August 16, 2010 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Kentucky: Mosque Protest Efforts in Florence

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights of freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom of worship for ALL people — without exception. We reject protests against houses of worship, and we reject violence and attacks on houses of worship.

But today, in yet another of the continuing coast-to-coast protests against mosques around America, anti-Islam activists are seeking to recruit protesters to demand a halt to plans since 2008 to build a mosque in Florence, Kentucky, with claims that the local mosque is part of an effort in the “takeover of our country.” Mosque protesters are also stating that who object their efforts to deny religious freedom and freedom of worship to Kentucky Muslims are “anti-American people” who are “free to leave” the country.

According to the Kentucky Courier-Journal, the application was filed in April 2008 and approved by the Boone County Planning Commission in June 2008.

The North Kentucky Enquirer reported that a group called the “Mercy Foundation, Inc., has approval to build a mosque near Mall Road in Florence, with another report states is to be built at 900 Cayton Road. The Enquirer states the effort is led by a Florence, Kentucky physician, Mohammed Zineddin, who is president of the Mercy Foundation. Both the Enquirer and the Courier-Journal report that the building area is zoned for Commercial Two (C-2) allowing religious buildings. FOX 19 News reported that the mosque was being planned by the Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky.

Kentucky: Plot Where Planned for Florence, Kentucky Mosque (Photo: Fox 19 News)

On July 25, 2010, the North Kentucky Enquirer reported that that “Boone County Assistant Zoning Administrator Mitch Light said there has been no such public response to this plan. ‘We have not heard from anyone opposed to the project,’ Light said.”

Illustrations of the planned Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky’s mosque are online on their website.

Kentucky: Florence Mosque Illustration (Image: Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky)

Apparently this has now changed. According to the August 16, 2010 Kentucky Courier-Journal, the mosque proposal is now receiving “a strong reaction from some in the community,” including calls to Forence city officials, a flier being distributed in Florence neighborhoods.

FOX 19 News reports in its story “Neighborhood flyer rejects mosque”: “A flyer left on doors and mailboxes in a Florence neighborhood is stirring up more attention around a mosque being built nearby. Neighbors we spoke with had mixed feelings about the mosque, but everyone had the same concern, who is circulating the flyer and why didn’t that person/group want to be identified.”

According to the Courier-Journal, the anti-mosque flier states: “Cayton Road is in your neighborhood… Everyone needs to contact Florence City Council to have this stopped. Americans need to stop the takeover of our country.” FOX 19 News has images of the flier including its statement urging protesters to “Do your part to stop the take-over of our country of our country. Use your voice to speak out. If anti-American people do not like the way we are, they are free to leave. We are the United States of America, not an Islamic nation.” The fliers were anonymous, but appears to have the same image as an individual’s Facebook page photo background graphic, with a web site protesting the mosque.

Kentucky: Anti-Mosque Flier Being Circulated (Photo: Fox 19 News)

FOX 19 News has a video report online on the efforts by anti-Islam activists to encourage others to protest the mosque.

The Courier-Journal quotes Joshua Wice, community/business development director for the city of Florence who states that he is not surprised that people have questions, but all of the questions are being answered to people’s satisfaction.

The Courier-Journal also states: “”Much of the criticism has focused on city or county officials for allowing the project to go forward or not holding public hearings, but undue scrutiny or unwarranted efforts to impede the project might well have violated federal laws. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is often described as federal zoning for religious uses.”

The Courier-Journal also reports on a website “run by a Boone County resident that posts anti-Islamic messages” to seek Florence residents to “Stop the Mosque.”

Kentucy Mosque Protester "The Vigilante" Mark Hallenberg (Photo: Facebook)

The Kentucky anti-Islam, anti-Mosque website called “The Vigilante” describes “Enemy One” as “Islam.” The anti-mosque website is led by a Christian, Mark Hallenberg, in Kentucky who views the anti-mosque campaign as part of promoting “Christian values” and attacking a “Marxist-Socialistic agenda.”

In his protest against the planned mosque and “Northern Kentucky Rising,” Mark Hallenberg claims that he contacted two dozen Boone County residents about the planned Florence, Kentucky mosque, with 50 percent opposing it (according to him). Mr. Hallenberg also calls for an investigation into the funding of the mosque and into Mercy Foundation. He also repeats claims from others that “Islam declared war on the United States.”

On Mark Hallenberg’s web site, he links to the Heritage Foundation, and promotes videos by Pat Condell and Frank Gaffney, and praises Geert Wilders as a political “Braveheart.”

Mark Hallenberg repeats claims by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) leader Pamela Geller on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; SIOA leader Geller claimed in April 2010 that the Oklahoma City bombing was “the first heinous Islamic terror attack on American soil.”

Kentucky mosque protester Mark Hallenberg is also a supporter of the Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group led by Pamela Geller.

The Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) group is the leading organization behind the planned September 11, 2010 protest against the 51 Park Place Islamic Center in New York. SIOA’s top leaders have also been active in mosque protests in Staten Island. After the recent decision not to sell land to a mosque in Staten Island, SIOA leaders and supporters claimed victory, with SIOA supproters stating: “SIOA is mighty and growing stronger every minute. The evil comes out of the mosques, now and in Mohammed’s time. Close and dismantle ALL mosques, mosques have no place in America the Free….One down and so many more to go.”

R.E.A.L. has reported that the SIOA’s Executive Director seeks to recruit members and supports the violent English Defence League group. SIOA supporters have promoted the plan for a “Burn A Qur’an Day,” and call for the criminalization of Islam in America.

Kentucky Anti-Mosque Protest Leader Mark Hallenberg - Supporter of the Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) Group (Image: Facebook)

Mr. Hallenberg has used the SIOA Facebook since May 2010 to recruit Kentucky supporters for his anti-Islam movement in Kentucky.

Kentucky Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) Supporter Mark Hallenberg Started Recruiting Anti-Islam, Anti-Mosque Supporters for Kentucky in May 2010 (Image: Facebook)

On Mark Hallenberg’s Facebook page, he states that he is a member of the Northern Kentucky Tea Party. R.E.A.L. has contacted the Boone County representative of the Northern Kentucky Tea Party for comment, and received the following response: “The Northern Kentucky Tea Party is not involved in any way with a protest of a planned mosque in Florence, or anywhere. Our issues are those which impact free people of all faiths: Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government, and Free Markets.””

Mark Hallenberg also claims to work for a survivalist organization that promotes Krista Branch‘s Tea Party supporting video of individuals waving Gadsden flags, “I’ve got some news, we’re taking names, We’re waiting now for the judgment day.”

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Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is deeply concerned about the escalation of intolerance and hate that we seeing growing across America towards Muslims and Islamic mosques. We will be inviting the public to join us in a freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience event on September 11 at 2 PM in Freedom Plaza in Washington DC to give Americans an opportunity to publicly show their support for such freedoms. There is more information at 911Freedom.com.

Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience for all people of all faiths, including the freedom of religion supported under Article 1 of the United States Constitution. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

We urge those who promote hate and intolerance to unburden the hate from their hearts.

We urge all to Choose Love, Not Hate. Love Wins.

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9/11 and the Rise of the World Trade Center

As the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the New York City World Trade Center approaches in less than a month, it is important to remember those who murdered that day, and the America, with its Constitutional rights and inalienable human rights that they represented then and must still represent now.

Living here in Washington DC, I remember the 9/11 attacks also on our nation’s capital and the pain that these attacks caused all Americans. In New York City, I stood at the 9/11 crater and remember the horrific act of war that was indelibly burned into the memories of all Americans at the remains of the World Trade Center and “Ground Zero.”

Amidst the pain, we must also remember the progress that we have and must continue to make. America needs the World Trade Center to be rebuilt as a symbol that America will not submit to terrorists, anytime, anywhere.

Americans can keep track of the new 1 World Trade Center (previously named “Freedom Tower”) construction progress online at: http://bit.ly/freedomtower.

Photos of the progress on the rebuilding of 1 World Trade Center and June 2010 photographs on the progress of the building are also available online. In addition, photos of the construction progress of the 9/11 National Memorial are also online.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey states that it has a live camera to see the work, and the national 911 memorial also has a webcam of this.

The Rebuilding of the World Trade Center: (1) Rendering of 1 World Trade Center, (2) June Photo of Construction Progress on 22nd Floor, (3) Construction on 9/11 Memorial (Image: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

According to the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, “The Port Authority is making progress on the $3.1 billion 1 World Trade (formerly called the ‘Freedom Tower’). Located at the northwest corner of the WTC site, installation of steel columns and core concrete continues.”

“The skyscraper is being built according to a revised design released in June 2005. The new design retains essential elements of the original plan– soaring 1,776 feet into the sky, its illuminated mast evoking the Statue of Liberty’s torch — but features a smaller, cubic base set back further from West Street to protect the building against future attacks.”

“Rising from its square base — which will be constructed of impermeable concrete and steel — the redesigned Freedom Tower will taper into eight tall isosceles triangles, forming a perfect octagon at its center. An observation deck will be located 1,362 feet above ground and there will be a square glass parapet at 1,368 feet, the heights of the original Twin Towers. From these, an illuminated spire containing a television antenna will rise to a final height of 1,776 feet.”

“Other key elements include; 2.6 million square feet of office space, tenant amenity spaces, world-class restaurants, below-grade retail, and access to the PATH, subway, and World Financial Center. According to the Port Authority schedule, the tower is expected to open in the fourth quarter of 2013.”

The Command Center states that “One significant delay was the redesign of the tower in the spring 2005, to better accommodate security measures at street level.”

While some talk about creating new buildings, the 1 World Trade Center is being BUILT.

United We Stand.

New World Trade Center Building Rendering (Image: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

Description: WTC 1 emerges from city skyline, as viewed from across East River (Image: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

Description: World Trade Center 1 as it will appear when viewed from Brooklyn and points east (Image: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

Description: A view of 1 World Trade Center from the National 9/11 Memorial’s north pool. Photo from June 2010 Construction Images (Photo: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

Description: Building section looking east (Image: Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center)

America as a Haven for Religious Freedom

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights of religious freedom, freedom of conscience, and freedom of worship for all people. R.E.A.L. rejects hatred and rejects the activities of those who seek to promote hatred towards identity groups and specific religions.

There are some today in America that have forgotten what America has meant as a haven for religious freedom, which is why our equality and liberty for all is one of the “truths we hold self-evident” in the defining declaration of what it means to be an American.

Fortunately, the United States Library of Congress provides an online exhibit called “America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century,” to remind us of the historical importance as to why the United States Constitution and American law has sought to defend such freedom of religion.

The Library of Congress points out that “The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that uniformity of religion must exist in any given society. This conviction rested on the belief that there was one true religion and that it was the duty of the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, in the interest of saving the souls of all citizens. Nonconformists could expect no mercy and might be executed as heretics. The dominance of the concept, denounced by Roger Williams as ‘inforced uniformity of religion,’ meant majority religious groups who controlled political power punished dissenters in their midst. In some areas Catholics persecuted Protestants, in others Protestants persecuted Catholics, and in still others Catholics and Protestants persecuted wayward coreligionists.”

“Religious persecution, as observers in every century have commented, is often bloody and implacable and is remembered and resented for generations.”

“Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established ‘as plantations of religion.'”

Those who fled Briton and Europe to the United States to avoid religious persecution were from a broad range of religions and religious backgrounds. America served as a haven for such religious freedom for them.

The question Americans must ask is will we abandon the legacy and history of religious freedom guaranteed in our Constitution, as well as the freedom of worship and freedom of conscience that all deserve? We urge all Americans, instead to support our Constitutional freedom and universal human rights. Be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.

Join us in Washington DC at Freedom Plaza to stand up for our freedoms for on September 11, 2010.

We must never forget, as Americans where America’s first settlers came from, and why we made a decision to change the world by declaring our inalienable human rights of equality and liberty – for all – including freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience.

Note that all images are credited to the Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

Persecution of Jesuits in EnglandIn the image on the left is Brian Cansfield (1581-1643), a Jesuit priest seized while at prayer by English Protestant authorities in Yorkshire. Cansfield was beaten and imprisoned under harsh conditions. He died on August 3, 1643 from the effects of his ordeal. At the right is another Jesuit priest, Ralph Corbington (Corby) (ca. 1599-1644), who was hanged by the English government in London, September 17, 1644, for professing his faith. (LOC)

A Jesuit Executed for His Beliefs - Jesuits like John Ogilvie (Ogilby) (1580-1615) were under constant surveillance and threat from the Protestant governments of England and Scotland. Ogilvie was sentenced to death by a Glasgow court and hanged and mutilated on March 10, 1615. (LOC)

Execution of Mennonites - This engraving depicts the execution of David van der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins, described variously as Dutch Anabaptists or Mennonites, by Catholic authorities in Ghent in 1554. Strangled and burned, van der Leyen was finally dispatched with an iron fork. Bracht's Martyr's Mirror is considered by modern Mennonites as second only in importance to the Bible in perpetuating their faith. (LOC)

Drowning of Protestants - Shown here is a depiction of the murder by Irish Catholics of approximately one hundred Protestants from Loughgall Parish, County Armagh, at the bridge over the River Bann near Portadown, Ulster. This atrocity occurred at the beginning of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Having held the Protestants as prisoners and tortured them, the Catholics drove them "like hogs" to the bridge, where they were stripped naked and forced into the water below at swordspoint. Survivors of the plunge were shot. (LOC)

Persecution of Catholics by Huguenots - In the areas of France they controlled, Huguenots at least matched the harshness of the persecutions of their Catholic opponents. Atrocities A, B, and C, depictions that are possibly exaggerated for use as propaganda, are located by the author in St. Macaire, Gascony. In scene A, a priest is disemboweled, his entrails wound up on a stick until they are torn out. In illustration B a priest is buried alive, and in C Catholic children are hacked to pieces. Scene D, alleged to have occurred in the village of Mans, was "too loathsome" for one nineteenth-century commentator to translate from the French. It shows a priest whose genitalia were cut off and grilled. Forced to eat his roasted private parts, the priest was then dissected by his torturers so they can observe him digesting his meal. (LOC)

Persecution of Huguenots by Catholics The slaughter of Huguenots (French Protestants) by Catholics at Sens, Burgundy in 1562 occurred at the beginning of more than thirty years of religious strife between French Protestants and Catholics. These wars produced numerous atrocities. The worst was the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris, August 24, 1572. Thousands of Huguenots were butchered by Roman Catholic mobs. Although an accommodation between the two sides was sealed in 1598 by the Edict of Nantes, religious privileges of Huguenots eroded during the seventeenth century and were extinguished in 1685 by the revocation of the Edict. Perhaps as many as 400,000 French Protestants emigrated to various parts of the world, including the British North American colonies. (LOC) — Persecution of Huguenots by Catholics - The slaughter of Huguenots (French Protestants) by Catholics at Sens, Burgundy in 1562 occurred at the beginning of more than thirty years of religious strife between French Protestants and Catholics. These wars produced numerous atrocities. The worst was the notorious St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris, August 24, 1572. Thousands of Huguenots were butchered by Roman Catholic mobs. Although an accommodation between the two sides was sealed in 1598 by the Edict of Nantes, religious privileges of Huguenots eroded during the seventeenth century and were extinguished in 1685 by the revocation of the Edict. Perhaps as many as 400,000 French Protestants emigrated to various parts of the world, including the British North American colonies. (LOC)

Lutherans Expelled Who Flee to America - The Expulsion of the Salzburgers - On October 31, 1731, the Catholic ruler of Salzburg, Austria, Archbishop Leopold von Firmian, issued an edict expelling as many as 20,000 Lutherans from his principality. Many propertyless Lutherans, given only eight days to leave their homes, froze to death as they drifted through the winter seeking sanctuary. The wealthier ones who were allowed three months to dispose of their property fared better. Some of these Salzburgers reached London, from whence they sailed to Georgia. Others found new homes in the Netherlands and East Prussia.

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