Salaam (Peace),

 

Last Wednesday (April 4, 2007) was supposed to be a milestone day for Texas Muslims, following in the footsteps of many other faith-based communities. A Dallas Imam delivered the Invocational Prayer before the Texas Senate as part of the 3rd Texas Muslims Legislative Day at the State Capitol. As at most 2% of the population (1 out of 50) the Muslim voice cannot rise high enough to repel disinformation and assault by even a minority of Americans and therefore needs members of the majority population to speak out against the denial of their rights.  Here's a small outline of what happened and it is my hope that you decide to send a message of support to Senator Shapiro and her colleagues for standing up for the Religious Liberty for all Texans.

 

1.    A "showboating" Senator decided to use the occasion to walk-out and get his name in news, claiming that he didn't want to "endorse" the Muslim prayer.

2.    The Senator (Dan Patrick) then tried to pass out misinformation on the Senate floor to sway his Senate colleagues so that they wouldn't allow the event to happen. He was never really interested in finding out the truth about any newspaper articles he was passing around, just to create the impression of controversy.

3.    A local GOP Country (Harris) Chairman decided to lambaste the State Senate on his way to running for State GOP Chairman for allowing a Muslim to pray during Holy Week, never mind that it was Passover and Prophet Muhammad's birthday too. When the Houston Chronicle was asked how come they decided to tout the only GOP County Chair to speak out against this and not the Fort Bend County Chair who released a statement of support, they said the story broke late in the day and they didn't have the time to conduct adequate research.

4.    We had a fundamentalist evangelical pastors group out of Houston affiliated with Rick Scarbourgh's Vision America decide to issue a Press Statement opposing the prayer because of "concern over the oppressive impact of radical Islam worldwide and the pressure to accept cultural and religious diversity."  To read the full statement by the US Pastoral Council, click here: http://www.uspastorcouncil.org/documents/MuslimPrayerPressRelease3.3.07revised.pdf  It is obvious from their statement as well as from their Representative on the FOX TV Show "Hannity & Colmes" on Monday April 9, 2007 that Muslims don't worship "God" and we are not "Americans". The main reason stated on "Hannity & Colmes" by this Pastor's group as to why Muslims should not be allowed to perform invocational prayers before the Texas Legislature was that "85% of Americans believe in God" and that our "government should represent the People". The assertion being that Muslims do not then believe in God and that our government should not represent its Muslim constituents.

5.    We had a self-identified "Christian Zionist" group called Shalom-Shalom Jerusalem Ministries out of Arlington, TX send out a global call to action that has been sending anti-Muslim and Islamophobic email messages to the Senator Shapiro's staff from all across the US and oversees. To learn more about this "Ministry", click here: http://www.shalom-shalom-jerusalem.org/

 

As Texas Muslims we have never harmed anyone, nor has any group from our community ever infringed upon any other group's religious or civil liberties. Texas Muslims have been practicing a truly traditional and tolerant Islam since Hajji Ali and his six partners first moved to Texas in 1856. We have reviewed hundreds of websites, emails and news broadcasts to catalogue what are the concerns of our fellow citizens. For those "rational misunderstandings" as well as "bold lies" we have put a response on our website (www.freeandjust.org). Our homepage also includes the video of the Islamic Prayer, the Speech by Senator Shapiro, as well as Senator Dan Patrick’s Moment of Privilege speech. We have also included the unedited text of dozens of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic emails here: www.freeandjust.org/Islamophobia.htm and are asking all people of good faith to support our right to exercise our Religious Freedom by sending Senator Shapiro a message of support by emailing it to: ThankSenator@freeandjust.org

 

Thank you and God Bless, 

 

Mohamed Elibiary

President & CEO The Freedom and Justice Foundation (F&J)

www.freeandjust.org

Cell:      214-403-2652