[Peace-discuss] Tim Johnson at Mosque last Saturday?

[Meridith Kruse]

Hello all -
I feel that it is very important I share this information with the group,
and hope we
can decide where to go from here.  Last Sunday night, after our AWARE
meeting, I contacted
Irfan Ahmad at the Mosque to ask his assistance with the Mutual Aid Pact
that Al Kagan and several other AWARE members are working on.  In addition
to this request, I also asked for clarification about what happened at the
Mosque with regards to Tim Johnson, after hearing Robert Dunn announce that
Tim Johnson had been at the Mosque and made inflammatory remarks.
This was my exact question to Irfan:

> >
> > PS- I have heard different stories about an event that took place at the
> > Mosque last Saturday night- one man in our AWARE group reported that Tim
> > Johnson was at the Mosque and said
> > some offensive words.  As Johnson's constituents, we are trying to
> > understand the actions of our representative, and any information feel
> > comfortable sharing would be appreciated. Thank you.
> >

To my surprise, This was Irfan's response:


>No, Tim Johnson was not at the mosque.  I was the session moderator, I am
>not aware of any untoward remarks during the session.  However, there were
>some one to one discussions after the session going on.
>
>Those who came were IL State Reps: Rick Winkel and Tom Berns
>and Judge Robert Stiegmann. All in all it went well; it was pretty
>educational for them and the CIMIC community.
>
>Actually, Tom Berns as a followup to his prev visits and has now arranged
>for CIMIC Imam to start the proceedings with a Muslim prayer in one of the
>next
>sessions of the legislature.  He was also instrumental in supporting the IL
>Halal Meat Act (slaughtered according to Islamic traditions).
>
>Tim Johnson (has a standing invitation from CIMIC) and other local
>politicians are being invited including democratic candidates.
>>
>----------
>Irfan S. Ahmad, Ph.D.
>Urbana, IL
>351-4378off
>344-2415h
>344-1555 CIMIC
>

Thus, I am left to wonder - what does this all mean?  I am concerned about
this situtaion for several reasons - personally I do not like being lied to,
and as a member of AWARE I feel that announcements made during our meetings
must be factual for our group to gain legitimacy for our work. What do
others think?  And for Robert specifically, I would like to hear your side
of this. I hope we can clear this up as soon as possible, perhaps we need to
discuss this at our next meeting? Meridith Kruse