Webloggin » The Problem with Proselytizing

There is a big problem with any religion trying to gain converts in a community that does not want them there. With Islam it is even worse, because terrorism is connected to many mosques whether some folks want to believe it or not. There is concern that Muslims are distributing Islamic materials and recruiting new members in places like local prisons.

One such example of concern is a mosque in Pompano Beach Florida. The people in the community did not want the mosque and the mosque was reportedly being built near the local prison. It is well known that imams recruit prisoners. They have a captive audience, usually majority non-whites, who may be ripe for the message of jihad. Yet when communities encourage the Muslims to build their mosque somewhere else, they are labeled racist and Islamophobes.

Project Downtown is a Muslim community service group based at University of Miami. After Jumu’ah, or Friday prayers, they’ve made it a tradition to go down to the parking lot of the government building at 111 NW First St. to distribute food and clothing.

The sandwiches they usually hand out come from a Subway restaurant owned by a member of Ahktar’s mosque. The clothes are unclaimed items from a dry cleaning shop owned by a friend of Ahktar’s parents. And the toiletries come from members of the local chapter of CAIR, the Council of American-Islamic Relations.
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The UM group also has reached out to members of the Muslim Students Association chapter at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to help out.

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Several websites, such as militantislammonitor.org and pipelinews.org, have criticized the group, saying that along with the sandwiches and recycled clothes, they’re also distributing copies of the Koran and Islamic propaganda. (source)