Torgerson takes on Ellison — and Islam — in 5th District
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 at 1:55 pm
- 60 Comments
Congress’ first Muslim, DFLer Keith Ellison, has drawn an independent challenger with a lot to say — particularly about Islam.
Lynne Torgerson charts her own course, telling the Minnesota Independent in an interview that she considers herself almost “apolitical.”
The Minneapolis criminal-defense attorney unsuccessfully sought election as an independent to the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 59A last year. Republican Party delegates endorsed Felix Montez over Torgerson in that race, and the Independence Party candidate, David DeGrio, says he ran in part to keep her views out of the IP. Incumbent DFLer Diane Loeffler won re-election with 13,785 votes (75 percent), to Montez’s 2,530, Torgerson’s 1,238 and DeGrio’s 723.
Torgerson said she won’t seek endorsement by a political party this time around. (Barb Davis White, who challenged Ellison last year as the Republican endorsee, will again attempt to unseat him next year.) That’s partly why she describes herself as a “stateswoman,” rather than as a “politician” — the kind of candidate who she says too often toes a party line rather than stands for deeply held principles.
Her views on Islam dominate the “Issues” page at her new campaign website, but they weren’t what Republican and Independence party officials remembered about her when MnIndy asked.
Carleton Crawford, who chairs the Republican Party of Minnesota’s Fifth District committee, told MnIndy by email that Torgerson failed to get the GOP endorsement in 2008 because delegates sought someone more in line with U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential candidacy.
“Felix Montez associated his campaign with the Ron Paul movement. I don’t think Ms. Torgerson’s defeat had much to do with the strengths or weaknesses of her campaign (or for that matter of Mr. Montez). She simply was not part of the movement that happened to be steering local Republican politics at the time.”
The IP’s DeGrio told MnIndy that a meeting he had with Torgerson about IP backing led him to seek (and win) the endorsement himself. “I had many reasons for running but one of them was to keep Lynne Torgerson from poisoning the IP brand,” DeGrio wrote in an email.
He explained: “When I told her that a winning campaign would need to incorporate a platform of equality and inclusion she told me, to the effect, ‘Well I don’t support those ideas.’ When I pressed her further for a little more understanding of her position she told me that her views were ‘consistent with the Catholic Church.’ She used that answer quite often when discussing issues such as GLBT equality, a woman’s right to choose, etc.”
Torgerson told MnIndy she is a Christian but not a Catholic. She said she points out when her own views align with Catholic doctrine as a convenient way to communicate to voters her approach on some issues.
Torgerson counts herself among “people who say where they stand rather than deceive people” — – even if that means offending some, for which she apologizes in advance at her website. She offers an extensive 18-topic platform on the “Issues” page at her campaign website.
Torgerson would oppose bills that support abortion or research with embryonic stem cells. She is for animal rights and against cloned beef cattle and genetically modified agriculture. She favors health care reform with a public option and wants credit card companies reined in. She advocates substantial tax credits for alternative energy. She would ban or restrict American companies from outsourcing jobs beyond America’s borders. She decries the auto bailout, which she sees as payback to labor unions who funded President Obama’s campaign.
On gay marriage, Torgerson states on her campaign website: “I would uphold laws instituting one (1) man one (1) woman marriage. Marriage was actually created by God, and God created it between a man and a woman. Thus, anything else is actually not marriage, even though some would try to call it that.”
That’s all she writes on the issue at her website; in person she adds only that she wants to be upfront with how she would vote.
Torgerson’s views on Islam make up a third of the text on her “Issues” page, falling mainly under a single heading: “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion.”
A sample:
And, what do I know of Islam? Well, I know of 911. Nineteen (19) men from Saudi Arabia, all Muslim, hi-jacked planes, and flew into the two (2) World Trade Towers murdering thousands of people, and tried to fly into our Pentagon, and some believe they also tried to fly an airplane into our White House. From this, what I perceive is Islam conducting an act of war against my country.
People say that we can’t include the moderate, peace loving Muslims. Well, I agree. But, who are they? They need to stand up and identify themselves loudly and clearly say that they oppose Jihad and terrorism, etc. Who are these people? I cannot tell. It is not for me to go and try and find them. Rather, it is their duty to stand up and identify themselves, if there are any.
Torgerson told the Minnesota Independent that for this, her second run at elective office, she set her sights on Congress because she has “an interest at the national level.” She also said inspiration to run came from constitutional issues she deals with in defending the accused in criminal courts — including a current case in which she accomplished the rare feat of convincing a federal circuit court to reverse a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling on habeus corpus grounds. (The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering an appeal by the State of Minnesota.)
Indeed she frames several of her objections to Islam in terms of the U.S. Constitution. Islamic teachings advocate murder of non-Muslims, she charges, putting the religion at least partly outside the protection of the First Amendment, which is also contravened by Islam’s goal to “Islamize the entire world,” as she puts it. Islam’s oppression of women, she contends, violates the Constitution’s equal-protection clause.
On her website and in person, Torgerson stresses that she doesn’t mean to hurt or offend anyone. Rather her intention, she writes, is “to advance the protection of freedom of speech and religion in America.”
“I think we as Americans are very tolerant. I’m very tolerant,” Torgerson told MnIndy. “There’s a problem of a good number of Muslims being intolerant. … They need to become tolerant of us.”
She cited examples such as the uproar in 2005 and 2006 over the publication of editorial cartoons depicting Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Criticism of Islam “is pure speech,” she said. “It’s protected. Nobody gets to riot because of it. Nobody gets to kill people because of it.”
Torgerson cites as well the 2004 assassination of Dutch director Theo Van Gogh for making a short film based on Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book “Infidel.”
Muslims “have teachings that are essentially criminal,” Torgerson said. She didn’t have a ready citation from the Quran but followed up by email to MnIndy:
“Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.” (Sura 9:5)
Idolaters are anyone who is not Muslim. Slay means to kill. Therefore, the Quran says to kill anyone who is not a Muslim. Simple.
In America, the recent decision by Yale University Press not to include the cartoons in a book about the controversy is evidence of Islam’s threat to American liberties, in Torgerson’s view.
“I don’t want other cultures coming into the United States and chilling our freedoms,” she said, adding that it offends her to see Muslim couples downtown walking with the man several paces ahead of the woman.
Under Islam “women aren’t treated very well,” Torgerson says. “I don’t want that influence on my life. It concerns me.”
“We went too far with Keith Ellison”
None of her objections to Islam, Torgerson said, amounts to any kind of “personal animosity” towards Ellison, who she used to see in courthouse hallways when he, too, was a practicing criminal defense attorney.
Nevertheless she doesn’t like Ellison’s links to leaders of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which also drew fire from Ellison’s opponents during the 2006 campaign for Congress. “A United States legislator shouldn’t be cozying up with people … that are friendly to terrorists,” she says, referencing charges that CAIR supports Hamas.
That leads her to this conclusion on her campaign website:
Now, with all due respect, America, and its people, should be lauded for its goal of promoting to public office and other high ranks, people of color, African Americans, women, minorities, etc. However, quite frankly, in our zeal, we simply went too far with Keith Ellison. Keith Ellison simply is not a proper person to have in our federal government. … Keith Ellison has no business in our federal government.
Won’t unseating a DFL incumbent in a heavily Democratic U.S. House district be even more difficult than unseating a state House incumbent? Torgerson expressed the same determination in her chances as in her beliefs and her right to express them.
“I’m not a quitter,” Torgerson said. “I’m relentless and it’s served me well. You never know what can happen in the United States.”
60 Comments
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
It is sad when people like Torgerson run for office bashing opponent’s religion rather than record. I hope good people of Minnesota elect official based on their record and potential, not race, sex, religion and most of all not fear mongers.
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
Keith Ellison’s record: He aids and abets the Terrorist Supporters at CAIR.
End of story.
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Ms. Torgerson’s views appear to be extreme. While not entirely inconsistent the statement that “Keith Ellison has no business in our Federal Government” raises the question: does Lynn Torgerson have any right to get elected? Her understanding of equality and freedom would also seem to call into question her qualifications to practice law. Last time I checked we are still a nation of laws not subject to religious or other litmus tests.
Maybe Ms. Torgerson would care to do some basic research on Islam before she opens her mouth again. Then again, maybe not…
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
At least she’s honest as to where she stands. Of course it will never fly w/the PC police in MPLS.
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
“At least she’s honest as to where she stands.”
That is the weakest defense ever. Her stands are absurd, and her honesty about them is no redemption.
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
Sad. I find Ms Torgerson’s views very sad and small minded. I know many share her views as do some of my family members as regards to people of the Islamic faith, and who also seem to have this askewed view of Christianity.
Many fundamentalist Christians also spout words of violence against others, especially those who are not like them.
I find it sad that she was even written about. We have to listen to this type of view all the time with corporate media and now here also. I also find it sad that she is justice system.
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
She hopes “to advance the protection of freedom of speech and religion in America.” How can one disagree with that? But then there’s her view on gay marriage:
“Marriage was actually created by God, and God created it between a man and a woman. Thus, anything else is actually not marriage, even though some would try to call it that.”
Aside from its dubiousness as a kind of anthropological creationism, this is a frankly religious view she wants enact or perpetuate with the force of law.
It’s funny how one’s god always agrees with one’s personal views, isn’t it? You don’t often hear people say, “Yeah, I believe that wearing a red shirt on Tuesday is immoral. My god thinks it’s a blue shirt on Wednesday that’s morally unacceptable, but I choose to ignore him/her/it.”
Along comes a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found, in the words of the research team’s lead, “Intuiting God’s beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one’s own beliefs.”
“People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want,” the team write. “The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.”
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
What a bigot…I can’t believe someone like that can run for office. Please please talk to some Muslims, read a legitimate book on Islam, and google the “Not in My Name” petition. And if you’re going to take quotes out of context from a religious text, start with the Bible.
“Do not think that I have come to send peace on earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. I am sent to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:34-35)
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.” (Deutronomy 7:1-2)
Comment posted December 9, 2009 @ 11:35 pm
Ms. Torgeson is not a proper person to have in our federal government….Ms Torgeson has no business in our federal government.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 1:46 am
I’m sorry but is that really the best photo you can come up with? Please fire your hairdresser, fix your collar before you choke on it, and find a pair of glasses that your nose can actually hold up. You look like my 85-year-old granny.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 10:38 am
You would think that someone being serious about winning a seat in heavily minority and Muslim district of MN would have a little knowledge of Islam and Muslims, beyond the education she gets from FoxNews (or I should say FakesNews).
Ms. Torgerson,
May I suggest reading the book Islam for Dummies before making a fool of yourself to the entire world?
Honestly, it is a great book, and the $15 of investment would do you great service in your political career.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 12:15 pm
So good…
Now we will have (yet another) crazy haired half-baked defense lawyer ruining the public discourse during an election season by smearing one religion with a religion of her own.
Are there no end to the religious idiots who use big boots to step upon the faces of others who do not think or act like themselves – all in the name of “love” of the “one true God”?
She will get some of the limelight, but not the election.
Hopefully, neither will Ellison…who is a shellout sellout.
Can no one person run upon the platform of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution alone, without all the left and right wing nutjobs missing the damn point??? Are there none who advocate for human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Does every elected representative have to sign a pledge to ignore the will of the people they are supposed to represent???
Who wanted the bank bailouts again???
Organized religion ruins EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES. It does not matter which religion. They are all fallible and imprefect (although they will have you believe otherwise).
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
ZBOFOB
I will. It will be made public in a few weeks.
Oh and as an aside, I look forward to ‘debating” with this woman. As someone who was raised Catholic in northern Ireland.
This woman made Alan Fine look relatively sane and balanced.
Should be fun folks.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 2:11 pm
Religion is all about fear and intimidation, punishment and retribution, greed and profit. Ignore ALL false religious teachings, and just be a good person. Nobody needs to pay a religion to get into “Heaven”. Nobody needs “religion” to have a good relationship. It’s all a scam as the Evengenlicals have proven over and over. Wake up to this form of slavery. Religions prosper off of your hard earned dollars. Stop funding ALL religion.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
i think thats one scary hair do,,,she better take that on first,NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
So, 21 Muslim people were responsible for 9/11. There are 1.5 billions Muslims in the world (according to adherents.com). She wants to hold .000000014% of the Muslim population responsible for the entire religion? Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Comment posted December 10, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
How can a bigot like this even be in the criminal justice system. We taxpayers are paying for this creep.
Comment posted December 11, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
For a minute I forgot what site I was on, and thought I’d stumbled on The Onion. Or, maybe this is performance art on the theme of a losing campaign.
So, she would deny rights to gay people, but would give more rights to fuzzy puppies?
Who’s financing this crazy person!
Pingback posted December 11, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
[...] American Muslim Sheila Musaji exposes the hate campaign being waged by Minneapolis attorney Lynne Torgerson, who is standing against incumbent Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to the US [...]
Comment posted December 11, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Unreal, what is wrong with people like this woman. She hates Islam, claims to love America, yet buys Toyotas. She will be elected for sure! She definitely is crazy enough to be in office. And I thought Sarah Palin was the dumbest politician out there. I would have to give props to Palin on this one, this woman is about as dumb as a rock. Or maybe 150,000,000 million rocks.
Comment posted December 11, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
Anyone who denies what Torg. has stated about Islam is completely ignorant to reality. Everything she stated is documented and fact, with the exception that the FBI and CAIR are still doing business together and any supposed ban on CAIR was window dressing at best, even while the FBI is investigating members of CAIR.
Ellison is anti-capitalism, anti-Republic, pro-sharia law who attended the Hajj where America was called the enemy and where all attendees were told to go home and help replace capitalism with sharia. Ellison had that trip paid for by a Muslim Brotherhood organization that also takes money from the state. On top of that, he used that same connection to put his kid in a Muslim charter school that is full of immigrants and had a waiting list of several years…yet his kid went to the front of the line due to his favoritism of he Muslim Brotherhood group.
The list of grievances MN’s should be demanding Ellison account for is long and sordid yet people would rather attack those who have every right to speak truth to the situation and allow such criminality to continue.
Ask Ellison if his Muslim faith permits Somali Muslims to attack gay men in the streets without repercussion? Ask him if his Sunni Muslim faith permits gays to be killed. If he is permitted to befriend Jews and Christians – the Quran says he is not permitted to do so. Will any reporter ask him?
Comment posted December 11, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
This is curious, because there are MANY lines in the bible that claim the same thing. These lines in the Bible encorage the “slay[ing] of idolaters”.
*King James Version*
Deuteronomy 13:6-13:15
13:9 – “…thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death..”
13:13/15 – “…Certain men…are gone out from among you..saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known” “Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
Exodus 22:20
“He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.’
…Or, by simply using the “Lords” name in vain.
Leviticus 24:16
“He that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.”
The bible also demands the death penalty for women who don’t cry out while being raped – a women who have been found not to be a vigin on her wedding night. Cursing a parent….the list goes on and on…
Given her argument Christianity is not protected by the 1st amendment, either.
It’s curious how little most people acctually know about thier own religions.
Comment posted December 12, 2009 @ 8:48 am
I’d like to see another picture of Lynne Torgerson – I just can’t get past the crazy hair. Michelle Bachman looks almost normal if you don’t look into her eyes too far but this one….
And why do far-right republicans so often finish their comments with “end of story” or even worse “nuff said”? I find that so arrogant.
Comment posted December 12, 2009 @ 12:48 pm
WE ought to be concerned about “The Cause”, which is both poitical and religious. I think she is right.
We can negotiate with the Moslems, without using a Moslem. We can be tolerant and democratic, when they are not plotting to harm us.
Islam never taught its people anything but a sort of religious discipline. Shame on them. They have ignored using their enorous wealth to educate and foster the developemnt of their people, but instead have erected ghost towns as a tribute to themselves.
Comment posted December 12, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
This newspaper is a joke.
I left a sizable article here yesterday and it was deleted, yet I see people leaving F-words here and their comments remain for all to view.
This paper is infected with muslim sympathizers.
Prove me different.
Comment posted December 13, 2009 @ 8:59 am
The European democracy is so thoroughly being abused by the Muslims that Europe is struggling to preserve her identity. The Swiss just ban Minarets sending a strong message to Islam either to reform itself accepting the law of the respective countries where Muslims reside as guests or to leave. Muslim rape of western women is at epidemic proportions. The French denounced the burka. They insist employers accommodate time off for prayer. America is on the infiltration list and they always play the victim/guilt card. It’s refreshing to see someone especially a politician speak up with out being concerned if it’s PC. It’s not much of a surprise that it’s a woman considering the emasculation of America.
Comment posted December 13, 2009 @ 9:02 am
How can you take someone seriously when they decided to wear a hairstyle like that. You have to question that persons judgement. That hair has no business in the US House of Representatives.
Comment posted December 13, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
Wow!
You muslim supporters are worried about her hair when Keith Ellison is a supporter of CAIR-an unindicted co-conspirator with proven ties to muslim terrorist groups.
Yeah, it was bad hair that killed 3,000 US citizens on that day and not in the name of islam-the religion of peace.
I will take bad hair, bad breath, bad dressing habits from a REAL American anyday over a muslim terrorist supporter.
I know first-hand what a real “peaceful” muslim is here in my own city.
Back in November, 2007 muslim parents in my local, school district (suburban Chicago) demanded and won that all jello and pork products be removed from the school menus.
Now, we have no more Italian-Polish sausage sandwiches, sausage pizzas, or ham-salami sandwiches available.
Yeah, that sounds like your typical “moderate muslim” who is tolerant and respectful of others religoins and cultures.
Tell me when will the local muslim school in the same district will start serving pork products, pizzas, and jello to non-muslim students just to show quid-pro-quo?
It will never happen…..muslims demand rights-liberties that they will never grant to non-muslims in their own lands.
The lesson here is never tolerate the intolerant.
The majority of the students enrolled were Americans and their demands-protests with their parents were simply ignored by the local school council.
This is what you 5th columnists call “moderate muslims” in America?
They all need to go.
Comment posted December 14, 2009 @ 11:51 am
She has as much a chance of winning, as a snowball has hell.
Comment posted December 19, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
LOL @ these xenophobic windbags who can’t make a succinct point to save their lives. Also, who the hell spells the word “Muslim” with an “o” in it? Are you honestly THAT ignorant?
You’re all just a bunch of fear-mongering, racist nutters who feel uncomfortable in the presence of anyone of minority status. I’m so glad our country has stood up against this sort of bigotry. This woman has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the election. She makes Michelle Bachmann look like a rational, thoughtful, well-spoken human being.
“It will never happen…..muslims demand rights-liberties that they will never grant to non-muslims in their own lands.”
If these Muslims are American citizens, then THIS is “their own land”. Oh wait, I forgot. Only white men should get to own property or vote. Them uppity “Moslems” thinking they should have rights, hah!
Comment posted December 19, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
Shannon,
What did I say wrong, false, incorrect, or misleading?
You just quoted me and did not defeat my statement or argument.
I feel like asking you “and”?
There have been several million people born here over the years and have shown themselves to be criminals or dregs of society.
Just because you are born here does not make you trustworthy or automatically a great citizen you Irish, suburban, knownothing, whitewench.
It is fact, you can not open a church, leave islam, or have an open Bible in your typical muslim nation.
You risk death, arrest, or a public whipping.
Another thing you moron, why dont you try yourself living in a muslim nation for several months and try to drive a car, leave the house without a male relative in escort, smoke, have a
drink (hah), or wear shorts, listen to music, sing in public, talk of womens rights, abortion, etc.
Before you start defending a culture WHERE YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE, try to make sure it is not worse than what you have here in America.
Moron.
Comment posted December 22, 2009 @ 12:40 pm
My question is… what is up with the left side of her hair? Is that some kind of goth-style hairdo for 50-year olds.
But seriously folks, she sounds just awful.
Her frankly gross opinions on religious freedom almost makes me want to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Palin, Bachman and now Torgerson. May the Holy Pasta protect us!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage.jpg
Can’t the United States just be a nation that follows neither modern day basket case Saudi Arabia nor those delightful clerics who invented the Spanish Inquisition?
Comment posted December 23, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
I am an American, born and raised, but I am also an intelligent Muslim. I am dismayed at the outright inaccuracies regarding Muslim teachings and the terribly misguided conclusions she draws. I am not even sure how this is appropriate to her campaign unless her only mission is to oust the current congressman based solely on his faith. As a former Republican for many, many elections, and still holding several of the family and social values of this party, I want you to know that I had to leave because of the extremism in the Republican Party. I feel no such fear of being associated with extremists from my religion because any educated person can easily see the truth from the propaganda. Ms. Torgerson sadly does not. Her judgment makes her unworthy of this seat.
Comment posted December 27, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
Dnaali,
Please tell me who would you trust more with your LIFE and wellbeing?
Would you feel safer with a muslim or a republican?
I think I know the answer so your judgment and political philosophy is atrocius and false.
You speak of “extremism” in the republican party?
Uh, what about the typical muslim kiling every day and attempting to kill westerners herenow in America?
Have you been watching the news and seen what your typical muslims are trying to do to our airliners?
I am still waiting for a card carrying republican to do the same in Saudi Arabia or Iran.
Dont hold your breath.
The only extreme thing here is your everyday, typical muslim engaging in cultural, political, economic, social, and and military jihad.
Islam and muslims need to removed from America yesterday.
I read many segments of your koran and it is riddled with MANDATORY COMMANDS from allah to engage in constant jihad and political sedition against ALL nations who do not submit to islam.
There is no misunderstanding, no misintrepretation, and no doubt islam is out to destroy all on this planet that is not submitting to islam.
Please dont try engagins in typical taqqiya with me as you will lose most miserably.
Thankfully, several thousand Americans everyday are aware now and growing more hostile to islam so dont start a war you would lose.
Comment posted January 6, 2010 @ 11:26 am
all of you trashing this women because she has the guts to say the TRUTH about Islam and Ellison are pathetic.
calling someone a “nazi” or “radical” because they point out the endless violence and insanity done by muslims EVERY day all over the world is pathetic. Islam has revealed itself as a destructive force in our world. I don’t care that “not all of them are bad”. that is not the point and never has been. There are by far more than enough of them that are bad, and there is no way to determine which is “moderate” and which are “extremist”. So allowing them to come into our country by the thousands with little or no screening is stupidity.
Our little multicultural experiment has proven a failure. We cannot live peacefully together. Not because of American imperialism or any other lame excuse, but because of Islamic theology that commands its followers to wage jihad.
they have proven themselves untrustworthy through their own actions time and time again. Having one of “them” in our government at ANY level is something I will never tolerate. Feel free to call me all the nasty names you like. Until muslims of the world stop killing and raping and trying to shove their disgusting way of life down our throats I will not trust them. period.
Comment posted January 26, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
There are any number of Muslim individuals and organizations speaking up loud and firm against the violent extremists of our religion. We are ignored by the press. “If it bleeds, it leads” and “Man bites dog” remain the axioms of our lazy sensationalistic press. No wonder more people trust Jon Stewart.
While a case can be made for the average citizen not knowing about the Muslim community anyone running for office needs to take the lead on educating him/herself on the issues.
As someone raised the question of GLBT folks and Islam (As if Torgerson didn’t reveal herself as completely against equality for GLBT people!) Keith Ellison is a vice-chair on the GLBT Equality caucus in Congress. The only other Muslim in Congress, Andre Carson, also serves on that committee. I am a gay muslim working with other GLBT Muslims and more generally with other progressive Muslims for much needed improvements in our religious community. We need support and understanding both within and outside that community. Islamophobic polarization undermines our efforts.
As Torgerson couldn’t get any party to back her, she is obviously not a serious threat; she’s just a petty hatemongerer. Actually she’s giving Ellison a pretty good tool to raise funds against her outspoken bigotry, so she’s really doing him a great favor!
Comment posted January 26, 2010 @ 11:59 pm
Lynn Torgerson should support civil unions for gay people. Her view on gay marriage is understandable within Christian Theology, but equal treatment demands equal rights within a civil union.
As to the main point…
I know that the average human being is not capable of divorcing themselves from their preconceived notions to amass and analyze basic facts to then superintegrate them into a conclusion. However as an able student of Islam for several years I can confirm that her statements on Islam are correct. However while her website holds some good information linking Ellison damnedly well to CAIR, an organization with terrorist links, it does merely a basic job of highlighting the theological fundament of Islam. Trimming it further down for the Minnesota Independent has destroyed most argumentative function for anyone not well aware of the subject or endowed with common sense.
I do realize however that the reader is highly unlikely to put any work into expanding their mental library on Islam so I will appeal to your common sense. Hopefully you will apply forward momentum as it has been historically been observed along with ideological anchors rather than take the use of the slippery slope fallacy.
Torgerson desires a progressive moralist democracy evolved from Protestant, Calvinist and Catholic Christian strains. Her kind of state would be flush with civil rights while reserving the Church’s right to exclude what it considers sinful lifestyles from marriage. Intolerant, but not unreasonable. In her kind of society gays would not be persecuted, but would not see the state forcing churches and states to accept gays into religious positions and traditional civil statuses with religious backgrounds. Possibly there would be full civil union status.
Ellison’s society is one where apostates and gays are stoned to death by law, such as in the Islamic Republc of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan to mention a few.
This is a fact.
If you do not believe you should go there and have a look.
Comment posted January 27, 2010 @ 12:14 am
Or rather most of you do have common senses, but you prefer to set them aside to favor an emotive response.
This is saddening. As a feminist I myself remember many a time I claimed that men have greater upper body strength to be yelled at by otherwise modestly sensible and intelligent people.
It is a scientific fact that women have roughly 60% of men’s upper body strength.
It is a demographic fact that on a single Islamic front over a 1000 years 600 million Hindus were slaughtered by Muslim invaders from the west resulting in the greatest continual and uninterrupted genocide in the known history of man. In fact the entire Hindu Kush region means ‘Hindu Slaughter’ in Hindi.
Take then that you will not believe that only left-wing muslims do not persecute and murder their children if they become apostates. Why are you unable to understand the simple fact that Muhammed (or Mohammed, I see one poster found others ignorant to use the other name rather than focus on facts) founded a warrior religion? The man slaughtered PoWs and ordered assassinations on anything from poets to philosophers and their children. All this is historical fact.
Daily the news are witness to grotesque acts of violence, which unlike the spoony western news reporting of minor incidents is only the top of a mountain. What goes on inside borders of majority muslim nations is truly horrendous and not ‘the House of Peace’ as opposed to minority nations which they call ‘the House of War’.
Therefore I can only conclude that you have locked off your minds to simple facts in favor of feel-good sensationalism and propaganda stored up in your head. This disgusts me.
Furthermore religions are different. If you wish to criticize Christianity then understand that while it also incorporates the Old Testament it favors quite a different approach. In fact the Catholic community at large were agaisnt the Crusades, which could accurately be termed counteroffensives to reclaim land settled by natives converted to Christianity subjugated later to Islam.
But whether or not Christianity was right to do what it did or how old-school Semmitic it is it most important to remember what it is today.
Your perchance daily or weekly annoyances at the hands of your conservative Christian neighbor is NOT an intellectual excuse for you to compare its adherants to a runaway warrior religion utilizing the ‘join or die’ option.
How easily you are fooled by those who live among you who have the motive to be left-wing muslims. How few of them are actually left-wing muslims who cry out against terrorism.
Comment posted January 27, 2010 @ 12:19 am
Jack Fertiq, I am humoured by your ignorance of your own religion. Rest assured you are a sectarian that any respectable Islamic University and Mosque would consider an idolator or pagan. Should you go to the purest of muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia you would be sentenced to execution.
On the streets of the University capital of Islam, Cairo, you would not be safe if you tried to spread your beliefs that homosexuality is acceptable within Islam. That is of course, you would not be safe anyway other than thanks to your passport.
Comment posted January 27, 2010 @ 12:22 am
Other than that in general I would not advise to take up sole citizenship in any Islamic Republic and profess yourself as a practicing gay.
How ironic you fight for Islam to be recognized as tolerant on behalf of its sectarians and heretics.
By the by, I have no problem with sectarian charismatic ‘muslims’ and heretic fornicators like yourself. They’re and you’re actually sane.
Comment posted January 27, 2010 @ 12:23 am
(Because you would be executed or imprisoned for reeducation at the least.)
Comment posted January 28, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
I am so disgusted with Ms. Torgerson views. If she has this much hate about Islam and Muslim, then she should know that she not only offended Muslims in America but she also offended 300 million people of this country and she is merely an unfit candidate yet.
Rather than having a focus on the issues, she is insulting religion and faith of her opponent and of many voters. We as keeper of American Values and Liberty for all’ demand that Ms. Torgerson to withdraw her candidacy immediately and please don’t embarrass Minnesotans anymore . There is no room for hate mongers in our political system, communities and certainly not in our communities.
Comment posted January 30, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
Sad that we have come back to this hate mongering. She is the new “Great white hope” in skirts.
If marriage is only for procreation than we should counter Proposition 8 and the like with proposals to forbid marriage to those who are incapable or unwilling to produce children! Infertile marriages over 5 years should automatically be dissolved by the state. Live in sin Granny!
Comment posted January 31, 2010 @ 7:28 am
Sept 11, 1683. The Battle of Vienna…Look it up.
You think the 9/11 timing was just by chance? Think again,
President Bush was right, this is a different kind of war.
Comment posted February 1, 2010 @ 12:06 pm
I think Minnesotans they have to question about her law degree where did she got it, also in Regard of Quran please Google more to have a knowledge about Islam before you make your judgment, I believe this is another neo-Nazi sign.
Comment posted March 8, 2010 @ 11:00 am
Torgerson is right. Ellison is associated with CAIR and together they are fund raisers for terror organisations which are factually shown and proven as HAMAS/Hezbollah and of course who are Irans henchmen against Israel. Ellison deserves to be ousted from his seat immediately, but very doubtful now the whole government in the US is infiltrated with Islamic extremists.
Comment posted March 10, 2010 @ 4:22 am
Ms. Torgerson’s views appear to be biast.
Her understanding of equality and freedom would also seem to call into question her qualifications to practice law. As far as I know we are still a nation of laws not subject to religious.
She must not mix ones right for practicing his or her relegion.
Comment posted March 14, 2010 @ 8:52 pm
Many people attack CAIR without any research on the claims. Any claims about CAIR were made right after 9-11 when there were a lot of people scared about Islam. CAIR has a very American role in society it brings Muslim citizens into the political process. If someone who runs her campaign without research on her platform shows they cant be trusted with the power to vote on legislation if research won’t be done. Her message will create tensions with foreign nations. Ms. Torgerson’s views on island are shared by many but are also false. Many people are confusing foreign cultures and religion. The Culture in many countries may limit women’s rights but their religion doesn’t. It wasn’t a very long time ago when women didn’t have equal rights here and no one said anything about the united states and Christians being sexist.
Also many national Islamic organizations including CAIR condemned the terrorist attacks but unfortunately the press coverage Muslims get are terrorist attacks.
Before judging a congressman on religion base it on what he has done for his constituents. In time of economic problems Minneapolis has fared much better than most cities across America. And he hasn’t done anything in congress that shows that he is enforcing Islam amounts the American people. The Quran says that Muslims should spread the knowledge of Islam and it was meant for situations like this when poeple have many misconceptions of Islam it is better to eradicate misconceptions.
If anyone cares the first real terrorist organization was a the KKK
Pingback posted March 20, 2010 @ 6:06 pm
[...] December 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment America’s first openly anti-Muslim congressional candidate. She’s a keeper. [...]
Pingback posted June 15, 2010 @ 10:08 am
[...] running for the U.S. House seat held by Rep. Keith Ellison. Torgerson has strong views about Islam, and her campaign site references 9/11 and Ellison’s Muslim “cohorts” various times. Also [...]
Comment posted June 28, 2011 @ 8:35 pm
How odd: someone who slams her opponent for allegedly putting his Islamic religious beliefs above the U.S. Constitution puts her own Christian doctrine above that document. I for one refuse to have my country subverted by fanatics of ANY religion.
Can someone come up with rational, secular, non-religious reasons for opposing abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research? I hold that these are religious positions that should not rank above the U.S. Constitution.
Ms.Torgerson, the article says you’re “a Christian but not a Catholic,” who “points out when her own views align with Catholic doctrine.” So even though you’re not Catholic yourself you seek to over-rule the U.S. Constitution with the canon religious law of the Roman Catholic Church.
Please explain to us why Catholic canon law should outrank our Constitution but Islamic sharia law should not. Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say that our laws must be acceptable to the Pope of Rome?
Comment posted June 28, 2011 @ 8:53 pm
Many other religions do not seek to impose their doctrines on the rest of us. Jews and Muslims don’t eat pork but they don’t try to to make pork illegal for us, and Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t go for blood transfusions but they don’t try to forbid thm for us. I have no objction to this: people should be free to run their private lives as they choose, so long as their private opinions and practices do not impose on the rest of us.
I say to you and those who share your religious dogmas that nobody’s forcing you to have an abortion, to get gaily married or to benefit from stem cell research. Why do you reward Society’s tolerance of your private religious practices by trying to force them on the rest of us? Have you no shame?
Pingback posted October 5, 2011 @ 2:31 pm
[...] in 2010 Torgerson is a Minneapolis attorney who ran against the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, as an independent in [...]
Pingback posted October 5, 2011 @ 3:11 pm
[...] in 2010 Torgerson is a Minneapolis attorney who ran against the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, as an independent in [...]
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
