Religious tolerance is booed loudly
BY FRED GRIMM
fgrimm@MiamiHerald.com
Willie Lawson invoked the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. The NAACP leader spoke of America's founding principles, the need for tolerance, the evil of discrimination.
He was booed loudly. Disapproval fairly cascaded through the audience at Pompano Beach City Hall. It was a reception a civil rights leader hasn't endured in these parts since North Broward was a sprawling tomato patch ruled by racist rednecks.
In the modern version played out Tuesday night, the bigots were black.
They held signs and marched outside City Hall to protest city zoning approval of a mosque in northwest Pompano Beach.
ISLAM DENIGRATED
When the City Commission met an hour later, the dissidents' leader, the Rev. O'Neal Dozier of the Worldwide Christian Church, went to the podium and denigrated Islam, a ''cult'' he called it, and reduced all its practitioners to stark, one-dimensional bomb-wielding American-hating stereotypes.
Dozier accused ''Moooslims'' (stretching out that first syllable for mocking emphasis) of picking a Christian neighborhood where they could convert young black men to Islam. ``We don't need young black men to become more angry, to hate white men. We don't need any more violence.''
Dozier's words brought shouts of ''Amen!'' from the audience. His three-minute diatribe brought applause and then a standing ovation.
When Lawson, president of the North Broward NAACP, rose to call for religious tolerance, it became an act of courage.
Another anti-Islam rant Dozier delivered during a radio interview last week forced the governor to remove him from the Broward Judicial Nominating Commission on Monday. Dozier, a preacher and lawyer, had served on the commission since 2001, screening judicial candidates and making recommendations for Gov. Jeb Bush. Clearly, getting fired hadn't chastened the minister. He showed up Tuesday night with about 70 demonstrators, still railing about Islam.
He failed to persuade the City Commission to undo zoning approval for a new Islamic Center of South Florida. But he certainly raised questions about the twisted influence such an unapologetic bigot wielded during his five years on the judicial commission.
DENOUNCED GAYS
Dozier was known for intolerance long before the mosque issue. But it was his stunning denunciations of gays that brought him his earlier notoriety.
And Dozier also likes to rail against the notion of a secular government. He once complained to The Daily Business Review, ``There is no such animal as separation of church and state in the Constitution.''
And Dozier was known to query judicial candidates about their personal religious beliefs and whether they attended church. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, wrote to Gov. Bush in January 2004, asking him to fire his appointee. ''Dozier's overt religious bigotry is wholly unacceptable and he must no longer be allowed an official role in the selection of judges in Florida,'' Lynn wrote. ``It is appalling that in 2004 judicial nominees are being subjected to an inquisition.''
Finally Dozier's bigotry became too much, even for Jeb.
STILL A VOLUNTEER
But apparently not for state Attorney General Charlie Crist. Crist told The Miami Herald's Gary Fineout that the nasty sentiments spewed by Dozier weren't enough to stop him from volunteering in Crist's gubernatorial campaign.
''I'm not going to do that,'' Crist said. ``I'm grateful for all the support I can get.''
So, many years after Jim Crow politics was vanquished from Florida, bigotry still has friends in high places.
At least Charlie Crist still has a backbone.
I don't know Dozier, but I'll take a guess that he's not the foaming-at-the-mouth bigot this reporter paints him to be. His sins against leftist dogma must be severely punished by the press, of course. I only hope the punishment ends there, since Grimm has nicely painted an Islamist bullseye on the Reverend's back.