January 2011

Religious Right Brings Back the Halal Meat Panic

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 1/28/2011 11:18 am

Last October a group of Anti-Muslim activists led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer protested Campbell’s for making Halal soups in Canada, calling on followers to boycott the company. Halal foods are made according to Islamic dietary laws, much like Kosher foods are made according to Jewish dietary laws. Geller accused Campbell’s of doing the “bidding” of the Muslim Brotherhood and said that “Warhol is spinning in his grave.”

WorldNetDaily believes it’s time for another right-wing panic over “creeping Sharia law” in supermarkets and restaurants, and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is happy to help. Fischer warns against eating the food of “the demon God-Allah” and lends his support to a messianic Jewish leader’s campaign against all foods Halal:

Are you eating food sacrificed to idols?

American pastor sounds alarm on supermarkets, restaurants

When you bite into a delicious pizza, succulent sandwich or luscious lamb chops, are you possibly eating food that has been sacrificed to idols?

An outspoken American pastor says yes, and he's sounding the alarm for Christians to be aware of the Islamic influence he calls "backdoor Shariah" now nibbling its way across the fruited plain.

At issue, says Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash., is eating food that's "halal," in other words "lawful" or "permitted" for the Muslim diet.

…

"This is coming to a store near you. This is all over," says Biltz, who is especially concerned about restaurants serving halal meats.

"At a restaurant, you're not going to know [if the food is halal] unless you ask," he said. "I think we need to be aware of these things because they don't want Christians to know because they just want to sell it and get it out there. ... A lot of people don't want you to know it's going all over the world. Christians are upset as they're finding out about this because Christians are saying, 'How come you didn't tell me?

…

Pastor Biltz is not the only one raising concerns.

Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for government and public policy at the American Family Association, said Americans need to look at what's been taking place in Britain when it comes to the expansion of Islamic food standards.

"Folks in hospitals, schools, and pubs across the U.K. have been eating food that has first been blessed in the name of the demon-God Allah but know nothing about it," Fischer wrote in a column last fall.

"So Christians in the U.K. have been eating meat over which Islamic rituals have been pronounced, and most of the lamb sold there has had an Islamic prayer said over it at the point of slaughter. ... The prayer? 'Bismillah Allah-hu-Akbar,' which means 'In the name of Allah, who is the greatest.' Some chicken butchers in the U.K. slaughter chickens using an automatic circular saw while a tape recorder intones the Islamic prayer. I kid you not."

Religious Right Brings Back the Halal Meat Panic

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 1/28/2011 11:18 am

Last October a group of Anti-Muslim activists led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer protested Campbell’s for making Halal soups in Canada, calling on followers to boycott the company. Halal foods are made according to Islamic dietary laws, much like Kosher foods are made according to Jewish dietary laws. Geller accused Campbell’s of doing the “bidding” of the Muslim Brotherhood and said that “Warhol is spinning in his grave.”

WorldNetDaily believes it’s time for another right-wing panic over “creeping Sharia law” in supermarkets and restaurants, and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is happy to help. Fischer warns against eating the food of “the demon God-Allah” and lends his support to a messianic Jewish leader’s campaign against all foods Halal:

Are you eating food sacrificed to idols?

American pastor sounds alarm on supermarkets, restaurants

When you bite into a delicious pizza, succulent sandwich or luscious lamb chops, are you possibly eating food that has been sacrificed to idols?

An outspoken American pastor says yes, and he's sounding the alarm for Christians to be aware of the Islamic influence he calls "backdoor Shariah" now nibbling its way across the fruited plain.

At issue, says Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash., is eating food that's "halal," in other words "lawful" or "permitted" for the Muslim diet.

…

"This is coming to a store near you. This is all over," says Biltz, who is especially concerned about restaurants serving halal meats.

"At a restaurant, you're not going to know [if the food is halal] unless you ask," he said. "I think we need to be aware of these things because they don't want Christians to know because they just want to sell it and get it out there. ... A lot of people don't want you to know it's going all over the world. Christians are upset as they're finding out about this because Christians are saying, 'How come you didn't tell me?

…

Pastor Biltz is not the only one raising concerns.

Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for government and public policy at the American Family Association, said Americans need to look at what's been taking place in Britain when it comes to the expansion of Islamic food standards.

"Folks in hospitals, schools, and pubs across the U.K. have been eating food that has first been blessed in the name of the demon-God Allah but know nothing about it," Fischer wrote in a column last fall.

"So Christians in the U.K. have been eating meat over which Islamic rituals have been pronounced, and most of the lamb sold there has had an Islamic prayer said over it at the point of slaughter. ... The prayer? 'Bismillah Allah-hu-Akbar,' which means 'In the name of Allah, who is the greatest.' Some chicken butchers in the U.K. slaughter chickens using an automatic circular saw while a tape recorder intones the Islamic prayer. I kid you not."

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 6:51 pm

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 6:51 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 6:30 pm
  • Rep. Mike Pence will not run for President, disappointing literally dozens of voters.

  • Sharron Angle, on the other hand, just might make a run.

  • Nobody cares, but apparently Mark Salter is the "anonymous" author of the novel "O."

  • John Stemberger's legal defense fund was set up by Citizens for Community Values.

  • You know what stopped the flooding in Australia?  Prayer.

  • Bryan Fischer says Newt Gingrich is "too green" to be the GOP nominee - and he doesn't mean inexperienced.

  • Finally, Al Mohler says the theory of evolution is incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the reason the universe appears to be billions of years old is "because it bears testimony to the effects of sin."

In Garlow's Dream, Obama Pleads For God's Forgiveness For Destroying America

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 3:28 pm

Jim Garlow was not impressed by President Obama's State of the Union address and has taken it upon himself to draft his own dream SOTU address that he wishes Obama had delivered in which he begs God's forgiveness for systematically destroying America ... and Garlow decided to publish it on the American Family Association's blog, of all places: 

Under my watch, more babies are being killed in the womb that under any other president, as I am the most pro-abortion president in the history of the US. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have tragically hastened to destroy the No. 1 preserver of all that is good in society – the family, consisting of a mother and a father. In my need to be politically correct, and my desire to garner more votes from the nuclear family attackers, I was drawn in to their errors and sins of redefining the family. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have helped to demoralize the military that defends us. I ran roughshod over 59% of the US Marines when I forced my social experimentation upon them, coercing them to accept lifestyles as normative, with no thought of troop readiness and cohesion. I was drawn in to the errors, lies and sins of political correctness, at the expense of truth. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have intruded into the privacy of relationships between a doctor and a patient – coercing governmental bureaucratic incompetency into what was once the finest health care in the world. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have apologized for America’s very existence to the world, playing into the “blame America syndrome.” I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have shown that I have no sense of historical understanding regarding the profound and meaningful phrase “American exceptionalism.” I just did not “get it.” I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have even quoted the Declaration of Independence – three times within a 33 day span – purposely skipping over three words “by their Creator” in my effort to appear to be an erudite, sophisticated secularist. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

We need God. We need him badly. I cannot save this nation. Neither can you. The Democratic Party cannot help us. The Republican Party cannot help us. Nor can any other party. Only God can. God, we beseech you to help us.

Please give me a chance to correct the errors of my ways.”

In Garlow's Dream, Obama Pleads For God's Forgiveness For Destroying America

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 3:28 pm

Jim Garlow was not impressed by President Obama's State of the Union address and has taken it upon himself to draft his own dream SOTU address that he wishes Obama had delivered in which he begs God's forgiveness for systematically destroying America ... and Garlow decided to publish it on the American Family Association's blog, of all places: 

Under my watch, more babies are being killed in the womb that under any other president, as I am the most pro-abortion president in the history of the US. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have tragically hastened to destroy the No. 1 preserver of all that is good in society – the family, consisting of a mother and a father. In my need to be politically correct, and my desire to garner more votes from the nuclear family attackers, I was drawn in to their errors and sins of redefining the family. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have helped to demoralize the military that defends us. I ran roughshod over 59% of the US Marines when I forced my social experimentation upon them, coercing them to accept lifestyles as normative, with no thought of troop readiness and cohesion. I was drawn in to the errors, lies and sins of political correctness, at the expense of truth. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have intruded into the privacy of relationships between a doctor and a patient – coercing governmental bureaucratic incompetency into what was once the finest health care in the world. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have apologized for America’s very existence to the world, playing into the “blame America syndrome.” I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have shown that I have no sense of historical understanding regarding the profound and meaningful phrase “American exceptionalism.” I just did not “get it.” I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

I have even quoted the Declaration of Independence – three times within a 33 day span – purposely skipping over three words “by their Creator” in my effort to appear to be an erudite, sophisticated secularist. I am ashamed of this. I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness.

We need God. We need him badly. I cannot save this nation. Neither can you. The Democratic Party cannot help us. The Republican Party cannot help us. Nor can any other party. Only God can. God, we beseech you to help us.

Please give me a chance to correct the errors of my ways.”

Meet Ava, The Tea Party News Avatar

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 3:05 pm

This is apparently a real thing:

Tea Party News Brief, LLC, headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, is the nation's first nonpartisan news service for the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party News Brief launches the News Brief Animated News Show to provide weekly policy analyses on the 112th Congress for the Tea Party Movement. This weekly animated news program can be seen on www.teapartynewsbrief.com. This week's episode is "State of the Union Night."

Meet Ava, The Tea Party News Avatar

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 1/27/2011 3:05 pm

This is apparently a real thing:

Tea Party News Brief, LLC, headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, is the nation's first nonpartisan news service for the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party News Brief launches the News Brief Animated News Show to provide weekly policy analyses on the 112th Congress for the Tea Party Movement. This weekly animated news program can be seen on www.teapartynewsbrief.com. This week's episode is "State of the Union Night."

Tea Party-Backed Senate Candidate Once Tried to End Scholarships for Minority Students

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 1/27/2011 2:54 pm

After Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison announced her retirement after she was declared a top target of Tea Party activists, the race for the Republican nomination became even more crowded and contentious. Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams immediately became a Tea Party sensation and last week resigned from the Railroad Commission in order to be a full-time candidate.

The American Spectator today features a glowing profile of Williams, saying that “something about him says ‘Don’t mess with Texas.’”

Williams even won the endorsement of Tea Party leader Sen. Jim DeMint, who’s Senate Conservatives Fund lifted a number of far-right candidates like Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell to victory in GOP primary contests.

But Williams first garnered the support of the Party’s far-right when he unsuccessfully tried to block scholarships for minority students when he worked at the Department of Education under President George H. W. Bush. The New York Times reported in 1990 that Williams caused uproar when he tried to prohibit “colleges and universities that receive Federal funds from offering scholarships designated for minority students.”

Michael L. Williams, the Education Department's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said yesterday that "race-exclusive" scholarships, or those based on ethnic origin, were discriminatory and therefore illegal.

College administrators and scholarship fund directors reacted with alarm, saying the decision could reverse decades of efforts to increase the enrollment of members of racial and ethnic minorities who have been historically underrepresented in colleges.

"We were shocked by this decision," said Richard F. Rosser, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents 815 institutions. "We have been making enormous efforts to increase the numbers of minority students in our colleges and universities, and this has necessarily required a great deal of financial aid."

Neither Rosser nor anyone else contacted yesterday could say how many institutions, or what percentage of total financial aid to minority students, might be affected by the new enforcement policy. But the practice of setting aside money to attract qualified minority students and make college more affordable for them has been widespread for at least 20 years.

Ultimately, then-Secretary Lamar Alexander (now a Republican Senator from Tennessee) stopped Williams from implementing his policy, including his attempt to block the Fiesta Bowl from setting “aside $100,000 for a fund for minority scholarships.” As Williams happily notes in his campaign’s biography, he succeeded Clarence Thomas in his position at the Education Department.

In a Republican primary in Texas where each candidate has to demonstrate their right-wing credentials, Williams may try to use this case to his advantage.