[lit-ideas] The Moderate Mr. Gali
- From: "Lawrence Helm"<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 18:22:06 +0000
"Here's another example: Souleiman Ghali was born in Palestine and, as he put
it, raised to hate 'Shiites, Christians -- and especially Jews.' After
emigrating to America, he founded himself rethinking these old prejudices and
in 1993 helped found a mosque in San Francisco. As Mr. Ghali's website states:
'Our vision is the emergence of an American Muslim identity founded on
compassion, respect, dignity, and love.' That's hard work, especially given
the supply of imams. In 2002, Mr. Gali fired an imam who urged California
Muslims to follow the sterling example of Palestinian suicide bombers. Safwat
Morsy is Egyptian and speaks barely any English, but he knew enough to sue Mr.
Ghali's mosque for wrongful dismissal and was awarded $400,000.
"So far, so typical. But the part of the story that matters is that the
fire-brand imams had a popular following, and Mr. Morsy's firing was the final
straw. Mr. Ghali was forced off the board and out of any role in the mosque he
founded. And, as the Wall Street Journal reported, Safwat Morsy -- a man who
thinks American Muslims should be waddling around in Semtex belts -- is doing a
roaring trade: 'His mosque is looking to buy a building to accommodate the
capacity crowds coming these days for Friday prayers.'" [Steyn, America Alone,
pp 86-7]
Lawrence
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