Action Required: Mayor Don Reimal Invites Bigoted Fake Ex-Terrorist Kamal Saleem to Speak
2 November 2011
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Action Required: Mayor Don Reimal Invites Bigoted Fake Ex-Terrorist Kamal Saleem to Speak
Loonwatchers action is required! For some reason “Kamal Saleem” has been invited by Mayor Don Reimal of Independence, MO to speak at his Prayer Breakfast.
An Interfaith group from Independence has called the Mayor out on his selection of Saleem:
An inappropriate speaker for Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Independence
Independence, MO —An open letter to Independence Mayor Don Reimal.
The purpose of this letter is to address the selection of Kamal Saleem as the guest speaker for this year’s Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.
It is the opinion of the Interfaith Progressives of Independence that Mr. Saleem is a poor choice for this community event. Mr. Saleem’s message is one of division and fear. He paints Islam as a religion bent on world domination and violence. We don’t understand how this message is appropriate for our community.
On his own website (Kamalsaleem.com), one can find him stating things such as this: “there are people coming here (USA) who want to convert the stars on the American flag into crescents.” (www.kamalsaleem.com)
Mayor Reimal, we find such sentiments to be inappropriate for the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast. It is important that civic events be welcoming to all people in Independence.
The Interfaith Progressives of Independence believe it is important that all our Muslim, Jewish, atheist and other citizenry are treated with respect. In our opinion, the choice of Mr. Saleem is disrespectful to our non-fundamentalist Christian residents.
Rev. Brian Morse
Mark Matzeder
Michele Yancey Bigler
Terry Flowers
Paul Neidlinger
Michele Spillman
Interfaith Progressives of Independence
Lets show solidarity with the Interfaith organization and contact the Mayor to let him know that Kamal Saleem is a very poor selection for the Prayer Breakfast.
Phone: (816) 325-7027
Home Phone: (816) 461-6044
Fax: (816) 325-7012
E-mail: dreimal@indepmo.org
Here is some info to share with him on Kamal Saleem:
The Three Stooges Coming to a Campus Near You!
Kamal Saleem Still Selling His Fake Ex-Muslim Story
Fake Ex-Terrorist Kamal Saleem Trying to Swindle Michiganians
Kamal Saleem: Fake “Ex-Terrorist” Wants Sharia’ Banned in Missouri
Update:
The Mayor as of now is sticking by his choice of Saleem:
Despite several pleas to Mayor Don Reimal’s office to reconsider the choice for the Independence Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast keynote speaker in two weeks, the selection committee’s unanimous choice for a presenter remains in place.
…
A chaplain in the Missouri National Guard also emailed Reimal and said he would no longer attend the breakfast because of the speaker choice. That person, Reimal said, represents the only cancellation – to his knowledge – based solely on the selection of a speaker.
The email I sent to the Mayor:
Dear Mayor Don Reimal,
I am writing to you in regards to your choice of Kamal Saleem as a speaker at your upcoming Prayer Breakfast. I believe this is an unwise choice, as he is an individual well-known for spreading misinformation and distorting the image of the Muslim community in America. This is unjust and dangerous, and I expect better from this country’s elected leaders.
On September 11, 2001, I was only twelve years old, a seventh-grade student. Even then, I wondered if the growing perception of Muslims as being exclusively violent and destructive was missing the mark: at best, it seemed incomplete, and at worst, patently and insidiously false. I could not understand why the violent Muslim image that persisted in the public eye seemed to so contradict the Muslim community that always greeted people with the words “Peace be upon you.” So when I started my undergraduate degree at an evangelical university, I resolved to study Islam for myself, to view different sides and try to understand the faith as its practitioners do. Along the way, I got involved with interfaith work, befriended many Muslims of various backgrounds and political stripes, and even learned to speak, read and write in Arabic.
I also became aware of the work being done by countless Muslim activists, work we never seem to hear about on the mainstream media: Muslims like Eboo Patel founding the Interfaith Youth Core to inspire dialogue and service, and to push for mutual respect between different faiths; or Rami Nashishibi, who founded the Inner City Muslim Action network to address the daunting needs of residents in the heart of Chicago’s South Side; or Irshad Manji, a writer and professor inspired by her faith to challenge dangerous cultural trends that sometimes exist in Muslim communities though they have no root in Islam itself; or myriad bloggers and writers of the Arab Spring who are currently fighting for democratic ideals in their own countries. What I learned from my studies and from these amazing people cemented what I had intuited even at twelve years old: contrary to what I had been taught, the enemy of freedom and justice is not Islam, but ignorance, and that countless Muslims reflect this reality in their deeds as well as their words.
Recently I returned from a U.S. Department of State exchange program, where I studied Arabic in Jordan for two months. I will be honest and say that, despite my widened perspective, I initially kept quiet about my Baha’i faith, fearing persecution. So maybe I’d grown to love and trust my Muslim neighbors at home, but I was a religious minority in a Middle Eastern country with Shariah on the books — since I’d been raised in a country that fears such situations, I had no idea what to expect. Yet the openness and kindness of the society that embraced me was utterly beyond my expectations. I discovered Baha’i and Christian communities thriving amidst this conservative Muslim society. I myself was warmly embraced by Muslims, both liberal and conservative. I was treated like family, and quite frankly, I felt ashamed that my expectations had at first been so low.
Upon my return to the States, I was again confronted with the popular myth that Islam is inherently evil, its followers inherently violent — but this time, it was personal, an attack against members of my own adopted family. I realized that the people who had so generously opened their hearts and homes to me in the Middle East would, in all probability, be treated with disdain and suspicion were they to visit the USA, thanks to today’s environment of ever-increasing Islamophobic sentiment. Frankly, I am embarrassed and horrified by this, because it utterly dishonors the American values I was raised on. I was taught to value freedom and to embrace diversity, because “all men are created equal” and they should always be treated with respect and courtesy in spite of perceived differences.
Therefore it seems to me a basic courtesy to ensure that any criticism of a group of people is based in honest, balanced and diligent study of facts, and not in paranoia and half-truths. People like Kamal Saleem spread lies and misinformation for profit. Scholars both Muslim and secular have widely refuted the claims made by Saleem, Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and other Islamophobic speakers — yet these individuals continue to draw in millions of dollars and widespread attention for the lies they spread. This is no small matter: When propagated, these stereotypes are extremely harmful not only to American Muslims, but to all Americans who believe in the constitutional right to practice their faith in safety.
The assertion that Muslims are bent on taking over the United States and instituting hardline Shariah law is based on misinformation and downright bad theology, and it fails to represent the real views of the overwhelming majority of kind, law-abiding American Muslims. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, public servants, community organizers, artists and musicians. They are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and our family — not to mention our first line of defense in rooting out those individuals within the Muslim community who do become radicalized. We truly need to understand that the enemy is ignorance, not Islam. We know not to judge all Christians, for example, on the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church or Anders Breivik, because we can recognize that their actions do not truly represent biblical teaching. Why should we not grant the same grace to our Muslim neighbors?
The Qur’an stresses peacefulness, justice, and respect to human rights and dignity, and these virtues are upheld by the vast majority of the world’s over 1 billion Muslims. They need us to support them as allies, not to be constantly alienated by those who seek to demonize their entire religious community based on its worst elements. It says in the Qur’an quite plainly that, if anyone takes a life except in self-defense, it is as if they have murdered all of humanity. Those terrorists who commit crimes against innocent people (and more often than not, against their own fellow Muslims) are, in reality, violating the standards of their own professed religion. The countless Muslims who are inspired by their faith to contribute positively to our shared society need our support and for their voices to be heard. In fact, I would be more than happy to recommend to you Muslim speakers who would do a much better job representing their community than dishonest peddlers of paranoid misinformation. They would be a much better choice for a prayer breakfast than Kamal Saleem.
I thank you so much for your kind consideration, and wish you all the best.
Peace and good things,
Erin
2 November 2011 at 1:55 pm