INTERVIEW: Oklahoma Rep Responds To Mosque-Confederate Statue Firestorm
Kari Donovan
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IF CONFEDERATE STATUES TRIGGER LEFTISTS, DO MOSQUES TRIGGER VETERANS?
The Confederate Statue controversy has opened the door to some interesting new discussions about what is fair and equal justice under the law for all Americans. Do all Americans have the right to preserve their heritage and rights, or is that only for a select few in special groups?
Recently Marine and Oklahoma Representative, John Bennett chimed in on the debate about whether Confederate Statues should remain standing ,by offering his unique point of view as a Veteran who served in Afghanistan.
Yet, the Media that covered his Facebook comments got his point of view wrong. Again.
John Bennett, Facebook
In this article Representative Bennett’s words were clearly quoted and posted , yet the writer of the article decided to add a slant to his written statement with an inflammatory Title.
However, this is no surprise to Rep. Bennett, who sits on the Committee for Veterans and Military Affairs for the State of Oklahoma. He has been embattled for a long time over his concerns of American’s eroding rights and the rise of Sharia Law in America. He is used to the fight with Media.
As an American Veteran who has served in Muslim countries, one would think he would be considered an expert, and not the enemy to be dismantled.
In an interview with Big League Politics, Representative John Bennett was asked if there was anything he would like people to know about how his statement was presented in that article. “Yes” he said “I didn’t call for the removal of Mosques out of the blue. I said IF Confederate Monuments have to be removed, then Mosques should be removed as well”.
Asked why he feels the Media gets his statements wrong he said, “The Media don’t investigate. They don’t call to clarify anything or understand. The Media just goes right into calling me names and claiming I am a racist”.
Would the Media even report this if it were a Democrat Representative? Of course not.
Representative Bennett served as a Marine in Afghanistan and recalls that American Military have taken fire from Mosques, and there have even been specific Rules of Engagement on whether they can return fire from a Mosque. “It is very frustrating,” says Bennett, “to be told a Mosque is a Religious symbol and we have to use restraint when taking fire because it is a Religious ground, but our Cross is removed.”
It sounds as if Mosques are symbols of conquest. Asked if Mosques could serve as a Trigger for a Veteran with PTSD, Bennett agreed that it could possibly make a Veteran or a Family member of a Veteran very uncomfortable.
The Mosque as a Military Compound is something many Veterans see and understand. Representative Bennet has years of research and data , as well as personal contact with other national leaders on the topic who agree with him in his assessment on the dangers of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood and the appearance of Mosques in American Culture.
So why does the Media choose to misrepresent his statements and also marginalize him from National discussions?
Bennett doesn’t claim to have a perfect answer to that. “It could be because they don’t understand, or they don’t take the time to understand what I know, or it could be because they are scared”.
Whatever the reason, the Media doesn’t seem eager to include all Americans and our different experiences and points of view in the discussions of what to protect and what to dismantle.
Representative Bennett is not sorry for his statement and he will not retract it. In fact, he doubles down.
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