In the 1950s and 1960s, To Tell the Truth was one of the most popular shows on television. Three contestants, all claiming to be the same person, were quizzed by a celebrity panel after which the host asked the real person in question to stand up and reveal themselves.<\/p>\n
Governor Josh Shapiro, up for reelection in November, could easily appear on that show were it on TV today as three different versions of himself. A master at tricky shape-shifting, the \u201creal\u201d Shapiro could appear as three persons in one, or an unholy trinity with the sales ability of a super shyster. A supporter of a Palestinian state, a lukewarm supporter of Israel which sometimes dips into the \u201cstrong\u201d category (with a lot of \u201cyeses\u201d and \u201cbuts\u201d), he makes sure to visit mosques while building unusually close relationships with Arab communities.<\/p>\n
But when you comfortably position yourself in the middle \u2014 the milquetoast option \u2014 you are especially vulnerable to attack from both sides.<\/p>\n
Some news headlines:<\/p>\n
PennLive, Patriot News (October 2023): \u201cPA Muslim Groups admonish Shapiro for not Speaking in Support of Gaza civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Lives magazine (August 2024): \u201cOnce Popular with Arabs and Muslims, Jewish Shapiro Has Alienated Supporters with His views on Israel-Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forward (Jewish, Independent, 2024): \u201cShapiro\u2019s position on Gaza tests close bonds with Arab, Muslim Community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Shapiro stated Israel had \u201ca right to defend itself\u201d after the October 7 attack, when he was Pennsylvania\u2019s attorney general in 2017, he led much of the opposition to the Trump administration\u2019s travel ban targeting Muslims. By the time he became governor, he was savvy enough to recognize that Pennsylvania\u2019s Arab population was second only to Michigan\u2019s in numbers, meaning he had to temper his support of Israel and not go out on a limb the way PA Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity does when she states she is not in favor of a separate Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Senator John Fetterman put it succinctly when he said, \u201cPalestine is a failed nation \u2014 not even a failed nation. There is no real leadership, except for Hamas. And it\u2019s clear Hamas refuses to change their views.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro, ever the politician, is too mindful of Pennsylvania\u2019s Arab population numbers to go the Fetterman-Garrity route, so he supports a separate Palestinian state. Muslim numbers, after all, are powerful. In Michigan, for instance, Dearborn and Hamtramck have a majority Muslim population and are Muslim-controlled, but cities like Detroit, Livonia and Macomb aren\u2019t far behind. In these places you will find an extensive mosque network, cultural institutions and immigrant communities.<\/p>\n
In many ways, it seems that Pennsylvania, and especially Philadelphia, are following Michigan\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia, known as \u201cMuslim Town,\u201d is in the running to succeed Dearborn as the nation\u2019s next big Muslim enclave. It\u2019s been a slow buildup in that direction since the late 1960s and \u201970s, when Nation of Islam missionaries in suits and ties filled City Hall Courtyard hawking Muhammad Speaks newspapers. After 1975, the Nation of Islam shucked much of its black-only identity and merged with the larger trans-racial Islamist movements. (I can recall walking through City Hall courtyard at that time and hearing references to \u201cblue-eyed devils.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Consider the growth of Islam in the Germantown section of the city. The year 2021 was the most violent in the history of Philadelphia but especially in Germantown, where there were shootings every day. In 2021, three people were shot in front of Germantown\u2019s Musjid on Germantown Avenue. After the shooting, people from the mosque helped the injured; following that, the Musjid embarked on a campaign to fight street violence by initiating a campaign to buy up boarded-up properties and turn them into small businesses. This was an admirable endeavor. By Ramadan 2024, the level of street violence in Germantown had decreased drastically. The Musjid reported that for nine days straight that year 222 people a day took Shahada (conversion to Islam).<\/p>\n
These are astounding numbers and they point to Philadelphia becoming a \u201cLiberty Bell\u201d version of Dearborn sometime in the future. I don\u2019t think it is an exaggeration to say this.<\/p>\n
In 2026, both the City of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania opened their hearts and coffers to all things Islamic.<\/p>\n
There are 300,000 Muslims in Philadelphia, and those numbers are growing. In 2024, the city appointed Dr. Quaiser Abdullah as the first Director of Muslim Engagement. One might ask: Why is Islam being singled out for special status in city government? Is there an Office of Ukrainian Catholic Engagement? And what about those Orthodox Jews in the Overbrook section of the city?<\/p>\n
Last time I checked, Muslims are not persecuted in this city, but they are being given special status and recognition.<\/p>\n
Simple proof: why is taxpayer money being used to gift Philadelphia\u2019s Al-Aqsa Islamic Society with a $5 million award, a gift that would go towards expanding the private school the Society sponsors with a gymnasium, extra classrooms and community space area?<\/p>\n
The private school is necessary, say the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, because American culture is toxic. Okay, many Christians and secular philosopher types might say similar things. And while there may be many points of agreement on certain toxic behaviors, the school\u2019s promise to educate children with an \u201cIslamic world view\u201d raises more serious issues.<\/p>\n
This includes the teaching of the more unpleasant aspects of Islam people on the left don\u2019t like to talk about, like Sharia, wife beating, honor killing, and possible antisemitism. (Not to mention, throwing the local homosexual off a rooftop.)<\/p>\n
The Al-Aqsa Islamic Society\u2019s own project website says the organization presently encompasses a K-12 school, mosque, and community grocery store and is looking at a 70,000-square-foot expansion to serve its growing educational, religious, and cultural operations.<\/p>\n
The completed project will cost an estimated $43.6 million, although the state grant does not cover expansion of the mosque.<\/p>\n
Democrat State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Muslim, was instrumental in obtaining the grant, billed as the largest state grant ever awarded to a Muslim school in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Yet there\u2019s something deeply disturbing about the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society. In May 2007, federal authorities broke up what became known as the Fort Dix terror plot. The Duka and Shnewer families, who were involved in the plot, attended Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, the recipient of the generous $5 million grant.<\/p>\n
According to news reports, an Al-Aqsa spokesman stated that the Duka brothers were doing roofing work on the mosque before their arrest by the feds.<\/p>\n
In 2008, a federal jury convicted Al-Aqsa members Dritan Duka, Shain Duka, Eljvir Duka, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, and Serdar Tatar of conspiracy to murder members of the United States military. The Department of Justice maintained the men had been involved in weapons training before the planned attack.<\/p>\n
But according to Josh Shapiro, up for reelection in November, it\u2019s not an issue at all that Pennsylvania tax dollars flowed into this bastion of potential terrorism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 1950s and 1960s, To Tell the Truth was one of the most popular shows on television.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36749,456,5060,5061,24338,26741,2311,3766,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-275110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arabs","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-muslims","tag-must-read","tag-palestine","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}