Dorrie O'Brien
December 31, 2018 at 5:53 PM ·
TO ALL PRECINCT CHAIRS IN TARRANT COUNTY GOP:
A response to a post Chairman Darl Easton put in a post a couple of days ago to someone else: Darl said: “. . . I bet most Muslims had a presumed notion that the Republican Party had a no religious discrimination policy. Clearly they'll get the message from the attacks on Dr. Shafi that many in the Republican Party are extremely discriminating to those that are Muslim. Even I believed that the Republican Party had a no religious Discrimination Policy as stated in RPT Rule 3. False advertising for sure. [Well, Darl, you still don’t understand Rule 3.]
“If it does apply to Islam it should be made very clear that it does not cover all religions, or clearly state the Republican Party does not consider Islam to be a religion. It's an injustice to allow a Muslim to be in the Party for over eight years, then suddenly declare his religion is unsuitable to be in an appointed position in the Party. Totally unfair to have allowed him to volunteer his time and donate his money to the Party, just to discover that the Discrimination Prohibit policy does not apply. Clearly deception of the highest order.”
__________________________________________
So, Darl, what is your reasoning for denying Shahid the chairmanship of a standing committee? When I submitted a compromise to you through Bill Eastland, did you miss the fact that your and TCGOP and RPT’s gain was a Muslim in an actual leadership role, not just a figurehead role, that even you have called “a nothing position of no importance”?
YOU’VE complained to me over and over you don’t understand why I and my like-thinkers have made such an issue over his being vice chair; after all, you say, he has no authority, no decision-making capability:
“It's an injustice to allow a Muslim to be in the Party for over eight years, then suddenly declare his religion is unsuitable to be in an appointed position in the Party. Totally unfair to have allowed him to volunteer his time and donate his money to the Party, just to discover that the Discrimination Prohibit policy does not apply.”
Yeah, we haven’t complained about his time and volunteering, have we? Not that that particular line says what you think it says, but we haven’t been discriminating, have we?
Then, not being able to grasp the reality of “perception,” and clearly without the concept of future consequences, you turn down the chance to give him authority . . . because why? Maybe because you believed your own press about the reason we didn’t want him in the vice chair position: that we’re religious bigots. YOU all got together and wrote your narrative of what we’ve wanted and why we wanted it, remember. We didn't.
We’ve told YOU over and over and over what this issue is:
“We don’t think he’s suitable as a practicing Muslim to be vice chair because he’d be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable in the U.S., in Tarrant County, and in the TCGOP, and there are big questions surrounding exactly where Dr. Shafi’s loyalties lie, vis a vis Democrat and Republican policies.”
And since that is our (certainly my) position, and you gave him that unacceptable position, we (certainly I) had no qualms about promoting him away from it. We suggested you appoint him to one that would be acceptable and you turned it down. Maybe you don’t want him in a committee chairman’s job?
It does flatly amaze me you didn’t want him in a better position after all your complaining. It seems like pure dadblamed stubbornness to me, but whatever it is, it’s not in TCGOP’s best interests to refuse giving Dr. Shafi a promotion after all the media furor you’ve created over that very thing.
I've heard the arguments that we don't give up a thing with the compromise, so you can't agree to it. To say that's shortsighted falls short of what it really is. Can none of you see what you gain?
