Tag Archives: religious freedom

Chaplain Shabazz is now Highest Ranking Muslim Chaplain

US Army Chaplain Khallid Shabazz was promoted last week to full Colonel, making him the US military’s highest ranking Muslim chaplain:

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael T. Morrissey, Commander of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, presided over the ceremony.

Morrissey had the opportunity to share some kind words about the newly promoted Col. Khallid M. Shabazz.

“For those of us who know Khallid, he is a force of nature, a force of personality, one of those unique types that I like to describe as someone you meet and you feel like you’ve known them your whole life,” said Morrissey. “Troops naturally gravitate towards him.”

Just last year Chaplain (then-LtCol) Shabazz had been installed as the first division-level Muslim chaplain at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. Chaplain Shabazz now finds himself at the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Hawaii.

More interesting, perhaps, is the photograph of a “prayer circle” as his promotion ceremony closed: Read more

Dissonance: Jewish War Veterans of USA to “Honor” Mikey Weinstein

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein will be speaking next week to a dinner for the Jewish War Veterans of America. In its press release, the local JWV spoke on behalf of the national organization when it said [emphasis added]:

The Jewish War Veterans of the United States…is…committed from its founding, to the elimination of all forms of bigotry…

Sounds fair enough, until they finished with [emphasis added]:

The JWV Department of Minnesota supports MRFF in the fight against religious bigotry and oppression within the ranks…

That’s like saying you support David Duke Read more

Christian Fighter Pilot, Super Bowl Champion Chad Hennings on Religious Freedom

Writing at Lifezette.com, former US Air Force A-10 pilot and Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Champion Chad Hennings highlighted the value of religious freedom and the ongoing attacks on it in America. One case he noted was that of high school coach Joe Kennedy (whom he’s defended before), who was fired for praying on the field after school football games.

Another was that of the Bladensburg cross, a World War I memorial which an appeals court has said is unconstitutional: Read more

Study Says There Are No Atheists in Foxholes

A study entitled “Death, Trauma and God: The Effect of Military Deployments on Religiosity” was covered at the Economist, in which the authors noted

According to a working paper published this week by Resul Cesur, Travis Freidman and Joseph Sabia, a trio of economists in America, there is some truth to the adage that there are no atheists in foxholes. Or rather, wartime trauma often makes people turn to God.

The article refers to two different analyses conducted in the study, in which

They find compelling evidence that those who have served in combat zones and directly engaged the enemy are more likely to attend religious services regularly than are those who have not.

There is some degree of Read more

MRFF Loses Money for Second Year — but Mikey Weinstein Still Gets a Raise

For the second year in a row, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation — the “charity” he started, operates, and for which he is the sole paid employee — continued to spend more than it brought in, according to its IRS filings for 2016 (the most recent available).

In 2016, Weinstein brought in $681,000, which is about $15,000 more than the prior year. The MRFF’s expenses ballooned to $715,000, putting Weinstein on the very red side of the ledger.

Of course, that’s somewhat academic when you’re running your own charity. For one thing, the MRFF is sitting on a large cash pile, though it dipped below $200,000 just this year.  Notably, too, the difference between the income and expenses is almost exactly equal to the raise Mikey Weinstein gave himself, from $275,000 in (total reported) compensation to $310,000.

While he could have trimmed his pay to operate within the budget, Mikey Weinstein gave himself a raise, from $264,000 in 2015 to $289,900 in 2016.  Put another way, about 43% of the MRFF’s donations go directly to Mikey Weinstein’s salary — leading media scrutiny to say he was “cashing in” based on an “unheard of” salary from those donations.

With that said, it has long been known that Mikey Weinstein appears to have other forms of indirect “compensation” from his charity besides Read more

IG Dismissed Teichert Complaint without Investigating

Most know by now, but for those who don’t, US Air Force BGen John Teichert has been cleared following Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s 22-page complaint about his religious beliefs.

It turns out the Inspector General didn’t even investigate. It did the required first step — analyze the complaint — and determined Weinstein’s complaint was so frivolous it didn’t even warrant an investigation.

Mikey Weinstein’s reaction was typical: Read more

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