March 26, 2011

The Week in Sharia: Terry Jones’ Revenge

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Flickr: Jason AdamsFlickr: Jason AdamsEveryone stay calm:

  • Sharia came to Florida, and it was not so bad.
  • Tennessee lawmakers rewrote their anti-Sharia bill to turn it into a material support for terrorism law.
  • Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann demonstrated their presidential bona fides by cozying up to Bryan Fischer, a far-right radio host who thinks the First Amendment doesn’t apply to Islam. He’s also written that “deaths of people and livestock at the hands of savage beasts is a sign that the land is under a curse.” That last sentence was about grizzly bears.
  • As Governor of Minnesota, GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty oversaw a program that helped Muslims get Sharia-compliant mortgages. No big scandal there—just a state housing agency helping people get houses. But Pawlenty wants you to know that he had nothing to do with it: “As soon as Gov. Pawlenty became aware of the issue, he personally ordered it shut down. Fortunately, only about three people actually used the program before it was terminated at the Governor’s direction.”
  • Chupcabras are, apparently, not real. But in their absence, the Rev. Franklin Graham has a new terrifying bogeyman for you: It’s called the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • Texas pseudo-historian David Barton (among others) also subscribes to Graham’s view. Which is why it was so surprising—or maybe not—to see Newt Gingrich lavishing praise on the WallBuilders founder at an American Family Assocation forum on Friday.
  • Requisite Terry Jones disclaimer: We fully acknowledge that Gainesville pastor Terry Jones has a following of about 30 people. Requisite Terry Jones update: The Gainesville* pastor celebrated “International Judge the Quran Day” by putting Islam on trial—as one does. Islam was found guilty, and Jones carried out the sentence by, finally, burning a Quran. Explained Jones, “We tried to set it up as fair as possible, which you can imagine, of course, is very difficult.” Quite.
  • And finally, your qualifying clause of the week. Atlanta pizza mogul and totally random GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain spoke with Christianity Today about Islam and apparently he’s not a fan. While lamenting that Muslims push their faith on others, Cain explained: “[B]ased upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

*This post originally stated that the Rev. Terry Jones’s church is in Orlando.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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