Who wudda thunk it?

For those who don't live here in Minnesota, their view of the state is probably shaped by the movie "Fargo" as much as anything else. It's the Land of 10,000 (frozen) Lakes and 2,000,000 Johnson's, Anderson's and Peterson's.

Lately, though, it seems like Minnesota is Ground Zero in the Islamic/Western Civilization culture war. However, you wouldn't know it by reading the local paper - the StarTribune.

While the "Flying Imans" gained national attention on CNN, Fox News, and throughout the blogosphere, the Strib wrote three "straight" news stories about the removal of six imans from a United Airways flight last November:

6 men removed from flight, questioned (11/21/06), Uproar follows imams' detention (11/22/06), Imam incident rests on a raw nerve (11/23/06)

Then, the resident conservative columnist, Katherine Kersten, singlehandedly had do to the heavy lifting of providing additional facts:

Ordering imams off flight was a reasonable act (12/6/06), Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up (12/11/06), The real purpose behind the imam publicity blitz (12/14/06)

As far as I can tell by a look through the Strib's search engine these are all the articles that cover the nationally known incident.

Some other big international and national news stories lately have included: the controversy over cabbies refusing to transport passengers who are accompanied by seeing eye dogs or who are carrying liquor; Keith Ellison and his use of the Qur'an at his swearing in as the first Muslim representative to the U.S. Congress; and a gathering this week of 1,500 in support of the Shari'ah regime in Somalia.

These have been barely mentioned by the StarTribune or the local news broadcasts. It's as if this is just a part of normal life here in Minnesota...not even worth a mention as "news".

A while back, I was walking with a friend in Greenwich Village and I realized that there were definitely differences there between New Yorkers and Minnesotans. Finally, I asked my friend "Where are the burqas?"

You see, it is rare to walk down the street in Minneapolis and not see a woman in a burqa. In New York? Not so much.

I wonder if the Republican National Committee knew that when they committed to holding their national convention here in 2008?