Obama Gives Your Tax $$ to Rebuild Muslim Mosques/World

According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration will give away nearly $6 million of American tax dollars to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including Islamic mosques and minarets, in 55 nations. See the State Department document here ( URL Below)

This is an outrage! Our country is broke. And can you imagine what the ACLU and others on the secular left would say if these monies had been spent to repair Christian churches? They would be screaming "separation of church and state!" Funding Islam on foreign soil with American taxpayer money? Not a whimper.

The latest taxpayer givaway includes $76,000 for a 16th century mosque in China, $67,000 for a mosque in Pakistan, $77,000 to restore minarets in Nigeria and Mauritania, and $50,000 for an Islamic Monument in India.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. program to restore Islamic and other cultural sites in other countries is taxpayer money well spent.

http://exchanges.state.gov/media/pdfs/office-of-policy-and-evaluations/ambassadors-fund/afcp2010list.pdf

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.

We have been doing this since 2001.

Care to go back and research what we spent that AFCP money on the past 8 years?

First off, there is money being given to Christian churches. In fact, the second largest grant ($625K) is going to “Turkey: Conservation of the Remains of the 11th‐Century Surp Prikitch (Church of the Holy Redeemer) at Ani”. Granted, that’s not a giant fiberglass head of Jesus, but it still sounds pretty Christian.

Second, these grants are being given based on the cultural significance of the sites, not because they are places of worship. To quote the State Department’s site:

"The Fund supports a wide range of projects to preserve cultural heritage, such as the restoration of historic buildings, assessment and conservation of museum collections, archaeological site preservation, documentation of vanishing traditional craft techniques, improved storage conditions for archives and manuscripts, and documentation of indigenous languages."

"By supporting the preservation of these and other special sites, objects, and traditions, the Ambassadors Fund helps extend their value as vital, defining elements of communities and nations; and enable their continued use, enjoyment, and relevance both today and beyond."

Not only are we preserving elements of the past of humanity (including the heritage of our immigrant forebearers), but we are engendering good will around the globe. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Religion has nothing to do with it, save as we’re talking about historic religious sites, etc.
characterizing this as “footing the bill to rebuild Islamic mosques overseas” shows either a gross misunderstanding of the program (which was established by a Republican Congress in 2000), or else is an out-and-out misrepresentation in order to gin up outrage.

Another forwarded email. Gah.

I actually think it is wonderful that you can afford to take this world view in the midst of all of this economic disaster that is going on. I can't afford that view. So it doesn't make any difference. Spend and spend and when you run out of money, print some more!!

Again I will state very clearly, if you don't like what I post, then don't read it!!! Can't help you with your gag reflex any more than you can help me with my dissent.

So are you just pissed that the money is spent at all or that some of the sites are related to a religion that you have some bias against? Because the title of this thread suggests the second.

"US State Department to give money to preserve cultural and historic sites around the globe for the 10th year in a row and I am against it!" Would prolly not get you the response you were looking for?

Sorry, but I am a "sympathy puker".

I throw up when other people regurgitate right in front of me.

If you would occasionaly post some ORIGINAL THOUGHT, instead of vomiting up the stuff you get in your bulk email inbox, I probably wouldn't puke even if I disagreed with your viewpoint.

If you don't like me puking, don't keep posting this crap.

Crazy. Getting upset about $6 million when we're spending BILLIONS of dollars. That's $6 million we're not spending on war. Imagine that, actually helping people instead of killing them.

The Ambassadors Fund was begun 2001.

Hey wait! Who was president then?

http://exchanges.state.gov/uploads/rZ/v ... annual.pdf

But it was an act of Congress that created the fund so it's not really "Obama Giving your Tax $$" but then you knew that when you posted your distorted headline.


Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation

Since its creation by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has provided financial support to more than 640 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries. This accomplishment, now 10 years in the making, represents a contribution of nearly $26 million towards the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide. More importantly, it shows the depth of our nation’s respect for the cultural heritage of other countries.

The Fund supports a wide range of projects to preserve cultural heritage, such as the restoration of historic buildings, assessment and conservation of museum collections, archaeological site preservation, documentation of vanishing traditional craft techniques, improved storage conditions for archives and manuscripts, and documentation of indigenous languages.

http://exchanges.state.gov/heritage/afcp.html

Wayne:

If you remember the first posting I put out to attract people in order to create a Tea Party Group, I said very clearly that I was fed up with the rhetoric of both parties. I haven't changed my opinion on that particular subject so your remark about who the president was in 2001 is preaching to the choir, oh oh, is that a religious expression?

The point of this posting was a complaint against runaway spending! I, for one cannot afford the debt being layered on the backs of our children and grandchildren. The stewardship of this nation is being questioned!!! How is that Obama Thing (Hope and Change) working out For You?

Nmysys wrote: Wayne:

If you remember the first posting I put out to attract people in order to create a Tea Party Group, I said very clearly that I was fed up with the rhetoric of both parties. I haven't changed my opinion on that particular subject so your remark about who the president was in 2001 is preaching to the choir, oh oh, is that a religious expression?

The point of this posting was a complaint against runaway spending! I, for one cannot afford the debt being layered on the backs of our children and grandchildren. The stewardship of this nation is being questioned!!! How is that Obama Thing (Hope and Change) working out For You?

Nmysys wrote: Wayne:

If you remember the first posting I put out to attract people in order to create a Tea Party Group, I said very clearly that I was fed up with the rhetoric of both parties. I haven't changed my opinion on that particular subject so your remark about who the president was in 2001 is preaching to the choir, oh oh, is that a religious expression?

The point of this posting was a complaint against runaway spending! I, for one cannot afford the debt being layered on the backs of our children and grandchildren. The stewardship of this nation is being questioned!!! How is that Obama Thing (Hope and Change) working out For You?

Do you get that this is not new spending? That this is not something ordered by that nasty Obama just to beggar your grandchildren and show his "love" of Islam? It's kind of hard for me to get outraged over a very small cultural program that we have been involved in for years. But I do get a little outraged when non-news is plucked out of the trash heap just to make another anti-Muslim, anti-Obama slam.

These days I really dont' care much about partisan politics but I do care about calling out people whose only purpose in life seems to be drumming up hatred of other cultures and casting inneundo towards a lawfully elected President.