Islam In The Heartland
Islam In The Heartland
By Ari Kaufman
When residents of the East or West Coast tell me their impressions of the American Midwest, they think of bucolic terrain, churchgoing folks, Main Streets dotted with Old Glory, Mom and Pop stores and family values. While much of this is true, especially the farther you move out from the major Midwest cities, most of these folks actually mistake the Midwest for the Great Plains.
Look at a map of any election, especially a county breakdown, and you’ll see that Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and even Indiana resemble that description far less than, say, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas, and even Iowa.
I have this on good authority. Born in Washington, DC and raised and educated in Southern California, it took me until I was in my mid-20s to realize what so many sheltered coastalites don’t: that there is an America in between the Hudson and Sierra Nevadas.
Not only that, but it’s beautiful and embodies the American spirit far more than does the physical and socio-political “fringe.” Trust me, I’ve driven through all 48 contiguous states just in the past three years. I now live in Indiana, and despite even the perplexed looks of Hoosiers when I tell them I moved FROM California to Indy, I have no regrets.
Flyover country generally is thought to vote Republican. And while that’s true, it’s a very vague assertion.
Most of the major cities of the Midwest (Detroit, Chicago, Saint Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Minneapolis, for starters) have long been Democrat strongholds. Watch any election night if you disagree. As a resident of Indianapolis and someone who also visits Cincinnati multiple times yearly, I can further tell you the latter two, despite traditionally being more conservative, currently have Democrat mayors. “Cincy” has not had a Republican city executive in over 30 years, and, like Indy voted for John Kerry in 2004. The political leanings in my area of downtown Indianapolis often remind me of when I lived near Venice Beach, not the Indiana the media describes.
If you noticed that Detroit and St. Louis regularly take first and second place in murder rate, as they were in 2006, would that sound like the heartland? Probably about as little as Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a university that is over 10% Muslim, an anti-Israeli congressman, and so many terrorist cells and Islamic appeasers that it has earned the moniker “Dearbornistan,” sounds like warm apple pie.
It then may come as little surprise then, that the city of Plainfield, just west of Indianapolis, is home to the Islamic Center of North America, which, according to their mission, “has served the Muslims of this continent for well over forty years.”
The entire continent. And it’s based in “The Heartland.” As is Dearborn.
What’s next? Accommodating Islam—-and Islam only—-at the local airport?
Yes, of course. After digesting some of the “surprising information” it isn’t really surpising that the aforementioned Indiana based Islamic Center succeeded in their efforts, to install religious sinks in Indianapolis’ new airport terminal, thanks to a friendship with the ACLU of Indiana (the ICLU).
The ICLU is nowhere to be found on the religious aspect of the airport sinks matter. Last seen, they and their legal director, Ken Falk, were assisting The American Atheists in removing any semblance of religion from small towns in Indiana and suing the state over the “In God We Trust” license plates issued by the Indiana BMV earlier this year. These innocuous matters apparently make the litigation agenda, not sectarian sinks in a major airport.
In a controversy that has been widely publicized, at issue is a washroom that is designed specifically for Muslims to sit down and wash their feet before they pray. The proposal calls for such a facility to be built in the “taxi drivers’ lounge” at the airport, since 80 percent of cabbies are Muslims.
As Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch noted soon after discovering the plan:
“The only conceivable group that will use the foot bath are Muslims for prayer,” Spencer said. “It’s a religious installation for a religious use.”
Full PM article by Ari Kaufman here.
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I can vouch for some of this info, being from cincy. Always electing democrat mayors has really messed that city up, glad im not from downtown though. Lots of shootings every day. Just check out WCPO.com and read the headlines some time. Breaking news: guy shot
October 29th, 2007 at 8:50 amThe biggest mosque in the U.S. is in Perrysburg Ohio, it is a landmark along I-75
http://urbanohio.com/NWOhio/Toledo/Landmarks/Mosque.JPG
The once mostly Polish city of Hamtramck Michigan is fighting over the public calls to prayer
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/072104/loc_hamtram001.shtml
and of course the aforementioned Dearbornistan
the problem is not that they are here and want to practice their religion, it is that they are here and are intolerant and place themselves and their religion above others
October 29th, 2007 at 9:18 amWow thats a giant mosque, thanks for posting that Steve, i had no idea
October 29th, 2007 at 10:28 amthis is my favorite landmark. religiously i mean. its about 40 miles north of cincy in Monroe
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/OHMONjesus.html
October 29th, 2007 at 10:31 amAll the more reason to place guards all around the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. They’re setting us up to do a spectacular attack on the world’s largest fresh water supply.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:36 amMy Dad grew up in Deaborn. It was an all-american white community when he was growing up. In fact the mayor had to live in Canada for much of his time in office because he wouldn’t allow any minorities in. They surrounded the place with police when the detroit riots happened and blacks were never allowed off the main street. It had really low crime and was a really safe place to grow up. It’s amazing to see what has happened, my Dad saw it beginning a little growing up, but the backlash against racism forced them to allow anyone in and the laws against housing descrimination turned the place into the Islamic town it is now. They even have loud speakers for prayer calls. It is highly discusting.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:56 amdisgusting
October 29th, 2007 at 10:56 amDMac, when I moved from Philadelphia in ‘81 the Frankford section of Philadelphia was nice. My first place I got when I got back in ‘03 was in Frankford. It had turned into an area you didn’t go out after sundown. I lived near the Bridge-Pratt elevated stop. One time I got off at the Margaret-Orthodox stop, one stop before. I had found a cheap bar, one dollar a can of Milwaukee. After I left I went outside and heard one of those imam rants ordering everyone to hit the prayer rug, on a cheap loudspeaker system, no less. Can you imagine 4 and 5am living in that neighborhood? I lasted 7 months there. They don’t put up with that shit out here.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:41 am