US Tax Dollars Used to Restore Mosques Around the World

[FrankRep]

US funds restoration of global Islamic sites (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100824/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_nyc_mosque_state_department_2)


Associated Press
Aug 24, 2010


WASHINGTON – The good will tour of the Middle East by the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero is just part of the U.S. government's efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.

This year, the Obama administration will spend nearly $6 million to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including mosques and minarets, in 55 nations, according to State Department documents.

Under a program established by Congress in 2001, the department will fund at least five projects in as many countries at a cost of more than $271,000.

The contributions include $76,135 for the 16th century Grand Mosque in Tongxin, China, and $67,500 for the 18th century Golden Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. An additional $62,169 will be spent on restoring a 19th century minaret in Mauritania's ancient city of Tichitt; $50,437 for the Sundarwala Burj, a 16th century Islamic Monument in New Delhi, and $15,450 to restore the 18th century Gobarau Minaret in Katsina, Nigeria.

The amount spent on mosque restoration projects is a fraction of the total in the 2010 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, which also will fund projects to restore Christian and Buddhist sites as well as museums, forts and palaces.

Since 2001, the U.S. government has spent almost $26 million on the program to fund about 640 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries.

"The fund has demonstrated America's respect for the world's cultural heritage," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last month in announcing the 2010 projects. "Cultural heritage serves as a reminder of historical experiences and achievements of humanity. Ancient structures and objects offer important lessons for us today."


SOURCE:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100824/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_nyc_mosque_state_department_2

[Vessol]

This is something I'll get behind the Neocons if they protest. Government spending for a religion, any religion, is bullshit.

[Fozz]

yawn

[Stary Hickory]

yawn

Ah and had it been Christian Churches? I diasgree with this spending just like all others of the sort regardless of religion.

[Bruno]

I only support if it we blew them up in the first place.

[Stary Hickory]

I only support if it we blew them up in the first place.

I don't even support that. I did not blow them up and I did not want our forces blowing them up. I am no more responsible for paying for their reconstrution than Iraqis themselves. I had zero control over it same as them.

[Seraphim]

I only support if it we blew them up in the first place.

Ditto.

[oyarde]

Ridiculous spending.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Wow a measly $6 million for Muslims around the world? I think it's more than that according to this person: Debbie Schussel. But hypocrisy goes both ways, below are links to Synagogues that receive Federal funding.

The government needs to get out of religion and get out of funding ANY religious group/affiliations... especially non profits, both domestically and abroad with US Taxpayer's funds.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1225/25-million-in-u-s-taxes-for-mosques-tell-your-synagogue-church-to-apply/

The DHS- Department of Homeland Security funded Synagogues/jewish Non-Profits, just in the US of $19 Million this past month... according to US Sen. Barbara Mikuski (D-Md.)... she's been doing this for years. Who knows what the numbers have reached?

http://congregationalsecurityinc.com/blog/2010/07/homeland-security-releases-new-funds-to-jewish-non-profits/ (http://congregationalsecurityinc.com/blog/2010/07/homeland-security-releases-new-funds-to-jewish-non-profits/)


the funds “an important tool to help prevent terrorist attacks and protect civilians in case of such attack” and Aguda said “threats and actual incidents of violence against Jewish targets in the United States and around the world point to the particular vulnerability of our community.” Sen. Barbara Mikuski (D-Md.), who has shepherded the funding through congressional appropriations, said she remained committed to sustaining the program.
“I have fought for these funds in the past, and I will keep fighting to protect institutions that are vital to our communities and the physical, social, spiritual and educational well-being of all Americans,” she said.


http://www.jewishjournal.com/nation/article/homeland_security_releases_new_funds_to_non-profits_20100716/

Another... but why through US Treasury's OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control)?

http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/mission.shtml
Restoration of the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue in Yangon, Myanmar


http://www.us-asean.org/Myanmar/synagogue.jpg
The US-ASEAN Council for Business and Technology, the US-ASEAN Business Council’s 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, has recently obtained a license from the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to raise funds for the maintenance and restoration of the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue in Yangon, Myanmar (pictured above).
This is an exciting project for the Council not only because it is the first OFAC approved license for the purpose of providing assistance to a humanitarian project that we have received but also because the history of this Synagogue is so mesmerizing.
Yangon was once a thriving Jewish community consisting primarily of Jews from Cochin, Calcutta, Iraq and Iran.

[Brian4Liberty]

And these lawmakers tell us they can't find anywhere to cut in the budgets... :rolleyes: :mad: