On December 15 the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) will
have its annual convention at All Saints Episcopal Church in
Pasadena, a prominent liberal parish within the increasingly
liberal Episcopal denomination. It’s the first time MPAC has
convened at a church.
Last week a younger writer on national security issues named
Ryan Mauro penned a column critical of MPAC’s radical connections
in its past and questioned the church’s wisdom in hosting it. The
article appeared in Frontpagemag.com and on the website of
my group, the Institute on Religion and Democracy. On December 6,
MPAC and the All Saints Episcopal convened a press conference at
the church to denounce an ostensible “attack from right-wing
extremists,” which seemed mostly to be Mauro’s article.
On Sunday, the church’s senior pastor, Ed Bacon, cited the
controversy in his sermon, faulting a “toxic narrative that too
many of our religions have promulgated and that is, that in order
to become a part of my religion, you have to hate someone else in
another religion or you have to hate somebody else in another
category.”
In his original
story, Mauro recounted that MPAC was founded by two brothers
who had been active with the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the
brothers, Maher Hathout, is still alive and active with MPAC, even
joining the December 6 press conference at the church, where he
affirmed his past history with the Muslim Brotherhood. Mauro quoted
several MPAC personalities who over the years have praised Hamas
and Hezbollah. During the recent Israel clash with Hamas over Gaza
rockets, MPAC condemned Israel for “assassination” but also called
for both sides to end the conflict, as Mauro described.
Mauro’s column did not assert any shocking new information.
Andrew McCarthy wrote an extensive piece on MPAC’s radical ties in
an August
column for National Review Online. Like Mauro,
McCarthy noted that MPAC executive director Salam al-Marayati after
9-11 conspiratorially named Israel as the potential perpetrator of
9-11’s terror: “If we are going to look at suspects,” he told a Los
Angeles radio station, “we should look at groups that benefit the
most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the
State of Israel on the suspect list.”
At the church press conference, nobody really dealt with the
MPAC’s controversial past. Instead the church’s associate pastor
complained of the “hateful, vitriolic, demonization of Islam.” The
Rev. Susan Russell specifically had in mind 50 offensive emails the
church says it has received complaining about the MPAC conference.
In a Huffington Post story, she had claimed the emails
included “threats” against the church. But at the press conference
the senior pastor, Rev. Bacon, as quoted by the Los Angeles
Times, admitted there were no actual threats. Yet the emails
and the complaints against the church expose the “underbelly of
Islamaphobia in this country,” Rev. Russell insisted. “It gives us
an amazing teachable moment to demonstrate what it looks like when
people of faith refuse to be polarized by
our differences.”
It was not explained how concerns about attitudes towards Hamas
and Hezbollah, as well as suggesting Israel orchestrated 9-11,
equal “Islamophobia.” But most news stories about the controversy,
which have included the Associated Press, the Los Angeles
Times, Religion News Service, a local public radio station and
local television stations, have all emphasized purportedly
“hateful” emails laced with “threats.” On December 5 Salam
al-Marayati debated Ryan Mauro on local public radio. He denied
blaming Israel for 9-11 and claimed he was only trying to be
ironic, while also conceding it was the “wrong way” to talk about
it. Elsewhere, he has tried to explain: “My point was to say if
you’re going to accuse political Islam [of 9-11], then Muslims will
accuse political Zionists, and we both should not do that.”
At the December 6 church press conference, al-Marayati hailed
All Saints Episcopal as a refuge from “fear of surveillance,”
“prejudice” and “bullying,” while explaining the need to push back
against “fear-mongerers.” In his press conference remarks, an
elderly Maher Hathout recalled his work with the Muslim Brotherhood
as only in the distant past while a student opposingthe British
occupation of Palestine. Rev. Susan Russell praised MPAC’s “holy
work.” Rev. Ed Bacon called the 50 or so complaining emails to the
church “some of the most vile, mean-spirited emails I’ve ever read
in my life.”
Congratulations to All Saints Episcopal Church for extracting
such extensive sympathetic media attention over several dozen
unpleasant emails. Conservative groups and high profile
conservative churches no doubt routinely get lots more hate mail.
But they don’t typically call press conferences because they know
there’d be no media sympathy and because they’re less adept at
claiming victimhood.
One All Saints Episcopal Church member told Huffington
Post that he chose the church “because of their belief that
everyone deserves love and respect no matter your political agenda,
age, race, sexual orientation, religion or creed.” The church’s
ultra-egalitarian agenda, with strong emphasis on gender and sexual
liberation, is starkly at odds with nearly all of Islam, much less
the more extreme Islam that some MPAC officials are accused by
critics of abetting.
Of course, this church, like most of the Religious Left, chooses
to look the other way, preferring dreams about diversity to
realities of culture clash.
