Press Release: Senator Tapio: Interfaith Day in Capitol Rotunda is Politically Motivated, Insulting to Military Veterans

Press Release: Senator Tapio: Interfaith Day in Capitol Rotunda is Politically Motivated, Insulting to Military Veterans

January 9, 2018

Contact: Neal Tapio 605-310-1955

Republican State Senator Neal Tapio of Watertown expressed concern today about the political motivations of “religious leaders” sponsoring the Interfaith Day at the Capital. A simple check of their social media accounts will verify these people violently oppose President Trump and his efforts to keep America safe

Tapio said real dialogue begins by recognizing the foundation of the “endless war on terror.” Terror is spread in nearly every Muslim country by those who believe in a hateful and deadly version of Islamic Law, called sharia law, that believes you should be killed for leaving Islam. Keeping our country safe from Islamic terrorism can only begin by asking how an open and pluralist society identifies and eliminates that thread of Islamic Law that preaches hatred and death.

“It was very clear last session that these same people pushing interfaith dialogue have contempt for those Americans concerned about an endless war on terror,” Tapio said. “Fourteen Islamic Countries, who have fully implemented Islamic Law, kill you for leaving Islam. Pew Research indicates that up to 350 million people, who consider themselves Muslim, believe you should be killed for leaving Islam. Patriotic Americans simply believe it is our responsibility to identify the real source of terror and to keep that hateful and deadly ideology out of the United States, out of South Dakota and out of our local communities.”

The interfaith dialogue people have labeled the tens of thousands of South Dakotans that voted for Donald Trump racists, haters, extremists and islamophobes. Tapio questioned if they intended to begin their interfaith dialogue by ostracizing and marginalizing those with whom they disagree?

The people behind the interfaith dialogue hide behind politically leftist hate groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, famous for labeling a group started by James Dobson, the founder of the Christian radio program “Focus on the Family,” a hate group. They have even gone so far as to label an Aberdeen group of concerned mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers a hate group simply because they are concerned about the increase in crime in their local community.

“Real dialogue begins with honesty and the complete search for truth. Hiding behind an interfaith group and then using terrorist style bullying tactics in the press is a slap in the face of every patriotic American service member that signed up to defend freedom for all those wishing to be completely free, regardless of your faith, and regardless of whether you are a Bhuddist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian or atheist. True American patriots fight for all those that wish to escape totalitarian and brutally hateful regimes that kill you for what you believe or don’t believe.

“Counting those killed on September 11th, 2001, more than 10,000 Americans have died and more than one million American soldiers have been wounded in the War on Terror,” Tapio said. “We have spent nearly $6.5 trillion on this endless war.”

“While cultural messages of inclusiveness are important, I think it’s far more important that we respect the sacrifice and tremendous grief of South Dakota’s military families and those who have suffered so deeply in this ongoing war against Islamic terror, both at home and abroad.” Tapio said. “I plan on using this moment to talk realistically about the complex issues still facing our nation in dealing with Islamic terrorism and the dangers presented by those that subscribe to a hateful and deadly ideology,” Tapio said.

“Islamic attacks on American soil and the massive increase in Islamic terror attacks in Western Europe are key evidence of what’s truly at stake in dealing with large, mobile populations of unvetted Muslims that are being relocated to peaceful western nations,” Tapio said. “Political correctness and careful talking points by career politicians are not going to solve these problems,” Tapio said.

The issue of Islamic terror and immigration policy has been at the center of the race for Congress in South Dakota, with GOP candidate and Secretary of State Shantel Krebs appearing publicly with Kansas Secretary of State, Chris Kobach at an event in December. As an advisor to President Donald Trump, Kobach is widely recognized as a leading critic of Obama era immigration and resettlement rules allowing free passage and mandatory placement of more than 100,000 Middle Eastern and Muslim refugees on American soil. Prior to the Kobach-Krebs event, State Senator Neal Tapio challenged Krebs to openly and fully explain Trump immigration policy rather than simply draping herself in a photo opportunity with a Trump advisor for political effect and media attention. Tapio says Krebs failed the test badly, resulting in a visibly awkward media moment between Kobach and a candidate clearly unwilling to talk openly about Islamic terror.

“I think it became very obvious to South Dakota voters that while Shantel Krebs understands the political value of appearing strong on Islamic terror and immigration policy, she lacks the moral courage and topical fluency to deal with those issues at a deep policy level with any substance or authority,” Tapio said. “At least her advisors had the instincts right to have her embrace Donald Trump by jumping on his bandwagon once he was elected, and offering support for his policies before she unwittingly called him ‘anti Muslim.’ Dusty Johnson actually failed to throw his limited weight behind President Trump’s policies at all.”

Candidates understand that mouthing the Trump message on certain issues is politically valuable in this Congressional race, but frankly, it’s insulting to the people of South Dakota and to intelligence in general to have such grave issues of national security turned into a dog and phony show to score political points.” Tapio said.

Political leaders must show the same courage and bravery displayed by our patriotic American veterans, and their loved ones, who selflessly offer their lives for all those wishing to be completely free.

It is our duty.

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46 thoughts on “Press Release: Senator Tapio: Interfaith Day in Capitol Rotunda is Politically Motivated, Insulting to Military Veterans”

  1. Sorry, Mussolini. No candidate whose surname ends in a vowel can win in South Dakota. Take your fascism, paranoia and manipulation to New York, where Italians are accepted as normal!!

    1. Has anyone ever seen anyone so angered by an endorsement. If I’m Krebs I think that I would get another Trump endorsement.

      1. Tapio clearly has thin skin.

      2. The 230,000 SD voters who voted for Trump (Krebs and Johnson incuded) don’t count as real Trump voters because only Neal Tapio is a real Trump supporter. He won that election on his own. No Republican Presidential candidate has won SD ever to Neal Tapio getting paid from August to November of 2016 – it was the best money any Republican candidate for president has ever spent to win sd. No way it could have been done without him.

      3. Trump won SD with 45,000 votes in the primary before Tapio was brave enough to put his name out there as a supporter. He was a bandwagon guy jumping on a general election Republican presidential campaign in SD.

      4. What did Krebs or Johnson ever do to you? You look really jealous of them for being good candidates.

      5. I’ve seen more hate come out of Tapio’s mouth than these church leaders in the last 3 days.

      6. Tapio will lose to Krebs and Johnson. Badly.

  2. Pope Francis:
    I do not believe it is right to identify Islam with violence. This is not right or true. I had a long conversation with the imam, the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar University, and I know how they think . . . They seek peace. I don’t like to speak of Islamic violence, because every day, when I browse the newspapers, I see violence, here in Italy. this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law. and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence . . . and no, not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent. It is like a fruit salad; there’s everything. There are violent persons of this religion. this is true: I believe that in pretty much every religion there is always a small group of fundamentalists. Fundamentalists. We have them. When fundamentalism comes to kill, it can kill with the language.

      1. My concern is not about a vast group of people, it is about a few, but growing, members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the Jihadis and the cultural Neo-Marxist leftists who are falsely stating “all” critics of the Muslim Brotherhood hate “all” Muslims. Take your own advice and stop believing them.

  3. “They have filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and conspirators and have sought to corrupt the opinion of our people”

    Woodrow Wilson, talking about us dang Germans, 1917.

    Will Wannbetrumpio introduce a bill to prohibit speaking German over the phone the way the SD legislature did in 1918? The same year the Hutchinison County draft board showed no hesitation inducting my German-speaking grandfather in to the Army?

  4. Neil, stop with the press releases already! If you want to create change in the world, pass legislation.

  5. I’ve hunted with Bishop Zellmer. I’d call him a good dude. Definitely wouldn’t recognize him the way Mr Tapio describes him.
    Also, I’m certainly not a historical fan of former senator Adelstein, but he’s a vet – how does he get tossed into the anti-vet label?

    1. “how does he get tossed into the anti-vet label?”

      In the same way that Christian leaders, including Catholics, are working to implement the anti-Christian Muslim Brotherhood’s Civilizational Jihad in Pierre today. Don’t be deceived too!

  6. At first, I wondered why you were giving him so much coverage, Pat. But know it’s obvious… give him enough rope and he’ll hang himself. So glad he’ll be gone from the political landscape after the next election.

    1. When officeholders/candidates are courteous enough to include me in their press list, I try to return the courtesy by allowing them to state their piece on an unfiltered basis – something they generally don’t get in the MSM.

      It’s valuable, because most of the time, the MSM cuts a LOT out, and I know I want to read it all.

  7. I couldn’t continue reading this after the 5th paragraph because I saw it going on too long without any substance. Someone let me know if the remaining 9 paragraphs said anything that wasn’t hysterical.

  8. Sibson, you tool. Cite one instance of the Middle Eastern Muslim Brotherhood using jihadist Sharia activity anywhere in the Midwest, documented by a credible mainstream media source. Two guys with stuff to make a bomb who talk about their ties to a faraway group isn’t close to an indictment of anything.
    ~ There are a thousand credible things of concern with actual validity but you seem to float daily in the “sewer of the extreme “!!

    1. I am putting the research out on my web site. The Sharia activity in Minnesota is being brought to South Dakota by the Muslim Brotherhood’s front group CAIR-MN’s so-called civil rights attorney. Taneeza Islam refused to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood and their support of Hamas when I asked her on November 28 in Vermillion. It is not my fault that the media refused to report that.

    2. Anonymous10:28 – You give us a list of credible sources and we’ll go from there. Why does the source have to be MSM? Would you consider SDWC or DFP credible? Or Facebook accounts? Or podcasts?

      Here are some reliable sources concerning Radical Islam, are we allowed to use them:
      Raheel Raza, Robert Spencer, Aynaz Anni Cyrus, Bill Mahr, Sam Harris.

      The criteria has already been set and set by you. No matter what is said by me, Sibby Online, Tapio and many others that have concerns, you will disagree.

  9. 1. What does Sen. Tapio know about what is or isn’t insulting to those of us who served the military of this great country. I don’t recall seeing him with us in the sands of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan. We as military veterans don’t hate Muslims anymore than we hate members of any religion who abuse the teachings of their faith to promote their personal agenda and inflict their hatred on our world. As we fought in those Muslim countries, we not only fought for the protection of American citizens, but also for the protection and wellbeing of the Muslim citizens of those countries. Quit trying to speak for the brave men and women who actually put on a uniform, only to promote your personal agenda.
    2. Please learn the difference between legal immigration and illegal immigration, try to understand the value legal immigration brings to SD and learn the roles of Federal Government and State Government with regard to immigration. Your ignorance on this issue speaks volumes of your lack of preparedness to serve at any level in state or federal Government.
    3. There are many serious issues facing our state and nation. This is a time for serious candidates to bring serious ideas to the table. So far you have demonstrated a total lack of such capability. Please step it up, or step away from the microphone and quit wasting our time..

  10. Tapio represents the sad, minority/fringe group within the GOP—the paranoid, the homophobic, the xenophobic, the misinformed and the ill-intentioned. Sadly, several lawmakers fall into this. Neil seems more interested in making waves to move his ideology than make friends and find consensus.

    I’d call him an attention whore, but that’s disparaging to prostitutes. I think Neil wants attention and thinks he has legions of followers and he is their Messiah. In reality, he needs to shut up because he—like Lora Hubbel—is leaving a black mark on the party that turns swing voters off, but also makes the faithful GOP wonder what the heck is going on and who elected someone of this ilk.

    1. You represent those who have bought off on the Muslim Brotherhood’s propaganda necessary for them to implement their Civilizational Jihad.

    2. Stace is watching a train wreck in slow motion and he can’t do anything to stop it but get out of the way.

  11. Sibson – The small group of Islamaphobics with your mindset on Mr. Power’s blog can never prove anything. (Especially Tapio) Why would Ms. Islam denounce anything brought forward by an extremist with no credentials? I’ve done my daily duty to expose you. Ike and EC will take it from here. You’re Welcome 😊

    1. My using the label “Islamophobics”, you have joined Taneeza Islam’s Jihad movement that is implementing the Sharia Law that Thou shall not allow criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood.

  12. I wonder if Watertown is ready to have an effective senator again like Lee Schoenbeck? This Tapio joker gives Watertown a bad name.

  13. K-M – Those people just speak opinions.
    These are excellent valid sources.
    ~Left- The Atlantic-Slate-The Guardian-Vox ~
    ~Center- NPR-BBC-WaPo-NYTimes-NBC-ABC-AP-Reuters-local newspapers in Conservative or Liberal cities-local tv news- USA Today- CNN
    <Right- The Economist-Wall Street Journal-The Fiscal Times-The Hill
    ~Only 25% credible – HuffPost and FoxNews

    1. Those are excellent, valid sources by your account. Some of “Those people” have first hand experiences with radical Islam, but you disregard them.

      NPR and BBC are govt owned news outlets, no bias there. That’s how Hitler was able to push his narrative, by controlling the media. CNN is far from Center. They sent questions to the DNC prior to being asked to Hilary during the election; Donna Brazile, I think. How many corrections has ABC been forced to make concerning the Trump/Russia collusion? Do you have a % for those? I wonder who owns the NYT? Has anyone looked their bias? Oh, that’s right, Project Veritas has several undercover videos on media bias. But those are edited right, not credible?

      How do you come up with calculations for deciding who’s credible? Is it the same way we saw the polls in favor of Hilary winning the election:) Today, one doesn’t have to attend a J school to be a journalist.

      Have you decide if SDWC or DFP are credible sources?

      1. I’ll be waiting for you to set criteria on how a source is deemed credible. And, how CNN’s considered Center.

        Hopefully you are doing your research on retractions that had to be made by ABC. I’d like to add that George Stephanopoulos and many, many other anchors at ABC, NBC, CBS donate to the DNC. Does that constitute bias? 95% of time these MSM outlets report negatively on our president. Is that considered bias and credible? I seem to think it does.

    1. Why you got to hate speech? Do we come to your site and do that to you? Surprising you are allowed in the sidebar advertising for your Podcast. Clearly, the trolls have been asked to unleash there incitements for violence. I’ve never seen “TheSiouxEmpirePodcast” comment before. This happens on Twitter, FB and many other forums. Doesn’t work so easily here.

  14. Does someone have names of the people he accused of advocating violence on social media so I can verify? He sounds like another bloviating hateful idiot by not providing facts to back up his claims.

    1. Fact check him yourself, LeeAnn. Why you want come here and spread your hate and advocate your violence? You do know you’re on a Republican blog, right? There was another comment made about finding out where Tapio goes to church, kind of frightening don’t you think? You think this blog is Communist Russia, where we tell on everyone for everything they have said. Go to DFP, I hear there into that Stalin thing.

      What prism are you looking through? Also, please make sure to separate opinions from facts, that’s very important to Leftists. You’re not credible if you express “opinions”.

  15. “The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.” George Washington, 1783

    “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789

    “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.” George Washington, letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792

    “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” Thomas Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, Jan. 1, 1802

    “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” Founding Father James Madison, 1803

    “Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.” Thomas Jefferson: in a speech to the Virginia Baptists, 1808

    “Nothing is more dreaded than the National Government meddling with Religion.” John Adams in a letter to Benjamin Rush, June 12, 1812

    “The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Government, and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both …” James Madison in a letter to Edward Everett, March 19, 1823

    “We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the Government or with political parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion suffer by all such interference.” President Rutherford B. Hayes, 1875

    “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” Reverend Billy Graham, Parade Magazine, 1981

    “We in the United States, above all, must remember that lesson, for we were founded as a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. And so we must remain. Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism. We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.” President Ronald Reagan, 1984

    “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know. I’ve tried to deal with them.” Barry Goldwater, former Republican Presidential candidate, 1994

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