"Conservatives" show their true colors... Hypocrites or munafiqeen. The language is irrelevant, the odor is the same.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- All - I believe we should start a drive to write to this Senator letting him know that we are ANGRY that he would use the first Muslim prayer in the Texas Senate as a means to defame his own constituents. Instead of preaching tolerance and understanding, Patrick has chosen to divide and hate. We need to become more active in the political process so that we have the means to put pressure on these representatives who encourage this kind of intolerance. Here is the article from the Chronicle... *Patrick boycotts prayer, praises religious freedom* By CLAY ROBISON Complete Texas Legislature coverage AUSTIN — Republican Sen. Dan Patrick on Wednesday boycotted the first prayer delivered in the Texas Senate by a Muslim cleric, and then praised religious tolerance and freedom of speech in an address at the end of the day's session. "I think that it's important that we are tolerant as a people of all faiths, but that doesn't mean we have to endorse all faiths, and that was my decision," he said later. "I surely believe that everyone should have the right to speak, but I didn't want my attendance on the floor to appear that I was endorsing that." Patrick, a conservative radio talk show host from Houston and self- professed Christian, said he wasn't the only senator to miss the invocation — in English and song — by the Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque. But he was the only senator known to have passed out to other senators copies of a two-year-old newspaper editorial criticizing Kavakci for publicly praising two radical Islamists. Patrick's political ally, Harris County Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill, had sharply criticized the fact that the Muslim prayer was scheduled during the week before Easter. The timing was coincidental, said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who sponsored the cleric's appearance at the Capitol on the Texas Muslims Legislative Day. Shapiro is Jewish, and this also is Passover, a major Jewish holiday. Shapiro praised Kavakci's "extensive interfaith experience" and said he represents a "substantial constituency of Texans who deserve to be represented." She said she checked out his reputation with the Anti-Defamation League and other groups to "make sure he was not somebody I would be embarrassed by." Shapiro said she never leaves the floor when Christian ministers deliver an invocation "in Jesus' name" and doesn't consider her presence an endorsement of Christianity. "I have a great respect for Christianity. I have a great respect for anyone who comes and prays. That's what this country was based on, its freedom of religion," she said. Patrick and Shapiro met privately during the Senate session. A warning to Shapiro Shapiro said Patrick told her he was "concerned because there could be a problem here." She said Patrick wanted to "warn" her, referring to e-mails that suggested the cleric may "espouse things that are wrong." In a personal privilege speech at the end of the Senate session, Patrick called the Muslim invocation an "extraordinary moment," coming during Passover and before Easter. "In many parts of the world, I know that Jews or Christians would not be given that same right, that same freedom," he said. "The imam that was here today, he was fortunate to be in this great country." . -- -- -- G. Waleed Kavalec ------------------------- http://www.facebook.com/p/G_Waleed_Kavalec/618860864
