Unemployment at historic levels, taxation without representation at post-revolutionary historic highs, a failing economy, nationalization of health care, impending nationalization of energy, abandonment of America's founding principle -- individual rights -- and now this.
US taxpayer dollars are funding the Ground Zero stealth imam's Mideast mega-mosque fund raising tour.
The left will say, Bush did it too! I love when the BDSers evoke Bush. Well, that Bush policy was wrongheaded and clueless (and still is, as is made painfully clear by this outrage). And the Bush economy was fabulous. No small distinction.
Raising hackles nationwide................
US spending $16,000 for imam's Mideast tour AP News hat tip big MacWASHINGTON (AP) - American taxpayers will pay the imam behind plans for a mosque near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said Wednesday.
The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance.
Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will visit, spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Those per diem rates range from nearly $400 to nearly $500, according to official documents.
The imam's organization, The Cordoba Initiative, referred questions on the matter to the State Department.
Rauf starts his tour Thursday in Bahrain and ends it in the United Arab Emirates Sept. 2. At each stop he is expected to discuss Muslim life in America and promote religious tolerance. He will not be allowed to raise funds for the mosque on the trip, Crowley said.
"We have had conversations with the imam to make sure he understands that during these kinds of trips, he's not to engage in any personal business," Crowley told reporters. "He understands that completely."
Oh yes, that'll do it, PJ. Has a "wink and a nod monitor" been named?
"We value his participation as a religious figure here in the United States who can help people overseas understand the role that religion plays in our society," he said.
Huminuh, huminuh, huminuh.......................
