Damage control by muslims at state fair in Minnesota

One can argue that we should not allow muslims to be out at such an event as a state fair to be speaking to the fair goers about islam, and trying to dispell islamophobia and 'misconceptions' about islam. As much as I have a problem with islam, the qur'an, hadith and sharia law, they do have the same rights as anyone else to do this. We allow all sorts of organizations, politicians, corporations big and small to set up shop at state fairs across the country. Besides, when Christians tried to do the same thing at a 'cultural event' in Dearbornistan, Michigan three Christians got arrested. Their crime? Doing the same thing these muslims are doing at this state fair. Are you OK with this?


Should anyone listen to these muslims rattling on about islam and how wonderful it is? Or listen to anyone doing this sort of thing? I think we should, especially the muslims. Just be prepared to hear lies and deception known as taqiya. Taqiya is allowed and encourgaed in the qur'an. muslims are encouraged to lie to us, the infidels they want to kill if we do not convert to islam at some point. You will hear how muslims just want to get along and be part of America. If that is so true then why do we have almost ALL acts of terrorism being committed by muslims, driven by the words of the qur'an? Go to the site Religion Of Peace to verify what was just stated here about almost all acts of terrorism being committed by muslims. Why do find muslims filing suit after suit for prayer rooms in work places, schools, footbaths, refusing to handle prok products in a Target store, muslims cab drivers refusing to transport customers who blind and use a seeing eye dog for assistance or customers who might have alcohol in their possession and the list goes on and on. How do you tell a peaceful moderate muslim from the radical ones? The qur'an they want to give you is a whitewashed version with the violent passages removed. I know as I have several versions here at home that I have read. Do you see Christians, Jews, Hindus suing at every turn like muslims do? No, I sure don't and if you do, please let me know. Read this next post and you if you run into some muslims wanting to talk to you about islam, listen very closely. Sounds just like the first muslim potus, the mullah in the White House, who is doing all he can to islamize America. There are no moderates within islam. They need to admit and take rsponsibility for what has been done under islam, and by muslims.

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Muslims take to Minn. State Fair to repair image
By PATRICK CONDON

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) - Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street.


Each time a new wave of people exited, the young Minneapolis residents - who hadn't eaten all day - tried to press into their hands a small, glossy card that read "Islam Explained" on one side. On the other, it had about 180 words of background on a religion whose adherents fear is being misunderstood by too many Americans as violent and depraved.


"You just want people to take the card, spend a minute reading it and say, 'Oh. They're not terrorists,'" said 27-year-old Zuleyha. She and her husband, like other Muslims, were fasting during daylight hours for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.


For most fairgoers, the last thing on their mind is religion - particularly the renewed controversy over Islam in America amid tension over plans for an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York City's ground zero. But volunteers with the Minnesota chapter of Islamic Circle of North America saw the mostly white, Christian fair crowd as just the type of audience that might benefit from greater understanding.


The "Great Minnesota Get-Together" is one of the largest and best-attended state fairs in the country. Every day for 12 days through Labor Day, hundreds of thousands of people stream onto the fairgrounds north of St. Paul to scarf highly caloric food, stare at farm animals, clamber onto carnival rides and enjoy concerts by country singers and classic rock dinosaurs.


"What are they doing here?" said Paulette Kahlstorf of Zimmerman, who declined a card from Zuleyha as she left the fairgrounds with her husband. "I didn't come here for that."


A minute later, Kahlstorf elaborated that she didn't have a problem with all Muslims: "Just the radical ones." And she said she didn't mind their decision to hand out the cards, which include a toll-free number that anyone can call to request a free copy of the Quran.


"You know, I guess we let all the politicians come out here and schmooze, so we might as well let these folks as well," said Kahlstorf. "Doesn't mean I need to listen to them."


A poll released last week showed many Americans have the same mixed feelings about the Muslim faith. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that most Americans doubt that Islam is likelier than other faiths to encourage violence and believe Muslims should have equal rights to build houses of worship. But more people have an unfavorable than favorable view of Islam by 38 to 30 percent - nearly a reversal of findings on the same poll question in 2005, when 41 percent had favorable views compared with 36 percent unfavorable.


Najam Qureshi, a member of the Islamic Circle of North America's Minnesota chapter and a database administrator at Carlson Companies in Plymouth, said his group planned the state fair outreach effort - which includes radio commercials - long before the New York mosque controversy.


But he said that controversy has been another reminder of the work American Muslims need to do to fill what he called "the void of understanding about our faith."


Various state-based Muslim groups estimate Minnesota has about 150,000 Muslim residents, and the state has had its share of incidents in recent years. Some Muslim students reported being harassed at schools in St. Cloud and Owatonna, and some anti-Islamic posters were hung around St. Cloud.


The Ozonders handed out 400 cards during one two-hour shift this week across the street from one of the fair's main entrances, and were taking their second shift on Wednesday. The chapter is handing out the cards throughout the fair's run, which ends on Labor Day.


The couple said they volunteered out of a desire to "do something together" for their faith. Zuleyha moved to Minneapolis in July from New York's Westchester County after she married Salim, 28, a graduate student in physics at the University of Minnesota the last two years; both are of Turkish descent.


Both said their exchanges with fairgoers were mostly pleasant, though Zuleyha said one man cursed at her. Most people either decline the cards or quietly take them and keep moving.


Occasionally, someone will stop and talk for a few minutes, often to ask a question or two about Islam.


"More than one person said to me, 'You look normal,'" Salim Ozonder said. "So if we can even break down a few misconceptions, that is great. Too many people in this debate are no longer interested in a middle ground."

Original article is here

Update on "A perfect example of white washing islam."

In a very recent post I posted an article by Vijay Kumar in regard to an article that had been written about islam. My post was "A perfect example of white washing islam" and it included Vijay's response to the article in the newspaper. The individual mentioned in this article posted several comments asking ME to take down my post, almost begging me to do so. I said I would consider doing so but stated nothing more. Why this individual asked me and sent her comments here rather than to Mr.Kumar, is not what I would have done and not how I would have handled this. I would have gone right to the source if I had issues with someone. Vijay Kumar wrote a beautiful response to this individual and I am posting this second article by Vijay here. Vijay Kumar answers all challenges posed by this individual, point by point and backs each and every one of them up. As I have mentioned before, I wish Vijay Kumar was running for office here in my home state. This is a man who gets it about islam, sharia law. He refuses to back down or take a dhimmi stupid seat on the islam express to sharia law and a global islamic caliphate. I also happen to be on the same page with Mr. Kumar as far as his other positions. Call me what you want and it is not about hatred for muslims, not at all. It is about islam, sharia law and the complete and total threat to our Republic from islam.


I have never said anything bad about this individual on a personal level and I do not plan on doing so. My issues are with islam, sharia law and how it is portrayed in the MSM, including the newspaper article that started all this. I am sick and tired of islam getting a free pass and being made out to be something that it is not. I have personally been attacked through comments, emails, phone calls, letters, on a few sites for my stand on islam and sharia law. Those who know me through here or personally know how I feel about these issues, the attacks,the threats from islam and sharia law that we, as a country are facing.


So here is my answer and it is no. I suggest this individual take any further issues they may have with all of this directly with Vijay Kumar. Whether I publish any further comments from this individual remains to be seen. I like Vijay Kumar and will continue to support him. If you have a problem with that then I guess that is YOUR problem. islam and sharia law are what this is all about and that is a problem I cannot be silent about.

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Lena Khan Comes Back (Sort Of) For More
By Vijay Kumar

Lena Khan has posted a reply of sorts to my earlier blog article "Lena Khan is a source for the Muslim Brotherhood"—but she didn't post it here on my blog. She posted to another blog that had reposted my article.

I'm not sure why she didn't want to confront me directly, and only wanted to talk about me to someone else, but to be entirely fair to her, I'm going to post her response here, and reply to it, point-by-point. Her post is indented and in italics:

Everyone has the freedom for their views, but it is unfortunate that people just go off of information without checking it. Thus far, I have found dozens of supposed statements from Islam that Vijay Kumar has cited, which are not from Muslim sources and Muslims deem to be fabricated.

I've been hearing this same kind of dodge for decades. It elicits a yawn. Note that she admits that I have cited my statements, and though she claims to have found "dozens" that are somehow flawed, she doesn't cite a single one. I don't wonder why.

Further, the thing I can speak on most in this article is the lies therein. I have never received any money from MAS, and I challenge Mr. Kumar to prove it.

The problem, Ms. Khan, is that I never once said you received money from MAS. The word "money" never once appears anywhere in my article. I said, accurately and correctly—as you admit below—that you received funding from MAS. There is a distinct difference between "money" and "funding," recognized in every dictionary and in the law. If you don't know the difference, that's your problem, not mine. I suggest you look up the difference before you start making accusations like the following:

Instead, he has just made up lies, and has no information to prove it.

Publicly impugning my integrity with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of your statements is an adventurous thing to do, Ms. Khan.

I could provide even all my bank accounts for the past few years, and he would find nothing from MAS. In fact, MAS once gave me a check, which I returned and never cashed.

Thank you for confessing that you accepted a check from MAS, which is a form of funding, exactly as defined by Black's Law Dictionary: "A sum of money or other liquid assets set apart for a specific purpose." Whether you cashed it or not is immaterial. A check is a draft, an order to the bank, an "unconditional promise to pay." What you did or didn't do with it doesn't alter the fact that you accepted a form of funding from MAS—exactly as I wrote that you did.

In fact, it's not entirely unusual in "seeding" a project to get an agreed source of funding solely as a selling point to entice more funding—then to return the base amount once it's served its purpose. It's still funding.

You can pretend all the "arms length" purity from MAS you want to pretend by the fact of not having cashed their check, but I don't think anyone reading this is stupid or naive enough to believe that any organization like MAS—which is a non-profit corporation organized under section 501(c)(3) of the United States tax code—just spontaneously writes a check to someone with whom they have no relationship or common interest. And you accepted the check, didn't you.

Freedom of speech is a principle here, but we are also a nation of honor, where we don't just take lies as truth and at least have the good sense to form our opinions off of accurate information.

Good. You've given the accurate information: you had a relationship with MAS in which they wrote you a check, and you accepted their check. But it goes even deeper than that, doesn't it?

I wonder why you don't mention that an Associate Producer on one of your films, "A Land Called Paradise," was Murad Aldin Amayreh. Is it because Amayreh himself helped set up the MAS Media Foundation (MMF) between 2006 and 2008? That's right on his own bio page.

If Vijay did his research he would also know that I did not ever work for MAS, and the fact that MAS has one of my films listed on their pages was incorrect since I did not take their money.

If you had done your research you'd know that the MAS Media Foundation—which your friend Amayreh helped establish—has not one, but two of your films on its "Videos" page, under the heading, "MMF GRANT VIDEOS." Here's a screen shot that proves it:

So here's the problem now as I see it: you've just accused the MAS Media Foundation—a division of the 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation called the Muslim American Society—of grant fraud, since they are publicly promoting two of your films as having been funded by MMF grants, and you insist that your films weren't funded by them. That's an ugly allegation to make against your friends, Ms. Khan. Have you reported this to IRS?

This article is libel, and yet people spread it around like fact.

Are you talking about your article?

One with decency, after knowing that these claims were not substantiated, would either substantiate them themselves or have the courtesy to take them down.

I just substantiated my claims completely. Now you can demonstrate your courtesy by apologizing for calling me a liar.

This sort of honor and dignity is what is American, not spreading falsehoods.

Thanks for the civics lesson.

Now that you're done lecturing us all on "honor and dignity," would you care to comment on your friend Murad Aldin Amayreh's "friends" pages, which include links to "Jews Exposed" (a.k.a. Israel has no right to exist), glorifications of Hamas and Hitler and Hezbollah, and a page that labels America and Israel as "terrorists"?

Do you agree with those sentiments, Ms. Khan?

Vijay Kumar

Original article can be found here