Catholic
University Investigated for Offending Muslims By Having Too Many Crosses
by
John Hayward 11 May 2015
“Complaint says crosses at Catholic school offensive,
prevent Muslim prayers,” reads the headline at BeliefNet.
It’s one of those headlines that sounds like a bad joke, but
it isn’t. It’s not exactly a serious complaint, either, and it isn’t coming
from actual Muslim students in any event. “Baffled Catholic University
officials say they have never received a complaint
from any of the schools Muslim students,” writes BeliefNet.
In fact, the university expressed its bafflement in a
full-length statement: “Catholic University’s faithfulness to our Catholic
tradition has also made us a welcome home to students of other religions. No
students have registered complaints about the exercise of their religions on
our campus. We understand that a professor unaffiliated with Catholic
University has made public
allegations claiming that we are discriminating against our students on
religious grounds, but we have not seen any legal filing – and will respond to
them if we do.”
The sixty-page complaint was filed with the
Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights by
a one-man nuisance-lawsuit factory, George Washington University Law School
Professor John Banzhaf. Muslim students are but pawns in Banzhaf’s game against
Catholics. Taken to its logical conclusion, his lawfare would wipe out mosques
and Islamic learning centers as well. The rules of engagement in the
Establishment’s War on Religion have a funny way of changing to accommodate
Islam, however, so perhaps those hypothetical logical conclusions will never be
reached.
Banzhaf’s complaint alleges that the large amount of Catholic
imagery draping the halls of Catholic University creates an “offensive”
environment in which Muslims are intimidated out of proper
reverence for their own religion.
He further alleges the university “does not provide space –
as other universities do – for the many daily prayers Muslim students must
make, forcing them instead to find temporarily empty classrooms where they are
often surrounded by Catholic symbols which are incongruous to their religion.”
Not only that, but Muslim students forced to make do with
Catholic University’s chapels find their souls crushed by the oppressive
spectacle of “the cathedral that looms over the entire campus – the Basilica of
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.” Banzhaf insists the Muslim
students must be provided with facilities where they can conduct their
five-times-daily prayers without having to look at anything Catholic,
especially that immaculate-conception Death Star of Catholic piety.
Todd Starnes of Fox News has Banzhaf admitting “it may
not be illegal” for Catholic University to forego special Catholicism-free
rooms for Muslim students, “but it suggests they are acting improperly, and
probably with malice.”
He explained that since Muslims must pray five times a day,
it’s a tremendous burden for them to “look around for empty classrooms and to
be sitting there trying to do Muslim prayers with a big cross looking down or a
picture of Jesus or a picture of the Pope is not very conductive to their
religion.”
It’s hard to keep a straight face while reading all that,
but rest assured the rusty gears and chains of the bureaucracy began clanking
as soon as Banzhaf’s thick complaint was dumped into the hopper of the
anti-discrimination machine. “A spokesperson for the human rights office said
they are investigating Banzhaf’s complaint — and the inquiry could take as long
as six months,” writes BeliefNet.
“I don’t know what the attorney wants them to do – if he
wants them to actually move the Basilica or if the Muslim students can find
someplace where they don’t have to look at it,” an incredulous Patrick Reilly
of the Cardinal Newman Society told Fox News. “One wouldn’t expect a Jewish
institution to be responsible for providing liturgical opportunities for other
faiths and I wouldn’t expect a Catholic institution to do that.”
“This attorney is really turning civil rights on its head,”
Reilly continued. “He’s using the law for his own discrimination against the
Catholic institution and essentially saying Catholic University cannot operate
according to Catholic principles.”
The perverse incentive created by this complaint, if it’s
successful – or even investigated with enough vigor to impose a significant
burden upon Catholic University – is that showing any tolerance
or generosity toward other faiths is dangerous for a religious institution.
Banzhaf hits Catholic University for refusing to allow a Muslim student group
when it permits a Jewish student association, for example.
His assertions about the special needs of Muslim students –
assertions that don’t presently seem to be supported by any actual Muslim
students – would make them dramatically more difficult to accommodate than,
say, Jewish students who are serenely undisturbed by crosses and portraits
of Popes… but allowing the easily hosted Jewish students into the university
means the ostensibly more difficult Muslims must be allowed as well, or the cry
of “discrimination” will ring through the halls.
If this six-month “human rights investigation” picks up
steam, the easy way out for Catholic University will be to the create zero-pope
crucifix-free “safe rooms” Banzhaf demands. If the university submits, it won’t
be the last demand it would be forced to meet. Not by a long shot.
This is all part of the effort to create a legal and
super-legal regulatory environment in which maintaining faith-based
institutions is nearly impossible… or, at least, so difficult that these
institutions will be forever subdued beneath the heel of the almighty State.
Just wait until churches lose their tax-exempt status
for refusing to comply with Big Government decrees about same-sex
marriage, and you’ll see how that works. It won’t just be religious
institutions that suffer, either. The demands of sacred “non-discrimination”
are growing so heavy that nearly every society and business venture requires
the indulgence of government mandarins to get off the ground. We all live in
the shadow of regulatory guillotines that could drop at any moment.
As Patrick Reilly noted, it’s difficult to imagine non-Christian
institutions coming under attack for taking their religion too seriously. Are
Muslims confident that will always be the case? The tactical
alliance between the Left and Islamist extremism might end with either of them
turning on the other. If the complaint against Catholic University succeeds,
one day we might see non-Muslims waging lawfare
against Islamic foundations by complaining they’re too Islamic, with those
imposing minarets towering overhead, and calls to prayer echoing through the
halls five times a day.
Catholic University
Francis E. George
was a trustee at the Catholic University
of America, a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a cardinal for the Roman Catholic Church.
Note: papal knighthood
is an honor conferred by pope for the Roman
Catholic Church.
John J.
Studzinski is a papal knighthood
knight, a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), and a director at the Human Rights Watch.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the Human Rights Watch, the Catholic Relief Services, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Gara
LaMarche was the VP & director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Foundations, an associate
director for the Human Rights Watch,
and a director at the White House
Project.
Daisy
Khan was a director at the White
House Project, is a developer for Park51,
and an executive director for the American
Society for Muslim Advancement.
Park51
Park51 (originally named Cordoba
House) was a planned 13-story Islamic
community center in Lower Manhattan.
The majority of the center was set aside for the general public to promote interfaith
dialogue. Plans for the center included a Muslim prayer space which, due to its
location two blocks from the World Trade Center site,[6][7]
has controversially been referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque",
though numerous commentators disputed that
characterization.[8][9] As of
August 2014, the owner proposes to build a three-story museum instead of the
original 13-story center.
American
Society for Muslim Advancement is a sister organization for the Cordoba Initiative, and a sponsor for
the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.
Alwaleed
Bin Talal Foundation was a funder for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Alwaleed bin
Talal is the founder of the Alwaleed
Bin Talal Foundation, and the benefactor for the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding was a center
at Georgetown University.
Madeleine K.
Albright is a professor at Georgetown
University, and an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
Anthony
Lake is a professor at Georgetown
University, and was a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank).
Chuck
Hagel was a professor at Georgetown
University, the chairman for the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), and is the Defense secretary for
the Barack Obama administration.
James L. Jones
Jr. was a men's basketball team forward at Georgetown University, a national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and is a
director at the Atlantic Council of the
United States (think tank).
John J.
Studzinski is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), a director at the Human Rights Watch, and a papal knighthood knight.
papal knighthood
is an honor conferred by pope for the Roman
Catholic Church.
Francis E. George
was a cardinal for the Roman Catholic
Church, a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a trustee at the Catholic
University of America.
Anthony A.
Williams is a trustee at the Catholic
University of America, and was a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Kenneth
Canterbury is a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council, and the president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Martin
O'Malley was a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council, the Baltimore
(MD) mayor, and is the Maryland
state government governor.
Ex-Mayor Martin O'Malley Heckled During Baltimore Riot
Tour (Past Research on the Homeland Security Advisory Council)
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
William J. Bratton
is a member of the Homeland Security Advisory
Council, the commissioner for the New
York City Police Department, was the police commissioner for Boston (MA), a superintendent for the Boston Metropolitan Police, and the chief
for the Los Angeles (CA) Police
Department.
Elliott B. Broidy
was a member of the Homeland Security
Advisory Council, and a commissioner for the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System.
Lee
H. Hamilton is a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Nemir A. Kirdar
is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was a
director at Georgetown University.
Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding was a center
at Georgetown University.
Alwaleed bin
Talal is the benefactor for the Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, the founder
of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation,
the Saudi Arabia prince, and Abdallah Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud’s nephew.
Alwaleed
Bin Talal Foundation was a funder for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Friends
of Saudi Arabia was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Abdulaziz
bin Abdullah is a co-founder for the Friends
of Saudi Arabia, the deputy minister of foreign affairs for Saudi Arabia, and Abdallah Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud’s son.
Abdallah
Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud was Abdulaziz
bin Abdullah’s father, Alwaleed bin
Talal’s uncle, and the king of Saudi
Arabia.
Alwaleed bin
Talal is Abdallah Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al
Saud’s nephew, the benefactor for the Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, the founder
of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation,
and the Saudi Arabia prince.
Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding was a center
at Georgetown University.
Alwaleed
Bin Talal Foundation was a funder for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
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