WorldNetDaily really hates it when non-Christians seeks the same religious freedom in America that Christians are routinely granted. An April 14 article by Bob Unruh was shocked by plans for a Muslim religious community in Texas:
A corporation wants to build a Muslim community in Texas, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is asking for a Department of Justice investigation to find out if there are violations of federal laws involved in the scheme.
The plan is for the project, led by the East Plano Islamic Center and in Josephine, Texas, is for the community to have single-family homes, townhomes, apartments, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, assisted living and other things. And it would cater to Muslims.
In a letter to the DOJ, Cornyn asked for an investigation whether the plans would violate the constitutional rights of Jewish and Christian residents by “prohibiting them from living in the community and discriminating against them.”
The senator wrote to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and said, “Religious discrimination, whether explicit or implicit, is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Religious freedom is a cornerstone of our nation’s values, and I am concerned this community potentially undermines this vital protection.”
We suspect that Cornyn (and Unruh) would not be so concerned about potential violations of religious rights if the planned community in question was Christian.
Unruh then tried to fearmonger:
County planners have not yet been given the paperwork needed to start an evaluation.
But the facts are that there are “no-go” zones across the United Kingdom, where Muslims have moved in, essentially taking over local governments, and making the regions unfriendly to anyone not a Muslim.
As if parts of Texas, and the U.S. in general, aren’t considered unfriendly to anyone not a Christian. Cornyn got the DOJ investigation he wanted, but it was ultimately dropped — a fact WND has not told its readers. Still, Don Feder praised efforts to block the development in his May 27 column:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has temporarily blocked the construction of EPIC City, a Muslim planned community to be located about 40 miles northeast of Dallas.
This is a temporary setback for efforts to create Muslim enclaves in the American heartland.
At a cost of $100 million, the 402-acre site would have included 1,000 single and multifamily dwellings, a K-12 school, a community college, a sports facility, a shopping center and a mega mosque. The mosque already exists and was to be the nucleus of EPIC City.
Abbott didn’t mince words. There will be no “self-segregated” communities based on Shariah law in the Lone Star State, he declared. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn concurred.
[…]Shouts of “Death to America” are frequently heard at pro-Palestinian protests in Dearborn. A video of an event hosted by the Palestinian Youth Movement showed participants pledging to sacrifice themselves “to end this American empire.”
EPIC City was to be another part of the same far-reaching scheme. Similar communities are planned for Aubrey, Texas, near Denton, and Blue Ridge, Texas.
The headline on Feder’s column reads “EPIC City gets 86’ed: No Shariah law in Texas.” In the wake of the James Comey controversy, it needs to be asked whether Feder believes Muslims should be assassinated.
This wasn’t the only expression of non-Christian religion in Texas that WND is concerned with. Unruh played whataboutism in a May 14 article:
The internet confirms that there remains ongoing concern over a Hindu behemoth, a 90-foot statute of religious figure Hanuman, which was dedicated recently in Sugar Land, Texas. There have been protests at the site of the huge religious figure, and there are negative opinions expressed online.
Even First Amendment-protected ridicule of the “monkey god.”
But that’s far short from the “violent” harassment and attacks happening to Christians and their churches in India, where Hindus are the vast majority.
Much of the rest of Unruh’s article focused on what was happening in India, not in Texas. We suspect that Unruh would not be so eager to highlight that “First Amendment-protected ridicule” also applies to Christian practices.