{"id":21817,"date":"2010-09-05T18:47:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T16:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=21817"},"modified":"2023-07-14T13:24:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T10:24:50","slug":"u-s-funding-mosques-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/09\/05\/u-s-funding-mosques-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Funding Mosques Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Mosque_in_Fallujah.jpg\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the  planned mosque near New York\u2019s ground zero comes the disclosure that  American taxpayers are funding the construction and renovation of  mosques around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The State Department\u2019s U.S. Ambassadors Fund for  Cultural Preservation (AFCP) is spending millions of dollars on at least  29 mosque-related projects in 18 countries, including Pakistan,  Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Albania.<\/p>\n<p>State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson told  The Daily Caller website that the AFCP is a type of \u201cdiplomatic effort  and outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cIt is helping to preserve our cultural  heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures. It is not to  preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve  cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The State Department recently provided Sen.  Richard Lugar of Indiana, Ranking Republican on the Committee on Foreign  Relations, with a document explaining that the funding of mosques was  given a green light in 2003. At that time the Justice Department said  the Constitution did not bar using federal funds to preserve religious  structures if they had cultural significance.<\/p>\n<p>But Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told  The Daily Caller that funding mosque renovation and rehabilitation is  \u201cdisastrously wrongheaded and unconstitutional. They are not going to  win hearts and minds. It is not as if they are going to say, \u2018the  Americans built this mosque for us so we shouldn\u2019t wage jihad on them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cA mosque is a mosque is a mosque. It is where prayers happen. That is a religious installation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of  the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said: \u201cWe have always felt  this type of outreach is completely ineffective and that ultimately we  have to approach it like the Cold War where we are fighting an ideology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we are going to have this long war of ideas  we cannot fund these religious institutions. We can fund anti-Islamist  institutions based in liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>12 Fruits and Vegetables With High Levels of Pesticides<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/><strong>4. Light Bulb Ban Triggers \u2018Panic Buying\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Legislation outlawing ordinary incandescent light  bulbs in the European Union has produced an unexpected wave of panicked  buying as the ban takes effect.<\/p>\n<p>And that could be a harbinger of things to come  in the United States, which has also passed a law that will ban Thomas  Edison\u2019s trusty old invention.<\/p>\n<p>Last year 100-watt incandescent bulbs were banned  in the E.U., and on Sept. 1 it also became illegal to import or  manufacture 75-watt bulbs. The move is intended to force Europeans to  switch mostly to compact fluorescent lights (CPLs), which use less  electricity.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, President George W. Bush in  2007 signed into law a bill ordering the phase-out of incandescent  light bulbs beginning with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and ending with the  40-watt light in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>While CFLs do use about 75 percent less energy  than incandescent bulbs and last far longer, they cost significantly  more and some users claim they give off a \u201csickly light,\u201d according to  The Telegraph in Britain.<\/p>\n<p>They also take longer to turn on, can flicker, and have even been blamed for giving people headaches and skin rashes.<\/p>\n<p>And CFLs contain small amounts of highly toxic  mercury, which creates problems for users when they break or need to be  disposed of after they burn out.<\/p>\n<p>So sales of CFLs have been disappointing \u0097 while demand for the incandescent bulbs has been soaring.<\/p>\n<p>Packages of 75-watt bulbs have been flying off  the shelves in Finland as \u201ccustomers filled their closets, garages and  attics with lighting supplies for the long term,\u201d The Washington Times  reported in an article headlined \u201cEurope\u2019s light-bulb socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLondon\u2019s Daily Mail gave away 25,000 100-watt  bulbs as a prize in a January 2009 contest. Der Spiegel reported that  German customers left hardware stores with carts jammed with enough  incandescent bulbs to last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Telegraph reported: \u201cThe panic buying of  light bulbs is expected to get worse when 60-watt bulbs are banned next  year and all incandescent bulbs are phased out by 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there is hope yet for those who oppose the  ban, The Times disclosed. Two years ago, the minority party in New  Zealand made canceling a planned ban a campaign issue. The party won  national office, and overturned the ban.<\/p>\n<p><input id=\"gwProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/><input id=\"jsProxy\" onclick=\"if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}\" type=\"hidden\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the planned mosque near New York\u2019s ground zero comes the disclosure that American taxpayers are funding the construction and renovation of mosques around the world. The State Department\u2019s U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) is spending millions of dollars on at least 29 mosque-related projects in 18 countries, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":62147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-21817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-diplomacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}