Posted on 09/15/2012 1:52:31 PM PDT by blueyon
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Channel 2 Action News investigation found that the State Department is sending millions of dollars to save mosques overseas. This investment has received criticism as the United States makes an effort to slash nearly $4 trillion in government spending.Plenty of outrage following the announcement made Thursday afternoon by a government commission that suggested huge cuts to the budget, including eliminating the interest education for home mortgage. This juxtaposed with the United States investing millions to refurbish mosques as a good-will effort in Muslim countries has upset many taxpayer groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at patdollard.com ...
The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) — which is putting millions toward “heritage preservation” projects in the developing world — financed mosque-related projects in all the aforementioned countries.
In Montenegro, for example, the State Department has funded an effort to restore and conserve the Shadrvan (Fountain) of the Old Mosque in Pljevlja. According to the State Department’s website, without needed repairs there would not be a sufficient place for ritual washing before prayer.
Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, told The Daily Caller that the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation is a type of diplomatic effort and outreach, what she says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls “soft power.”
“It is helping to preserve our cultural heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures,” Thompson said. “It is not to preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures.”
In a document provided on Monday to Indiana Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the State Department explained that the practice of funding such projects became acceptable in 2003 when the Justice Department declared that the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause did not preclude federal funds from going to preserve religious structures if they had cultural importance.
The DOJ wrote: “That advice is provided in the following paragraph that appears in every AFCP request for grant proposals… ‘The establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution permits the government to include religious objects and sites within an aid program under certain conditions. For example, an item with a religious connection (including a place of worship) may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item derives its primary significance and is nominated solely on the basis of architectural, artistic, historical or other cultural (not religious) criteria.’”
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has also spent millions reconstructing and financing multiple mosques in Cairo and Cyprus, as well as providing computers for imams in Tajikistan and Mali.
Interestingly, however, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, “USAID funds may not be used for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for inherently religious activities.”
What bothers me more than the State Department using the guise of cultural heritage as an excuse to fund these projects are some of the countries on the list.
For example we are spending taxpayer money to help renovate or rehabilitate mosques in Yemen. This is the very same country that the State Department has issued a travel advisory on due to terrorist activities in Yemen by Al-Qaeda against American interests.
http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/state-dept-funds-mosque-rehab/
What about separation of church in state? Progressives attacking religion at home and spending millions promoting it over seas.
this fairy has to be stopped in Nov, we cannot afford 4 more years of his radical agenda
Is there no end to this.???
Praying there will be..
DEFEAT THE OBAMANATION
and building mosques on US military instilations in the US and overseas for the Moslem service members like the Fort Hood assasian...
What?????
Anyone who says anything is using hate speech.
Enemies, foreign and domestic.
Every time I inform liberals as to some of the crazy stuff that goes on and that Democrats support they decide I’m either crazy myself, definitely misinformed or possibly stupid borderline retarded. Everything is good; they’re the good guys while conservative people like myself need to get with the program or are simply a problem in the future that will have to be dealt with...
And no taxpayer money should to to any of this. ESPECIALLY mosks.
Alms for the needy?
It’s just Democrats trolling for more votes.
If this can be proved... SCREW THE ELECTION... IMPEACH THIS MF’er NOW!
LLS
Pffft!
Must be your 24 year old friend doesn’t get out much - does it have a job?
SOme weird marriage between Global Democracy/New World Order/Sharia law/fascism.
We have achieved amazing thing in less than three centuries.
Therefore, we must be taken down.
We must take our order from people who sodimize their enemies (non-islamics)and drag their dead bodies through the streets.
It is THE WILL OF ALLAH???
Anyone who disagrees is subject to death.
One of my best friends and I almost came to blows during the 2008 campaign when I told him about osama’s desire to have National Civilian Defense Corps as well armed as the Army. He didn’t believe me and refused to even call up the URL where Osama made that campaign threat.. He’s a PhD College professor. One of my wife’s good friends was over one night and I showed her the video clip, but she refused to believe it, even though she was watching it. I laughed so hard at her that I fell off the couch. She is a highly-respected cardio nurse practitioner. Go figure.
One of my best friends and I almost came to blows during the 2008 campaign when I told him about osama’s desire to have National Civilian Defense Corps as well armed as the Army. He didn’t believe me and refused to even call up the URL where Osama made that campaign threat.. He’s a PhD College professor. One of my wife’s good friends was over one night and I showed her the video clip, but she refused to believe it, even though she was watching it. I laughed so hard at her that I fell off the couch. She is a highly-respected cardio nurse practitioner. Go figure.
Sorry ‘bout that double post. still getting used to the iPad.
Well I agree with her. Mormon is bad. Muslim is bad too. Christian Communist is also bad.
This year it’s a choice between bad and bad. It’s just really bad.
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