The Public Turns Out to Support an Orange City Councilman

Jon Dumitru


As previously reported, City of Orange (CA) City Councilman Jon Dumitru has aroused the ire of CAIR in Southern California for posting a statement on his facebook page that linked Islamic teaching and the Koran to 9-11. This was posted on the 10th anniversary of 9-11. Tonight, I and about 20 or so people turned out to support Dumitru.

I didn't count the number of persons who rose to speak for 3 minutes on (any issue). Only one person spoke on an unrelated issue. I would say at least 15 spoke in defense of Dumitru. No one spoke against him. There were no CAIR represntatives present. (We thought they were going to attend and bring out protestors, but they didn't show.)

The comments covered a wide range of points relating to 9-11, terrorism, Islam and other aspects of the issue. Karen Lugo, a constitutional attorney and professor at Chapman University-just down the street- cancelled her planned comments and instead related the points of an article written by Dr Zuhdi Jasser, a true Muslim moderate and patriot. I will cross-post that article in a separate posting.

In my comments, I made two points:

1 Demitru's comments, in my view, were not a condemnation of Muslims as a people.

2 The crux of the controversy is that he had linked 9-11 to Islamic teachings. Whether one agrees or disagrees with that point, it is a question that all Americans are discussing among themselves. Americans since 9-11 have every right to ask themselves this question and make a decision. Groups like CAIR want to silence that discussion. Not in America. We have a First Amendment right to speak on this and other issues, and we will do so.

A lot of speakers made reference to CAIR and their agenda. I was hoping that LA director Hussam Ayloush would come and speak his piece. As in the similar incident in San Juan Capistrano last week, he showed that he is good at writing letters and making complaints and demands, but he can't engage with his critics. That's the way bullies operate. Make no  mistake, CAIR is a bully organization. Had Ayloush showed up tonight, he would have met a lot of people who know how to stand up to bullies.

Afterward, Dumitru thanked his supporters and talked about his life in the past two weeks. He stated that he had even received physical threats via e-mail. To applause, he reiterated that he will not apologize for anything.