Tuesday, June 14, 2016

In Wake of Savage Attack on Orlando Gay Night Club, Local Jews Get All Interfaithy--But Are They "Bridge Building" With the Right Imam?

Given the following, consider me dubious (my bolds):
ORLANDO — Central Florida’s Jewish community started laying the groundwork for interfaith cooperation with Muslims Monday as the nation reeled in grief and anger after an anti-gay gunman killed 50 people in the worst-ever mass killing in recent U.S. history. 
Rabbi Steven Engel of the Congregation for Reform Judaism, the largest synagogue in Orlando, and Imam Muhammad Masri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, spoke by phone to plan a joint memorial service for the victims at the Pulse nightclub attack, which was carried out by an American Muslim with roots in Afghanistan. 
“(We want) to support each other, to support the whole community,” Masri said outside the bullet-scarred club on a busy Orlando artery.
Like Jewish leaders, Masri emphasized that suspected gunman Omar Mateen was an American who would not have been affected by proposals spearheaded by Donald Trump to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. 
“He came from two hours away. You can’t put a border to stop someone like this,” Masri said, adding that he did not consider the gunman to be a Muslim.
Well, that's helpful, don't you think? Donald Trump is responsible for pushing Mateen over the edge, a crackpot idea that usefully idiotic Official Jews have supposedly embraced, too.

The reason I wouldn't want to go ahead and link arms with Imam Masri is this: he seems incapable of telling the truth about the jihad and its roots in Islam's core religious writings, as this piece on Allen West's website reveals:
Imam Muhammad Musri said police have determined there has been no connection to anyone else. No, police have not said that, they said they are still investigating. Now he’s saying we have to look to issue of mass shootings, ‘we must do something to stop the mass shootings that are happening all the time’. On the other hand, he said people should not ‘jump to conclusions’ as to blame, that we must ‘come together.’...
What we must do is wake up to the evidence that is in front of us, which by all indications point to Islamic extremism having played a role here — and seeming to take root right here in our homeland, from coast to coast.
At a time when peaceful Muslim leaders could play a role in supporting the fight against Islamic extremism, the last thing we need is someone perpetuating a false narrative about guns and trying to deflect from the reality of the cancer that is growing and metastasizing. Guns, sir, are not the problem; the problem here is the ideology of Islamic jihadism. And, sadly, Imam Musri — rather than inspiring a sense of we’re in this together — has just done more to divide and anger with his statement. 
I don't know about that. Orlando's Official Jews don't seem to be in any way upset or deterred by the imam's false narrative. No surprise there, though, considering that, as Democrats, they have long bought into Obama's magical thinking on the subject.


No comments: