Over the years, my friends at the Philadelphia Inquirer have been kind enough to publish my op-eds regarding Mayor James Kenney. Some of you may have seen this video of him and one of his assistants doing the happy dance as they celebrate Philadelphia’s status as a sanctuary city.

When Kenney was a city councilman, he pandered to Philadelphia’s gay community by attacking Dan Cathy, the president of the Chik-fil-A restaurant chain. Why? Because Cathy, a devout Baptist septuagenarian, had been quoted in an obscure church newsletter saying that he supported “the biblical definition of the family.”  This caused Councilman Kenney to address a letter to Cathy stating that he planned to introduce a resolution in City Council condemning Cathy and his organization for promoting “intolerance and hate”. He concluded by telling Cathy to “take a hike and take your intolerance with you.” Here’s a link to my op-ed about that shameful episode.

Then, after he had been elected mayor, Kenney presided over a press conference following the attempted murder of a Philadelphia police officer by an assailant who volunteered to detectives that, “I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State and that’s why I did what I did.” This prompted Kenney to declare that “[I]n no way, shape, or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam” had anything to do with the attack. He added that the attack “does not represent the religion in any way, shape or form or any of its teachings.” Here’s the link to my op-ed about that silly pronouncement.

Unfortunately, Kenney’s politically correct orthodoxy is pretty standard for Philadelphia’s government and political community.

Yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story about a Facebook video of a “celebration” at a local Muslim center at which children were shown calling for Jewish blood. This prompted me to bang out and submit the below opinion piece to the Inky. Whether or not it will run in the paper remains to be seen. But that doesn’t mean I can’t share my thoughts with all of you. So take a look. Hope you enjoy it.

George Parry

P.S. The tagline at the bottom of the submitted piece references my departed mother who was a Lebanese Christian. I included that in a vain attempt to blunt the inevitable accusations of anti-Arab prejudice by the woke readers of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

AN UMMAH DAY CELEBRATION

According to its mission statement,the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations “resolves community conflicts, and promotes equality and understanding throughout the City.”  Since its establishment in 1951, the PCHR has investigated numerous persons and organizations for purportedly discriminatory acts. See, e.g.,the late Joey Vento for posting a sign at his cheesesteak shop advising customers “This is America. When ordering, please speak English”; Philadelphia Magazine for “recklessly endangering”race relations by publishing an article titled “Being White in Philly” which discussed the racial attitudes of Caucasian Philadelphians; SEPTA for “gender identity discrimination”based on its “policy of requiring that a person’s gender be specified on their (sic) TransPass”.

 These are but a few examples of the types of matters that historically have been of concern to the PCHR. As you can see, these are hardly the stuff of Nazi marches or Ku Klux Klan cross burnings, but rather deal with possible hurt feelings or sensitivity to perceived prejudice. Accordingly, whether the PCHR’s investigations of these and similar cases served a useful civic purpose has been a matter of debate.

But now an incident has occurred which affords the PCHR an opportunity to render a vitally important public service.

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, last month the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in Philadelphia uploaded to its Facebook page a video of a “Ummah [Community] Day” celebration in which young children wearing Palistinian scarves sang  “Glorious steeds call us and lead us [to] the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The blood of martyrs protects us…Take us, oh ships…until we reach our shores and crush the treacherous ones…Flow, oh rivers of martyrs!”

In the video, a young girl reads a poem praising martyrs who sacrificed their lives for Palestine and then asks, “Will [Jerusalem] be a hotbed for cowards?”

Another young girl reads, “We will defend [Palestine] with our bodies…We will chop off their heads…We will lead the army of Allah fulfilling His promise, we will subject them to eternal torture.”

           (Emphasis added)

The Philadelphia center which uploaded the video is operated by the Muslim American Society whose website declares that its mission is to “move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty, justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity” and that it seeks “a virtuous and just American society.”

The Muslim American Society has publicly condemned the words used in the video and stated that its “investigation revealed that the [unnamed]school that organized the event… is a separate entity renting space from MAS Philadelphia. The school board informed us that that it has taken immediate actions and dismissed the person in charge of the program.”

“This was an unintended mistake and an oversight in which the center and the students are remorseful. MAS will conduct an internal investigation to ensure this does not occur again.”

MAS’ explanation raises many questions.

Is its denunciation of the event sincere or is it simply deflecting blame because it got caught in the act of orchestrating a pint-sized hate fest? If MAS is telling the truth, what school organized the event and who is on that school’s board? Is this a publicly funded school? Who does it employ, and who got fired? Has it engaged in similar activities in Philadelphia?

How did it come about that MAS rented its facility to such an organization? Are we to believe that MAS had no idea about the alleged renter’s purpose or what type of event was about to take place at the center?  Was this a one-time only “unintended mistake” or have other similar activities taken place at the center? What other activities  have MAS and the unnamed school sponsored? Are there other affiliated organizations spreading similar hate in Philadelphia?

These and hundreds of related questions need to be answered, and the PCHR is certainly authorized to pose them.  But will it do so? Investigating and holding public hearings about offensive signage at cheesesteak shops and TransPass gender discrimination is one thing. Probing the activities of the Muslim American Society at the risk of being accused of anti-Islamic and anti-Arab prejudice is quite another.

So, the issue is at hand. Will the PCHR use its jurisdiction and resources to investigate this despicable exploitation of minors? In other words, will it have the courage to investigate those persons in Philadelphia who are teaching children the joys of butchering, decapitating and torturing Jews?

George Parry is a former federal and state prosecutor. His late mother was a Lebanese Christian who loved everyone. He is a regular contributor to The American Spectator and blogs at knowledgeisgood.net. He may be reached by email at kignet1@gmail.com.