If You Can’t Find Someone Who Disturbs A Mosque’s Peace, At Least You Can Hold Hands And Pretend

by
Lifting up 'inclusivity' until the hammer comes down

Lifting up ‘inclusivity’ until the hammer comes down

At the Huffpo:

The Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati witnessed the power of interfaith solidarity on Sunday, when a little over 100 Muslims, Christians and Jews gathered to form a symbolic “peace ring” around the mosque’s entrance.

The group was inspired by a similar peace ring that was formed around a synagogue in Oslo, Norway in February following an attack against the Jewish community in Denmark earlier that month.

Event organizer Ericka King-Betts said she wanted to bring the same message of interfaith unity to her Cincinnati community. “We wanted to replicate that here in Cincinnati to show support for all faiths, and especially for the Muslim community,” King-Betts, executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, told The Huffington Post.

When she thought of the idea for a peace ring, she reached out to Shakila Ahmad, president of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, and Shabana Shakir-Ahmed, the mosque’s tours and talks chair, who jumped on board.

A synagogue gets attacked by Muslims in Oslo then surrounded with a ‘peace ring,’ and that inspired you to make one at a mosque?

Three interfaith community leaders spoke at the event, offering prayers for peace. Those gathered formed a semicircle around the Islamic center’s entrance, as King-Betts said the mosque was so big it would require “at least 1,000 people” to link arms around the entire structure — a goal she said the group will work toward by making it a yearly event.

The power of Sunday’s gathering — a “beautiful moment,” King-Betts said, when people of all ages and backgrounds stood side by side in prayer and reflection — sent a message of interfaith solidarity that rings with greater potency in the wake of a shooting at an anti-Muslim event in Garland, Texas that occurred later that evening.

So Muslims try and kill cartoonists in Texas and that makes your peace ring around a mosque even more relevant and effective?  Why not surround the cartoonists with one?  Oh wait.  I know.

“There are small minded people out there that have really big voices, and all we can do is show them there are people of all different colors, walks of life and faiths that will support each other,” Shakir-Ahmed told HuffPost, referencing the shooting. “More so than ever we feel we need to continue what we’re doing.”

Who does he mean? The shooters didn’t say anything.

For King-Betts, who said she was fed-up with reading “hate-laden comments” vilifying Islam on social media, Sunday’s event lifted up a message of inclusivity.

Hold hands then lift them up and the message of inclusivity will rise.  ‘Inclusivity’ wasn’t even a word ten years ago, was it?  I think these people are angry at that Draw Muhammad contest.

“We truly believe there are more people out here in this world that believe Islam is about love and unity,” she told HuffPost. “And we refuse to allow a small group of people to define what Islam is.”

Which small group is that?  Is it the one that kills or the one that complains about it?  Where do they dig up a thousand people for these circles?

 

 

 

Maradiaga Makes Another Blame America Visit

by
We're going to accomplish great things!

We’re going to accomplish great things together!

Catholic Culture Reports:

Honduran Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga visited Central Americans housed at a Texas detention center for migrant families, the Fides news agency reported.

The prelate, who serves as coordinator of the Council of Cardinals that advises the Pope, also spoke in San Antonio, where he called upon the United States to do more to curb domestic drug abuse.

“The drug money isn’t in Latin America,” he said. “It’s in the banks of the United States and Europe.”

So U.S. Americans buy drugs and Latin Americans sell them.  I guess if we bought and sold them both here in America then it would solve the problem of Latin American drug cartels?  Does the Cardinal want America to legalize more production of narcotics?  Aren’t the prescription psychotropics enough trouble already?

Does illegal alien-processing Caritas Chief Cd. Maradiaga want more drug-related jail time and stiffer enforcement in America?  We already have the highest in the world.

No. I doubt the Cardinal wants either of those things.  I think he just wants to blame the United States for Latin American gangs and attack our financial industry.  He loathes capitalism and he has veiled contempt for this country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Only Pope Francis Could Start Fleets of Ferries Running From Libya

by
Problem solved.

Problem solved.

South Florida’s Sun Sentinel reports:

For the first time in five decades, the U.S. is allowing ferry service between Florida and Cuba.

At least four companies said they were notified Tuesday of approvals by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, the first since Washington imposed a trade embargo on Cuba.

Licensed were Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Baja Ferries of Miami, United Caribbean Lines Florida of Greater Orlando and Airline Brokers Co. of Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

A Treasury spokeswoman confirmed approval of ferry licenses but would not say how many were approved. Cuba also must approve the operations.

“I’m very excited, because this is a historical event in U.S.-Cuba relations,” said Havana Ferry’s managing partner, Leonard Moecklin Sr.

The ferry companies plan to offer trips that would be less expensive than charter flights, while allowing more luggage free. Many Cuban-Americans haul down hefty supplies for family homes and new private businesses.

Two weeks ago NY Gov. Cuomo was in Cuba looking at a new port deal.  Now it seems several companies have been approved to run ferries.  It’s cheaper than charter flights yes, but flying to Cuba has been generally restricted anyway.  Why all the new sea traffic?  Why the focus on human cargo?

President Obama since Dec. 17 has moved to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba and has eased travel and trade. The passenger ferries will be able to carry only authorized U.S. travelers to Cuba, including people in 12 categories who no longer need a license in advance to visit. Those categories include family visits as well as religious and educational activities, among others.

Americans still are not allowed to travel to Cuba for general tourism under the terms of the U.S. embargo, which remains in place. Only Congress can lift the embargo.

Only Congress can lift the embargo but Obama can give them twelve excuses to keep seven or so ferry companies busy.  My guess is there will be lots of one-way traffic.  That will free up empty boats to head back to Cuba with whatever heretofore illegal contraband Obama waves through.

Here’s what companies are planning:

• Havana Ferry Partners hopes to launch its ferry service between Key West and Havana within weeks, possibly with a 200-passenger vessel, Moecklin said.

Good bye, Key West!

It also plans to add overnight ferry service later from Fort Lauderdale and Miami to Havana using a larger vessel that could carry 300 to 500 passengers, Moecklin said. Plus, it’s eyeing Port Manatee on Tampa Bay as a gateway with Cuba.

Good bye, Tampa!

Prices are not set, but Moecklin said Havana Ferry aims to charge passengers roughly $300 to $350 roundtrip, less than the roughly $400 to $500 price for charter flights to Cuba. Passengers could be allowed up to 200 pounds of luggage free.

Why so much free luggage?

“We don’t know the costs yet, because we don’t know the costs on the Cuban side,” Moecklin said. “I’m booking my flight to Cuba now” for talks with Cuban officials, he said.

Someone may cover the costs of the Cuban side, yes?  Hello Caritas!

• Baja Ferries USA, an affiliate of United Americas of Miami, is looking to launch overnight service to Cuba possibly three times a week. It has held meetings with Port Everglades, Port Manatee and other Florida seaports to offer service.

“We’ve been waiting for this,” Baja Ferries executive Joe Hinson said of the license. The company already has ferry services in Mexico and between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Three shipments a week and that’s just one company!

A few years ago in the middle of the night, while I was camping on one of the Florida Keys, a group of about fifty Cuban rafters floated ashore and were picked up and processed by immigration.  They were all ages, very happy and celebrating like it was midday, wearing thirty year-old clothes, and without one cell phone.  It’s a dangerous choice, especially if they get wind of it before you go.

So today, in the Francis/Obama Cuba Era, thousands of weekly Cubans will pay twice their annual salaries to come visit?  Were the conditions which made it necessary for people to risk the lives of children somehow eliminated?  Was that entire rafter phenomenon America’s fault, because nothing has changed on the Island from what I can tell.

Things are very different here though.  This isn’t about faith or charity.  It’s about turning Florida into a blue state, and that goal has nothing to do with Catholicism.  People who float over in rafts to escape Communist tyrants may vote Republican.  People who sneak over in ferries probably don’t.

Thank you, Pope Francis!  Now if you could just get a ferry system in place from Libya to Italy, you could make real progress on that new economic system with the human person at the center, instead of profit.

Maybe it’s time to stand on a rock at Lampedusa and scold people again.