You remember the bug TMBWitW had on Sunday? I got it on Monday, it laid me out for quite a while.

Mulligan has joined the baby pool, so the competition is getting tighter!

I meant to blog on this next item on Monday at the latest, but the bug kept me down, then on Tuesday I was playing catch-up for all the things I didn’t get accomplished on Monday, so here we are, stealing a few seconds before I head off for work: (note – it’s now after work on Thursday, and time keeps on slippin’…)

In Sunday’s Arizona Republic, there was an article on the op-ed pages. Not just any article, but something I have been waiting on for a while now.

M. Zuhdi Jasser is, according to the bio at the end of the special piece, a Phoenix physician and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Dr. Jasser wrote:

“The first thing one must understand about the whole hullabaloo with the Muslim imams taken off a Phoenix-bound plane in Minneapolis is that it most definitely was not about the right to prayer or freedom of worship.
“And much as the imams and their handlers may try, it is certainly not about victimization.”

The Republic’s on-line site (www.arizonarepublic.com) does not archive non-staff articles, so please bear with me. Feel free to search on his name at the site under archives; he comes up quite often.

Dr. Jasser is a rare person in this day and age – a Muslim who is actually, on an on-going basis, calling for the moderates to step up and denounce the extremists. He has called for and organized peaceful gatherings of Muslims (as opposed to muslims, no uppercase) in order to put forth an acceptable face on the religion that is being hijacked by radicals. His cry is the same as many of ours: “Why aren’t the moderates doing anything?” He is, in fact, also doing something, and for that I give him credit. Now, if there were only more who thought like him. I am afraid, however, that if the radical muslims continue in their quest to remove the US and Israel form the face of the earth, the moderates of the faith will also be removed.

Dr. Jasser continues, further in:

“The preponderance of evidence points to some troubling coincidences during flight preparation, regardless of where we stand on this issue. The distribution of their seats, while in fact random, raised concern. Changing seats after boarding, rather than before, raised concern. Conversations in Arabic afte boarding raised concern. Seatbelt extenders raised concern. However, no passenger refused to board afte seeing and hearing the imams pray aloud at the gate. Taken individually, each of the reported actions could be something any of us would do. However, in totality, although unfortunate in retrospect, it remains hard to fault a cautous crew who must act with little information to ensure a safe flight.
“But let us look at the response of the imams since the incident.
“They rushed toward the media never looking back. They have taken their story of victimization to every soft media they could find.they then stoked the same tired Muslim flames of victimization through their own political pulpits in mosques around the Valley.”

If you recall, and Dr. Jasser goes on to say, that CAIR had jumped on the vicitim bandwagon even before the imams had made it back to Phoenix the next day; it is my opinion that CAIR (are you lurking again, CAIR? Are you reading these words? Then leave a comment, you chickens. Call me a liar.) wanted to run the victim flag as far up the highest flagpole they could in the hopes that someone would hear their cries and start falling all over themselves apologizing.

I ain’t gonna apologize. I applaud the crew for their actions. I berate the imams for their insensitive approach and swiss-cheese explanations (It was the required prayer time? For what, three of the six of you? Are you going to report the other three so they can be reprimanded? Didn’t think so.); and I also give a big F- to the liberal media outlets that made a big to-do over the issue before they had the full story.

Dr. Jasser:

“Though this was not about prayer, let us look at the prayer itself: certainly a central part of our faith both alone and in congregation. The Quran teaches Muslims that God did not amke our faith to be too difficult. Thus, during travel, many of us pray alone in silence when we cannot find a private place or where public display is not appropriate.
“Prayer is an intimate thing, five times a day for Muslims. It is a personal conversation with God and not about showing others how devout we are.”

There were members of a local mosque gathered at Sky Harbor (it just so happened they gathered in front of the building with “US Airways” on it, positioned so the cameras could get the whole thing on film – kinda like a certain crying she-hag) in order to publicly pray, in “protest” of the treatment of the imams (microphones were provided so everyone could hear how righteous they were). They, most likely, did not understand that the imams weren’t removed for praying, but for the actions which mirrored terrorist tactics. And, I beleive, they missed the part in muslim training school where prayer was a “personal converation with God and not about showing others how devout” they are.

If any group of people acted like the imams did after boarding the plane, I would hope and pray that they were removed, no matter what religion they were.

I also applaud Dr. Jasser for continuing his call with the view that religion and politics don’t mix – and I will certainly stand by that. While devout people can be excellent leaders, they lose their effectiveness when they turn their positions into bully pulpits, no matter what religion or politic you look at.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!