KKK USES PRAYER FLAP AS RECRUITING TOOL - http://us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=6106_12747689_2891494_1791_13961_0_107406_43311_1432540415&Idx=4&YY=55749&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=50&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox#AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - TOP
Mark Hebert, 5/30/06
http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/WHAS11_TOP_KKKSchoolPrayerFlap.3a370d37.html - http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/WHAS11_TOP_KKKSchoo lPrayerFlap.3a370d37.html

The Ku Klux Klan is using the graduation prayer controversy at Shelby County High School as an attempt to recruit new members.

A single Klansman from Louisville showed up with a sign at the high school Tuesday. About two dozen Shelby County High School seniors chanted in front of the courthouse their message to the Ku Klux Klan.

"A lot of people support being Christian but personally I don't think we agree with anything the KKK has to stand for," said Nadine Delarosa.

The Klan's visible turnout in Shelby County Tuesday -- one Michael Hibbs of Louisville, who showed up in front of Shelby County High School, protesting the school board's decision to honor one student's request to ban organized prayer from the graduation ceremony.

"Diversity is the god of Satan. That's what he worships. Anybody is welcome in his church. All false religions and homosexuals," said Hibbs. "I'm here to protest. This is a Christian nation. It was founded upon Christian principles. These people from these other countries come over here with their fake religions, their strapping bomb to theirself religions, they come here wanting freedom, they get to this country and what do they do? They wanna tell you and me how to live, people who've lived here our whole life for generations back."

One woman stopped to ask Hibbs how he could hate and call himself a Christian. Another applauded him.

Hibbs left as soon as our camera did, but stopped to put KKK fliers on windshields in Shelbyville:

The Muslim student who successfully challenged the idea of a graduation prayer was pleased to see a group of classmates fighting back.

"We all have different opinions on the graduation prayer issues but we're here united to say we believe in unity and we believe in tolerance and we're going to unify whether the KKK wants us to or not," said Arshiya Saiyed. (MORE)

Angela wrote:

I know.... My mom lives in Kentucky and the KKK is still pretty active there. Scary, ain't it?

Although the KKK is not entirely a "thing of the past", it is rapidly declining.  So there is a spark of hope that people are losing their racist/bigoted opinions.

"Although often still discussed in contemporary American politics as representing the quintessential "fringe" end of the far right spectrum, today the group only exists in the form of a number of very isolated, scattered "supporters" that probably do not number more than a few thousand. In a 2002 report on "Extremism in America", the Jewish Anti-Defamation League wrote "Today, there is no such thing as the Ku Klux Klan. Fragmentation, decentralization and decline have continued unabated." However they also noted that the group's supporters' "need for justification runs deep in the disaffected and is unlikely to disappear, regardless of how low the Klan's fortunes eventually sink."

As of 2003, there were an estimated 5,500 to 6,000 dedicated Klan members, divided among 158 chapters of a variety of splinter organizations, about two-thirds of which were in former Confederate states. The other third are primarily in the Midwest region."