NC county commissioner storms out of meeting during Muslim prayer: ‘I don’t need no Arab telling me

[DonViejo]

NC county commissioner storms out of meeting during Muslim prayer: ‘I don’t need no Arab telling me what to do’

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners had always opened government meetings with Christian prayer. About two months ago, officials decided that in order to avoid legal trouble, they’d have to let everyone participate.

That didn’t last long.

On Monday, commission chairman Carrol Mitchem, who had previously announced he wouldn’t “bow to minorities” and that he “ain’t gonna have no new religion or pray to Allah” at board meetings, held true to his word and walked out on the first person to address the North Carolina government meeting with a Muslim prayer, the Lincoln Times-News reports.

“That was very upsetting. It was upsetting,” Dustin Barto of the Foothills Interfaith Assembly, who had led the Muslim prayer, told WSCOTV.

By the end of the meeting, all prayer was banned at board meetings and will be replaced with a moment of silence. Commissioner Alex Patton initiated the motion which was easily voted into effect.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/nc-county-commissioner-storms-out-of-meeting-during-muslim-prayer-i-dont-need-no-arab-telling-me-what-to-do/

[whatthehey]

1. That's the way to teach these Christofascist theocratic fuckwads

If your religion can be freely expressed, so can any others. Take none or take all. Funny how they always prefer none given that demonstrated choice, which is what grownups would want in the first place in any inclusive pluralistic society.

[passiveporcupine]

44. Of course they will claim it's an attack on Christianity

Because the result will be no prayer at all...no religion mixed with government business, which is the way it should be.

I hope this spreads very quickly.

[merrily]

55. No routine prayers of any kind at board meetings, ffs. I agree.

Congress should quit it, too.

However, I believe federal law requires from employers reasonable accommodation when it comes to religious beliefs and practices of any employee. If a government employee makes reasonable accommodation for every religion except Islam, that's a problem. Individuals facing east and praying if a board meeting is being held during one of the times they need to pray should not be that big a deal. (I would expect them to excuse themselves from the meeting and/or maybe the chair could call a short break.)

However, this man says "Arab," not Muslim, so he may have some kind of ethnic bias as well.

[CincyDem]

57. Then prefer nothing because they're piñata Christians...

...all painted and pretty on the outside and hollow below their shallow surface.

We saw something similar in our community. Didn't get to the walk out phase but when it became clear things were headed down the interfaith road, the group voted against all prayer in favor of moment of silence. What they really want is to control the conversation and they were happy to define it as silence...you know, like we do in Church.

[JoePhilly]

2. Bwahahahaha!!

[Fred Sanders]

3. Bigotry based in hate should be made a crime...these racists and bigots do not belong in power.

.....and then the board took a vote and banned ALL prayer?

Congratulations to this great American Muslim brave enough to go into that lion's den and smack some sense into the bigots...this is a secular nation, asshats.....using prayer....

[3catwoman3]

33. Banning prayer...

...at government meetings seems like a fine idea to me.

[RKP5637]

36. K&R!!! n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. Mitchem then declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination and immediately became the frontrunner.

[AllFieldsRequired]

26. I wish that was a joke.

[closeupready]

5. Overcompensating with the tough talk for his name???

[jwirr]

6. That is exactly how non-Christians feel about prayer in schools. Poor baby.

[Arugula Latte]

10. But ... but ... Christianity is the TRUE religion!!!

Mohammad riding a winged horse to Heaven? Come on, that's preposterous.

Jesus being born of a god-raped virgin and dying and then coming back to life and hovering around waiting to return to Earth soon to suck believers up into Heaven? That TOTALLY happened and will happen.

[hifiguy]

41. The nonexistent sky daddy of Jews, Muslims

And Xtians is the SAME nonexistent sky daddy.

[LanternWaste]

12. And exactly how many Christians feel also...

And exactly how many Christians feel about the state telling us when and where to pray.

[Positrons]

13. What do you consider to be a good example of the state...

... Telling you when and where to pray?

[whatthehey]

18. When did that happen?

Pity the poor oppressed Christians for finally after centuries being a tiny bit resisted in their non-stop stamping roughshod over the rights and choices of others. For shame.

[jwirr]

22. Speak for yourself. I am a Christian. In the 3rd grade in an Iowa public school our teacher led us

in a prayer upon the death of Joseph McCarthy. Third graders who knew nothing about what Joseph McCarthy was doing - or if he was good or bad.

My parents and many others were furious. We would have given thanks for his death not pray for his soul. Also I was a Lutheran - we do NOT pray for the dead. This was a direct violation of our freedom of religion.

That is the day that I learned that I never wanted our schools to be able to lead prayers in the classroom. And nothing stops me from praying - the present law just stops what happened to me when I was in 3rd grade. Only those who want to force their beliefs on others are upset about this.

BTW which denomination do you think should lead those prayers you want? We do not even agree on how we pray and you want it in our schools and in our governing bodies? Just another way to divide us.

[AllFieldsRequired]

27. But that has never happened that I know of, why would you say that?

Did you mean to say the government enforces the separation of church and state and will not allow official prayer services on government grounds or the participation therein?

Why dont you want them to enforce the Constitution?

[BeeBee]

46. Yeah, because that happens so often. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

64. Pray anytime you want

Just keep it to yourself.

[phantom power]

7. Say, what if we ... "separated" ... church from state, to avoid these kind of arguments?

I know, crazy talk.

[volstork]

25. That's nuts!

What's wrong with you? Do you think you're Thomas Jefferson or something?!

[Rex]

8. So now a simple prayer is 'telling someone what to do' is it now!?

A 'moment of silence' is still a prayer...I feel sorry for anyone that has to live in that fucked up town of myopic dullards. Which is probably an oxymoron.

[sarge43]

21. "Moment of silence" is anything you personally want it to be.

Zone out, plan dinner, think about porn, whatever

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. I hope some Muslims show up and spend their "moment of silence" on a rug facing Mecca.

Because it's just another workaround for the poor oppressed Christians.

Here's an novel idea: why not just start the meeting?

[sarge43]

34. Now you're just being rational. n/t

[Rex]

48. 'Here's an novel idea: why not just start the meeting?'

Are you kidding? That would be TOO EASY.

[awoke_in_2003]

65. +1 million. nt

[Rex]

49. What if I don't want to take a 'moment of silence'? What if I want to 'shout with rage'?

Oh sure, the silence crowd thinks they are always right - but us yellers have a point or two to make.

[sarge43]

54. It's your moment n/t

[asjr]

35. When asked to lead in prayer I once started.."Now I lay me down to sleep..." Did not go over well.

[cloudbase]

51. Here's one for the next time you're asked:

O God, if there is one, save my soul, if I have one.

Guaranteed to make friends, freshen breath, and get your whites whiter.

[asjr]

52. Or my money back?

[cloudbase]

53. DOUBLE your money back!

Guaran-damn-teed.

We'll even refund the modest shipping and handling charges.

[The2ndWheel]

38. People get upset about people saying Merry Christmas to them too

We're all nuts.

[Mariana]

58. More people get upset about people saying Happy Holidays.

"Yeah? What holiday is it? It's CHRISTmas! Why don't you say Merry CHRISTmas? Huh?"

I'm with you, people are crazy.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. "By the end of the meeting, all prayer was banned at board meetings"

Good.

[Arugula Latte]

11. Yep. I like happy endings.

[progressoid]

17. woohoo!

[Deadshot]

14. As an Atheist, I love this.

If one puts in something from any other religion other than Christianity, the fundies get upset and cancel all religious things.

[Skittles]

61. correct

their so-called "faith" is very shaky indeed

[Oneironaut]

15. Don't Christians and Muslims pray to the same God?

[Betty Karlson]

39. Not if the "christian" believes in hatred, while the Muslim believes in love

Allah Mahebba.

[alphafemale]

59. Father Abraham...yeppers pt

[Takket]

16. "By the end of the meeting, all prayer was banned at board meetings and will be replaced with a...

...moment of silence"

Oh, say they decided to pass a motion to actually follow and obey the Constitution at a government meeting? How inspiring! Maybe at the next meeting they can pass a motion to allow women to vote, require a warrant before a home search, etc.

[Jamastiene]

66. Right. It's a damn shame the rest of us

have to wait for them to go through their theatrics and melodrama just to follow the Constitution they claim to defend, all the while, wasting our time with their pomp and melodrama. If they hadn't decided to make every government meeting some religious ceremony, they wouldn't have to come back and change it when someone besides the Christians wants a say. They wasted our time doing all that praying and now they are wasting our time changing the rules. At least they are finally changing the rules to stop all that time wasting, money wasting praying.

It is still wasting time and money when they should be doing their damn jobs. Time is money and government uses our money to waste all that time praying, waste all that time making new rules to keep the "Arabs" from praying (that seemed to be his objection), then waste even more time with a moment of silence, which is another way for them to waste our time praying and grumbling under their breath about anyone who isn't Christian. That is what a moment of silence really is; it's just another way to pray and grumble under their breath that "others" even exist, all on our dime. I resent it, personally.

Why not just start the meeting without all the theatrics and melodrama?

[ismnotwasm]

19. Dumbass

And now a visible, Internet viral dumbass.

[sarge43]

20. Now Mitchem knows how all we non-Christians feel

when we have/had to sit through the Lord's Prayer. Lost count of that one back in grade school.

A moment of silence is fine. That should be the standard.

[bvf]

23. For Mitchem,

I'm sure this will amount to a moment of silent grumbling under his breath.

Good.

[TNNurse]

28. Ignorance in grammar, too

to go along with his other ignorance.

[mike_c]

29. all's well that ends well!

"By the end of the meeting, all prayer was banned at board meetings...." Sounds like a perfect outcome to me. And the idiot commission chairperson went on record as a bigot. A good day all around!

[Cosmocat]

30. THIS is my response to school prayer

I tell people I am perfectly fine, as long as they are willing to let little Abdullah face Mecca and Salaat a couple times a day, too.

That usually ends up sort of like this or stone cold silence.

[d_r]

37. of a Muslim teacher

leading all of the kids in prayer to towards Mecca

[AlbertCat]

31. all prayer was banned at board meetings and will be replaced with a moment of silence.

Oh just get to work, will ya????

[lpbk2713]

42. I'd like them to prove something to me.

Let them prove how a governmental proceeding on any level was made better by divine intervention.

If there really was a God and if he/she cared anything about politics there wouldn't be a GOP.

[Paladin]

32. If U.S. Muslims aren't preparing for their own Kristalnacht, they ought to be.

I shudder to think about how much damage that hate-drenched conservatives are ready and able to carry out, against people who have done nothing to deserve such treatment.

[blackspade]

40. Bigots going to bigot!

What an asshole.

[Stonepounder]

43. Guess they forgot to read their bible.

Matthew 6:5-8

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

[merrily]

56. Jesus is heeded very selectively.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

45. Town of Greece v. Galloway

Town of Greece v. Galloway, SCOTUSblog

Town of Greece v. Galloway, Wikipedia

Town of Greece v. Galloway is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court decided that the Town of Greece, New York may permit volunteer chaplains to open each legislative session with a prayer.
....

Reaction to ruling

The reactions to the court's ruling were diverse. Christian conservatives and others who feel that religious expression has been overly curtailed in public settings were happy with ruling. Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the court's decision "a great victory for religious liberty."

[Politicalboi]

47. GREAT!!!!!

Stop spending our money praying to your silly gods. All prayer should be banned from government jobs. Even their moment of silence is silly.

[Positrons]

50. So sensitive...

I always thought that if these folks were really sure they wouldn't be so insecure about anyone rustling their jimmies a bit...

[ladyVet]

60. Who knew this thread would have such a happy ending?

It could be better, though: they could just call the meeting to order and get down to business.

I used to be respectful to people who prayed at mealtimes and before meetings started, but after a while I just started eating, or would read a book (I always had a book with me, now there are a few hundred on my Kindle). It got me some dirty looks, but they'd get that "you want to fuck with me?" look back and dropped it.

[Skittles]

62. every time I see them being so thankful for their food

I wonder if they wonder why 21,000 people die daily from lack of food

[nc4bo]

63. The irony, it is delicious.

Ignorant asses, lots if em down here!

[Martin Eden]

67. Same lesson applies to prayer in public schools

I'd like to see their reaction when their children were led in a Muslim prayer using the Koran.