RUTHFULLY YOURS

Sheriff Baca Update. “LA Sheriff’s Department Has A Muslim Public Affairs Unit,” by Amy Alkon for Men’s News Daily, July 11 (thanks to Kenneth):

LA Sheriff’s Department Has A Muslim Public Affairs Unit [.] It’s paid for with public funds.

Separation of mosque and state, anyone?

More about the LASD’s Muslim Community Affairs Unit from TheUnitedWest.com, via a somewhat sloppily written piece on their site:

Steve Whitmore, LASD Senior Media Advisor, confirmed the Muslim Community Affairs Unit receives taxpayer funds approximating $128,400 per year for two full time Deputies. When this reporter asked Mr. Whitmore if any other , religions, had a LASD Community Affairs Unit and received equal taxpayer funds, Whitmore replied, “There are no other religious Community Affairs Units in the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department.”

For the LASD to meet the Establishment Clause threshold for “government neutrality toward religion” Sheriff Baca would have two options. First, Sheriff Baca would have to establish and manage Community Affairs Units with two Deputies and a $128,400 budget, for each recognized religion under his jurisdiction. The second option would be to dismantle the Muslim Community Affairs Unit in accordance with the Establishment Clause.

…The MCAU has another function, “The unit also trains department members about Islam and Muslims, touching on issues such as religious beliefs and customs. Academy recruits also receive a two-hour class on Muslim cultures and background as part of the cultural awareness training program.” A program tasked with teaching Shariah Compliant Islamic values to incoming police recruits, while excluding the values of every other religion in Los Angeles County.

…A 2008 Pew Research Center survey reveals the citizens of California are 42% various Christian denominations, 31% Roman Catholic Christians, 2% Jewish, 2% Latter Day Saints, and 1% Muslim. The rest of the citizens are either non religious or of other minority faiths.

“According to the latest hate crime report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, 88 percent of all religiously based hate crimes in 2009 were against Jews. Hate crimes that targeted Muslims (3 percent) ranked slightly above those directed at Scientologists (1 percent). In fact, the commission found that attacks against Christians (8 percent) outnumbered attacks against Muslims.” It could be argued statistically, that if any religion needs a LA Sheriff’s special religious Community Affairs Unit, it’s the Jews and Christians not the Muslims.

Terry Sanderson states, “if there is one public service that absolutely must be secular it is the police force. There should be not one whisper of sectarianism in the force and all this talk of Muslim police officers must stop. They are police officers who are Muslim, but when they are at work they must be simply police officers full stop. They must serve the whole community without fear or favor. This goes also for police officers who are Christian, Hindu, Atheist or indifferent.”