Atheists To Protest Hartford City Council Meeting
HARTFORD, Conn. — Members of the Connecticut Valley Atheists plan to silently protest Monday night, by sitting instead of standing during the City Council meeting’s opening prayer.
The head of Connecticut Valley Atheists said the usual prayer before the council meeting violates the Constitution, and isn’t fair to people who don’t believe in any gods.
In a statement, president of the Connecticut Valley Atheists and the Connecticut State Director of American Atheists Dennis Paul Himes said, “There is an attitude much too prevalent in Connecticut that if all religions are covered by a policy then no one is left out. We will be there to remind the council that that is not true.”
This isn’t the first time the council’s opening prayer has come under fire. In September, the council received hate mail after a member invited a Muslim leader to give the opening prayer. The Connecticut Atheists group said the controversy was a reminder that any prayer in government is inappropriate.
Not everyone agrees.
Council President rJo Winch pointed out prayer is something that happens at all levels of government, and the council has been correct in how they have handled the prayer issue, opening it to people of all faiths, and even those who are not religious.
“I don’t think that they need to be able to impose their atheism on other people,” Winch said. “What about the other residents that think prayer should happen. So we do a combination of things. We welcome any religion to come in and do prayers. We even have days where we do moments of silence where there is no prayer. We try to be accommodating.”
The meeting and silent protest begins at 7 p.m.
via Atheists To Protest Hartford City Council Meeting – Connecticut News Story – WFSB Hartford.
Islamic Group to Protest Hartford City Council
The decision to invite a local Islamic imam to say a prayer at Monday’s Hartford City Council meeting, and the decision to revoke that offer continues to haunt the Council.
Last week, the City Council announced it had asked Islamic leaders to begin its September meetings with Muslim prayers as an “act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”
But after a public outcry, City Council president rJo Winch said the Council reconsidered its plan, and would now hold an interfaith moment of silence.
Now the Connecticut Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it will protest Monday’s Council meeting at Hartford City Hall.
“Elected officials should never bow to those who promote hatred and bigotry, but instead stand on the principles of religious pluralism that made our nation the envy of the world,” CAIR-CT Executive Director Mongi Dhaouadi said.
The City Council received hundreds of emails considered hateful and racist, according to Winch.
Imam Kashif Abdul-Karim, who was supposed to say the prayer at the Council meeting Monday, will now say a prayer at the protest outside City Hall.
CAIR says it will now ask the Council to allow Abdul-Karim to offer a prayer at it’s next meeting on Sept. 27.
Via: Islamic Group to Protest Hartford City Council
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