge and under what circumstances, the imam said.

Continue with more BS here.
March 2018….
Now here is New Hampshire Public Radio with the Imam this week.  The reporter sounds a little surprised that mosques won’t be housing any mostly Christian illegal aliens after all:
We (says Suleiman) are showing solidarity in other ways…..
 

Screenshot (1281)_LI
Linda Sarsour blesses Imam Suleiman (picture worth a thousand words!)

 
NHPR:

Under President Trump, Latino immigrants in the U.S. illegally are under enormous pressure. ICE has dramatically intensified its efforts to detain and deport undocumented persons.

That was a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign platform, and after his election, officials at a mosque in Cincinnati announced they intended to become a sanctuary congregation, ready to shelter asylum seekers or migrants in need — whether Muslim or not.

But just three weeks after the election they backed off that offer of providing shelter within the mosque.  [LOL! I bet some Islamic ‘scholars’ got to them and said—you can’t do that!—ed]

Listen to Suleiman deflect:

“So I think that announcing yourself as a sanctuary has its implications, whether you’re a mosque, a church, a synagogue, or anything,” Imam Omar Suleiman told NPR’s Renee Montagne.

Last year, Suleiman was one of the people calling for mosques to join the sanctuary movement in response to increased deportation. The adversity that the Muslim and Latino communities face is similar, he said.

“I think the tools that have been employed against immigrants are the same tools that have been employed against refugees, which are the same tools that have been employed against the Muslim community as a whole, which is the dehumanization — the ‘otherizing***’ — that allows people to subconsciously accept this idea that we somehow do not deserve the same level of dignity and respect and liberty that everybody else does,” Suleiman says. [Sounds like the right talking points, but he doesn’t answer the question!—ed]

Blame it on Trump and the haters. We can’t do it because the haters would hurt our mosques and the Latinos too!

But there is already a deep anti-Muslim sentiment, he adds, pointing at mosque burnings that have taken place since President Trump was elected. He says Muslims are already under a lot of scrutiny and an additional layer to that could exacerbate something that is already an issue and endanger both the Muslim and the Latino communities.

This is too funny!

“The idea here is that the goal of sanctuary is to provide safety, and if we cannot provide emotional, physical safety, then it would sort of be defeating the purpose,” Suleiman says.

There are other ways to express solidarity (that don’t involve dirty kafirs living in our mosques).  Of course he didn’t say that!
But this excuse will sound good to our inter-faith friends (and to NHPR)! Suleiman:

“You know, there are other ways to express solidarity and support but announcing your particular mosque as a sanctuary could potentially endanger that particular Muslim community and then obviously the immigrants themselves that would seek shelter would be under that intensified scrutiny.”

Go here and listen to the whole interview—a little laugh in the morning is a good thing!
This post is filed in my ‘Laugh of the day’ category, here.
*** I am going to assume that since South African blacks are “otherizing” white farmers (see post two days ago), that the good Imam would support moving those white South African Christians to America.

Dear Donald, give Bibi a gift today, cut federal funding to HIAS….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..and help yourself too!

[On refugees] right now we’re setting a very bad example.

(HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield told the Israeli press last month)

 
It really is outrageous.  Taxpayers shelled out $24,493,743 in federal grants to the ‘non-profit’ Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society according to its most recent Form 990 available and the group is in Israel community agitating and badmouthing the Trump Admin at the same time.
 

hetfield-at-wh
HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield at the White House last month protesting the Trump Administration refugee policy which reduces his organization’s income.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/02/17/australian-christian-magazine-goes-to-bat-for-us-refugee-resettlement-contractors/

 
HIAS (they changed their name a few years ago, dropped the Hebrew) is helping organize protests in Israel against the deportation of illegal aliens.
I’m not challenging their right to free speech elsewhere in the world, but shouldn’t there be some law against using taxpayer dollars to do it!
I’m sure they will say they have great bookkeepers working to keep their pots of money separate.  However, their taxpayer funding makes up half of their budget each year and they couldn’t exist without it (and they sure couldn’t pay these huge salaries, below).
Here is news directly from the HIAS horse’s mouth:

The diverse coalition of Israeli and North American groups calling for more humane treatment of asylum seekers is gathering momentum at a critical juncture, with the first wave of deportations scheduled to begin in April.

[….]

While in Israel for a visit, HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he felt encouraged the narrative was finally beginning to shift back in favor of the asylum seekers.

“Israelis are beginning to realize these are people with asylum claims, and they should be given a fair asylum hearing,” he said.

“If the government is unable to set up a system that is fair, it should give these people social and economic rights until it is safe for them to go back home. We’re not talking about a lot of people anymore.” [Last figure I saw was 37,000, a very high number for a small country to absorb—-ed]

[….]

HIAS, along with partners at the New Israel Fund, T’ruah, and Right Now, organized a call-in day last week in coordination with the #LetUsHelp Campaign, urging North Americans to call their local Israeli consulates and ask them to stop the deportation plans.

In his interview with Haaretz, Hetfield spoke about the relationship between Israel’s policies and attitudes back home in the United States.

“In the eyes of the American-Jewish community – particularly the younger generation – this is very upsetting and it’s just going to cause further alienation from Israel,” he warned. [He hopes it will!—ed]

Hetfield also noted that Trump Administration’s policies may be playing a role.

“The United States often sets examples for how refugees and asylum seekers should be treated, and that’s what’s happening now. We either set a good example or a bad example – and right now we’re setting a very bad example.

And, to think that we help pay his exorbitant salary!
From that recent Form 990:
Screenshot (211)
 

Come on Mr. President, turn off their pipeline to the US Treasury!

Looking for something to do? Contact the White House and tell the President to cut HIAS loose!
For new readers:
HIAS is one of nine federal resettlement contractors.
The original Refugee Act of 1980, that set up this monstrosity, envisioned a public-private partnership that over the years has almost completely morphed in to a federal program.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

Maine: Battle over female genital mutilation bill raging

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Diversity is beautiful alert!

This is one of those great ‘fun’ political debates you will get to have once the population of Muslims, mostly from East Africa, ‘find their way’ to your state. 
Maine, especially Lewiston, is the Somali capital of the East!
The story at the Press Herald is long and detailed, but what you might see as a ‘no brainer’—-making it illegal to subject anyone to this form of abuse, or to take someone out of the country to have it done—isn’t a no-brainer for the Leftwing women and the Southern Poverty Law Center which oppose the bill.
Here is a bit of the story from the Portland Press Herald just to give you the flavor:
 

AUGUSTA — There are parts of the world where it has long been common for adult women to slice away girls’ external genital tissue in a bid to dampen their sexual desires.

Though Maine is a long way from anywhere this has traditionally been a problem, a battle is raging among lawmakers about whether the state ought to have a law specifically barring female genital mutilation.

Safiya Khalid
Safiya Khalid: “It is horrible.” But, here’s what I want to know: if the Somalis in Maine are truly refugees why are they going back to Africa for any reason? Isn’t that the place they claim they were “persecuted.”

The operation to slice off all or part of a woman’s clitoris and labia is prohibited under federal law and is almost certainly banned by existing, broader Maine statutes. In addition, there is no solid evidence that the procedure, also called female circumcision, is happening in Maine.

 

One provision in a bill legislators are considering also would make it a felony to take a girl outside Maine to have someone cut her genital tissue without a medical reason, which is already illegal under federal law.

Safiya Khalid, a Somali-American from Lewiston who serves on the city’s library board, said Friday that “old school” women in her community “wouldn’t risk” having the procedure done on a child in Maine, but some might take their daughters back to Africa for it. She doesn’t know anyone who’s had it done, she said, but she thinks it probably has occurred.

“It’s a horrible experience,” Khalid said of the procedure, which is typically done without anesthesia. “It’s just terrible.”

[….]

Critics of the proposal see it as a thinly disguised attack on African immigrants, especially Somalis who hail from an area where female genital mutilation is widespread, basically a swath from Somalia on the east coast of Africa to Sierra Leone on the west, an area that includes Muslims, Christians and animists.

Kate Brogan
Kate Brogan opposes the measure because it promotes stereotypes of Somalis.

There is an “insidious assumption that members of Maine’s Somali community support this harmful practice,” Maine Family Planning’s Kate Brogan told lawmakers.

[….]

A 2017 survey of the immigrant community in Maine by Partnerships for Health found that 71 percent think the practice is harmful and 82 percent believe it shouldn’t happen. [Do the math based on numbers in next paragraph, this still leaves a couple of thousand Maine immigrants who are fine with the mutilation!—ed]

The issue has particular resonance in the Lewiston-Auburn area given the influx of immigrants in the past two decades from countries where the practice is common. About 7,500 East Africans have moved to Androscoggin County and another 5,000 to Cumberland County in that time, according to the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine.

Some of the women and girls who moved to Maine underwent the illegal procedure in their home countries, though specifics are hard to come by. Khalid said she knows “a lot of friends and people who had it done” to them before coming to America.

[….]

Supporters of the measure, pushed in part by an anti-Muslim hate group, said girls need protection.

What the hell! Act for America is an “anti-Muslim hate group.” 
How dare this reporter and this paper swallow the Southern Poverty Law Center’s propaganda without question! It is a disgrace! Do they not know how discredited the SPLC has become?  Has ACT contacted the paper and asked for a retraction?
I guess we are left to conclude from SPLC’s involvement in Maine—the Southern Poverty Law Center supports Female Genital Mutilation.
See my archive on Maine, here and one specifically on Lewiston, here.

Breitbart roundup: Refugee contractors whine as revenue plummets

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Michael Leahy at Breitbart has pulled together in one article a litany of complaints from representatives of the refugee industry.
The newest data that came in here on the first of March will surely set off a new wave of temper tantrums aimed at Trump. But, I will remind readers that the contractors who must now fire low level workers in the industry and close small offices, have brought this on themselves by their nearly complete dependence on the US Treasury and their laziness about raising private money.
Why bother with chump change when the taxpayer spigot is wide open? See my post here.

David Miliband the king
Not crying for you! International Rescue Committee CEO David (Moneybags) Miliband pulls down an annual salary approaching $700,000.  Think how many refugees and low level staff could be sustained on that!

Even if the refugee numbers being admitted are low, there are still plenty of refugee lost souls they brought in last year or the year before who could use their help (if they had private money! Private ‘religious’ charity!).
(It isn’t really about humanitarianism, these are organizations working to change America by changing the people.)
Here is how Leahy begins his roundup of complaints:

The federally funded non-profits known as voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), who collectively have received more than $1 billion annually to resettle refugees, are whining now that refugee admissions, and their own associated revenues, are down dramatically during the first five months of FY 2018 under the Trump administration.

Despite a slight uptick in refugee admissions in February to 1,927, the total number of refugee admissions during the first five months of FY 2018, which began on October 1, is only 8,635, according to the State Department’s interactive website – the lowest number of refugee admissions for the first five months of a fiscal year in more than 15 years.

If the average monthly arrival rate of 1,727 during the first five months of FY 2018 continues at the same pace for the final seven months of the fiscal year, total refugee admissions for the 12 months of the full fiscal year will be under 21,000, less than half the ceiling number of 45,000 President Trump announced in September.

The nine VOLAGs (Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the International Rescue Committee, HIAS, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Ethiopian Community Development Council, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (Catholic Charities), and World Relief),*** all of whom are almost entirely dependent on federal funding tied to the number of new refugee arrivals they resettle around the country through local affiliated agencies, are now in the midst of a cash crunch unheard of in the agency.

Consequently, they and their political allies are complaining loudly and often about both Trump’s lowered refugee ceiling admission number and the increase in the time and length of the Department of Homeland Security’s security vetting of potential refugees.

One of those complaining is Bob Carey:

Bob Carey, a prominent critic of the recent reduction in refugee admissions by the federal government, is a prime example of the cozy revolving door the Trump administration has disrupted.

Carey spent most of his career as an executive with the International Rescue Committee, one of the nine VOLAGs supported almost exclusively by government funding. While there, he served as chair of Refugee Council USA. [And headed the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement in Obama’s second term.—ed]

Much more here.
Photo: Just so you know I’m not making it up!  Have a look at this recent (2015) Form 990 salary page for the International Rescue Committee.
Doing well by doing good!
 
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Think about this: the IRC is a federally funded non-profit. A Member of Congress/Senator makes $174,000 a year! A Supreme Court Justice $213,000!
Where is Congress? The refugee slowdown has demonstrated that the Refugee Act of 1980 set up an insanely flawed system that must be dumped now!
***The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.
If you are wondering, I post this list every chance I get because we have new readers daily and because I want all of you to know that for reform to be possible these nine fake non-profits have to go.