Ground solar and Vermont League of Cities and Towns:

I have previously documented our horror of a VRBO/AirBNB NYC resident and employee neighbor who erected ground solar in our face.  Right out our kitchen sink and living room windows.  Positioned absent from her house, driveway and deck views.  Zero permits.  Zero notification of abutters.

More than 6 months into this disaster, I have discovered the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT).  This NGO (Non Government Organiztion) runs our towns.  

I am Conservative, but our Democrat state rep put forth H.943 which would have required local permitting of ground solar.  We had no notification of this horror that stole our peace.  This would have required local permitting, and notification of abutters.

The Energy Committee said no to moving this forward.  They took advice from the VLCT who claimed municipalities had no appetite for permitting [such disastrous structures].

So now after the trail of (1) a horrendous life-changing structure outside our home (2) learning the VT legislature approved such non-permitting in May 2025 (3) the primary participants in every meeting on this issue with the legislature were Solar companies (4) the Public Utilities Commission supports destroying our peace, and now (5) Towns seem to think the VLCT is the State, which it is not per my call to the Governor’s office 6/22/26.

The VLCT is a Non Government Organization.  They claim to be Non Partisan.  Non Profit.

I have calls right now in to the VT Attorney General, the VT US Attorney, the VLCT CEO, Ted Brady.

I think it very important every Vermont citizen understand this Vermont League of Cities and Towns rules our State.  I had never heard of them untill the failure of H.943 which would have helped protect rural Vermont tremendously.  My Town expressed they [the VLCT] were the directive of the State.  Not true!

Follow ups will be forthcoming, but needed to get the message out now.

-Abby Crosby, Jacksonville

To the Editor:

This hadith is one of several texts that help explain why coexistence between the Western world and certain Muslim‑majority societies can be so complex. Sahih Muslim is a major Sunni collection of “ahadith (plural) – sayings, actions, and approvals attributed to the Prophet Muhammad – and is regarded in Sunni Islam as one of the most authoritative and reliable compilations. It was compiled by the scholar Muslim ibn al‑Hajjaj, who lived from 815 to 875 CE.

Other passages are also hostile toward Christians, but especially Jews, and are deeply troubling as they are often ignored in discussions about religiously framed antisemitism and interfaith tensions. There seems to be a failure to reform and rid Islam of such hateful statements.

Sahih Muslim 2922 is arguably among the most frequently cited passages by non‑Muslim readers seeking to understand Islam and what they perceive as apparent tensions within a major religion often characterized as being founded on peace, compassion, and interfaith coexistence. Sahih Muslim 2922 is boldly and unabashedly referenced in Article 7 of the Hamas charter.

So‑called “progressive liberal” politics do not always appear to embody their professed openness of inquiry when this subject arises. Accusations of Islamophobia frequently serve to deflect or curtail sustained, good‑faith examination of the relevant Muslim sources. Even when documentation has been carefully researched and presented without evident malice, many left‑leaning individuals dismiss the resulting analyses, particularly when the data and interpretations originate from outlets perceived as conservative.

The question remains: can Islam, as a system of influence rooted in its preserved texts, consistently support moral teaching without internal contradiction? Too often, Western oppression is scapegoated when antisemitic violence erupts in a Muslim context. The victims are victimized, but the violent and contrary teachings of Islam persist in print, online, and education.

What may have begun as political conflict in seventh-century Arabia has, through the centuries, been transformed into theological uniformity. The Siege of Banu Qurayza near Medina, Saudi Arabia, in January 627 AD, according to authentic Islamic tradition, saw Muhammad’s armies attack the fortress of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe. The Jews were defeated, and Muhammad approved the beheading of between 600 and 900 men, while the women and children were taken as slaves. Chapter: 17 The Battle of Trench – Topic Based Verses Quran   

it appears that violence is not a betrayal of Islamic faith, but a fulfillment. Fourteen centuries later,  violence was again visited upon Israel on October 7th, 2023. The vast majority of those murdered (1339) were Israeli civilians. 695 noncombatants, men, women, and children, 373 security officers, and 71 foreign workers. There were also documented gang rapes, mutilations, and torture, such as the burning alive of entire families. And, of course, decapitations.

Islam lacks an explicit, widely recognized doctrinal framework for designating such verses as obsolete or strictly historical, thereby allowing elements of theological hostility to endure through the centuries beneath official or rhetorical denials. It is not permitted to reject Islamic revelation, and there is no doctrinal apparatus stating that a teaching is unjust. Genuine coexistence with Islam requires both Muslims and non‑Muslims to speak out against elements of the ancient yet still influential Quranic canon. Many peaceful Muslims are constrained by social and political pressures to remain silent, particularly in places like Gaza and Lebanon.

Here are a few examples of troubling ayet (verses):

 O believers! Take neither Jews nor Christians as guardians—they are guardians of each other.¹ Whoever does so will be counted as one of them. Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.  Quran 5:51

You will surely find the most bitter towards the believers to be the Jews and polytheists…. Quran 5:82

Do not initiate greetings with the Jews and Christians. When you meet any of them in the road, then make him take its narrowest path. Sahih Muslim 2167

Some among˺ the Jews said, “Allah is tight-fisted.”¹ May their fists be tied and they be condemned for what they said. Rather, He is open-handed, giving freely as He pleases. That which has been revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ from your Lord will only cause many of them to increase in wickedness and disbelief. We have stirred among them hostility and hatred until the Day of Judgment. Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah puts it out. And they strive to spread corruption in the land. And Allah does not like corruptors. Quran 5:64

These are not fringe or obscure ayet or verses. There are more. See also Quran 2:65, 5:82, 5:70. Such moral narratives have been universalized since the birth of Islam in the 7th Century. 

-Peter Fernandez, S. Burlington