History determines legacies. It’s always been this way, and so it will be with Omaha’s Tri-Faith Initiative and its leaders, Susan A. Buffett and Rabbi Ariyeh Azriel.
The Tri-Faith Initiative is a project that intends to co-locate a synagogue, a mosque and a church on the same physical campus. So far, only Rabbi Azriel’s Synagogue has been built, but fundraising continues apace for the mosque while the Christian church partner is determined.
Originally, the Episcopal Church had stepped up to form the final leg of the triad, going so far as to invest in a million dollar-plus plot of land on the campus (which they are now trying to unload) before deciding that this project wasn’t for them after all.
The new church being solicited for partnership is Countryside Community Church, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and worship home to Warren Buffett’s daughter, Susie. Yes, that Warren Buffett.
Countryside has entered into an exploratory phase, ostensibly to determine the nuts and bolts of uprooting their congregation, but many inside the church are of the opinion that the decision has already been made, and the present gyrations are merely part of the “sales process” necessary to gain the approval of the full congregation.
Ms. Buffett’s involvement in this project predates the entrance of Countryside Community Church. She has been a member of the Tri-Faith board since its inception, and has long been rumored to be the “anonymous non-Muslim donor” who has pledged to provide whatever money is necessary to build the mosque.
At a recent Town Hall meeting held by the Mayor of Omaha, Jean Stothert, Ms. Buffett was overheard saying words to the effect of, “the mosque already has enough money [to be built], but even if it didn’t, I’d make sure it did!”
Ms. Buffett was reacting to strong pushback against the project by citizens of Omaha who have become concerned with the involvement of groups known to the FBI and the Department of Justice to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Dr. Mark Christian, Founder and Executive Director of the Global Faith Institute reacted to Ms. Buffett’s remarks by saying “She wants this, and she really doesn’t seem to care about anyone else,” adding, “of course she has security of her own, so perhaps that is why she doesn’t appear to care about my security, or that of the citizens of Omaha.”
Dr. Christian has good reason for concern. He is an apostate Muslim living under a fatwa calling for his death, due to his conversion to Christianity some ten years ago. His father and uncle in his home country of Egypt are both high-ranking advisors to the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, his great uncle was one of the founders of the international terrorist group.
He has expended a great deal of time and energy trying to alert the members of the Tri-Faith board, their associated congregants and the people of Omaha about the dangers presented by the involvement of Muslim Brotherhood front groups in this project.
He has presented the Board members with reams of documentation backing up his assertions – not from his own work mind you, but from the work of the FBI – and has been by turns ignored, slandered and threatened with harm both legally and physically if he continues to ask the very reasonable question: “What possible benefit can these groups provide that could ever outweigh the bloody baggage they carry with them?”
Rather than answer this very reasonable and simple question however, the Tri-Faith board has instead engaged in character assassination and doctrinaire misdirection tactics worthy of the most adept acolytes of Saul Alinsky.
The groups in question have all been named as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the largest terrorism funding trial in American history. These groups, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) are well-documented front operations for the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Two of them, ISNA & CAIR, were directly involved in laundering money through fake charities to fund Hamas operations.
Each are prominently featured on the Tri-Faith website, and then-President of ISNA, Ingrid Mattson, was the keynote speaker at the city-wide gala celebrating the launch of the Tri-Faith project.
Rabbi Azriel, has steadfastly ignored all evidence provided, going so far as to compare Dr. Christian’s question to a “blood libel.”
A “blood libel” is an accusation against Jews dating from the Middle-Ages, claiming they kill non-Jewish children to use their blood in religious ceremonies. Resurrected by the Nazis, a blood libel is a hallmark of vicious anti-Semitism, yet Rabbi Azriel applies it to Dr. Christian in an attempt to characterize his question as something evil, outside the bounds of decency.
Apparently in Rabbi Azriel’s estimation, having the temerity to wonder why a known terrorist group needs to be involved in an interfaith project is analogous to the most deadly of Hitler’s propaganda against the Jews.
Ms. Buffett’s motivations remain a bit more of a mystery. She clearly sees this project as a legacy of her own (as does Rabbi Azriel) yet inexplicably, neither is willing to look beyond the goal of getting this thing built to see the deep rift that will emerge if the project moves forward as presently constituted.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic supremacy group. To them, interfaith dialogue is a means of weakening other faiths, not understanding them. They will use this project to mainstream their efforts at civilizational jihad, promoting Islamic supremacy by demanding “tolerance” for their beliefs until all behavior on the Tri-Faith campus is subjected to their veto.
Dr. Christian knows this better than perhaps anyone else, given his heredity and background. He understands that cleansing this project of these corrupting influences now is far easier than it will be once tens of millions of dollars have been invested in construction, and “legacies” are on the line.
Fearing that his intentions have been misunderstood, Dr. Christian has sent yet another letter to the Tri-Faith Board affirming his support for the idea of the Tri-Faith Initiative, asking them to abandon their present intransigence in favor of opening lines of communication and working together to cleanse the project of these radical Islamist influences.
Perhaps this letter will succeed where all his other attempts have failed, but sadly, in the eyes of the Tri-Faith board, it appears that tolerance is a one-way street.
Some legacies are destroyed by unforeseen events or personal failings, but rarely is a legacy self-sabotaged by such willful blindness and unbridled hubris as that on display here in Omaha, Nebraska.