Posted on 06/03/2017 9:34:03 AM PDT by Liz
A July 10, 2009 celebration, the Muslim iftar, drew an estimated 1,000 people to the Hill, thanks in part to an active Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA). The group was formed in 2006 and regularly held networking events and briefings on the Muslim community. A few years later, in the 113th Congress, the CMSA did not even list itself as an official association — due to a turnover in leadership, lack of participation and what some regarded as a backlash against Muslim staffers. While the organization is taking steps to re-register as an official association, it is definitely in rebuilding mode. Former CMSA members are optimistic the staff association will make a comeback as younger staffers step into leadership roles, but there's a broader problem: attracting young Muslims to Capitol Hill in the first place.
“From an outsider’s perspective, there is that perception Muslims aren’t accepted,” Omair Mirza, a 26-year-old staff assistant and legislative correspondent told CQ Roll Call. On Capitol Hill, the Islamic faith is "not an issue," he said. “[T]hat may be surprising to a lot of people on the outside, but people over here are very accepting. They’re very open to your background,” said Mirza, who works for Rep. André Carson of Indiana. (Carson is one of two Muslims in Congress; his fellow Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota was the first Muslim to serve.)
Carson said in an interview that even lawmakers who have made provocative statements about Islam in the media have been welcoming of his faith. “I have found that a lot of people who have made some inflammatory remarks … have been pretty affable and pretty gregarious and warm,” Muslim Cong Carson told CQ Roll Call. The Muslim Democrat described an unlikely bond with New York Republican Rep. Peter T. King, who held contentious congressional hearings on Muslim radicalization in the U.S. in 2011 as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Carson described King as "a decent person outside of the rhetoric” and someone with a "great sense of humor." Still, the 2011 hearings created a tense environment for Muslims on the Hill. Ellison even broke down in tears during testimony he offered at the time. The hearings were fueled in part by a book, “Muslim Mafia," which claimed radical Muslims were infiltrating Congress and also cited a number of staffers by name.
Jihad Saleh Williams, who previously worked for Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y., was named in the book. Years later, Williams is still emotional when recalling how members of Congress defended the staffers. “They wrote a letter saying that it was not right and it was shameful that actual members of Congress promoted, in a Capitol briefing, this book … [They said] Muslims can serve their country like everyone else,” Williams said. He paused as his eyes filled with tears. “It’s just good to know you have people like that.”
But for the behind-the-scenes Hill staffers, being thrust into the limelight was a jarring experience. “As a staffer, you don’t want the attention at all because it’s about your boss and their constituents,” said one Muslim staffer who asked not to be named. The mood contributed to the decline of the CMSA, originally formed by staffers who saw a need for a better understanding of Islam. “We felt that our goal was to help educate members of Congress and our fellow staffers on what Islam actually is and what it is not,” said Jameel Johnson, a former chief of staff for Meeks and one of the founders of the CMSA.
Johnson addresses the July 11 prayer session in the Capitol. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) Johnson addresses a July 11 prayer session in the Capitol. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call). But by 2010 and 2011, "something that was educational and informational turned out to be toxic," according to one CMSA leader. The leader said the negative rhetoric and accusations of terrorism caused many CMSA members to pull back from participating. "It just scared a lot of people," he said.
The CMSA also declined because it lost some of its core leaders after the 2010 elections, and other staffers were not willing to take the reins. “When the Democrats lost the majority, we lost a lot of good staffers and we lost a lot of momentum,” said Assad Akhter, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J. Akhter is a former CMSA president, one of the group’s founding members and a current senior leader of the group. He also noted that since 2010, the number of Muslim staffers in GOP offices has become “almost nonexistent.”
“It disappoints me that I don’t see GOP offices with Muslim staffers,” Akhter said. “I do think that the tone on that side and the rhetoric on that side has made it less likely for Muslim staffers to apply to those offices and be hired by those offices.” However, Suhail Khan, a former congressional staffer and member of the George W. Bush administration, said that while heated rhetoric can alienate Muslims, they should know, “This does not in any way represent the conservative movement or the Republican Party.”
Khan said he is encouraged by fewer contentious statements from his fellow Republicans over the past few years, particularly from potential presidential contenders who have a "much more inclusive message.” He was the only Muslim staffer when he first arrived on Capitol Hill in 1995. As more Muslims came to the Hill, they began to gather each Friday for Jummah prayer. When even more staffers and D.C. professionals joined them, they realized they needed a consistent location.
So, in 1998, Khan approached then-Speaker Newt Gingrich about securing a space for the group to pray.
“I went to the speaker and he was just — the conversation was an amazing one,” Khan said. The Georgia Republican helped Khan land a large room on the House side of the Capitol and told him, “As long as I’m speaker, I guarantee that you’ll have this space.”
The weekly prayer continues today in an open room in the House basement. Dozens of Hill staffers and D.C. professionals enter the room each Friday afternoon, take off their shoes and pray on white cloths, facing Mecca (in the direction of the Supreme Court).
(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
“In America, we have Jummah prayer under the Capitol Dome,” Ellison said at a Ramadan event in June. “There are a lot of Muslim-majority countries where you can’t do that.”
Khan said the weekly prayer proves “the Capitol is not just a symbol of democracy and religious liberty but is in fact a living, breathing example.”
“I don’t think that’s lost on people,” said Khan, “particularly on younger Muslim staffers who are just dipping their toes into the political waters and trying to determine if there is a place for them on Capitol Hill.”
And as they do, they sometimes find themselves up against stereotypes, such as the notion that Muslim staffers only focus on a few policy areas.
“When I come into a room, someone will ask me something about foreign policy,” said one female staffer who did not want to be identified, “and I’m like, 'I don’t cover foreign policy. I can’t answer that question.’”
She also mentioned people are surprised to learn that she works for the federal government, given that, as a covered woman, she is outwardly Muslim.
“I do networking events within the Muslim community a lot and everyone’s like, ‘Well, it’s not possible [that you work on the Hill]. You wear a headscarf,'” the staffer said. Her response? “I’ve had a job for the past five years in politics. ... You put your time in or you work just as hard as everyone else, you have a fair shot.” Along with serving as an example to younger Muslim Americans, the woman hopes to revitalize the CMSA. “I feel like with an association, year after year it will grow and folks that come for summer internships or just hear about it might want to come into politics,” she said.
And this young staffer is not alone. CMSA leaders on July 18 wrote to the House Administration Committee to signal their intention to re-register as an official staff association for the remainder of this Congress. One leader said a number of younger staffers have approached him with interest in leadership roles. Those young staffers may want to rebuild the CMSA, but it's not to have their religious identity define their work on the Hill. “I’m not a Muslim staffer on the Hill,” said Mirza. “I’m a staffer who happens to be Muslim.”
When I was younger, with a great career and climbing the management ladder at a huge corporation, I was very involved in my church. And not once did I think it would be awesome to start a prayer group at work!
Work was work, period. While at work, I was ‘rendering unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s’...so this Muslim crap is just that-crap!
As always, I wonder where my white caucus is.
It shouldn’t be necessary, but it is. Aren’t the oppressed supposed to organize to protect their interests?
Unless they’re white, I suppose.
One of the KEY THINGS we all need to do BEFORE we get behind a new candidate to replace the 8 term retread who has sold us out nearly every term up there is to INSIST THAT HE DRAW HIS KEY STAFFERS FROM LOCAL FOLKS WHO MAY STILL HAVE A GRASP ON REALITY OUT HERE IN FLYOVER COUNTRY — THEN HOLD HIS FEET TO THE FIRE ON THAT PLEDGE — OR REPLACE HIM NEXT TIME!
= = = = = = = = = = =
I have been figuring that you pick a #, be it 2 mill, 5 mill etc and make that the Congress/Senatecritter pay per year.
THE only thing ‘we’ give them is an OFFICE, not a suite, a workable office, Pay for ONE trip per session to DC, put them up for the session and pay for their trip back HOME.
Gets pretty bad when one calls him/herself a REPRESENTATIVE of the people who elected them and only ‘mingle’ with the masses a couple of times a year, usually involving fund raising.
If the ‘Rep’ wants to visit his constituents overseas, pay for it out of campaign or his own yearly stipend.
Go back to the 50s, 60s & 70s ‘war flicks’ and you will see the ‘visiting’ Pols treated like the fools they were made out to be.
With his/her 5 mill salary, hire who you want - mother, father grandfather etc....If no work getting done by your staff, do it yourself, WE didn’t hire ‘you’ to look ‘pretty’ and smile a lot.
Actually it isn’t a ‘Social Position’, Congress is considered ‘working for the PEOPLE’, not enriching yourself.
How does a poor boy from Harlem or wherever afford to be able to get in trouble for absconding funds for his Caribbean Retreat, when he came into office he couldn’t find two coins to rub together (I am not picking on a ‘class’ a lot of ‘folks’ come to mind...clintoon shows up in DC looking like the Beverly Hillbillys moving all their junk in a home made pickup and upon leaving had to hire 2 or 3 moving COMPANIES to move all his ‘stuff’.
Granted he had to move some of it back, remember that ‘poor boy’ Rostenskowski who left office and took his furniture, staff etc etc with him...of course he ended up in the clink...A plus for IL pols, must be part of their resume) BUT I believe his pension wasn’t involved.
Leave your Military Career and take ‘stuff’ that doesn’t belong to you and your retirement will start with learning how to say ‘Do you want fries with that’
The ONLY time those ‘FOOLS ON THE HILL’ (make a good song title) actually agree on something is when they bribe each other to back pet projects - Another GREAT reason why a line item veto is important...Of course it matters who signs it, MAYBE we could institute something that reads if the bill is for ‘feeding the poor on Park Ave’, a rider for 400trill for mowing grass in your home county isn’t allowed...
Naturally ‘they’ claim the riders speed up the project but all they do is give a chance to tie a ‘legitimate’ bill/project with a whole lot of excess garbage, which (under the present circumstance) is the only way you can get ‘half’ the people to vote on YOUR bill....
Of course, sometimes ‘we’ can get lucky and have a Sen/Rep that PROPOSES no bills, just sits around and collects of the riders he/she tack on to others work....
I understand the reasoning behind why a President of pResident can’t FIRE EVERYONE and put his own Senate/Congress/Supreme Court etc etc in place... BESIDES if that could happen, the next time a member of the Opposition gets elected WE will be screaming that the BNG can’t ‘drain the swamp’ and make it to his liking....
IT IS UP TO US....
Just like the cute Muslim clan---the Awan brothers and spouse. Hired by Miss Purity herself----Cong Debbie Vasserman Schultz. The Paki/Hackers employed by Democrat House members committed unspeakable crimes against America and Americans. Democrats and Debbie Vassherface had nary a clue (smirk).
=============================================
By having total access to Congressional emails (and anything else they could get their filthy hands on), the Paki/hackers had access to hundreds of constituents' Social Security numbers....and info on dozens of US agencies....including constituents' IRS returns.
========================================
REALITY CHECK --- When a constituent contacts their Rep w/ a problem, they are required to submit their Social Security numbe and IRS ID number in order for the member to navigate US govt agencies.
The Awans struck a goldmine---could be selling our SS nose across the globe to slobbering greedy refugees.
At this time, NO DEMOCRAT MEMBER EMPLOYING THE PAKI/HACKERS has notified constituents that their privacy has been invaded. These constituents have a good case against the irresponsible Democrat members.
cont
cont
MUSLIM FACTS ON FILE
<><> Paki/hackers were shoehorned into their jobs by Cong Wasserman Schultz and Cong Jackie Speier.
<><> the security breach involves only Democrats-—about 80 members of the House employed the Pakis.
<><>The Paki/hackers allegedly stole US govt property....electronic storage devices taken from Democrats offices.
<><>funneled crucial US intel to an external server....
<><> probably left “back doors” to external servers to conduct surveillance remotely.
<><> removed hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment from Democrat members’ offices, including computers and servers,
<><> ran a procurement scheme on our tax dollars
<><> the Pakis bought costly electronic equipment, then overcharged the House administrative office that assigns the Pakis to members.
cont
MUSLIM FACTS ON FILE
<><> Paki/hackers were shoehorned into their jobs by Cong Wasserman Schultz and Cong Jackie Speier.
<><> the security breach involves only Democrats-—about 80 members of the House employed the Pakis.
<><>The Paki/hackers allegedly stole US govt property....electronic storage devices taken from Democrats offices.
<><>funneled crucial US intel to an external server....
<><> probably left “back doors” to external servers to conduct surveillance remotely.
<><> removed hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment from Democrat members’ offices, including computers and servers,
<><> ran a procurement scheme on our tax dollars
<><> the Pakis bought costly electronic equipment, then overcharged the House administrative office that assigns the Pakis to members.
There's a great list, which has been posted more than once on FR but I can't find right now, which lists how as the percentage of Muslims changes in a given society, so do their, first, pleadings, then demands, then threats, on behalf of Islam and entrenching Muslim power, not just in a religious context, but also in a political one. Once their percentage is large enough (and it doesn't take a very large one, IIRC), they demand sharia law over all. It has happened again and again in other countries-and it always began with soft and conciliatory words.
>>This has been the plan all along-—they’re salivating to get into Christian congregations———to do harm to Christians.
>>This must NEVER happen.
>>Examples abound on a daily basis.
I doubt an example of Muslims joining a church for a year just to kill a few people that they could kill in the parking lot in the USA abound, much less on a daily basis.
My PCA church requires a credible confession of faith to join and has to be heard by three Elders who agree that it is credible. We have a Confession that ensures that we remain true to the Gospel to keep heresy from being taught. But a Muslim who is seeking Jesus Christ would be welcome until they start counter-teaching the religion of their false god. I would hate to think of myself becoming so faithless that I would throw them out at first glance.
We have a far better life awaiting us in heaven. No one wants to be a martyr, but if it is necessary to advance God’s plan, then so be it.
There’s a separate “Criminal Bums in Congress”. Their meeting place in in the House and Senate chambers.
Get rid of these enemy moles before they destroy us with their terrorist murder gangsters together
My my how far the once- great America has fallen. Enemy agents infiltrated into almost every part of our government. DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!!
Right now, in Sterling Heights, Michigan there exists Chaldean Christians (second largest group in our nation) all REAL refugees from the middle east, having had escaped genocide, torture and death going back generations. They are fighting the opening of the THIRD mosk from being built in their small town. This new one is planned as a mega-mosk.
I am sure all those muslin staffers worked real hard so that obama would sign the huge money transfer (our taxpayer money that is) being used to build it. And, also get taxpayer money to fly hundreds of thousands of muslin "refugees" to this country so they all would have a house of worship when they got here.
Like I said I AM MUSLINED OUT.
Shameful.
Are there any smart pro-American government workers in DC?
“that ought to make it easier to limit their access to classified info”
Yeh ! Since Huma has lost her ‘insider info position’
I am watching one of the prophetic teachers/preachers right now, and he showed some verses, whatever they’re called, from the Koran. As I read them, I realised that many of them were worded as if cribbed straight from the Bible, only twisted, when necessary, to deny the divinity of Jesus. There’s one about not building on a sandy foundation, which could have been taken straight from Matthew 27:24-27. I didn’t get the number of the Koran verse (aren’t they called “hadiths”?)
LOL——good one.
There’s a separate association called: “Criminal Bums in Congress”.
Their meeting place in in the House and Senate chambers.
Maybe the problem was that they had the guy who headed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as one of their most frequent guest preachers:
Muzzies are infesting our political system. One of these days we’ll have some nasty anti-American muslim in the white House destroying our country from within.
Oh wait...
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