Granite City Baptist Church

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group targeting Minnesota as a battleground over same-sex marriage this summer and fall, is hosting an anti–gay marriage rally at Granite City Baptist Church in St. Cloud on July 29. The church and its pastor, Dennis Campbell, were at the center of controversy earlier this year over an ad it placed in the St. Cloud Times that claimed “Moslems [sic]… will destroy the constitution.”

“What happens when Moslems take over a nation?” asked Campbell in the ad. “They will destroy the constitution and force the Moslem religion on the society, take freedom of religion away, and they will persecute all other religions.”

The ad continued, “How do Moslems seek to take control of a nation? “Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.” (Campbell later said the ad wasn’t racist, but showed his desire to convert Muslims to Christianity.)

Campbell and Granite City are bringing in the National Organization for Marriage to fight that “gay agenda.” NOM says the tour aims to protect “the institution of marriage” which “has been under attack by radical activists who want to redefine its very meaning.”

Dennis Campbell

And the strategist behind the 20-stop tour, Louis Marinelli, says that gays are seeking “prostitution, pedophilia, and polygamy.”

NOM did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the Minnesota Independent about the tour stop at Campbell’s church.

Campbell’s ad this spring prompted members of Minnesota’s Muslim community to respond with their own ad. The Council on American-Islamic Relation of Minnesota bought an ad in the St. Cloud Times.

“Fear mongering only furthers the anti-Muslim hysteria we are seeing in St. Cloud and nationwide,” said Lori Saroya, president of CAIR-MN. Saroya says her group first heard of Campbell’s ad when Christian groups called her office saying they were appalled by it.

OutFront Minnesota staff attorney Phil Duran said it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that NOM would be in partnership with a pastor that espouses anti-Muslim views.

“It would not seem particularly astute of NOM to ally itself with an institution currently infamous for targeting Muslims, but I do seem to recall that it is said that those who openly espouse one form of bigotry often espouse various others,” he said. “It speaks volumes about the agenda that motivates NOM and its supporters.”

“Today, that agenda openly targets GLBT people,” he added. “But who will it be tomorrow?”

Dennis Campbell

“I am not a racist,” says Rev. Dennis Campbell of the response to an ad he placed in the St. Cloud Times in March that stated, “Moslems [sic] seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.” In a report on Minnesota Public Radio today, Campbell says his intention was religious conversion. “I think some people misjudged the article… Jesus is the key to heaven. That’s why we’re interested in helping them not to follow a religion of any kind: Protestant, Christian or Eastern or whatever. But rather to come to a place where they’re willing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their savior and lord.”

The Granite City Baptist Church ad, first covered by the Minnesota Independent in March, claimed that “in 30 years there will be 50 million Moslems in America,” and that they’ll “destroy the constitution and force the Moslem religion on the society, take freedom of religion away, and they will persecute all other religions.”

Granite City Baptist Church's March 2010 ad. Click to enlarge.

But Campbell tells MPR that those upset by the ad should re-read the last paragraph, which calls Christians to “influence the Moslems for Jesus Christ.”

“If the whole aim of this article was to convert people, there are other ways that the pastor can convert people to his religion,” Alikhadar Yusuf, a St. Cloud imam, told MPR. “But this type of language when you use it in an article — and a lot of people will read this article — it will create a lot of fear.”

The appeared as racial and religious tensions continued to flare up in and around St. Cloud. In December, fliers mocking Islam were found on area telephone poles, and last week  news came that the U.S. Department of Education was investigating cases of alleged harassment of area Muslim students. Campbell’s ad sparked a rebuttal ad campaign of sorts from the Council on American Islamic Relations.

But it’s not the first time Campbell’s has referenced Islam or, for that matter, homosexuality. Several church newsletters opine about the influence of gays, lesbians, liberals and communists, including  one edition (pdf) in which Campbell lamented that secular textbook publishers “are pressured to to portray feminists, homosexuals, and Muslims in a positive light.” He continued, “We need textbooks that are free from political and philosophical influences that contradict the TRUTH of the Bible or historical facts. “

Among the complaints (PDF) submitted to the DOE: Students “shoved [bacon] in the faces of Muslim students and chased after them when they tried to get away,” a “teacher, on several occasions, handed students a can of air freshener and instructed them to spray the room when Muslim students walked into class,” and both teachers and students have used racial slurs and disparaged Islam during class time.

“Our goal is to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all students,” said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Taneeza Islam in a statement. “Decades after the beginning of the civil rights movement, no student should be constantly subjected to racial slurs or harassment at school.”

The DOE’s responses to the incidents in Owatonna and St. Cloud can be viewed here (PDF) and here (PDF).

Dennis Campbell

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is launching an ad of its own to counter an ad in the St. Cloud Times last month that the group deems anti-Islam. Baptist pastor Dennis Campbell’s ad for the Granite City Baptist Church read, in part, “Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.” CAIR’s response ad, after the jump, bears the headline, “We are American, We are Muslim.”

“We are your neighbors,” the CAIR-MN ad states. “We are natives and immigrants. We are educated, skilled, and working hard to achieve the American Dream. We are a part of America’s history and future. We are doctors, teachers, lawyers, community activists, athletes, elected officials, taxi drivers, service workers, police officers, and business owners. We are American. We are Muslim.”

CAIR-MN president Lori Saroya said that following Campell’s ad, her office got calls from several Christian organizations saying that the views of Granite City’s pastor do not reflect those of other Christian churches.

“The reality is that Muslims are Americans who co-exist peacefully with people of other faiths,” said Saroya in a statement on Tuesday.

Here’s the CAIR-MN ad (pdf):

Pastor Dennis Campbell

Granite City Baptist Church raised some eyebrows this weekend when it bought an ad (pdf) in the St. Cloud Times that questioned whether Muslims are a “threat” to America. “How do Moslems seek to take control of a nation?” the ad, which features a photo of Pastor Dennis Campbell, asks. “Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.”

The ad is part of a string of incidents in St. Cloud that troubles human rights advocates. Within the last year, pornographic posters depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammed were put up on St. Cloud telephone polls, and Muslim students in St. Cloud area high schools have reported religious harassment.

Last week, MPR reported on several racist Facebook groups that were created by St. Cloud high school students. “I hate the Somalians at Tech High,” was one such group. Kyle Adams, a former student at St. Cloud Technical High School (he was kicked out for repeatedly using racial slurs) told MPR, “I was raised in believing that this country was founded upon a white Christian nation and the belief of racial separation.”

The Granite City Baptist Church ad seems to mirror some of that anti-Muslim sentiment. “What happens when Moslems take over a nation?” asks Campbell in the ad. “They will destroy the constitution and force the Moslem religion on the society, take freedom of religion away, and they will persecute all other religions.”

(Hat tip, Lower Case.)

The group says it’s targeting Bachmann because she’s “among the very few Congressional Republicans (even excluding Minority Leader Boehner) to enthusiastically embrace Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)’s misguided alternative budget proposal that would dismantle Social Security with a privatization scheme and replace Medicare with a voucher system.”

The ad’s script:

Script (:60) — “Hands Off”

Wife: Did you hear what that Michele Bachmann said this time?

Husband: No, what was it?

Wife: Congresswoman Bachmann actually said we should be “weaned” off of Social Security and Medicare. She wants to privatize Social Security and replace Medicare with some kind of voucher system that won’t even cover the full cost of medical care or prescriptions.

Husband: So let me get this straight. Congresswoman Bachmann wants me to gamble with my Social Security on Wall Street?

Wife: Yup, she wants us to hand over our Social Security to the same greedy, reckless CEOs responsible for crashing our economy. That’s just plain crazy.

Husband: No thanks. Privatization was a bad idea when President Bush tried it — and it’s even worse today.

Wife: And Congresswoman Bachmann actually wants me to trade in my Medicare for some voucher that’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. She should spend less time on national TV and more time worrying about Senior citizens back home in Minnesota.

Husband: Let’s call Congresswoman Bachmann right now at 320-253-5931 and tell her, “Hands off my Social Security and Medicare.”

Announcer: Paid for by Americans United for Change

Local police are investigating whether the incidents constituted a crime and, if so, whether they could be classified as hate crime.

Deko Farah, who manages the Mandeeq Shop outside of which a flier appeared, told the Times, “Right now we’re not feeling safe.”

Racist and anti-Semitic incidents are not new in St. Cloud. Swastikas have repeatedly shown up at St. Cloud State University in the last few years, including three times in 2007. The letters “KKK” were posted in an elevator on campus in 2008, and a cross was burned in a city park in October of this year.

Those are only the most recent incidents. The situation was so bad that in 2002, when a retired St. Cloud professor and his colleagues sent letters to students in Twin Cities schools warning them of the hostile climate.

Photo: MnIndy

In an interview with AM 1280 on Saturday, Rep. Michele Bachmann announced that she will have Rep. Ron Paul as her guest for a September town hall forum in St. Cloud.

“I’ll be doing another town hall up in the St. Cloud area in September and we’ll do that on monetary policy. Ron Paul is going to come in and we are going to host something on monetary policy,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann is a convert to the Ron Paul movement, sometimes attending the congressman’s weekly lunches.

“I especially want to speak to the 19- to 20-year olds so they can know what there future will be under this level of debt accumulation and spending,” she added about the forum. “They need to know their future. And so I’m bringing him in so we can have a discussion on monetary policy.”

The proposed cuts are equivalent to 3.3 percent of the program’s funding in 2009 and 7.6 percent in 2010. Towns with populations under 1,000 are exempt from the cuts. Many municipalities in greater Minnesota with shrinking populations rely on LGA to bolster their finances, as do larger cities with high levels of poverty.

The League of Minnesota Cities has posted a spreadsheet breaking down Pawlenty’s proposed cuts to local government aid. While a city’s overall budget needs to be scrutinized in order to gauge the significance of the hit, in sheer dollar amounts here are the ten municipalities slated to lose the biggest chunks of change:

1. Minneapolis: $44.6 million in 2009; $102.4 million in 2010
2. St. Paul: $5 million in 2009; $11.6 million in 2010
3. Rochester: $1.7 million in 2009; $3.9 million in 2010
4. Duluth: $1.5 million in 2009; $3.5 million in 2010
5. St. Cloud: $1.2 million in 2009; $2.7 million in 2010
6. Winona: $531,000 in 2009; $1.2 million in 2010
7. Moorhead: $489,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
8. Brooklyn Center: $464,000 in 2009; $1.1 million in 2010
9. Owatonna, $454,000 in 2009; $1 million in 2010
10. Faribault: $392,000 in 2009; $905,000 in 2010

Not as catchy as Orwell's "Ignorance Is Strength"

Vice President Joe Biden held a town-hall meeting on beefing up the middle class in St. Cloud today. Watch live streaming video via the UpTake after the jump.

The setting for Biden’s appearance — a New Flyer of America Bus Co. plant that last year hired 90 people to build low-emission, alternative-fuel vehicles — has something in common with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s choice of locale for his State of the City address next week: the new Coloplast corporate campus on West River Parkway, a company that brought 200 jobs to Minneapolis when the company relocated from Georgia.

Another thing the venues have in common: Both companies are owned by foreign firms.

Here’s video of Biden’s St. Cloud event, courtesy of the UpTake: