DOJ and CAIR: “Nice Little Council Seat You Have There…”
“Be a shame if you did anything to screw it up.”
Councilwoman Bess Rich Calls for Investigation
City councilwoman Bess Rich says leading up to a Mobile Planning Commission meeting on April 17th, her freedom of speech was compromised.
At that meeting, plans were approved for an Islamic Mosque to expand. The Islamic Center is located on East Drive in Mobile.Today, she read a 7 page document before the council detailing what happened and asked for an investigation. Rich says prior to the April 17th meeting, she was told by city council attorney Jim Rossler that a complaint had been filed to the Justice department on behalf of the Islamic Center concerning a possible discrimination of rights violation*.
She says she was also warned not to object to the Planning Commission application submitted by the Islamic Center.
“As a result of this legal advice and my great fear of a lawsuit, I reluctantly did not step forward to render my opinion or thoughts regarding the proposed development,” Rich read. She went on to say during an interview after the meeting,
“I was told that if I address the issue I would be personally held responsible and could be sued by the Justice department and so I was warned not to address the Planning Commission on the application and to make no objects.”
Oddly enough, after the planning commission voted to let the mosque go ahead, the city attorney said, “OOPS!” After “further research” he’d determined his initial advice had been wrong and that the city was, indeed, obligated to defend her. But that update was too late in coming to affect the recommendation for approval.
‘Magine that.
*More on the alleged discrimination of rights violation complaint:
…City Councilwoman Bess Rich, who represents the neighborhood where the Islamic Center expansion is slated, said during Tuesday’s council meeting that she was told by City Council Attorney Jim Rossler to be wary about voicing her concerns on the development during the commission’s April 17 meeting because of a threat that she could be personally sued.
Her concerns stem from an investigation that was initiated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office last year over a potential violation to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which prohibits governments from imposing a land use regulation that imposes substantial burdens on religious freedoms.
The probe stems from the City Council’s vote in May 2013 to deny the Islamic Center of Mobile’s application for an expansion project that included a new school and mosque.
The council, amid concerns about traffic issues along East Drive and parking during the project’s construction, voted unanimously against the project.
…Rich said she was approached by Rossler ahead of the April 17 meeting and was told not to say anything about the project because legal action might be forthcoming by the Justice Department. She said that Rossler told her that if she was sued, not to expect the city to defend her against the federal agency.
…Rossler confirmed that the Department of Justice informed the city that they were opening an investigation. He said a formal letter about the probe into the council’s denial of the Islamic Center’s application last year was opened on Nov. 15.
…Rich said she is concerned that her civil rights as a concerned representative of the district might have been affected. She is equally concerned that other commissioners or city officials might have been approached ahead of April 17 meeting over concerns about how a federal investigation might be handled if they were opposed to the Islamic Center project.
“It’s a very serious issue to have your civil rights, which are constitutionally protected freedoms of speech, to have been thwarted,” Rich said. “That’s a very serious violation even as an individual, but more so or equal to as an elected official … that you would be personally sued (if you spoke out against the project). I did not get that (concern) corrected until way after the hearing.”
Rich requested that a hearing into an appeal of the Planning Commission’s recommendation be delayed until “an investigation is initiated on what was told to the planning staff and commissioners.” She said she wants to find out who was involved in last year’s appeal to the Justice Department and whether the federal investigation prevented a “fair and opening hearing” on April 17.
As for “discrimination”, well…I can understand parking and traffic issues completely. We have little home grown Christian churches around here and Bible studies that just outgrow the neighborhoods, and they’re a pain in the ass, God love ’em. We’re not telling you you can’t have your church anymore. But PLEASE MOVE it where the infrastructure can HANDLE it.
Then again, those little preachers ~ most of them ~ don’t have kids like THIS particular mosque’s Imam, either.
Mosque Leader Says Discrimination a Factor
It’s a situation that has the president of a local mosque pondering his next move.
“I believe in all my heart that this is somewhat of a discrimination,” said Shafik Hammami.
The Islamic Society of Mobile has called East Drive home for over 20 years. The buildings however, are much older, and that’s why Hammami wants to rebuild.
…”Does it have anything to do with them being Muslim?” I asked [a neighbor] Montgomery. “Not really, no. Of course it’s, you know we have feelings. Terrorist that came from that particular mosque, makes you think,” she said.
And that terrorist is Omar Hammami, who is Shafik Hammami’s son. He is on the America’s Most Wanted list for supporting the terrorist organization Al Shabaab and recruiting terrorist for the organization.
“I don’t blame the American people for having the fear, but I do blame people who do not pursue the truth. The truth is we are a peaceful religion, and we have nothing to do with the terror acts going on all over the world,” said Hammami.
Soooo, schmaybe it’s NOT JUST the traffic that’s giving the neighbors fits and starts, eh? And the son’s name might not ring the proverbial bell, but if I tell you he’s the chirpy little bearded f*cker who was the mouthpiece for Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab in Somalia, who has since been reportedly whacked by those same good-natured fellas, would that ring a bell?
As for his religion of peace loving dad, his comments on his murderous son’s death were:
…”Of course I hope not, I hope it’s not true,” Shafik Hammami told ABC News in a telephone interview from his Alabama home. “Our lives have been on a roller coaster for a long time, and we’ve been there before… we just hope that it’s not true this time.”
If the reports are accurate, however, Shafik said his son died “fighting for his principles.”
“He did what he wanted to do and he fulfilled his principles,” Shafik said. “If he indeed died, he died fighting for his principles, whatever they are.“
TOTAL REPUDIATION of the violence inherent in Islamic teachings THERE, wouldn’t you say?
And trust the Obama DOJ to come down on the side you’d figure they would.
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof, Morality, Nanny State, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
May 8, 2014 3:00 pm
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First thing I’d do: fire the city attorney.
Surprisingly enough, the Muslim push towards domination of their schools, education and damn near everything else is not confined to Mobile.
In Great Britain, we are looking at our own ‘Trojan Horse’ conspiracy in Birmingham, the second-largest city in England, and there are already rumours that the Muslim Plague is spreading to other areas which have large Muslim populations.
Seems as though the people being investigated are claiming the inspectors are ‘biased’! Wonder why.
It’s hard to feel sorry for someone stupid enough to think that their speech as a member of the city council could be abridged, especially when the threat comes from terrorist oranizations.
Skyler, you might want to look into Mark Steyn’s run-ins with the PC crowd before you dismiss her concerns. Not everyone has the wherewithal to withstand a federal inquisition.
Sincerely, aelf. They count on bankrupting you trying to defend yourself before the city attorney goes “oops”.
aelfheld, that was Canada. This was in Alabama. Everyone learned from a young age in our country that there is such a thing as Freedom of Speech, and anyone with a lick of sense knows that speech in government is especially protected. Anyone so stupid should not be in office, because they are craven cowards and have no morals.
We don’t just elect people so they can wield power. We elect them primarily to protect our freedoms and be good stewards of our money.
I know many men who were killed overseas to protect this country. I don’t have respect for an elected official who won’t risk a threat to her precious money, no matter how absurd the threat is, when there isn’t even anyone shooting at her.
I have nothing but contempt for that miserable excuse for a human being.
What’s the saying? Evil succeeds when good men do nothing to stop it. She decided to wait for a lawyer to tell her if she can do anything about evil. A pox on her. And on CAIR.
Oooh, a lawsuit! I’m scared! I better not say anything!
Meanwhile, Brad Harper got in his Amtrac every day in Iraq, knowing that they were vulnerable to IED’s, and volunteered to work someone else’s vehicle the day that vehicle was blown up and everyone on board was killed. Brad Harper wasn’t just about the nicest man I ever met, he was also courageous and a strong leader.
I’ve got 50 more stories like that from my battalions overseas alone. Those men didn’t shirk from danger, and their lives were taken by the friends of CAIR.
Screw that stupid cowardly councilwoman. She should be impeached and removed from office immediately. No one put her in danger and she ran like a little schoolgirl nonetheless.
Contempt, utter contempt I have for her.
Skyler, I wasn’t referring to Steyn’s travails with the Human Rights Racket in Canada but his current legal imbroglio here in the United States.
The process is the punishment – years of lawyer fees, motions, appeals, &c., &c. Not to mention a court system that seems designed to enrich lawyers by permitting all sorts of nonsense.
That not every one has the same amount of courage as those you know & have known shouldn’t surprise you.
At the least Rich should be given credit for speaking out – she could have just stayed quiet & avoided all controversy.
Shafik Hammami ought to reflect that under Islamic law, new churches may not be built nor old ones repaired. In Egypt, Christians must get permission for the President of the nation to make such changes, as if Hammami had to ask Obama for permission to build a new mosque (not that Obama would say no). Perhaps we ought to imitate Islamic practice more closely in that regard here in the US. Could he object to the US adapting Islamic practices in that way? Surely such imitation ought to please him.
As for his son, evidently that man’s principles included massacres of unarmed people, terrorism, piracy, jihad, all activities the Somali terrorists have carried out.
“[I] do blame people who do not pursue the truth. The truth is we are a peaceful religion, and we have nothing to do with the terror acts going on all over the world,” said Hammami.”
The truth is that devotees of Islam are attacking the folowers of all other religions all over the world, committing terrorist actions on them, blowing them up, gunning them down, hacking them apart, cutting their throats. And almost never do we hear serious denunciations of such acts by Muslims in the West.In Muslims countries the local government often fights against the terrorists, but that is because the terrorists aim also at overthrowing them. Most Muslims seem to be pretty copacetic with Islamic terrorism against non-Muslims (which includes Shi’a for Sunnis and Sunnis for Shi’a). And they are positively ecstatic over killing Jews. ROPMA.