They Know Not What They Do | Democrat=Socialist

Today I challenge you to send this to one or two of your liberal friends who plan to vote Obama with the simple question, “did you know this is what you are voting for?”

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CHICAGO — The Nation of Islam, a secretive movement generally closed to outsiders, has planned a rare open-to-the public event at its Chicago-based headquarters in what the Minister Louis Farrakhan deemed a “new beginning” for the group.

Hundreds of religious leaders of different faiths have been invited to the event planned for Sunday, a rededication of the group’s historic Mosque Maryam on the city’s South Side. Farrakhan is scheduled to speak.

“We have restored Mosque Maryam completely, and we will dedicate it to the universal message of Islam, and the universal aspect of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” Farrakhan said in an invitation letter. “It represents for the Nation of Islam, a new beginning.”

The event comes just weeks after the death of Imam W.D. Mohammed, the son of Nation founder Elijah Muhammad, who broke with the group and moved thousands of African-Americans toward mainstream Islam.

The Nation purchased the mosque, a former Greek Orthodox church, in 1972 and has since been making renovations. The stately 1948 structure, embellished with a golden dome and topped with an Islamic crescent moon, is adorned with Quranic verses in Arabic.

Experts say opening the mosque’s doors to the public is a calculated move.

“It is a very conscious effort to open the mosque up to the community and to rededicate the community to learning about Islam,” said Aminah McCloud, a professor of Islamic studies at DePaul University. “Previously, the Nation has been open to people coming to visit it, but its members don’t generally go anywhere else … now there is a concerted effort.”

While the Nation has espoused black nationalism and self-reliance since it was founded in the 1930s, in recent years members have reached out to other groups. For instance, the Nation has a Latino liaison and has become involved in immigrant rights rallies and marches. Also, the Minister Ishmael Muhammad, a top assisting minister at the mosque and widely thought to be a potential successor to Farrakhan, has talked about unity between all people, at times speaking in Spanish.

Farrakhan, 75, has haltingly tried to move the Nation toward traditional Islam, which considers the American movement heretical because of its view of Elijah Muhammad as a prophet — among other novel teachings. Orthodox Islam teaches that there has been no prophet after Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century.

He’s also played down some of the group’s more controversial beliefs. The Nation of Islam has taught that whites are descended from the devil and that blacks are the chosen people of Allah.

The event on Sunday also wraps up a week of events marking the 13th anniversary of the Million Man March, which Farrakhan began in 1995. That year, hundreds of thousands of people traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate.

On Thursday, Farrakhan spoke to inmates at Cook County jail urging self improvement, atonement and reconciliation, principles the Million Man March promoted.

Those values “can help reduce violence and anti-social behavior … and have universal significance and will benefit those willing to listen,” according to a statement from the Nation.

Farrakhan’s Sunday speech will mark his second major public address this year and is among several smaller community and religious events he has attended.

His public appearances have surprised many since in 2006, he seceded leadership to an executive board while recuperating from serious complications from prostate cancer.

In February, Farrakhan appeared at an annual Saviours’ Day event in Chicago and called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama the “hope of the entire world” that the U.S. will change for the better. The Obama campaign quickly denounced Farrakhan’s support, because of past comments about Jews that many have called offensive.

In the past months, Farrakhan has attended funeral services of W.D. Mohammed and Jabir Herbert Muhammad, both sons of the late Elijah Muhammad.

Editor’s Note: The non-partisan Web site “Opposing Views” offers readers a look at all sides of the debate on a variety of issues. This is part of a series of posts from the Web site that will appear in the FOX Forum.

By Claudio Simpkins
A contributor to HipHopRepublican.com, Simpkins is a third-year Harvard Law student, Harry S. Truman Scholar and Jeanette K. Watson Fellow

Far from being the post-racial campaign that pundits have talked and written about for months, this election cycle is proving to be the most racialized ever. Every word, gesture, act or omission is scrutinized by the media for double-meaning or racial undertones. But when we move beyond race and talk about what really matters -– the qualities we all seek in a president –- things become clearer. Senator John McCain is the best man for the job.

This doesn’t take anything away from Senator Obama. As a young Black and Hispanic male, I see Senator Obama as a role model. No one can deny his amazing achievement and inspirational life story. I also understand the concern of the Black and Hispanic communities given the Republican Party’s unfortunate recent history with regards to race. Senator McCain however, represents the best of what the Republican Party has to offer: service, experience, independence, judgment and pragmatism.

Senator McCain is a well-respected and known reformer. Significantly, McCain took on the entirety of the Republican establishment on immigration, offering leadership in devising a respectful and effective immigration policy. Unfortunately, the discourse surrounding the immigration issue from more xenophobic parts of the party has turned off many Hispanics to the GOP entirely. But it can’t be denied that McCain refused the politically expedient route and stood by his principles. This is the sort of bravery we should seek in our leaders.

The popular Democratic talking points that paint McCain as the second coming of President Bush miss the mark. McCain has repeatedly illustrated that he is his own man on issues of the highest import: interrogation techniques, diplomacy and nuclear proliferation, even the handling of the War in Iraq. Senator Obama’s record, on the other hand, reveals few attempts at bipartisanship and even fewer instances of the senator taking a principled stand in opposition to his party. With a country as divided and polarized as ever, can we really expect someone with the most liberal voting record in the entire Senate (see The National Journal’s 27th annual vote rankings) to compromise, to heal, and to unite? I have my doubts.

In spite of the utter incompetence of Congress, Senator McCain has proven himself willing to do what it takes to get the job done. McCain-Feingold, McCain-Lieberman, McCain-Kennedy, the Gang of Fourteen –- the list goes on. Senator McCain’s record indicates an individual committed to doing what is right, not simply what is politically expedient. It belies a man of deep conviction, of even temperament and sound judgment. Senator McCain might not always say or do what’s popular. Perhaps that’s why he’s losing this race. But perhaps that is exactly why he should be leading us through the next four years.

To read more coverage of the election on Opposing Views, click here.

John McCain’s campaign is expressing outrage over a New York Times story that focuses on Cindy McCain’s marriage to the Arizona senator, including her miscarriages, her past addiction to painkillers and her failure in Washington to fit in.

The campaign’s outrage comes on the heels of a letter Cindy McCain’s attorney, John Dowd, wrote earlier this month to New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller accusing him of biased coverage for not pursuing more information about Obama’s personal life.

“It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama,” Dowd wrote in the letter, which the campaign has made public now in response to the latest report by the Times.

“You have not tried to find Barack Obama’s drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, ‘Dreams of My Father,’” he continued. “Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus there is a terrific lack of balance here.”

The McCain camp provided the letter to FOX News on Saturday, the same day the piece was published. In addition to the missive, the McCain released a scathing critique of the story, calling it “gutter journalism at its worst — an unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate’s spouse.”

The New York Times defended its coverage of both presidential hopefuls and the story on Cindy McCain.

“The Times has reported vigorously on the backgrounds of the candidates and the influential people in their lives, including both prospective first ladies. We reported where the facts led us,” Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said in a written statement to FOXNews.com.

“The story was a richly reported, completely fair, respectful — even empathetic — profile of a would-be first lady,” Mathis added. “The material is almost all from named sources, and the McCain campaign has not disputed a single fact.”

The McCain camp also condemned New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, who co-wrote the feature, for e-mailing a 16-year-old friend of the McCain’s youngest child, seeking more information on Cindy McCain.

“The New York Times has stooped lower than this campaign ever imagined possible in an attempt to discredit a woman whose only apparent sin is being married to the man that would oppose that paper’s preferred candidate, Barack Obama, in his quest for the presidency,” McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb wrote in the statement released Saturday.

“It is a black mark on the record of a paper that was once widely respected, but is now little more than a propaganda organ for the Democratic party,” he added. “The New York Times has accused John McCain of running a dishonorable campaign, but today it is plain to see where the real dishonor lies.”

Kantor declined to comment when reached by FOXNews.com.

Click here for the New York Times story.

John McCain on Saturday kept up his attacks on Barack Obama’s tax policies, saying that he would turn the IRS into a giant welfare agency and likened his economic plan to socialism.

“At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives,” McCain said in a radio address. “They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway.”

McCain leveled the charge before a pair of appearances aimed at restoring his lead in critical battleground states. In both North Carolina and Virginia, where McCain was to speak later in the day, his campaign has surrendered its lead to Obama in various polls. President Bush, a Republican, won both states in 2004.

The state dips mimic larger national trends that have given Obama a lead over McCain following Wall Street chaos that focused the race on who is best equipped to restore the economy.

On Sunday, McCain was to travel to Ohio, where he might appear with “Joe the Plumber,” the Holland, Ohio, plumber Joe Wurzelbacher whom the senator has been portraying as emblematic of people with concerns about Obama’s tax plans.

Wurzelbacher became the focal point of the final presidential debate after he met Obama earlier in the week and said the Democrat’s tax proposal could keep him from buying the two-man plumbing company where he works. However, reports of Wurzelbacher’s annual earnings suggest he would receive a tax cut rather than an increase under Obama’s plan.

Obama has said his tax policies would cut payments for 95 percent of working Americans, while increasing them only for families making more than $250,000 a year. McCain has argued that 40 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes, either because they are seniors or don’t meet minimum earnings thresholds, so the only way to cut their taxes is to give them various credits.

“In other words, Barack Obama’s tax plan would convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington,” McCain said in the radio address.

An Obama spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.