'I will fight this with every fiber of my being' by Leo
Hohmann
When a group of imams tried to bring a form of “Shariah
light” to Texas, they met an unlikely foe – Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne.
Now, Van Duyne has been thrust into the national media
spotlight, and her city is being called “ground zero” in the battle to prevent
Islamic law from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal
system.
Van Duyne’s name and picture has popped up on Facebook pages
and Twitter feeds across America in recent days, casting her with equal
enthusiasm as villain or hero, depending on one’s political outlook.
She’s either the mayor who stood up to the Muslim
Brotherhood or the “Islamophobic bigot” looking to cash in politically on fears
about Islamic terrorism.
The media frenzy was touched off by reports that an Islamic
tribunal was being set up in the Dallas, Texas, area. A group of imams from
surrounding mosques would sit on what they call a “mediation panel,” as defacto
judges, and mediate disputes between Muslims who voluntarily submit to its
edicts. They denied this was a Shariah court, saying the panel would mete out
nonbinding decisions in business disputes, divorces and other family matters
“in full accordance with the law.”
Van Duyne wrote a blistering
Facebook post last month in which she vowed to
“fight with every fiber of my being against this action.”
She worked with state legislators to craft a bill that would
declare it illegal for any U.S. court to adopt any foreign legal system for the
basis of its rulings. Islam was not mentioned in the bill, nor was any
religion.
Last Thursday the Irving City Council voted 5-4 to endorse
the bill before a packed room full of mostly angry Muslims.
When called on by the Council of American-Islamic Relations to apologize for her February Facebook post, Van Duyne flatly refused. She also appeared in the national spotlight in an interview with conservative media icon Glenn Beck.
She’s been practically canonized by some websites while
becoming the target of journalistic hit pieces from others.
Her local newspaper, the Dallas
Morning News, cast her as a petulant demagogue
who uses “gifted speaking skills” to “get a crowd on her side.”
“The dispute has made Van Duyne a
hero among a fringe movement that believes Muslims – a tiny fraction of
the U.S. population – are plotting to take over American culture and
courts,” the Dallas
Morning News reported. The newspaper then quoted local
imam Zia Sheikh as saying the mayor’s stance “fuels anti-Islamic hysteria” and
is “very Islamophobic.”
But to conservatives who have watched one city, state and
federal leader after another kowtow to the threats and demands of CAIR, she is
a breath of fresh air.
“The U.S. is a constitutional
republic ruled by constitutional law. If Muslims want to live under Shariah
law, fine, then let them move to a country that is ruled by Shariah law,” wrote
Greg Polkowski in a March
24 Facebook post. “The problem is they come here for
the freedom and opportunities that aren’t available in their home countries
(usually Muslim controlled) and upon arrival decide they want to change the
U.S. to reflect the political/religious environment they left. This reminds me
of a sign I’ve seen posted by a few swimming pools over the years, ‘We don’t
swim in your toilet, please don’t pee in our pool.’”
The Dallas Morning News attacked Van Duyne’s supporters as
followers of “fringe websites.”
“Van Duyne had spent the last month criticizing and
questioning a Muslim mediation panel, conflating it with a court in an
interview seen around the country. That night, she pushed the council to endorse
a state bill whose author had targeted the panel.
“The dispute has made Van Duyne a hero on fringe websites
that fear an Islamic takeover of America.”
While eager to denigrate Van Duyne’s supporters, the Dallas
newspaper closes its eyes to the dubious reputation of the group demanding
apologies, CAIR. More than just a fringe element, CAIR is a front for the
Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which are terrorist elements.
CAIR
is known in the U.S. as a nonprofit advocacy group for Muslim-Americans, but in
2007 U.S. prosecutors named it an unindicted co-conspirator in a
terrorism-funding case against the Holy Land Foundation charity. The charity
was convicted of supporting Hamas, which is on the U.S. State Department’s list
of terrorist organizations. When President Obama took office in 2008 the trial
was shut down and investigations into CAIR ceased. In fact, the president has
sought counsel from CAIR officials in matters of Homeland Security and law
enforcement, acceding to its demand that the FBI scrub from its training
manuals all references to radical Islam.
Yet, despite its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, the
Dallas Morning News and countless other U.S. media outlets continue to quote its
officials…
http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/mayor-wont-back-down-from-muslim-brotherhood/
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