What If They Burned A Koran And Nobody Was There To See It?

I guess we’ll find out as Springfield, TN’s Bob Old decided to go through with his copycat Koran burning after all:

But for all the controversy and hype, his Quran burning took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.

Old and the Rev. Danny Allen stood together in Old's backyard, answering what they say was a message from God.

Well isn’t that special. In fact, eight journalists showed up for Old and Danny Allen’s pathetic “demonstration,” which clearly was a sad attempt to get some attention since obviously his church wanted nothing to do with it.

Also:

Three protesters stood across the street from Old's home, holding signs that read "My husband fights terrorism and your actions perpetuate it" and "Proud of my country but ashamed of my neighbors."

Okay, Tennesseans. Hope everyone is proud of themselves. Now can we all move along?

[UPDATE]: Read John Shuck on our new imperial religion.

Tennessee Wackadoos REPRESENT!

[UPDATE]: Florida's Koran burning has been cancelled. Wonder if this idiot in Tennessee still plans to go forward.

-------------------

Not to be left out of all the fun, a Springfield, TN pastor wants to join in the Holy book barbecue planned for Saturday:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Springfield minister says he also plans to burn a Quran on Saturday to mark the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Rev. Bob Old told The Tennessean the Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Center Outreach in Gainesville, Fla., is doing the right thing by burning the Quran, and so he's going to do likewise.

Jones' plan to burn Qurans on Saturday has caused a furor of opposition, including an urging from President Barack Obama to call off his plan.

However, Old says not only does he plan to burn the Quran, but he intends to post a video of the burning book online.

Says Old of Muslims in America: "If they want to have their religion, they can have it somewhere else."

Wow that's just SO FUCKING AMERICAN, ain't it? Isn't that what the Puritans were told? "If you want your religion go somewhere else?"

I mean, we just knew that some asshole in Tennessee was going to join in the fun, didn't we?

*SIGH*

Look, I really didn't want to pay attention to this wacko down in Florida because clearly he's an attention-seeking media whore of the Fred Phelps variety. The media circus has already been whipped up, it was inevitable, but I just really hoped I could check out of Crazy Town and just not take part in the spectacle. But noooo, of course not, someone right up the highway from Nashville thinks this is a stellar idea! The nation has clearly gone off the rails and frankly I'm tired of having to say "you don't represent me!" over and over again.

People have a right to burn books in this country, it's part of the whole "free speech" thing, so enjoy yourselves. But I just have to wonder at what these folks are going to be thinking come Sunday morning when they show up at church for worship. As you arrive on church property and smell the acrid burned-ash-and-ink smell of your little holy flame fest, are you going to be proud of yourselves? Will you think that God is proud of you? Do you think Jesus looks down from heaven on you and smiles at setting flame to some ink and paper? Really?

Or will there be a tiny bit of shame in your hearts? Maybe the smallest shard of embarrassment that the entire world has looked upon you and your congregation, not with awe at how much you love, but with horror at how much you hate?

Is this how you represent God to the world?

"Vide", inquiunt, "ut invicem se diligant" - ipsi enim invicem oderunt - "et ut pro alteruto mori sint parati"; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt.

Nobody Could Have .... Awww, Screw It

Tennessee anti-mosque activist Laurie Cardoza-Moore, who got pwned by The Daily Show last week, now claims she’s getting death threats:

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, an outspoken opponent of the mosque, said she has also received a death threat by phone. The threat said, "We are coming after you. You cannot stop us."

“It was a shock, of course, but not a surprise," said Cardoza-Moore. "It was an Arab-speaking individual. He addressed my name. He said Allahu Akbar, and it was very clear to me who he was."

Yes, I’m sure it was very clear who he was. Probably someone pissed off that you portray all Muslims as terrorists. Moore told the local Fox affiliate:

"I was upset justifiably so. If this is the religion of peace why am I getting death threats," said Moore.

Excellent question! And if we have freedom of religion in this country why are you opposing the expansion of the Murfreesboro mosque, which has existed peacefully in Rutherford County for 30 years?

Listen, lady. You poke a stick at a hornets’ nest, you get people all riled up at each other, you accuse your neighbors of being terrorists and having links to Hamas, you make a fool of yourself on national television spouting your ignorant claptrap, and then you want sympathy because someone left you a mean telephone message? Take it somewhere else.

-------------

[UPDATE]: Via Pith, Laurie Cardoza-Moore rails against the Islamic faith at a speech in New York City. And she wonders why she gets mean voicemail messages? This lady is batshit in insane.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Or STFU

Arson is suspected at the Murfreesboro mosque construction site because, you know, construction machinery doesn’t just torch itself.

So Newt Gingrich, Charles Krauthammer and the rest of you yahoos who contend you aren’t Islamophobes, you just don’t want those people worshipping on our hallowed ground! ... I just have two words: pony up.

Come to Tennessee and embrace the mosque in Murfreesboro. We’re hundreds of miles from Ground Zero. This ain’t hallowed ground, it’s Rutherford County.

Come tonight for the candlelight vigil sponsored by Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom. There will be TV cameras there. I know that's important to you.

Tell your rage-filled minions that Muslims have a right to worship in America, not just legally and Constitutionally but morally, as well. Control your hateful rabble before some innocent person gets hurt. You will have blood on your hands if this escalates. I will blame you for stoking a torch and pitchfork mob.

And when you’ve finished embracing the Muslims in Tennessee you can go to Jacksonville, Florida, where a pipe bomb was found at a mosque. And then take it to Arlington, Texas, where a mosque playground was set on fire. And then take it to Madera, California.

If your beef is really about how special Ground Zero is, fine. You should be the biggest supporters of Islamic community centers and houses of worship in the rest of the nation.

That you stay silent is very, very telling. It's all the proof we need supporting our contention that you’re just hateful bigots stoking fear among your ignorant followers.

Tennessee Laughingstocks

The Daily Show covers Tennessee's own mosque-troversy. I don't know who this crazy lady is who says you can find out all sorts of things on the internet but someone needs to tell her that just because it's on the internet, it doesn't mean it's true. If that were the case then I'd be freaking out about the Great George W. Bush Alien Coverups of 2007.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Tennessee No Evil
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

The View From Ground Zero Today

Russell Simmons lives across the street from Ground Zero. Here's what he did to his apartment windows:



Meanwhile the media seems bent on taking its cue from a crazy lady whose last big claim to fame was announcing President Obama is Malcom X's love child. Well, that and her famous crush on John Bolton.

I remember a time when people like that were gently ushered away from the microphone and sent on a long cruise somewhere for their "nerves." Today's modern Republican Party hands them a Fox News microphone and the national news media decides there must be something to it because, well, they're on Fox News!

Crazy world we live in.

By the way, Leviticus 19:18 referenced in Simmons' window? It reads:

18 " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Gotta love how religious conservatives always overlook just those parts of Leviticus that are inconvenient to their politics.

Calling Bullshit

Today I caught several morning news stenographers anchors breathlessly reporting the latest political “controversy,” which is President Obama’s statement about that mosque thingie in downtown Manhattan. I’ve already written about the mosque here, written about how there’s already a mosque near Ground Zero, it’s been there since before 9/11, blah blah. I’ve since learned there are also a bunch of synagogues and a bunch of churches in that area, plus porn shops and lord knows what else on this so-called “hallowed ground.” The entire thing is so blatantly manufactured in the Frank Luntz Little Shoppe Of Bullshit that you’d have to be truly braindead or a member of the American media to take any of it seriously.

Anyway, the GOP wants to make this an election issue, which is how you know it’s utter bullshit because everyone knows the only election issue worth paying attention to right now is the economy and jobs, jobs, jobs. But of course the GOP says “jump” and the media asks “how high?”

Seriously, I can’t take another election season dominated by silly, emotional, unimportant issues. The media needs to wake the fuck up and stop hurting America. No one gives a crap about a mosque in New York City. How do I know this? I know this because the GOP is trying to make it an election issue. If people really cared, they wouldn’t be flogging this dead horse all the way to the November finish line.

And why do they do this? Because they have absolutely no fucking clue what to do about jobs, the tanking economy, and the rest of the huge mess they left the nation in. If they had a fucking clue they wouldn’t be trying to distract your attention with the shiny-sparkly mosque thingie over there. They’d be presenting their bold plan to kickstart our economy and create jobs. Unfortunately, their sad little plan is more tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation, plus another war in the Middle East for good measure -- the same crap that got us into this mess.

So: different year, same old crap. But dear American media, just because the GOP is having one of its periodic hissy fits, that doesn’t mean you guys need to play along. Seriously, there’s something about having a Democrat in the White House that sets our media off. They’ve got “Democratic President Derangement Syndrome.” Suddenly perfectly ordinary things that presidents do and say -- like, oh, I dunno, maybe defending the First Amendment and defending the rights of private property owners -- are deemed very odd and “controversial.”

It’s very puzzling.

Pullitzer to the reporter with the cojones to point out that the GOP wouldn’t be making an election issue out of a stupid issue like this if they weren’t so desperately bereft of any real ideas on how to solve America's problems.

Tennessee Know-Nothings

Remember Vijay Kumar? Of WTVF’s famous “Homegrown Jihad” expose? He’s the one running for Jim Cooper’s seat on an “anti-Sharia platform.”

He’s erected a few billboards around Nashville. Here’s one:



Kumar is a crank of the highest order and I’d say his chances against Jim Cooper are slim to none. Interestingly, another crank, Lou Ann Zelenik, is running for Bart Gordon’s seat. She, too, has made anti-Muslim sentiment a focal point of her campaign:

In a Thursday evening statement, 6th District candidate Lou Ann Zelenik said she stands with those who oppose building what she calls "an Islamic training center." She says the center is not part of a religious movement, but a political one "designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee."

"Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilization and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them," Zelenik says in the statement.

Wow. Only in Tennessee -- and maybe South Carolina, Texas, and a few other Southern states -- could your intolerance be a campaign issue ... as a selling pont.

Frankly, I am surprised at this turn of events. I thought the Hispanic community would be the Republican punching bag this election; instead, they seem to have decided that Muslim hate is the issue that can rally their base. How convenient that they can all identify a common enemy to inspire fear and hatred in the hearts of their followers. Because what’s an election without a convenient punching bag?

It’s so weird to me. Am I the only one who remembers conservatives touting how wonderful it was that Nashville was selected as a polling site for ex-pat Iraqis, how this proved the war had been worth it? Remember all of those purple fingers?

I don’t get it. You’ll let these folks vote, but you won’t let them worship?

Tennessee Puts The Hate On-AGAIN

The anti-Muslim haters crawled out from under their rocks to oppose the Rutherford County mosque at a county commission meeting last week. Some of the statements that were made are shocking in their ignorance and intolerance. For example:

"Everybody knows they are trying to kill us," Karen Harrell said. "People are really concerned about this. Somebody has to stand up and take this country back."

”Take this country back” being code for “I’m a tea bagging idiot who just parrots whatever words Glenn Beck spews.” Isn't it funny how people who don’t like government interference in anyone’s business are suddenly demanding the Rutherford County Commission stop a private group from building a house of worship on land they own?

Just as we saw when Lee Beaman donated his Antioch property to the homeless, these folks seem to live in a world of double standards. If a megachurch wanted to build on that land and people objected it would be “oh my God Christianity is under attack” all over again.

Even worse were the statements expressed by supposed people of faith. Here’s one:

"We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, said during Thursday's meeting.

This from someone professing to lead a group with the words “world outreach” in its title? Cognitive dissonance much?

Here’s another one:

But Michael O'Bannon, senior minister at First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro, said questioning the new mosque is not religious intolerance.

"It is a genuine concern based on the fact that, while we believe and practice freedom of religion, experience has taught us that a segment of Muslims are very hostile toward anyone who is not a Muslim.

"Their Quran is very explicit about how they should treat infidels," he said.

I’m guessing this fellow hasn’t spent too much time reading his Bible, especially the Old Testament. And he certainly hasn’t spent much time reading his own United Methodist literature, since the United Methodists are one of the more tolerant denominations out there. I guess he missed the 2005 meeting between Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a group of UMC bishops. So to Michael O'Bannon who says “a segment of Muslims are very hostile toward anyone who is not a Muslim,” I suggest you remove the log from your own eye.

But the best comments came from a self-described “tea party Democrat” named George Erdel running for Bart Gordon’s seat. First of all, let me say there is no such thing as a “tea party Democrat.” There is not one thing about the tea party that represents the Democratic Party. This person is clearly delusional. He said:

"Islam is a system of government. Islam is a system of justice. We've got people here who remember Sept. 11, 2001. These people are scared.

"I'm afraid we'll have a training facility in Rutherford County."

Yes, please roll that tape of the guys in their pajamas on the monkey bars, we haven’t seen that one enough. What an idiot.

Fortunately, a real Democrat has spoken up. U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran Ben Leming, also running for Bart Gordon’s seat, writes on his website:

 “I see a lot of people quoting our Constitution these days, but only when it suits their agenda. You can’t have it both ways. I believe in the United States Constitution.  I have fought and will continue to fight to uphold every single right guaranteed by it. This includes the right to worship freely. Just because we may not agree with someone’s religious views does not mean we get to decide whether they can have a place of worship in the community. This is simply un-American,” said Leming.

The Rutherford County Commission approved a proposed site for a new Islamic mosque planned for Murfreesboro in May. One local leader in the community, Pastor Allen Jackson, said “We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam.” He went on to mention American troops in his remarks.

“I completely repudiate those statements.  He does not get to speak for me or most other members of the military. I expect more from a man who should be teaching the message of tolerance, forgiveness, and love.” said Leming. "I support those leaders who voted to uphold our American values and rights. Doing the right thing, even if it is unpopular, takes courage."

I can’t tell you how embarassed I am by my fellow Tennesseans sometimes. I understand people are afraid and I get that scared people do stupid things, but haven’t we seen this movie like a thousand times before? Have we learned nothing from the way we treated Japanese and German Americans and immigrants during WWI and WWII? Come on people, cut the crap already.

I’m tired of living in Amygdala America. It’s time that we started drowning out the voices of hate once and for all. We need more Ben Lemings speaking out.

I Wonder If WTVF Feels A Teensy Weensy Bit Responsible

If they don't, they should:

On February 10th, 2010, Al-farooq Masjid of Nashville, TN was vandalized with religiously motivated hate-speech spray painted on their outside walls. Whoever did this also left a hand written letter at the Al-farooq Youth Center that said ugly things about Muslims and Islam.

This event is particularly troubling as it comes on the heels of a sensationalist report by News Channel 5 this past weekend about a long-time Muslim community in Dover, TN, who they initially insinuated as having links to terrorists.

Well no one could have anticipated THAT.

Way to go, Nashville's ”yellow journalists.”

Pith has more...

Really, WTVF? REALLY?

WTVF-NewsChannel5 has lost me forever. In a pathetic ploy for ratings, or perhaps an effort to sell more Depends, they have sent reporter Nick Beres out to cover the extremist anti-Muslim video “Homegrown Jihad.” The video claims that there are terrorist training camps right here in Tennessee!!!! OMG!!!!!11!!1!ELEVEN!!!!

The segment I saw interviewed local anti-Muslim nutball/perpetual Republican Congressional candidate Vijay Kumar. From the link:

Vijay Kumar believes otherwise. He's a Nashville member of ACT for America – a national group concerned with Islamic radicalism in the U.S. Kumar says it's hard to know for certain what happens at the community near Dover because they keep to themselves.

"It's my feeling they are introverted and live among themselves and think the whole world is hostile," says Kumar.

It would have been nice if Beres or someone else at WTVF had bothered to check into ACT For America's or Kumar’s background. For one thing, he’s the Republican candidate running for Jim Cooper’s seat--again--on an “anti-Sharia platform.”

Seriously, an anti-Sharia platform? Are you kidding me? What world do these idiots live in?

Saying ACT For America is "a national group concerned with Islamic radicalism" is soft peddling pedaling it. They are a rabid Islamophobic group headed by hyper-Zionist Brigitte Gabriel, author of anti-Muslim books with charming titles like "Because They Hate" and "They Must Be Stopped." Sorta like an anti-Muslim KKK.

Lovely.

Not surprisingly, Kumar's campaign website is full of fearmongering about immigrants and Jihad. Did Beres’ piece mention any of this? No it did not. Not one word.

Did it mention any of the radical anti-Muslim ideas he has espoused? Of course not.

Did it mention this psycho-talk?

Kumar: The Left and Islam share many of the same values. Both deny that individuals have a personal ethic. A central authority should control all things. Both insult and denigrate their opponents and see themselves as victors in the movement of history. Both hate the native cultures and individual efforts.
 
The mindset of the Leftist is one of deliberate ignorance.  I was a Leftist, a bleeding heart liberal until a few years ago.  I came from a Marxist family in India.  The Left, by its silence on the issue of radical Islam, has betrayed its own professed ideals, if it has any.
 
The fight against Political Islam should have been led by the liberal intellectuals in our universities, but instead they deliberately and systematically support a seventh century totalitarian ideology that negates all forms of rational thinking, intellectual pursuit, and pluralism - the very ideals which are supposed to be central to the philosophy of the Left.
 
The Liberals have become the lackeys of Islamic imperialism in their words and deeds. They fail to mention the 1,400 years of Jihadists' terror in this world.  How can we cry for the genocide in Darfur and ignore the cause?

So this is NewsChannel5’s “expert” on the so-called “Jihadi’s” in Stewart County, Tennessee.

Since when did local news media peddle intolerance as some kind of credible story? We live in a state where shit like this is in the news. And now we give airtime to a far-right zealot who is hardly a credible source. Thanks, Nick Beres and NewsChannel5 for mainstreaming the crazy.

Local journalism has hit a new low.

I eagerly anticipate the expose on the intolerant phony "Christians" who distributed this video to begin with. Part Two, NewsChannel5?

Is Vanderbilt Tolerating Intolerance?

Uh-oh. Vanderbilt University is in a little bit of trouble with GLBT activists since this video started making the rounds:



Asked by a student whether he accepts or rejects that part of the Koran which calls for execution of practicing gays and lesbians, Vanderbilt’s Muslim chaplain Awadh A. Binhazim tried to pass the buck and say, well, Islam is not the only religion which has intolerant views towards gays and lebsians.

Binhazim also indicated it didn’t matter really since there is no such thing as a country which follows Islamic Law 100% of the time, that all Muslim countries follow a mixture of laws. The student pressed on, however, and Binhazim was forced to admit that homosexuality is punishable by death under Islamic Law.

Well, this is a bit of a pickle. I don’t know very much about Islam and have never read the Koran, but I don’t get the sense that Muslims are allowed to do too much interpretation of their holy text. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems that unlike Christianity, where the Bible is interpreted in hundreds of different ways and as a result there are hundreds of different Christian denominations, the Islamic faith is a little more rigid on that score. So while one can argue that there are Christian religious denominations that take a dim view of homosexuality, there are plenty of others that do not.

And I think that was the corner Binhazim got backed into here. He can't come out and say that some Koranic teachings are still valid while others are no longer abided in modern times, so he danced around it with his "mixture of laws" point.

Anyway, this blogger opines:

All of which has Vanderbilt racing to distance itself from Binhazim: "Vanderbilt University is dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of race or sexuality," the school says in a statement. "Awadh A. Binhazim is not and has never been a Vanderbilt employee, and is not paid by the university. He is the university's Muslim chaplain under a working agreement that is similar to those signed with chaplains of other faiths at Vanderbilt. This working agreement requires Binhazim to observe Vanderbilt rules, including its non-discriminatory policies. Vanderbilt does not limit the free speech of its students, faculty, staff or its chaplains in any way."

Not limiting the free speech of its chaplains is a fantastic policy, and one we support at any school. But what would happen if a visiting chaplain came along and said his religion called for the extermination of Jews? Would Vanderbilt be letting him return to campus?

Of course there is no religion that calls for extermination of Jews so that’s a bit of a straw argument. And as a general principal I think it’s bad form to make people defend their religion. You shouldn’t have to defend why you accept or reject your religion, and your job shouldn’t be on the line when you can’t.

That said, when a religious teaching is itself intolerant, and calling for the execution of gays is certainly that, then people have every right to speak out. Especially when there have been news reports that gay teens are possibly being executed in Iran.

In Judeo-Christian religions we debate what the Bible says about anything and everything; indeed there are entire fields of study devoted to Biblical and Talmudic hermeneutics. But hermeneutic debates on cultural issues like homosexuality are never fruitful because a progressive Christian will never convince a fundamentalist that they are wrong, and vice versa. So we end up with this uncomfortable stalemate and endless bickering when cultural issues enter the public policy arena.

Where Islam is concerned, I just don’t know. Is there a Koranic hermeneutic discipline? Do people debate what the Koran actually says about homosexuality, what the intent of the text was or the context in which it was written? I don’t know. If anyone does, please enlighten me.

In the meantime, while I’m all for being tolerant and accepting of our nation’s religious diversity, I don’t think it’s a good idea to do so at the expense of our GLBT citizens. So I’m less concerned about Binhazim’s interpretation of Islamic Law than I am with how he would counsel someone on this issue.

We follow American laws here, not Islamic ones.

Tyson Plant Revises Holiday Plan AGAIN

After catching flack from the Muslim-haters in outter wingnuttia for changing its holiday policy to accommodate Muslim workers, the Tyson plant in Shelbyville, TN, has changed its policy yet again.

ThinkProgress calls this a "cave” to the wackadoodles and forces of darkness. But this actually looks more like a reasonable holiday plan to me:

[M]any anti-immigrant groups and right-wing bloggers called for a boycott of Tyson, saying the contract betrayed an important American holiday and was an improper concession to Islam.

In a news release on Friday, Tyson said it had asked the union to revise the plant’s contract and restore Labor Day as a paid holiday because some Shelbyville employees had expressed concern about the contract’s provisions.

The revised contract again makes Labor Day a paid holiday but also keeps Id al-Fitr (pronounced eed-al-FIT-tr) — which marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting — as a paid holiday for those who want it.

So those who want to take off Labor Day can, and those who want to take off the Muslim holiday can. So what’s the problem?

Of course the Malkin-tents are going to claim another victory, but hey, look at it this way: we liberals can snicker at them for defending a holiday with communist/socialist origins founded by the evil labor unions.

Hilarious!

Embarrassed By My Fellow Tennesseans

Not all of them, mind you. Just the ones who are venting some serious anti-Muslim spleen over the Tyson Plant in Shelbyville.

The plant’s management negotiated with the workers union to allow the largely-Muslim workforce to take off the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr instead of Labor Day. Everyone should be happy, except for the anti-Muslim wackadoodles who can’t seem to get over the fact that a) there are a lot of Muslims in Shelbyville, TN; and b) the plant’s management is actually doing something to make their Muslim workers happy instead of, I dunno, flogging them daily and forcing them to eat pork rinds.

Over the weekend Kleinheider did a round-up of some local bloggers’ opinions. Some of the saddest ones include this one from Michael Hurtt, headlined “This Is How It Starts”:

This is a frightening example of incrementalism, the process by which groups achieve partial means to an ultimate end. For those who believe that the current fight in the Middle East is religious in nature, this concession by Tyson brings us one step closer to accepting Sharia Law as the law of the land in the U.S.

First they came for Labor Day, and because I had to work at the mall on Labor Day I said nothing ....

The funniest thing is to watch “free marketers” struggle as their economic philosophy does battle with their bigotry. For example, Six Meat Buffet:

On one hand I’m torn. A private business should be able to give everyone 365 days off a year if they want. On the other hand, replacing Labor Day for a holiday to placate the most violent, intolerant, misogynistic religion on the planet may not be the greatest idea.

Why, what a shining example of tolerance you display in that comment, SMB! Thanks for making my point for me.

The fact that most of the Muslims working at the Tyson plant are refugees from a war-torn country seems entirely lost on most conservative voices. Several people have wondered how so many refugees ended up in Tennessee to begin with. You can thank the State Department and its Office of Refugee Resettlement for that.

One of the things I have always treasured about this country is that we are a safe haven, a beacon of hope, to those suffering in poverty and strife in other parts of the world. Not, apparently, in Tennessee.

This makes me very sad. And I can't help but think what a poor image this gives the world of Tennessee. We're already perceived as backwards, racist, uneducated and toothless hayseeds. Today, GoldnI highlights that media narrative which brought CNN to Copperhill, TN to find people who believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. She rightly points out you could find those people anywhere in this country. But a rural town in Tennessee is where CNN chose to go for its story. Gee, I wonder why.

So Tennessee gets another black eye. Our backwards image can't be good for business--who would want to move their corporate headquarters to a state like that? And it's something we constantly have to fight.

Remember:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I guess I missed the “except if you’re Muslim” line in that poem.

Atlas Lugged

Hey, conservative Christians: there’s another Creation myth trying to gain traction in Washington D.C. and academia. This one comes from Islam, and blames the 9/11 attacks on Darwin.

The Atlas of Creation is a 12-pound, 800-page tome explaining the Islamic version of Creation, along with a dose of social commentary. What’s strange is that copies of the gigantic book were mysteriously sent to hundreds of high schools and universities in France this year; similarly, thousands of unsolicited copies were also sent to U.S. government offices, museums, and American universities. I’d hate to see the publisher’s postage budget.

Most folks oohed and ahhed over the atlas’s beautiful artwork, then recoiled in horror at “what a load of crap it is.” Some, however, like U.S. Secretary of the Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, decided to prominently display the Atlas in his office waiting room (a Commerce Dept. spokesman now says that was “a mistake.”)

Anyway, I know the nuttier fundamentalist Christian fringe believes Islam is a "vicious enemy." But reading about The Atlas of Creation I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at two sides of the same coin.

See if this sounds familiar:

A caption from the book, below a photograph of one of the planes striking the World Trade Center, reports: “No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on–and thus encourages–conflict.”

Darwinism is also to blame for fascism and communism. As the Atlas explains, it “is the root of various ideologies of violence that have spelled disaster to mankind in the 20th century."

Wow, where have I heard that idea before? Oh, yeah:

We have had 150 years of the theory of Darwinian evolution, and what has it brought us? Whether Darwin intended it or not, millions of deaths, the destruction of those deemed inferior, the devaluing of human life, increasing hopelessness; Darwin’s theory has been deadly, indeed. … The time has come to recognize that evolution is a bad idea and should be, frankly, discarded into the dustbin of history.

That’s the late D. James Kennedy, in a 2006 fundraising pitch for his anti-evolution “documentary.” Kennedy passed earlier this year, but his comments are no different from what we’ve heard from Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, James Dobson and the rest.

Maybe instead of hating Islam, fundamentalist Christians should embrace the religion and its followers as fellow soldiers in the war on evolution. It could be a real “coming together” point, you know?