Update to Below.

True to her word, Joanna Walker Editor of the Observer, had a former contributer call me. Mary Brown, youth sponsor at Central. Her qualifications? She's "read the Koran..... Cover to cover."

This conversation did not go at all like the one with Walker. It ended with a hang-up. I "talk too fast" and "refute everything [she] says". Now, Mary made it clear she's no expert, however her answers would seem to make it sound otherwise. Everything was absolute:

me: "The Shia don't follow the pillars of Islam."
her: "I believe they do."

What can you say to that? I really was hoping for someone who could give me a rebuttal, rather than "I'll go look up this moon god thing for crying out loud."

By the way, Mary is deathly afraid of all Muslims:

"I have a very definite problem with mosques being built in the U.S." - Mosques that she said were all funded by Saudi Arabia.

"Why are they [the Saudis?] building all of these mosques over here?" Probably for the same reason my wife attended a Central funded/sponsored trip to Guatemala to build churches - "I don't think those are the same at all." Of course she doesn't.

"Something's going on in these mosques that disturbs me, something they don't want us to know about." When asked about examples, she said "I don't know, it's just a feeling. Like in WWII there were things going on, and nobody wanted to know what was going on."

"These people are not dedicating themselves in any way to our country."

"Nobody in their community is willing to stand up and say, 'what these people are doing is wrong'. Not after 9/11..." (bad scribble in my notes, sorry.)

"They want special treatment in schools"

"Do you want them building footbaths in airports?" I don't really know why I would care. Does it bother you that Jewish people ask for Kosher meals on flights? "[pause] I dunno".

I don't know what to say....