I was going to update you yesterday on the Georgia honor killing we first reported last July here. NPR did a lengthy piece on it yesterday here. But, I notice that Robert Spencer really dissects the NPR story at Jihad Watch, so I will just send you there now because I could never explain the significance of this Islamic practice as well as Spencer does.
Category: women’s issues
ACLU sues Catholic Bishops over federal grants
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), one of the top ten volags (voluntary agencies) that receive grants to resettle refugees and to care for victims of human trafficking. The gist of the lawsuit involves the USCCB not providing contraceptive and abortion services to the women in their care.
However, also of interest to me is that the ACLU is saying that the USCCB is wasting tax dollars. I’m happy to see another organization that is looking out for the taxpayer.
From Catholic News Service:
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over human trafficking grants allocated to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The federal agency is violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment “by permitting USCCB to impose a religiously based restriction on the use of taxpayer funds,” the lawsuit charges. It cited the fact that the USCCB requires its subcontractors providing the direct services to trafficking victims to not use the funds for contraceptives or abortion or contraception referrals.
The suit, ACLU of Massachusetts v. Leavitt, was filed Jan. 12 in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, based in Boston. It asks for a permanent injunction requiring HHS to ensure that funds under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act are disbursed “without the imposition of religiously based restrictions.”
“We are asking the court to stop this misuse of taxpayer dollars and to protect the health and safety of trafficking victims,” said Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney with ACLU of Massachusetts, in a statement. “Trafficking victims need comprehensive and compassionate care to gain their freedom and lead safe and healthy lives.”
The trafficking grants are administered through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Administration for Children and Families in HHS.
[…..]
According to the USCCB Web site, the bishops’ conference, through its Migration and Refugee Services, “administers the Anti-Trafficking Per Capita Services Program through a contract” with the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement “to provide services to survivors of human trafficking across the country.”
We have been pointing out all along that these volags, these federal contractors, have created a staffing and office infrastructure that drains funds away from the refugee program and in this case the program for helping victims of human trafficking. My personal view is that we need to get the churches out of the taxpayer’s pockets.
Unfortunately, if the ACLU is successful, it likely won’t mean any savings on the part of the taxpayer, the funds will just be made available to another unaccountable volag—-a secular one.
The ACLU said the USCCB received $2.5 million under the HHS contract between April 2006 and April 2007 and another $3.5 million between April 2007 and April 2008. In fiscal year 2006, the “USCCB retained $900,192, or almost 40 percent of the congressionally appropriated funds, for administering the grant, while only $1.6 million … was spent serving individuals who were trafficked.”
It’s a shame that a lawsuit like this one is where we see financial figures that should be available to the general public at all times.
Endnote: I have never been able to figure out the full amount of federal funds the USCCB receives from the federal treasury but I am sure it exceeds 100 million a year for all of its federal contracts.
Washington Post runs major story on Female Genital Mutilation
This is now a couple of days old, sorry I didn’t get to it sooner. The Washington Post has a graphic story that fills an entire page of the print edition on the (mostly) Islamic practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Since my time is short this morning, I’ll direct you to Robert Spencer’s discussion of the article at Dhimmiwatch here.
We have written about this barbaric practice because it is creeping into the US with refugees from countries that approve of the mutilation of little girls’ genitals.
How they slaughtered a refugee girl in Somalia
The Toronto Star published today a lengthy investigative piece on the obscure life of a 13-year-old Somali refugee girl whose death the world must now notice. We mentioned the tragic story earlier here, but only now are the shocking details coming to light.
She lived here:
Asho had never known any life other than the refugee camp, about 80 kilometres west of Somalia’s border. Spread across a vast swath of desert, Dadaab was created by the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency 17 years ago to provide temporary refuge for Somalis fleeing the chaos of Mogadishu. Today, it is the world’s largest refugee camp, home to 230,000 people living in three areas called Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley, but collectively known as Dadaab.
How she came to leave the camp and travel to Somalia is still a mystery. She disappeared in August and her father heard from her on a morning in October when she called crying uncontrollably. She was not allowed to finish her call. The family learned later that she had been raped by three men and made the terrible mistake of reporting the crime to authorities. Little did she know she was the criminal under Sharia law.
At about 4 p.m. that same day, armed guards dragged Asho before a crowd of hundreds. Her legs were partially buried so she could not escape, witnesses told local media. Then, a small group of men were given large rocks. Before the stoning began, some onlookers tried to intervene, running forward in protest. Militia, members of a radical Islamic group known as al Shabaab (The Youth), fired, and a young boy was reportedly killed.
Rock after rock struck Asho’s head and chest. The breaks came when someone, reportedly a nurse, stepped forward to see if she was dead. Asho had a pulse; the stoning resumed.
Reuters later quoted a witness named Abdullahi Aden who described the scene when Asho was brought “screaming, as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands.” Pictures, surreptitiously taken with a cellphone camera and posted on the Internet, reportedly record the gruesome aftermath. One blurry shot shows the bloodied face of a girl wearing a soiled pink sweater.
After Asho died, someone identifying himself as Sheik Hayakalah gave an interview to Somali Radio Shabelle. “The evidence came from her side and she officially confirmed her guilt while she told us that she was happy with the punishment under Islamic law,” he said.
Asho had been sentenced to death for “adultery.”
Stoning as capital punishment is sanctioned under Sharia law, although the killing of a 13-year-old girl is believed to be a first in Somalia.
Readers may recall that al Shabaab is the Islamic terrorist group reportedly recruiting in the United States and condemning the West to hell.
Female Genital Mutilation arrives in the West with immigrants
We’ve written on several other occasions about female genital mutilation but not lately, so when I saw this blog with a lengthy detailed article (including lots of links so readers could delve into the topic further) I decided it was time for a refresher on FGM.
There has been a huge increase in the numbers of women in France seeking plastic surgery. These women are not looking for face lifts, liposuction or breast enhancement – they are looking to have their sexual organs reconstructed after having been circumcized in primarily Islamic countries. Unfortunately, this also indicates that female genital castration is still occurring. One suspects that this surge in genital reconstructive surgery is also found in other western nations with high immigration from Islamic countries.
“In recent years around 2,800 women who immigrated to France from Africa or second generation immigrants, of the age group between 18 and 50, have turned to hospitals and centres in Paris and Nantes funded by national welfare to have their genitals reconstructed, devastated by the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).”
We have heard that FGM is increasing in the US, but I don’t know if anyone is yet seeking surgery.