Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 6A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. TUNE 11, 2008
Did Activists Hire Hooters
Girls To Expose Local Muslims?
It would be an unusual coalition:
Christian activists and Hooters
girls.
Two members of a local Muslim
community say a “Christian”
group out to discredit them
recruited two Hooters restaurant
waitresses last week to aid in that
effort.
The Christian Action Network
(CAN) was in town last
Wednesday hoping to film in
the Franklin County 80-resident
Muslim community in support of
their contention that Muslims of
America, the parent organization,
should be classified as a terrorist
organization.
According to Ahmad Qadri
and Mohammed Isa Abdurrauf,
members of that community, the
Franklin County Sheriff’s Office
refused the request of Jason
Campbell and Mark Fisher to
go onto the group’s Franklin
County site. The two showed up
at Qadri’s Rainmaker Studio on
Cherry Street.
The group is making what it
calls a documentary that alleges
that Muslims of America commu
nities across the country support
terrorism. The group that came
to Commerce handed out pam
phlets and tried to entice locals
to watch a video, “Sheik Gailini,
Soldier of Allah,” to prove its
point.
They also entered the pottery
studio.
“A guy and two girls came in
under the guise that one of the
girls was interested in having a
pottery class, taking a class from
me in pottery, and they wanted
to buy some pottery,” said Qadri,
whose work has won numerous
awards in art shows.
Qadri, who was on the phone
working out details of teaching
a pottery class at the Commerce
Public Library, said he asked the
three if they were with CAN,
to which the man replied in the
negative. The three wandered
around the studio, spent $15 on
a goblet, left and came back in a
few minutes.
“They asked if we were with
a terrorist organization,” Qadri
said. “I asked them where they
were from. He said ‘Virginia,’ and
I said, 'You’re one of them.”' CAN
is headquartered in Virginia.
Qadri said he told the three he
had nothing to say to them — then
presented them with a copy of
the poem, “Anyway,” by Mother
Teresa.
Ten minutes later the girls came
back to apologize. They also
agreed to let Qadri video their
apology, he said.
The two told Qadri and
Abdurrauf that the two men had
approached them at a South
Carolina Hooters, “so he could
ask you questions about your reli
gion and terrorism,” one of the
girls says on the video.
One of the girls identified her
self only as “Allie.” The other’s
name was not clear on the video.
“They came to us last night at
work and told us they would pay
us $75,” said “Allie.”
“The only reason we did it was
for the beach money,” added her
companion. “Then we did it and
now we realize we did it for a
wrong reason. And now we feel
bad.”
Abdurrauf, who owns a house
CAN has claimed has an under
ground garage that gets a lot of
traffic, said the attempt is vintage
CAN.
“Their literature is basically very
harassing, agitating. Anyone who
stands in front of your property
and shops and says you’re a ter
rorist ...” he said. “They are pro
voking and inciting. They have
people’s homes and businesses
on their web sites and they say
'these are terrorists.”'
Qadri, who points out that his
father had a 27-year career in
the Army, including two tours of
duty in Vietnam, calls the group’s
activity “stressful and distract
ing, especially for our wives and
families.”
“It provokes people to fear, vio
lence and paranoia,” he added.
“We’ve had incidents where peo
ple have responded to that infor
mation.”
According to Abdurrauf, the
“Commerce” Muslim community
has about 80 residents, most of
whom live in mobile homes. It
also has a mosque, built by the
residents. Abdurrauf lives in a
southwest style house on adja
cent property.
CAN refers to all of the Muslim
of America communities as “com
pounds.”
CAN did not respond to an
e-mail inquiry about its Commerce
visit.
Group's Leader
Suggests Council To
Blame For Drought
The president of a citizens’
group appears to believe that the
Commerce City Council is the
cause of the 100-year drought
plaguing the Southeast.
Clifford Slater, president of
Commerce-Jackson Concerned
Citizens, asked to address the
city council Monday night after a
motion to allow beer consumption
at city-sponsored events failed.
Mayor Charles L. “Buzzie” Hardy
Jr. gave him the floor.
“We’re supposed to respect our
children,” said Slater, in an appar
ent reference to the alcohol issue.
“ I believe that’s why we don’t get
no rain and stuff like that because
of all the stuff y’all come up with.”
The mayor did not respond to
Slater’s comment.
Like the weather, the City Lights
Downtown Festival will be dry
this year.
The council failed to approve an
amendment to the city’s beer and
wine ordinance Monday night
that would have allowed the con
sumption of beer in Spencer Park
during the June 28 festival.
The plan was to allow consump
tion of beer at city-sponsored
events. Beer was available at the
2007 City Lights Festival, but the
council learned that it needed to
amend the section of the ordi
nance that prohibited consump
tion in public.
Ward 4 Councilman Bob
Sosebee, who chairs the DDA that
sponsors the City Lights Festival,
made the motion to amend the
ordinance.
It died for lack of a second.
“I hope y’all just realize what
you did,” Sosebee said, without
elaborating.
The citizens’ group’s vice chair
man, the Rev. John Webber,
thanked the council for its action
— or its lack of action in this par
ticular case, declaring that “We’re
all going to stand before the judg
ment seat of God.”
The Commerce-Jackson
Concerned Citizens fielded a
slate of officers in the 2007 city
elections. None were elected.
NEWS DEADLINE
4:00 MONDAYS
Very Little
Building
Activity Here
Construction has all but
stopped in Commerce.
For May, the city issued only
two building permits. They
amounted to an estimated
$20,000 in additions to two
houses.
For the first five months of
2008, Commerce has issued
permits for construction val
ued at $553,965 — about 18
percent of the value of con
struction during the first five
months of 2007.
There are a couple of sig
nificant projects on the hori
zon, however. Walgreens con
tinues to clear the site of a
proposed new store on North
Broad Street, and Dr. James
Bouchard indicated a month
ago that construction will begin
soon on the first of several
medical office buildings on the
Maysville Road near Old Bold
Springs Road.
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Certified Nursing Assistants
These students graduated from the dual
enrollment program for certified nursing
assistants, earning credit at their respective
high schools and at Lanier Technical College.
Left to right are (front) Jennifer Darby, Banks
County High School; Stephanie O’Hara and
Brandy Dotson, Commerce High School;
(back) Taylor Bowles, Devin Caudell, Elizabeth
Sick and Candace Moon, all Jefferson High
School. Instructors were Kay Mitchell, RN, and
Dana Keranen. Jo Totherow is the program
director.
Chamber Briefed On
Role Of Lanier Tech
Graduation from Lanier
Technical College is a vir
tual guarantee of a job, the
school’s president told mem
bers of the Jackson County
Area Chamber of Commerce
last Wednesday morning.
In fact, said Dr. Mike Moye,
even the drop-outs get good
jobs.
According to Moye, 99 per
cent of Lanier Tech’s gradu
ates find jobs — often with the
help of the school.
“If you graduate from Lanier
Technical College, we’re going
to get you a job,” he prom
ised. “We put folks to work,
and we’re extremely proud
of that.”
But it doesn’t necessar
ily mean that a student must
complete his or her course of
study, Moye pointed out.
“Our drop-outs get good
jobs,” he said. One of the
reasons is that industries talk
students in various programs
into going to work before they
graduate if they have the skills
the companies seek.
According to Moye, Lanier
Tech’s mission is workforce
development, a mission it
accomplishes through both
its credit courses and its lit
eracy and GED courses at
its main campus in Oakwood
and its satellite campuses
in Commerce, Cumming,
Dawsonville and Winder.
The credit side of the cur
riculum boasted record
enrollment of 5,117 in 2007,
he said. Courses fall under
allied health, technical and
industrial, business and com
puter, personnel and public
service.
The adult literacy side, Moye
said, is an effort to combat a
serious state and local prob
lem.
“We are in a war against
illiteracy,” he declared. “It’s
not one we are winning very
quickly, but we are making
strides.”
According to the 2000 cen
sus, 31.9 percent of Jackson
County adults did not have
a high school diploma. Moye
said he expects that number
to be lower at the next census
due to the “major effort” under
way to address the issue.
Commerce News
Captures 13 GPA
Contest Awards
The Commerce News received
13 awards for participation in the
Georgia Press Association Better
Newspaper Contest for issues pub
lished during 2007.
The awards were presented at the
annual GPA summer convention
last Friday night at Jekyll Island.
The News won first-place awards
for education coverage, editorial
writing, editorial page, business
coverage, and sports sections or
pages. In addition, editor Mark
Beardsley captured first-place
awards for sports photograph and
photo essay.
The News won second place in
General Excellence, and Beardsley
received second-place awards for
feature photograph, photo essay
and serious column.
The News won a third-place award
for local news coverage and colum
nist Willis Cook won a third-place
award for humorous columns.
A sister publication, The Jackson
Herald, in winning the General
Excellence Award, was declared
Georgia’s best weekly newspaper in
its circulation category. The Herald
won 15 awards in the contest,
including first-place awards in busi
ness coverage, hard news writing,
sports section and sports writing.
Jackson County Needs A Change!
JIM KEINARD
for Sheriff of
Jackson County
My goal is to provide professional law enforcement management practices into the Jackson
County Sheriffs Department. In order to accomplish this task, I will address the following
issues.
• I will serve as your full-time sheriff and not as a part-time sheriff.
• No longer will the “good ole boy politics” of the past be tolerated in the management and
operation of the Jackson County Sheriffs Department.
• As your new sheriff, I will address and correct current departmental policy issues:
• No longer will there be selective enforcement of the laws of Georgia within the
department, all laws of Georgia will be enforced fairly and uniformly by all
deputies within the department.
• No longer will special services be provided to selected individuals. If special
services are provided, they will be available to all the citizens of the county.
• As your new sheriff, I will address and correct current personnel issues within the
department.
• As your new sheriff, I will seek to improve the image of the Jackson County Sheriffs
Department.
• As your new sheriff, I will increase departmental accountability to the citizens of Jackson
County.
• As your new sheriff, I will seek to improve inter-agency cooperation with other state and
local law enforcement agencies.
Please Vote July 15th.
Your Vote Does Count!
L. ^
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