Larry's BB (1) Get your Goat this weekend?

"Some in town may call me an infidel, but I don't feel we should be supporting "The office on West Mill" if they keep bringing Muslims here."

This watershed statement, by a Christian at the annual meeting of his 56572 congregation a few weeks ago, took courage. I wonder if others don't agree with him. I don't, but I respect him even more for his courage, daring to say what others might not.

The statement got me thinking, even harder about the differences between multiculturalism, integration and assimilation, Western Judeo-Christian democracy vs. Sharia Law. I watch with keen interest the struggles Europe is having with these questions. Their cultural identities are being blurred in front of their very eyes. The question of the veil is current. I watch and wonder what will happen here in Minnesota and 56572

Here's a sample of what I've been reading, trying to understand what is happening to my state and my town. I hope you find them interesting, bear with me if you don't.

Muslims in Minnesota
Finding a voice
Sep 21st 2006 | MINNEAPOLIS
From The Economist (London) print edition

ON SEPTEMBER 8th ground was broken for the new Masjid An-Nur mosque in north Minneapolis, from which the first minaret seen in Minnesota will pierce the prairie sky. A few days later one of the mosque's more famous worshipers, Keith Ellison, won the state's Democratic primary in the deeply Democratic 5th District. In so doing, Mr Ellison will almost certainly become America's first Muslim congressman, as well as the first black to represent anywhere in Minnesota.

In this once lily-white Lutheran state, these two events point to deep changes. More immigrants arrived in Minnesota in 2005 than in any of the past 25 years. Immigrants from Muslim countries, especially Somalia and Ethiopia, have made up a sizeable part of this wave. Estimates of the number of Muslims in Minnesota range from 40,000 to more than 100,000 and perhaps as many as 150,000.

These are big numbers for a state that had a tiny Muslim population just ten years ago. All the same, one might think that another state with a larger concentration of Muslims—Michigan, perhaps—would have produced a Muslim member of Congress sooner. Four Muslims ran for seats in 2004, two for the Senate and two for the House, but none made it out of the primaries.

The difference in Minnesota seemed to be a sophisticated grassroots campaign, which turned out thousands of new immigrants who had never before voted, or done anything in politics, on a day normally dominated by hard-core party insiders. That machine is the political legacy of Senator Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in 2002. Within a month of his death his supporters established Wellstone Action, which has more than 100,000 members and has trained almost 11,000 people in grassroots campaigning methods and progressive political action.

New immigrants, many of whom were Muslims, seem to have accounted for thousands of the voters who turned up on primary night to support Mr Ellison. Without those votes, he might well not have prevailed over his closest opponent, Mike Erlandson, the former chairman of the Democratic Farmer-Labour Party

Those Muslim connections, of course, are also fodder for his rivals. Mr Ellison is a former criminal defence lawyer and state representative who converted from Catholicism to Islam when he was 19. In 1995 he helped to organise the Million Man March—a gathering of blacks in Washington to proclaim unity and responsibility—and thus found himself in the orbit of Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam, who is notorious for his anti-Semitic rantings.

Mr Ellison says he has never met Mr Farrakhan. Nonetheless, his Republican opponents and a cadre of conservative bloggers are making merry with his past associations. The Republican Party recently dubbed the DFL “the party of Ellison.” That may be close to the truth. Progressives welcome him as a refreshing change from the party stalwarts who, in recent years, have tended to lose races.

Muslim Democrats see in Mr Ellison someone who can stick up for them as they face suspicion and intimidation. Many of them supported him quietly, for fear of a backlash. But his victory may bring them out into the open—not only in Minnesota, but across the country.

Then there was the Taxi Jihad at MSP Airport last month

Airport Taxi Flap about Alcohol Has Deeper Significance
Thursday, October 26th, 2006

The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has caught the nation’s attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is apparently playing out.At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end of Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside. An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport controversy was raised. “I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport,” said Faysal Omar. “Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking alcohol in a taxi........”

In Wednesday's New York Times Thomas Friedman gave his ideas about how we should exit Iraq. In the article he mentions that we may be forced to offer visas to Iraqis who will need to leave the country when we do. If this is true, 56572 will soon, once again, have Iraqi residents as we did about a dozen years ago. "The office on West Mill" will be busy.

Is it just me or are there others in 56572 who feel that 56572 is grieving the loss of many things lately.... a native son in Iraq, a School Superintendent, two restaurants (not counting the Moose who promises to return) a long time County Commissioner and State Senator and now a native son in a slough east of town. Are we grieving the loss of a town the way we used to know it? Are we worried about what might happen next? Can we no longer cope with the speed of the change? Who knows which way we are headed, who will lead us there, what if we don't want to go there and is there any turning around? Are those not born in 56572 to be trusted with its destiny?

A neighbor is not somebody we choose, even in a gated community. They don't choose us either. "Actually, we were doing OK with being good anonymous neighbors, until they turned up that strange music of theirs. Now they know who we are after seeing our name on the restraining order." We look around us and see strangers facing a strange and dangerous climate who don't dress for the weather like we do, don't celebrate our holidays, don't deer hunt, watch the Vikings on Sunday or find their way to the Turkey Dinner in the Trinity basement.

La Primera Iglesia Cristiana del Senor Jesucristo, (First Christian Church of the Lord Jesus Christ) east of the Old REA/New City Hall, should be having a church dinner/open house soon, for construction costs if for nothing else. Did somebody forget to tell them we enjoy Mexican food?

The Somali Goat Dinner in the basement of the new Insha'Allah (leave your shoes at the door) Mosque (photo unavailable) along the Pelican River on the turkey barn land John G. sold them east of The Townhomes might be a wee bit down the road a piece Cec. A local boy, Yusuf A. will be 56572's first Imam. Proceeds from the free will offering dinner will go towards the first Muslim School in Greater Minnesota. Willmar is jealous, Melrose furious. There will be takeout for women. Stay tuned.

PS The phone number for the goat is 1680.

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) Pardon me, being an infidel I guess I'm not supposed to greet you in this way. Welcome to 56572. Nice to know we all on the same page. You are welcome to comment too. English please. Golden Rule rules. How much is goat going for a pound these days? Demand is up. Prices too?