via LGF – a really good defense of the Jummah on the Hill from the usual suspects’ attempt to paint it as scary blah blah blah.
Incidentally, it’s only a matter of time before Charles gets labeled an anti-Semite. Any wagers on when?
Latest Updates: ‘Jummah on the Hill’ RSS
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aziz
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johnpi
‘Jummah on the Hill’ has changed Patriotboy.
I need your help.
The White House wasn’t painted black as a result of last Friday’s Islamic Prayer Event, but something much more terrible happened. Their prayers turned me Muslim. Worse yet, I’m one of those wimpy kind of Muslims, the kind who think compassion is the answer to everything. They’re like those damned beatitudes-preaching Episcopalians except they pray more.
It’s all about the Five Pillars to them: submit to God, help the poor, pray five times a day, fast for a month, and make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once. I don’t get to do any of the really cool things like the more Southern-Baptist-like radical Muslims do. No waging war on non-believers. No stoning the Gay or beating immodest women. No hating at all. I might as well be a Unitarian.
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johnpi
Prominent progressive blogger Digby blogs about ‘Jummah on the Hill’ – Calls Christians out for lying about not wanting to encroach on anybody else’s religious freedom.
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johnpi
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aziz
wtf, now the jafis claim credit for “scaring” the muslims off this afternoon
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aziz
Photos from the “Jummah on the Hill” at City of Brass.
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johnpi
It appears that SIOA, the anti-Muslim group that is holding a counter-protest to ‘Jummah on the Hill’ lied about who their speaker lineup was going to be. None of the original announced speakers – Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Nonie Darwish – are actually speaking at their event, though Geller has photos of the event that she claims Robert Spencer took, so he is at the US Capitol today.
Their names were likely used because it could be expected that their announced presence would draw attention and raise awareness.
The only recognizable name on the list is Martin Mawyer, founder of the Christian Action Network.
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johnpi
Pamela Geller quotes Robert Spencer estimating the crowd of Muslim attendees at ‘Jummah on the Hill’ at about 1,000.
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johnpi
Rifqa Bary made a surprise appearance last night at the national prayer/conference call held by the Christianists opposed to the ‘Jummah on the Hill’ event.
Kyle describes:
At the beginning of the clip, Lou Engle is told by one of the other participants that “their little sister” is on the line, at which point Engle introduces Rifqa Bary to the conference call participants and asks her to share her story. Bary, sounding like a somewhat nervous but otherwise perfectly average teenager, recounts her conversion to Christianity and her decision to flee from the home of her Muslim parents in Ohio. Following that, Engle declared Bary to be “an Esther for such a time as this” and asks her to lead the call in prayer, which she agrees to do, at which point she becomes seemingly hysterical and rather incoherent while sobbing and praying, making it nearly impossible to understand what she is saying outside of her repeated cries to Jesus.
And then, just like that, she stops, seemingly catching the other participants off guard until Engle then chimes in with his own fervent prayers to God to “use Rifqa to be an Esther.” Soon Engle is joined by various others, all of whom pray for this modern day Esther who will lead Muslims out of Islam and into Christianity while asking God to spread Rifqa’s “so that the testimony of Jesus will go out to CNN, will go out to talk shows and use this little story so that all across America the Gospel will be preached” and to “expose the hidden darkness that is rolling into the nation through these ideologies.”
Eventually, Engle unmutes the conference call’s participants and asks them all to pray for Rifqa, at which point the call the descends into little more than chaos and static.
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johnpi
Washington Post story about ‘Jummah on the Hill.”
No new information, except this:
Jihad Sileh, a spokesman for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, said his group’s regularly scheduled midday prayer service is at 12:30 p.m., so it won’t be an official part of the prayer event. The congressional association is also sponsoring a 1 p.m. prayer service for the Congressional Black Caucus at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, so many staffers will not have time to head over to the Capitol for outdoor prayers.
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johnpi
I’ve been listening in on the national prayer/conference call that has been annouced as a Christianist response to the “Jummah on the Hill” event tomorrow.
Near the beginning, Shirley Dobson asked that listeners pray for the “seven centers of power.” This is a reference to a dominant idea in the New Apostolic Reformation, a rapidly growing movement within Christianity that advocates a Christian theocratic takeover of the nations of the world, and that advocates “spiritual warfare” and believes the world is infested with demons that can be fought with prayer. This group received a lot of attention last year when Sarah Palin was chosen vice president since her church is in the movement.
One of the top leaders of the movement, C. Peter Wagner has advocated a form of theocratic imperialism: “God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God,” and that “the enemies’ camp will be plundered.” The “wicked” would be the “godless,” or those who are not Christians.
Here is a Youtube video explaining the concept of the ’seven centers of power,’ or the “seven mountains mandate,” which are the key sectors of society that this movement targets for Christian hegemony and takeover. Notice the militaristic language throughout.
Here are some other points advocated by movement illuminaries:
• claim police department prayer and fasting cuts murder and crime and are convincing police forces to adopt prophecy and prayer based policing.
• have sent a prayer warfare team to Mount Everest to battle a global demon they claim blocks the prayers of Catholics from reaching Heaven; have boasted the expedition may have helped to Kill Mother Theresa.
• have developed strategic outlines for taking control of society and government in Austin, Texas and other communities.
• are exporting an ideology, that includes fighting “witches” and “spirits of witchcraft” to the developing world – an ideology that may have contributed to the torture and death of thousands of African children.
• have endorsed church-based death squads operating in Central America.
• promotes the idea, to teens in the movement, that they will form a supernaturally equipped end-time army that will cleanse the earth of evil.
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johnpi
Discounted hotel rates for Muslims who want to join the “Jummah on the Hill” prayer – brought to you courtesy of Operation Save the Capitol. From their website:
Lastly, we have a discounted hotel available near DC for those who need a room. These rooms normally go for $149 a night, but we have a block of rooms available for $89 a night. For DC, this is a great rate. Just call and say you want the OPERATION SAVE THE CAPITOL rate, and give them the code number 3439. It is THE COMFORT INN at 703 247-3399. Make sure you reserve before Tuesday or the rates will go up!
I called and asked if you could still get that rate and then used the secret code: “…for Operation Save the Capitol.” First he said no, then I asked if there was any discounted rate, then he said he could give it to me for $89 anyway. Thanks Operation Save the Capitol! Be seeing you at the Continental breakfast…
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johnpi
A big thanks to blogger Kyle at Right Wing Watch whose reports of mobilization among the US Christianist movement against the ‘Jummah on the Hill’ event has been excellent. He’s had three further posts since I linked RWW last night:
• A group called Operation Save America is “openly declaring that they are heading to DC in order to wage spiritual battle against the rally participants and “storm the gates of hell to defeat the false god of Islam with the unsheathed Word of God and to set people free from the monstrous tyranny and bondage of this religion birthed in the deepest pits of hell.”
• Second post: Muslim prayer rally sets off a full-blown right wing crusade.
It seems that with every hour that passes, more and more Religious Right leaders are getting involved, to the point that this is now pretty much a full-blown holy war between the right-wing Christian activists and the organizers of this Muslim prayer rally.
• Most recent: The Christianists who are holding the prayer rally/conference call this evening have toned down their rhetoric and issued a less confrontational press release. However:
While the NDPTF may be trying to tone down its rhetoric, the same cannot be said for [Lou] Engle, who has issued his own “urgent nationwide call to prayer” in order to stand “against [the] principalities, powers, and forces of darkness” and pray that God will “use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America.”
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abunoor
Imam Siraj Wahhaj (hafithuAllaah) and the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) are encouraging people to attend the “Jummah on the Hill” event:
As Salaamu Alaikum Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I pray that you and your families are doing very well.
I strongly encourage Muslims to attend Friday’s historic jummah prayer on Capitol Hill in DC. With the help of Allah, Most High, it will be an afternoon of prayer, unity and peace for Muslims and the nation. For more information, please visit the event website at http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com.
Your brother in Islam,
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
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johnpi
The “Jummah on the Hill” event is getting support from a conservative Christian group called the Christian Defense Fund on the grounds that “all religious groups should be allowed to pray in public, and that Christian-Muslim dialogue is important.”
Elsewhere, organizers say they are getting “calls of support from nations such as Morocco and Egypt,” according to Hassen Abdellah, the organizer.
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aziz
Islam on the Capitol: a nice article at Politics Daily that surveys the reactions. Also quotes my own post about it last week at COB.
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aziz
Count me as extremely skeptical of the “Islam on the Hill” mass jumah prayer. It sends all the wrong messages at the wrong time.
