Monday Evening, August 22, 2022 |
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FOR OVER 17 YEARS, MRFF HAS DEFENDED
U.S. MILITARY MEMBERS OF MUSLIM FAITH.
NOW A FATWA DEATH RULING HAS BEEN ISSUED AGAINST MIKEY WEINSTEIN? ABSURD!
The absurdity of these latest supposedly “Muslim” purveyors of death threats against Mikey Weinstein is in their use of the word “Knights” in their made-up “Free Brotherhood of Islamic Knights.” No genuine Muslim group would call themselves “Knights” – what the Crusaders in the Crusades called themselves. These suspected Christian Nationalists are clearly showing their
utter religious and historical ignorance.
MRFF receives support from our
esteemed allies condemning the death threat
from this pretentious hate organization,
The Free Brotherhood of Islamic Knights:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU)
California Council of Churches/IMPACT
The Forum on the Military Chaplaincy
MRFF Muslim Affairs Coordinator
Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV)
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[Name withheld] August 21, 2022 at 11:32 am
The Free Brotherhood of
Islamic Knights
has hereby issued a fatwa calling for the killing of
Michael Weinstein
by any and all able-bodied
Muslims for his transgressions
against God.
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Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Director of Research and Advocacy, Corey Saylor, Denounces Threats of Violence Against
MRFF Founder and President, Mikey Weinstein
Monday, August 22, 2022
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From: Corey Saylor <email withheld>
Subject: Statement from CAIR
Date: August 22, 2022 at 7:21:42 AM MDT
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, today issued the following statement:
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) works to ensure that members of the armed forces can exercise their freedom of religion. Threats of violence against MRFF and its founder Mikey Weinstein, which have escalated recently, are unacceptable. We expect that law enforcement will investigate threats of violence against our colleagues and prosecute such crime to the full extent of the law."
Corey Saylor
Director
Research and Advocacy
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
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Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), Senior Adviser, Rob Boston, Deplores Death Threats Against Mikey Weinstein, and His Family
Monday, August 22, 2022
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From: Rob Boston <email witheld>
Subject: Statement
Date: August 22, 2022 at 12:44:55 PM MDT
Attribute to Americans United:
Americans United deplores the appalling death threats against Mikey Weinstein, his family and the staff at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. We call on all relevant law-enforcement officials to swiftly investigate these threats and bring appropriate charges against the perpetrators so that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is able to continue its important work.
Rob Boston
Senior Adviser
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU)
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California Council of Churches/IMPACT's
Public Policy Advocate, Elizabeth Sholes' Statement:
"To those making such threats,
may God have mercy on you."
Monday, August 22, 2022
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From: Sholes <email withheld>
Subject: Death to Mikey Weinstein from followers of Jesus?
Date: August 22, 2022 at 10:52:01 AM MDT
California Council of Churches IMPACT represents 21 denominations with 6.5 million members in the mainline, progressive Protestant communities of faith. Our members go back to the beginnings of European presence in America, people who came here for religious freedom. We support the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that carries on that noble tradition embedded in our First Amendment. MRFF also carries on the idea that disagreement is resolved by law and humanity not by murdering those with whom you disagree. These attacks and threats are utterly without foundation in our American way of life. The attacks are also anathema to those who revere and celebrate the faith created by "The Prince of Peace". Threatening to kill someone over freedom? Jesus wept! This turn toward violence against a man who has upheld the rights in our Constitution for all people to believe as they choose is repugnant to real Americans and real Christians. To those making such threats, may God have mercy on you.
Elizabeth Sholes
Public Policy Advocate
California Council of Churches/IMPACT
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Forum on the Military Chaplaincy's
Co-Chair Thomas Carpenter States They Are
"Deeply Troubled" by Threats Against
MRFF's Mikey Weinstein
Monday, August 22, 2022
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From: Tom Carpenter <email address withheld>
Subject: Statement of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy
Date: August 22, 2022 at 1:04:24 PM MDT
We are deeply troubled by death threats made against the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation(MRFF), Mikey Weinstein. This fatwa is similar to the one made against Salman Rushdie who was recently attacked and stabbed at an academic presentation in upstate New York. Violence has no place in our society, particularly when it comes to the 1st Amendment and freedom of religion. MRFF is on the forefront fighting for the religious freedom for all military members and their families. MRFF represent Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and many other religions, as well as people of no faith. We expect the FBI to locate, arrest and prosecute the person who made this death threat. They must also provide protection for Mikey and his family until the perpetrator is taken into custody. To do otherwise would be a dereliction of their duty to support and defend the Constitution.
Thomas T. Carpenter, Esq.
Co-Chair Forum on the Military Chaplaincy
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MRFF Muslim Affairs Coordinator,
Ize Alimi 1LT U.S. Army Veteran, Condemns the Death Threat by The Free Brotherhood of Islamic Knights Against Mikey Weinstein
Sunday, August 21, 2022
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From: Ize Alimi <email withheld>
Subject: Statement from MRFF Muslim Affairs Coordinator
Date: August 22, 2022 at 10:19:47 AM MDT
Greetings Mr. Weinstein,
I pray this email finds you well. It is very disturbing that you are receiving such threats of violence. As a Muslim and MRFF Muslim Affairs Coordinator, I condemn with the highest firmness this criminal act.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is the most efficient organization when it comes to advocating for the freedom of religion within the Armed forces. I witnessed firsthand MRFF's devotion to every religion and non-faith tradition.
Islam is a religion of peace and love. I encourage law enforcement agencies to track down the criminals and prosecute them with the utmost rigor.
V/r
Ize Alimi
MRFF Muslim Affairs Coordinator
1LT U.S. Army Veteran
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Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV)
National Commander, Alan Paley's Recent Condemnation of Death Threats Issued
Against MRFF's Mikey Weinstein
Thursday, July 14, 2022
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From: Alan D. Paley <email withheld>
Subject: JWV Response to Op-Ed in the Daily Kos
Date: July 14, 2022
It was with outrage that I reread the posting that Mikey Weinstein received. For individuals within a country that speaks of itself as the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” this posting is disgusting and vile. No one should receive such threats. Regardless of one’s likes or dislikes, there are civil ways of expressing yourself without threatening to kill an individual with whom you disagree. Mikey Weinstein merits support in taking positions to prohibit religious coercion in the military and veteran communities.
The Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV) is this Nation’s longest serving active Veterans Service Organization. JWV, since 1896, is and remains committed to oppose all forms of bigotry — Fighting anti-Semitism wherever and whenever it occurs. Those who make anonymous bigoted statements are truly cowards and deserve accountability for their anti-American bigotry.
Alan D. Paley, National Commander
Jewish War Veterans of the USA
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A few recent cases in MRFF's many years of
advocacy for Muslims in the military community
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"Your recent AZ VA proselytizing case"
From: MRFF Supporter
Date: August 22, 2022 at 9:50:09 AM MDT
Subject: Your recent AZ VA proselytizing case
Thanks for your recent intervention for Gary Rinsem in his complaint against the Phoenix VA. I think that this is one of the most significant cases you have handled because it distinguishes the notion of “religious abuse” from what right-wingers might call a whining libtard complaint and elevates it to the same level as sexual abuse or child abuse.
You have rightly focused on the things that make this a clear-cut case and its commonalities with all the other “X abuse” cases:
- Specific unwanted behavior on the part of the abuser that can range from annoying through alarming to life-threatening.
- An imbalance of power between the abuser and the one abused. Again, it can range from small (e.g., a group alpha-member behaving badly, as in “she’s just not one of the guys” or “My older brother’s pickin’ on me” or “No shit, you’re a jew/baptist/atheist?” to egregious, as in this case of an MD vs. a patient who is seriously ill.
- It has, to a lesser or greater extent, the support of an institution, with lesser or greater institutional clout. I don’t need to give you examples; they are your daily bread. I especially like your strategic use of the copies-to list.
- There is also likely to be a small to large group of others who have also been abused by this abuser.
You can picture the underlined variations listed above as five “VU meters” like those on audio equipment. I picture them as ranging from 1-10.
MRFF has done an exceptional job of identifying behavior where one or more of these VU meters is close to pegged at 10 and of using the appropriate amount and type of push-back to get the problem fixed. I’m also guessing that sometimes you have to prioritize your cases since there are also only 24 hours in a day (though sometimes I think that you have extra hours available).
I contribute to MRFF as well as the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and the ACLU. I am a self-identified atheist although I don’t consider myself to be doctrinaire; for example, (some) C.S.Lewis works are among my favorites.
Thanks again,
MRFF Supporter
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"Outraged, ardent MRFF supporter proudly declares to MRFF: 'I cancelled my monthly PayPal donation… in order to replace it with a larger one.'"
From: [Ardent MRFF supporter] <email withheld>
Subject: I cancelled my monthly PayPal donation…
Date: August 21, 2022 at 7:28:55 PM MDT
…in order to replace it with a larger one.
Mikey, the crap that you’re fighting in our military goes hand in hand with what organizations like Planned Parenthood (I’m a donor there also) are fighting in the political arena. I am astonished by the number of fellow citizens, in and out of our armed forces, who think they ought to dictate other people’s ethics, in what I was raised to believe is a free country. I’m a progressive voter now, but I was raised by Eisenhower Republicans who would be astonished, if they were alive today, at how their countrymen are determined to force others to share their religious beliefs.
My father had many memories of his service in WWII, in the Pacific theater. He talked about the challenges of working in an Evac hospital, of his pain at seeing the desperation of local people beyond the gates of the base, and his determination to help with systemic hunger here in the US, which he absolutely did. But I also got the distinct impression that he was serving with others who saw the same things and reacted the same way. His focus was to help those who need help, preferably without making them personally humble themselves to the giver, because that was not self-affirming. Dad understood that we all, at some level, have fragile points in our egos, and he was not about to tickle those points in anyone else’s. He had feet of clay, as do we all, but he was and is my hero.
This garbage about how a serviceperson needs to be pestered into saying the right religious words (and doing the right religious things) to keep an officer off their back is the total antithesis of what my father and his brothers-in-arms stood for. And so it is not only to assuage my own outrage, but that my father would have felt, that I’ve upped my monthly donation.
May whatever deity(ies) you believe in, bless you and your organization.
[Ardent MRFF supporter]
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