LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Hello, readers-

I just completed a check of the links on our Links sidebar, and did a bit of editing. I've added a few sites (see bottom of sidebar), and took away others which had either 404'd or become 'cobwebs'.

If you have a relevant site or blog that you would like to add to the sidebar, let me know. I'll check it out and add it if it looks good. There is a limited amount of space on the sidebar, so if it goes over the limit, we'll just have to post the link.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)



Here's the icon to use for this weekend's Blog Against Theocracy.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Pat Robertson's at it again. Now he's worried that a religious takeover of the government by Muslims is imminent.

Hallucinate much, Pat?

TV preacher Pat Robertson is worried about a Muslim takeover of the United States.

Such a thing would seem remote, at best. While hard numbers are difficult to come by, most demographers say there are about 3 million Muslims in America. In a country of 300 million, they haven’t made a huge dent.

But last year, the first Muslim was elected to Congress, and Muslims have been elected to a few state and local offices as well. Recently, a Muslim group announced plans to register more Muslims to vote and encourage civic activity. All of this has Robertson worried.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you’ve got it,” Robertson said on his “700 Club” today. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? You know, the Protestant churches, there’s no doctrine of faith that I know in any Protestant denomination that calls for the takeover of the government and making other people second-class citizens. I don’t know of one denomination, Protestant or Catholic, that has that agenda. But yet, Islam has just that agenda, that they want to take over the government and that everybody else is a second-class citizen. That is the primary doctrine of Islam.”

Having Pat Robertson lecture you on the dangers of a religious takeover of government is simply too much. The man’s hypocrisy is staggering. Taking over the government, implementing a “moral” agenda according to his interpretation of the Bible and relegating millions to second-class citizenship has been Robertson’s goal from day one.

The article goes on to detail how Robertson, in a closed-door speech to the Christian Coalition in 1997 advocated exactly that:

What was that agenda? Robertson outlined it: No more legal abortion, a rollback of gay rights and passage of a constitutional amendment to put coercive forms of prayer in public schools, foster tax funding of Christian projects and merge fundamentalist Christianity and government in other ways.

Hmmm. That sounds like a takeover of government! It’s important to remember that Robertson was not aware he was being recorded at the time and thus spoke with extreme frankness. (Americans United later released a tape of the closed-door session [link embedded --ed], and news media outlets across the country reported the information.) He put his goals right out there before a friendly crowd. It sure sounded like a theocratic platform to many.

I don't know what they pay that poor writer Rob Boston over at Americans United to watch "700 Club" show, but it isn't enough.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

All of a sudden, there is a spate of news stories about Muslims and government. Here in Texas, we have this tempest in a teapot, right on the heels of Pat Robertson's "Muslims are taking over the government" screed, reported by sunfell here.

Houston Chronicle: Plan for Muslim prayer in [state] Senate angers some

( Read more... )

What's with these people? It's they that are taking over the government.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Imam leads first prayer by Muslim cleric on Texas Senate floor

( Read more... )

I particularly enjoyed this part: </sarcasm>

Sen. Dan Patrick stepped off the floor for Imam Yusuf Kavakci's prayer, in which he recited a passage from the Koran in Arabic and read an English translation.

"I surely believe that everyone should have the right to speak, but I didn't want my attendance on the floor to appear that I was endorsing that," said Patrick, a freshman Republican from Houston.

Here's hoping the freshman Senator finds this to be his first, and only term.

ETA: From the Senator's own website:

A native of Baltimore, Dan has been a Texan since joining Houston CBS affiliate KHOU TV in 1979. In 1988 he launched talk radio KSEV and soon after discovered a little known national host, Rush Limbaugh. His group added KPRC radio in 1992 and then sold the stations joining San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications.

That explains so much.