Posted on 04/25/2007 7:58:01 AM PDT by yoe
The Star Tribune has already removed Curt Brown's page-one Star Tribune article on the coming of Sharia to the Minneapolis Community and Technical College from public access. Here is the paragraph I quoted from the article in ("Sharia in Minnesota"):
"Minneapolis Community and Technical College is poised to become the state's first public school to install a foot-washing basin to help the school's 500 Muslim students perform pre-prayer rituals. "We want to be welcoming," MCTC President Phil Davis said, noting a student was hurt trying to wash in a regular sink."
I predicted:
The Star Tribune can get unusually exercised about church/state separation. I doubt that the merger of mosque and state will even be pointed out as such -- Brown notes it as a "sign of accommodation" -- let alone raise any alarms on the editorial page. Indeed, if they take notice, I think the editors will celebrate it in the spirit of Brown's description of it as an "accommodation.
In their (editorial today), the Star Tribune delivers, predictable as Swiss watchwork. What I didn't predict was the editorial board's reading of Brown's description of the incident:
"It's worth remembering that this question first arose at MCTC as a matter of safety, not religion. A student slipped and fell after another student used a campus sink to wash his or her feet."
I understood Brown to be saying that it was the Muslim student who was injured by virtue of the contortions necessary to wash his or her feet in the sink. I did note, however:
Brown doesn't pause to reveal the nature of the injury sustained by the Muslim student hoisting his foot into the sink. I should think that would make an interesting sidebar all by itself. Where is a reporter's curiosity when you need it?
Here is how the Star Tribune editorial board analyzes the expenditure of school funds to facilitate the obsrvance of Muslim ritual:
"Banning Christmas carols on the official campus coffee cart -- which incensed the school's critics -- seems plainly in keeping with a long string of court rulings that forbid the use of public resources to endorse a particular religion. But accommodating the prayer practices of some devout Muslims seems akin to putting kosher items on the cafeteria menu and letting employees display religious objects in their private workspaces -- accommodations that MCTC has in fact made in the past."
In its treatment of the constitutional issue, the editorial flunks. Rather than looking to applicable legal precedent, the Star Tribune cites other instances of illegality as precedent:
"If MCTC were setting some unusual precedent, we might worry. But it's not. St. Cloud State University, the University of Minnesota-Duluth and at least a dozen other colleges around the country have installed small foot-washing facilities for their devout Muslim students -- at modest cost and often using student fees rather than state revenues."
To cite past instances of illegal conduct to support the proposition that the conduct in issue is legal lacks a certain persuasive force. Among fans of logic it is known as begging the question.
Is it really necessary in any sense for Minnesota students or taxpayers to buy Muslim ritual equipment so that Muslim students can pray? Is the Muslim community -- a community that can afford to pay for attorneys to bring a frivolous lawsuit on behalf of flying imams -- incapable of supporting the ritual necessities of its own community? Or is securing submission by fools such as the administration of Minneapolis Community and Technical College and the Star Tribune editorial board the point in issue?
Coming to a college or university or grade school near you.
bump
I’m curious as to what the commentary on the forum at the Star-Tribune website is. I used to live in Minneapolis. I’m glad I moved.
Wudu: What Invalidates It
If any of the following happen, you must perform wudu again before doing salah. It is recommended (but not mandatory) to always be in a state of wudu, so it is not necessary to wait until hearing the adhan (call to Salah) before performing wudu.
Relieving oneself from the call of nature
O you who believe! When you intend to offer As-Salât (the prayer), wash your faces and your hands (forearms) up to the elbows, rub (by passing wet hands over) your heads, and (wash) your feet up to ankles. If you are in a state of Janâba (i.e. had a sexual discharge), purify yourself (bathe your whole body). But if you are ill or on a journey or any of you comes from answering the call of nature, or you have been in contact with women (i.e. sexual intercourse) and you find no water, then perform Tayammum with clean earth and rub therewith your faces and hands. Allâh does not want to place you in difficulty, but He wants to purify you, and to complete His Favour on you that you may be thankful. [The Noble Qur’an 5:6]
Passing gas, i.e. breaking wind
Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah said, “Allah does not accept the prayer of a person who has released gas until he makes a new ablution.” A person from Hadhramaut asked Abu Hurairah, “What does releasing gas mean?” He answered, “Wind with or without sound.” [Related by al-Bukhari and Muslim.]
Abu Hurairah also narrated that the Prophet said, “If one of you finds a disturbance in his abdomen and is not certain if he has released any gas or not, he should not leave the mosque unless he hears its sound or smells its scent.” [Related by Muslim.]
‘Abbad ibn Tameem related that his uncle queried the Prophet about a person who feels something in his abdomen while praying. Said the Prophet , “He should not leave (the prayer) until he hears it or smells it.” [Related by Muslim, Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi.]
Sexual Relations
One must perform ghusl after sexual relations, i.e. when the male private part enters the female private part.
Touching one’s private parts with no barrier (i.e. cloth) between the hand and organ
Busrah bint Safwan narrated that the Prophet said, “Whoever touches his sexual organ cannot pray until he performs ablution.” [This hadith is related by “the five.” At-Tirmidhi classified it as sahih and al-Bukhari called it the most authentic report on that topic. Malik, ash-Shaifi, Ahmad and others also narrated it.]
“Brown doesn’t pause to reveal the nature of the injury sustained by the Muslim student hoisting his foot into the sink.”
He might have pulled a hammie.
So, does anybody have the original article?
“If MCTC were setting some unusual precedent, we might worry. But it’s not. St. Cloud State University, the University of Minnesota-Duluth and at least a dozen other colleges around the country have installed small foot-washing facilities for their devout Muslim students — at modest cost and often using student fees rather than state revenues.”
I wonder if my college has a foot-washing pool! Using student fees for this nonsense? I’m going to call them and find out. We have a Muslim Student Association, and a few weeks ago there were some Islamic speakers, some Muslim Awareness BS, and -lucky me- we have a lot of Muslim students.
"The comparison is misplaced: Omar Shahin, leader of the detained imams, has helped raise money for at least two charities later shut down for supporting terrorism. From 2000 to 2003, he headed the Islamic Center of Tucson, which terrorism expert Rita Katz described in the Washington Post as holding "basically the first cell of al Qaeda in the United States." CAIR has long been controversial for alleged terrorist ties, while the Chicago Tribune has described MAS as the American arm of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which "preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic."
hmmm, there must be a way to pour lye into these basins or somehow to sabotage them. Must stand for The American Way here ...
Looks like the original is gone.
Here’s an article from the token conservative at the Strib....
http://www.startribune.com/191/story/1115081.html
Since accommodating Muslim rituals is fine, I look forward to seeing Id al Adha, the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice and second most important festival on the Muslim calendar, observed at MCTC. This ritual involves animal sacrifice. Guess they’re going to need a bigger wash basin for that.
I need to install something in the garage so I can wash the dog.
But it might be good for the kids washing off their bare feet in the summer.
Beer and bacon.
What is modern leftism, modern liberalism? White hating genocidal racism for power. How many acts of rank hypocrisy on the issue of race do they have to commit before you admit it? The real villains of the play aren’t liberals or Muslims, they’re conservatives who go along to get along, who understand the genocidal nature of their powerful opponents but collaborate out of fear or selfishness. How will life improve for Americans when these people make up 10% of the population? The collaborators don’t worry about the quality of life of Americans outside of their guarded gates.
I hope he only uses one square of paper....
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