Posted on 07/28/2005 10:59:45 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
This time U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo got it right. Meet with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations? Not on your life, replied truculent Tom. They're compromised, he maintained.
Oh, how they're compromised.
To begin with, several officials or former officials of CAIR have faced criminal charges associating them with terrorism, and a founding board member of the Texas chapter was convicted on such charges just this year.
Moreover, as Salon.com's Jake Tapper reminded Americans in an article shortly after 9/11, CAIR once deplored the prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In fact, the group repeated "Abdul-Rahman's lawyers' criticisms of the trial as 'far from free and fair' on a 1996 list of 'incidents of anti-Muslim bias and violence,' " Tapper recounts.
In preparing his profile of the group - remember, this is September 2001 - Tapper repeatedly tried to persuade CAIR's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, to condemn Osama bin Laden by name, without success.
"What about prior acts of terror linked to bin Laden?" Tapper wondered. "Or that bin Laden has urged Muslims to kill Americans? Again, Hooper demurred, saying only that he condemns acts of terror." (CAIR did come around to denouncing bin Laden. What choice did it have with bin Laden himself cheerfully acknowledging his guilt?)
These days, CAIR spends most of its time portraying the United States as a nation slipping into the throes of bigotry, intolerance and anti-Muslim repression. But alas for its credibility even on this score, the group's claims of a surge in hate crimes are tainted by sloppy - if not atrocious - research, according to scholars Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha. They describe CAIR as part of the "Wahhabi lobby."
Can anyone blame Tancredo for refusing to endure a lecture on civility by the likes of this outfit?
Smart growth vs. families
"Our cities need kids," proclaimed the lead headline in The Sunday Denver Post Perspective section - an insight, you might suppose, akin to noting that forests need trees. But it turns out that cities might not need kids, as urban centers such as San Francisco, Seattle and Boston are well on their way to proving.
The author of Sunday's article, Hank Baker of Forest City Stapleton, understandably worries about cities' future if they fail to attract more families with children. Naturally, he also considers the Stapleton redevelopment as a model for how to lure them.
Baker might even be right, except that urban renewal on the scale of Stapleton is hardly the norm. Far more common are highly focused developments that push up population densities in neighborhoods of mostly single-family homes. Those densities translate into higher housing prices and traffic volume - both of which are red flags for middle-class families with youngsters.
My neighborhood, for example, is not far from a light-rail station that will open next year. Inevitably, some company is putting up several hundred apartments within walking distance of the train stop, along with shops and restaurants. The apostles of "smart growth" believe this sort of development is a Good Thing, because it helps contain the bogeyman of urban sprawl and reduces our dependence on cars - in theory, at least.
In the real world, unfortunately, most of those apartment dwellers will still hop into a car almost every day, even if they commute by train. How this will enhance my neighborhood is a mystery best explained by the smart-growth lobby.
While they're at it, maybe they can give us the lowdown on why Portland, the Shangri-la of smart growth, ranks a shocking seventh among U.S. cities with the lowest percentage of kids under 18.
Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point Tuesday through Friday. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com
Sure beats addressing the murder and mayhem muslims by voluntary admission are committing daily worldwide, killing, on average, dozens of innocents.
But we're wise to that.
Personally, the only response I make now to ludicrously absurd statements by the sandmaggots is:
Don't be silly!
Tancredo should be drummed out of the Republican Party for this... < /sarcasm>
That's an easy question to answer. Smart growth means you don't have kids. Then thee is no added pressure on the environment.
Is he the only politician that hasn't succumbed to Political Correctness? When will our leaders admit that Islam is a terrorist cult and CAIR is its PR mouthpiece.
Let's wrap that up.
islam = duplicitous
This seems like a pretty good prayer for The Council on American-Islamic Relations, but I do not think that the god of Islam is the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights organization, is running a TV ad and a petition-drive called "Not in the Name of Islam," which repudiates terrorism. In New York and other cities, mosque leaders have joined advisory committees created by the FBI to build relations between law enforcement and their local communities.
"We pray for the defeat of extremism and terrorism," the scholars wrote. "We pray for the safety and security of our country, the United States, and its people. We pray for the safety and security of all inhabitants of our planet.
"We pray for the safety and security of all inhabitants of our planet."
The same prayer they pray for the State of Israel and Jews worldwide?
When over 70% of Moslems worldwide agree with the concept of suicide bombing, why am I walking on eggshells trying not to offend them?
"eb Bush sent a support letter to CAIR in May.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006509.php"
I'm not surprised ...... maybe he bought GW's line that it's a "religion of peace"?
Does anyone know if Jeb went up to washington to celebrate Ramadan with GW?
"This time U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo got it right. Meet with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations? Not on your life, replied truculent Tom"
Go tom!!!!!
Thank god Tancredo has some balls, most Republicans would have issued an "apology" after saying what he did!!!
You might be a fanatic if.....................What causes fanaticism and why is it dangerous?
Wow, thanks for sharing. You make excellent points.
You are welcome and thank you for the complement.
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