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Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals Seek C
mr-bean
05/27/03 at 07:18:14
 
Surprise! -- Evangelicals are on a hate mission and taking quranic verses out of context.  And Bush and his buddies are evangelicals...just what horrors lie in the future?  See the NYtimes article below.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May 27, 2003
Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals Seek Converts
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN


ROVE CITY, Ohio — On a recent Saturday in a church fellowship hall here, evangelical Christians from several states gathered for an all-day seminar on how to woo Muslims away from Islam.

The teacher urged a kindly approach: always show Muslims love, charity and hospitality, he said, and carry copies of the New Testament to give as gifts. The students, scribbling notes, included two pastors, a school secretary and college students who said they hoped to convert Muslims in the United States, or on mission trips abroad.

But although the teacher, an evangelical preacher from Beirut, stressed the need to avoid offending Muslims, he projected a snappy PowerPoint presentation showing passages from the Koran that he said proved Islam was regressive, fraudulent and violent.

"Here in the Koran, it says slay them, slay the infidels!" said the teacher, who said he did not want to be identified because being a missionary to Muslims put his life at risk. "In the Bible there are no words from Jesus saying we should kill innocent people."

At the grass roots of evangelical Christianity, many are now absorbing the antipathy for Islam that emerged last year with the incendiary comments of ministers. The sharp language, from religious leaders like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jerry Vines, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has drawn rebukes from Muslims and Christian groups alike. Mr. Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion, and Mr. Vines called Muhammad, Islam's founder and prophet, a "demon-possessed pedophile."

In evangelical churches and seminaries across the country, lectures and books criticizing Islam and promoting strategies for Muslim conversions are gaining currency. More than a dozen recently published critiques of Islam are now available in Christian bookstores.

Arab International Ministry, the Indianapolis group that led the crash course on Islam here, claims to have trained 4,500 American Christians to proselytize Muslims in the last six years, many of those since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The oratorical tone of these authors and lecturers varies, but they share the basic presumption that the world's two largest religions are headed for a confrontation, with Christianity representing what is good, true and peaceful, and Islam what is evil, false and violent.

The criticism is coming predominantly from evangelicals, who belong to many independent churches and Christian denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention.

Evangelicals have always believed that all other religions are wrong, but what is notable now is the vituperation.

"The Koran's good verses are like the food an assassin adds to poison to disguise a deadly taste," writes Don Richardson, a well-known missionary who worked in Muslim countries, in "Secrets of the Koran" (Regal Books, 2003). "Better to find the same food, sans poison, in the Bible." This month, he is scheduled to speak on Islam at churches in five American cities.

Most of the authors and teachers preach a corollary of the Christian dictum to "love the sinner and hate the sin." They assert that while the vast majority of Muslims are not evil, they have been deceived by a diabolical religion based on a flawed scripture that can never bring them salvation.

Akbar Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic studies department at American University, said he grew up attending Catholic and Protestant missionary schools in Pakistan, but never heard a negative word about Islam from the missionaries. Now, he said, the new hostility to Islam and, in particular, the insults to the prophet Muhammad have outraged the Muslim world.

"The whole range of Muslims, from orthodox to liberal secularists, are all lined up against these attacks coming from the American evangelists," said Mr. Ahmed, the author of a new book "Islam Under Siege: Living Dangerously in a Post-Honor World" (Polity Press). "Unwittingly, these evangelists have unleashed a consolidation of sentiments for Islam. Even the most moderate Muslims have been upset by this."

The push for conversions may backfire for the evangelists, he said, since Muslims who may have been open to the missionaries' presence feel their honor has been insulted.

In interviews, evangelical authors and lecturers said their work did not denigrate Islam as much as share the truth about Christianity.

Ergun M. Caner, raised a Muslim by his Turkish family, converted to Christianity as a teenager and wrote, with his brother Emir, "Unveiling Islam: An Insider Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs" (Kregel Publications), which has sold more than 100,000 copies.

"I am more interested in apologetics than polemics," said Mr. Caner, now a professor of theology and church history at The Criswell College. "Apologetics is defending your faith, and polemics is critiquing others. A Muslim has the right to to worship Allah, and I have a right to stand in front of that mosque and tell them that Jesus saves. That's the hope for Iraq, the hope for Afghanistan."

Evangelical scholars and leaders cite several reasons for their quickening interest in Islam: the American defeat of a major Muslim nation, Iraq, which may open it to Christian missionaries, while other Muslim nations remain closed; the 2001 terrorist attacks, which led many Americans to see Islam as a global threat; the greater numbers and visibility of Muslims in the United States, and the demise of Communism, once public enemy No. 1 for many evangelical organizations.

"Evangelicals have substituted Islam for the Soviet Union," said the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 43,000 congregations. "The Muslims have become the modern-day equivalent of the Evil Empire."

The National Association of Evangelicals called on Christian leaders this month to temper their anti-Islam oratory, saying it had been unhelpful to interfaith relations, and dangerous to Christians spreading the gospel to Muslims. While some evangelical leaders welcomed the criticism, others bristled and said that it was not the Christians but the Muslims who must stop the hate-speech.

Historians note that enmity between Christianity and Islam dates as far back as the Crusades, the fall of Byzantium and the reconquest of Spain.

"Keep in mind that Islam is the only religious tradition that has ever threatened the existence of Christianity," said Charles Kimball, chairman of the religion department at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and author of the book "When Religion Becomes Evil" (Harper San Francisco, 2002). "That's deeply woven into our subconscious, into Western literature and culture, and so this image of an Islamic threat taps into a notion that's there already."

The conservative evangelical approach to Islam is in stark contrast with the "interfaith understanding" approach of many Orthodox, Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches like the Methodists, Episcopalians and Lutherans. Since 9/11, local churches in these denominations began inviting Muslims to explain their faith at a flurry of interfaith events and dialogue sessions.

"God calls all of us to have an open mind and an open heart," said the Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which represents many Protestant and Orthodox denominations. "And many of the people who are part of the National Council of Churches believe that if judgment is to be made it needs to be made by God and not by those of us who have divided ourselves up around a particular ideology."

These churches acknowledge theological differences between Christianity and Islam, but stress the common roots and essential compatibility. They teach that Muslims are monotheists, "Allah" is simply Arabic for God, and both faiths share Abraham as patriarch.

But for many of the evangelical experts on Islam, these notions are simplistic whitewash to paint over a real theological divide.

At the daylong seminar in the fellowship hall of Southwest Grace Brethren Church, just outside Columbus, the teacher drew on his own life experience as evidence of Islam's evils. While President Bush and others have depicted Islam as a peaceful religion that has been "hijacked" by extremists, the teacher said he knew better than to believe that.

He spoke of a childhood friend in Beirut who joined the Hezbollah terrorist network and showed off his victims' severed ears. Another friend, he said, was threatened with death by his father when he converted to Christianity. (The teacher did not mention the Phalangist Christian militias that helped stoke Lebanon's civil war.)

He did not tell the class who he was, and his mysteriousness reinforced his message that Christian missionaries face danger in Muslim nations. At least six have been killed since Sept. 11, 2001.

"You can tell me Islam is peaceful, but I've done my homework," he said, reeling off a list of Koranic citations. "From the beginning of Islam, the sword brought results faster than words."

Some of what he taught would be accepted by most theologians: Muslims reject the Christian concept of a Trinitarian God — the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Muslims respect Jesus as a prophet, but do not accept the Christian belief that he is the son of God.

But he intermingled accepted facts with negative accounts of Islamic teaching, history and traditions. The pilgrimage to Mecca, he said, is a dangerous event at which people are killed every year. Communal prayers each Friday are "a day of rage," he said.

And Muslims even pray differently than Christians, he said. "Muslims pray to get points," he said, "not to communicate with God." Group prayer on Fridays is for "extra points," he said.

Pat McEvoy, a secretary at a high school in Columbus, said she had known very little about Islam before the seminar. Her school has an influx of students from Somalia, and as she walked through the hallways she regarded these immigrants as "a virtual mission field."

She said she felt an obligation to save them from an eternity in Hell.

"If I had the answer for cancer, what sort of a human would I be not to share it?" Ms. McEvoy said.

The teacher concluded by giving the students tips on what to do and not to do to reach Muslims: Don't approach them in groups. Don't bring them to your church, because they will misunderstand the singing and clapping as a party. Do invite them home for a meal. Do bring them chocolate chip cookies. Do talk about how, in order to get saved, they must accept Jesus.

"Our job," he said, "is not to make the Muslim a Christian. Our job is to show them the love of Christ."



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Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
saadia
05/27/03 at 12:15:49
[i] PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY[/i]


A Very Mixed Marriage

Evangelical Christians lining up to fight for Israel may
be an unmovable obstacle to Bush’s ‘road map’    

By Howard Fineman and Tamara Lipper
NEWSWEEK

It’s a landmark in the history of strange bedfellows: Tom DeLay says kaddish. It happened last February, the day the space shuttle Columbia fell apart. Among the dead astronauts was an Israeli, Ilan Ramon. In Florida, at the Boca Raton Resort, some big machers had gathered to hear a speech by House Republican leader DeLay, an evangelical Christian from Sugar Land, Texas.

MIXING CHURCHILL AND THE BIBLE, DeLay talked of a destiny shared by America and Israel. He asked for “divine assistance” in protecting both. In closing, to the astonishment of his audience, he recited—in Hebrew—the last lines of the Jewish prayer for the dead. The crowd, many in tears, joined in. (DeLay had been coached by a Jewish former staffer.) “It was quite a moment,” said Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist.
      Quite an understatement. Though they welcomed him as an ardent supporter of Israel, many in the audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference were wary of DeLay’s view on a host of social issues—he’s pro-life, anti-gay-rights, pro-voucher, pro-gun, pro-school-prayer. Nor are they fond of his occasional declaration that what America needs most is more Christians in office. “Some would argue that it’s a mistake for Jews to get into bed with the religious right,” said Jess Hordes of the Anti-Defamation League.
      Too late. Indeed, these bedfellows aren’t strangers anymore, which presents George W. Bush with a new opportunity—and a new risk. Opening another front in his war on terror, the president has launched an effort to coax Israelis and Palestinians toward peace. As Bush prepares for his trip to the G8 summit in France, there is talk he’ll tack on a trip to the Middle East. But the “Roadmap” he wants to pursue there runs not only through the Byzantine byways of the Levant, but along the political freeways of America. If he is at all serious, Bush eventually will hit a potentially impenetrable roadblock at home: the deepening alliance between Jewish supporters of Israel and the growing ranks of Christian Zionists.
      Simply put, the administration won’t be able to lean hard on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon without being attacked by two blocs it cares very much about as the 2004 election approaches. Eager to capitalize on Bush’s standing as a war commander and a friend of Israel’s, White House strategists hope to double the size of Bush’s Jewish vote. Still, the numbers there, however pivotal in places such as Florida, are small. Much more is at stake among the nation’s 50 million evangelicals. Pressuring the Israelis also risks incurring the wrath—perhaps expressed in thundering, Biblical terms—of activists who claim to speak for that constituency, which the White House hopes will turn out in record numbers next year. “We are going to watch the Road-map very carefully,” Jerry Falwell told NEWSWEEK.
      In April 2002, Christian Zionists were infuriated when the president, in a Rose Garden speech after a particularly heinous suicide bombing in Israel, seemed to equate Palestinian terrorism with the Israeli Army’s actions on the West Bank. Not only did he not call for the ouster of Yasir Arafat (a goal of hard-liners for years), Bush sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to meet with the Palestinian. “That was more than those of us who support Israel could take,” said Gary Bauer, a leading Christian Zionist.
      A plague of e-mails and letters descended upon the White House. Engineered by Bauer, Falwell, Pat Robertson and others, several hundred thousand messages flooded the administration, urging it to lay off Sharon and jettison Arafat. In their regular conference call with the White House, evangelical leaders made the same case. “Well, let’s just say that the Middle East comes up during most of these calls,” says Falwell. Other—perhaps more powerful—voices chimed in: congressional leaders and neoconservatives in and out of the administration. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer soon was calling Sharon a “man of peace.”
      Having heard the message in April, the White House responded more fully in June 2002, when the president launched the Roadmap concept. Though the new Zionist alliance had serious questions—especially about putting the future of the West Bank and Jerusalem up for negotiation—they were thrilled that Bush told Arafat to go. Diplomatically, the move made sense. Politically, it was no accident. Indeed, NEWSWEEK has learned, political adviser Karl Rove was involved in reviewing drafts of both of Bush’s major addresses on the Middle East. Senior administration officials say Rove merely “noodled” the “phrasing” of the speeches.
      But in the Middle East, every noodle is important. A former senior Bush administration official says that proposed language favorable to the Palestinian cause was “walked back” after the speeches were reviewed by Vice President Dick Cheney, national-security adviser Condi Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Rove. According to the former official, Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, defended the edits. In one conversation, Hadley said that the speeches needed, among other things, to be politically viable. (Through a spokeswoman, Hadley strongly denied that politics was involved.)
      Still, there’s no doubt the White House is aware of the new Zionist alliance, a typical American marriage of faith, principle and convenience. American Jews who see Israel’s survival as a paramount issue are looking for support. Coming to meet them are the evangelicals, who tend to believe that the “Covenant of Abraham” promised the Jews their entire ancient homeland—including all the modern-day West Bank—forever. Many (though not all) evangelicals believe that Jesus won’t return until the Jewish state is fully re-established, including in Jerusalem.
      Mere politics is involved, too. Conservative Christians want to shed their image of intolerance. “They’re tired of being branded anti-Semites,” says Grover Norquist, a conservative activist. GOP leaders bless the marriage, and hope to get it into a Big Tent strategy for 2004. There is evidence that a number of major Jewish donors—longtime Democrats—are covering their bets if not switching sides, especially in New York, where the shock of 9-11 adds urgency to the war on terror and to Bush’s popularity among Jews.
      After private assurances from Bush, Sharon late last week made a show of accepting the Roadmap in concept, if not in its particulars. But the new Zionists are taking no chances. Three weeks ago Bauer was warned by allies in Israel’s government—one of them was Tourism Minister Benny Elon, a source told NEWSWEEK—that Bush was about to pressure Sharon. Bauer and others swung into action. At a conference in Washington, speaker after speaker denounced the document as a “Roadmap to hell.” Bauer organized a letter to Bush from two dozen evangelical leaders, warning that any attempt to be “evenhanded” between Israel and the Palestinians would be “morally reprehensible.” “If they do anything other than make Jerusalem the capital of Israel, they would be messing with the word and the power of God,” Robertson told NEWSWEEK. DeLay pitched in, too. Speaking to Jewish political activists in Washington last week, he said, “Israel is not the problem in the Middle East. Israel is the solution.” He spoke no Hebrew this time, but it still sounded like a prayer.
NS
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
Nistar
05/27/03 at 22:55:55
[slm]

Just another interesting side-note:  In his address during Memorial Day, C. Powell refered to "tikkun ha'olam" or "'healing' the world" -- a specific Kabbalistic theme.

Now -- he *was* addressing a majority Jewish audience concerning the memorial of the Warsaw uprising -- however, tikkun is not necessarilly related to events of the Holocaust (an ongoing debate among Jewish scholars, concerning the "problem of evil").  So he was obviously making some kind religio-political statemnet of intention, though we may not know what that is.

I wonder...did Bush or any of his party use Islamic concepts when addressing Muslim groups?  Anyone know?

Just wondering about the principle of neutrality that is a part of secularism...

With peace,
Nistar
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
paula
05/28/03 at 01:09:28
[slm]
[size=2][font=Verdana][quote]PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY [/quote]

Since pre-elections of our current President & definitely following right after there has been some very strong questionable points concerning the division of religion & state per our very constitution or rather non-division of Church & State.

[quote]"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

...The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
[/quote]
Before the elections I was very concerned at the propaganda that was floating around concerning religious matters & the religious support for the election.

After the election when President Bush started taking the cameras right into the church for service after service. It also struck me as concerning.  Not for the heart of the matter.  For the bigger picture.

Then his persuit of his faith-based-initiative & continutation of persuit despite opposition.

We then followed with the War on Terror.  Please do not forget or go back and re-read headlines & points that took place following the attack & the initiative starting the War on terror.  Look at what was re-wrote at the stroke of a pen & who had to answer to whom. How President Bush has been the only President in history to fail to have to answer to anyone. And it was done all in the name of "War on Terror". Look at who has resigned, look at what has worked & what has not worked.

If it was possible I would urge many to go back & look at every one of President Bush's addresses to the people & listen to his words and actions/ expressions to everyone. American, non-American, all countries & governments. If you were to place them all together & view them I think it would start to paint a picture. I would especially urge you to view the faces & actions of our military officials during many of his addresses. At the very least think back some & try to remember unbiasedly as much as you can..... everyone.

Whether this president or this party or another, whether current events or future I would truly hope we may all be careful & concerened, all accross the globe... Insha Allah...... Allahu Akbar.

A big concern & question I have personally is how may these faith-based-initiatives play out now with our war on terror.  How do they alot freedom to all under acts like this. And our federal monies to be supporting everyone including Muslims when they have fear & distrust for the Muslim society and the American Islamic institutes.

Concerning brother "beans" post..... I believe he hit a very good point that we should be concerned about accross this globe.  Do we not have suppressed Muslim nations accross the globe, we as Muslims should be supporting our brothers & sisters.  & the American government should be supporting "that" effort, not an individual payoff in a bigger strategy. Before we said our country had a political strategy.  If we look back we may ask ourselves political strategies for our benefit at the expense of whom.  But today, are those strategies still just political & what does it mean if it's not?

This is not my area that I like to persue.  But I cannot express enough the perceptions that many non-muslims have.  It is enough to keep us weary, it is enough to ask every Muslim to be concerned & pray to Allah(swt).  I heard of a case just the other day that a 12 yr old boy, may Allah(swt) hold him close & help him daily.  Was in school, a class where a subsitute teacher had asked if anyone could give example on a topic they were discussing.  The boy had started to give the comparison to Allah(swt)'s punishment to Iblis/Satan for not bowing.  The teacher stopped him right there and told him he was not making any sense.  She said," you just said Satan punished Satan".  Then precended to say that her church had taught her that Allah was Satan & he was not making any sense.  Then left the class with that point & moved on.  This was just a teachers personal opinion given in an "Educational Institute", that she said was based off of teachings or understandings from her own church.  One child that is confident in what he is saying was told he is making "no sense" and how many children left with a tainted point.... Allahu Alam

Jazak Allahu Khairan Brother Bean for the post... May we all stay weary, may we all draw close to Allah(swt)... Across the globe..... Insha Allah

((I'll follow with a couple posts here of old articles just as a reminder))[/font][/size]
[wlm]
05/28/03 at 01:13:05
paula
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
paula
05/28/03 at 01:22:40
[slm][size=2][font=Verdana]
The origianl Webpage [url=http://www.au.org/press/pr92900.htm]CLICK[/url]

Before the election the churches rallied & campaigned heavily on behalf of the Republican Party & election of George W. Bush Jr.:

Article from September 29, 2000

SUPPOSEDLY NON-PARTISAN CHRISTIAN COALITION RALLIES
RELIGIOUS RIGHT SUPPORTERS FOR BUSH, REPUBLICAN PARTY
'IF SLEAZY POLITICKING WERE AN OLYMPIC EVENT, ROBERTSON
WOULD WIN A GOLD MEDAL EVERY TIME,' SAYS AU'S LYNN

The Christian Coalition's "Road to Victory" Conference, which began today in Washington, D.C., is little more than a political rally for the Republican Party and George W. Bush, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said that the Coalition, led by TV preacher Pat Robertson, continues to claim the Religious Right group is non-partisan so it can rope churches into a political machine despite federal tax law prohibitions on church electioneering.
"If sleazy politicking were an Olympic event, Robertson would win the gold medal every time," Lynn said. "Robertson is on a crusade this year, but it's aimed at filling the White House, not God's house."
Lynn noted the schedule at the Coalition event featured several GOP leaders, including the three top Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
"If you closed your eyes, you would think you're in Philadelphia at the Republican National Convention," Lynn observed. "It's hard to believe Robertson still claims with a straight face that this group is non-partisan."
The Christian Coalition, as part of its election year efforts, is planning to distribute 75 million "voter guides" in churches throughout the United States. Yesterday, Americans United announced a nationwide project to contact nearly every church in America -- some 285,000 houses of worship -- warning religious leaders that tax law prohibits church distribution of partisan political materials.
"The Coalition's so-called 'voter guides' are nothing but deceptive partisan propaganda," said Lynn. "These materials don't belong in houses of worship, they belong in the trash."
Robertson has been aggressive in drumming up momentum for his favorite candidates and touting the importance of the election to the Religious Right's agenda.
In a letter to supporters this month, Robertson described this year's presidential race as "the most crucial election in recent history" and noted that voters can "affect the appointment of three Supreme Court justices."
Robertson also reminded Coalition members that the election results could turn the judicial tide on important Religious Right issues such as abortion, school prayer, display of the Ten Commandments and gay rights.
Concluded AU's Lynn, "Robertson and the Religious Right know that the 2000 election can be a make-or-break contest for their political movement. They're pulling out all the stops to try to achieve victory."

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000 members and allied houses of worship in all 50 states.
© Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 2000.
All rights reserved.
518 C Street, NE Washington, D.C. 20002 202-466-3234
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[wlm]
05/28/03 at 01:48:58
paula
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
paula
05/28/03 at 01:37:09
[slm][size=2][font=Verdana]
original article website [url=http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/29/bush.faithbased.01/index.html]CLICK[/url]

Right after election Bush took us into the church, literally on Television, on how many occasions can we think back and remember, & he immediately started with his faith-based-initiative:

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

January 29, 2001
Web posted at: 7:47 p.m. EST (0047 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) – After devoting his first week in office to education reform, President Bush opened his second week by concentrating on more controversial issues, including his proposals to allow religious groups to receive federal funding for the provision of vital life and social services to the needy.
The new president announced Monday morning the creation of a new White House office focused solely on helping religious or "faith-based" groups obtain federal tax dollars. The office was founded with the late-morning signing of an executive order at the White House, following Bush's morning meeting with a host of religious leaders.
The new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Bush said after the meeting, will report directly to the president.
"This is one of the most important initiatives that my administration will implement," he said. "There are deep needs and real suffering in the shadow of America's affluence. We are called by conscience to respond."
The legislative portion of the president's plan -- which would allow religious groups to compete with secular organizations for federal dollars to pay for after-school programs, drug treatment counseling, meal assistance and other programs -- will be sent to Capitol Hill Tuesday, Bush said.
The documents sent to Congress will include broader tax deductions for Americans who make regular charitable donations.
The president also signed an executive order directing five Cabinet-level federal agencies to investigate how faith-based groups could effectively participate in a variety of government aid programs.
Bush said the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Education and Labor Departments will be charged with drawing up lists of federal regulations that stymie private groups from cooperating with the government to provide social aid.
Those regulations, he said, would then have to be rewritten or eliminated.
"We will look for greater cooperation between the government and the independent sector," Bush declared. "And we will remove regulatory barriers."
Private and faith-based charities, Bush said while surrounded by those who attended the morning meeting, will be the Bush administration's first line of defense against poverty, addiction and homelessness.
"My administration will look first to faith-based and community groups," he said. "We will not fund the religious activities of any one group, but when people of faith provide services, we will not discriminate against them."
Those in attendance Monday included representatives of Christian, Muslim and Jewish organizations.
"This is a collection of some of the finest America has to offer," Bush said. "These are people who lead with their hearts."
The new White House office will be charged with distributing billions of federal dollars to a variety of religious groups and charities over the next 10 years. In essence, the groups would be competing with a number of established organizations -- including federal agencies -- for a set amount of tax dollars.
"There are so many people in need that the federal government is not getting the job done," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Monday afternoon.
Bush has appointed University of Pennsylvania political science professor John J. DiIulio Jr. to head the office.
Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith will chair a new advisory board -- the Corporation for National Service --, which will work hand-in-hand with Dilulio and his staff.
To build support, Bush planned to meet throughout the week with leaders of a number of spiritual and charitable groups, and he planned to attend the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday -- a presidential tradition.
Despite the intent of the president's plans, critics said Monday that Bush's wide-ranging proposal would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state.
"For the purpose of the state and the church, and the principle of separating the two with a decent distance, this is a very bad idea," said Barry Lynn of the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

((Americans United for Seperation of Church & State Webpage can be found here [url=http://www.au.org]CLICK[/url]))
((You can check their page directly for many many more headlines))

Bush anticipated such criticism last week, and sought to mute a number of voices whose objections will likely grow as the legislative portions of the proposal wend their way through the Congress.
Bush aides said safeguards would be in place to make sure the religious groups do not use the money to proselytize.
"This will not be funding religion," Fleischer insisted. "It is not the religious aspect of what they that is getting funding, it is the community service aspect. These are not going to be programs that preach religion, these are faith-based programs that help people improve their lives."
Aides said some faith-based groups already receive federal funding under the 1996 welfare reform law, and that these groups have not violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
Health reform in the works
Bush may also be close to unveiling his plan to give grants to states to provide prescription coverage to the poorest seniors.
The proposal is expected to be similar to the "Immediate Helping Hand" plan Bush touted during the last months of the 2000 presidential campaign. As a candidate, Bush advocated providing $48 billion over four years to pay full drug costs for seniors with incomes below 135 percent of the poverty line, which is less than $12,000 for an individual.
Bush aides said the president's plan would serve as a "bridge" until Congress passes a full Medicare overhaul bill, but Democrats said Bush's proposal may not go far enough.
"If he focuses only on low-income people, then there are a lot of middle class folks struggling to pay their prescription benefit," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana.

CNN White House Correspondents John King and Kelly Wallace, Ian Christopher McCaleb and The Associated Press contributed to this report
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[wlm]
05/28/03 at 01:47:23
paula
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
Kathy
05/30/03 at 09:22:44
[slm][quote]Surprise! -- Evangelicals are on a hate mission and taking quranic verses out of context.  And Bush and his buddies are evangelicals...just what horrors lie in the future?  See the NYtimes article below.
[/quote]

The same day this article ran in the times an article ran in our paper.

It was announcing the new president for the local chapter of Council of Churches.

He is Muslim!
http://www.pressconnects.com/tuesday/news/stories/ne052703s71561.shtml


Boy did I get the e-mails!
05/30/03 at 09:26:02
Kathy
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
Mohja
05/30/03 at 16:44:10
kathy, is that sr. mary in the picture? i haven't seen her on the board for some time. mash'Allah that was an excellent article. may Allah[swt] bless them and everyone like them who are working hard to build bridges and educate others about islam. ameen.
Re: Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals See
Kathy
05/31/03 at 23:52:09
[slm]

Yep that is her! She has been so very busy...weddings, showers, grand baby, graduations and the Dawah Center! Her son is the star picture of a baseball team, so even I do not see much of her until the end of the summer season!

I should ask her who the 2 "most powerful Muslim women" are... I want to meet them!


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