Gene Lyons: Who Will Stand Up to the GOP's War on Islam?

[flpoljunkie]

Who will stand up to the GOP's war on Islam?
If we don't stop the hysteria soon, bin Laden will score one of his biggest propaganda victories yet

BY GENE LYONS


"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."

-- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia"

Maybe Republican savants who want to repeal the 14th Amendment should refudiate the First Amendment while they’re at it. That would simplify things enormously. No more of this foolishness about due process and equal protection of the law. A citizen would be anybody Sen. Lindsey Graham and Newt Gingrich deem worthy.

Wetback children and Muslims need not apply.

Religious rights could be left to Sarah Palin. The First Amendment clearly confuses and annoys many of her followers. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." "Respecting"? "Thereof"? It kinda sounds like some of that Washington elitist talk there we’ve been hearin'.

Palin could post a new amendment on Twitter: "Our God is red hot; your God ain’t doodley squat."

OK, enough jokes. Even granting that more people are nuts on the subject of religion than all other topics combined, this entire ginned-up controversy about the planned construction of an Islamic cultural center in the vicinity of ground zero in Lower Manhattan illustrates the Founding Fathers’ wisdom like no other. No establishing, no prohibiting, period.

Also, alas, it highlights the sheer cynicism of the GOP politicians pressing it as an election-year "wedge" issue.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/08/18/gop_islam_war/index.html

[ChipperbackDemocrat]

1. A Christian take on this war.

I fear Christian sharia law as much as I fear Islamic sharia law, and in some ways I fear this Christian version more.

[planetc]

2. I, for one. (Will stand up.)

I fired off a letter to the Times today on the subject, which they probably won't print. I drew a parallel between the Wahhabist sect of Islam and Christian racists, like the KKK. This isn't hard, folks: if they can't build a mosque at WTC, we have no freedom of religion in this country.

[BootinUp]

3. well written opinion. nt

[damntexdem]

4. No matter who stands up, no one will stop it.

The Repukes will keep it up. They only care about short-term political games, not at all about the consequences of their idiocy.

[krabigirl]

6. Especially sad for them since one of the consequences could be less voters for them.

So many Muslims would probably vote Republican because they are fiscally and socially conservative. I think many in my area had voted for Bush in 2000, but went for Kerry and then Obama after.

[Lord Magus]

8. Repugs so often let their bigotry override all else.

Muslims aren't exactly a huge voting block (they're half a percent of the population), but they'd be a natural constituency for the GOP if not for being non-Christian and mostly non-white. And many Hispanics are quite socially conservative, but they have dark skin so Republicans hate them anyway.

Another example of how racism is self-defeating.

[flpoljunkie]

9. R's are looking only at short term goals--the mid-terms in November. Anything to win back power.

[LatteLibertine]

5. I sent a letter

and an email to President Obama.

I requested he outline;

The community center is not a Mosque. It is not at ground zero.

Muslims died on 9/11 as well.

And finally that we will not accept equating all Muslims with Al-Qaeda, and they are not responsible for what that sect does.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. The Attorney General should have the right wing thugs prosecuted

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. If we don't stop the hysteria soon, bin Laden will score one of his biggest propaganda victories yet

thanks for posting, kick and recommend

If we don't stop the hysteria soon, bin Laden will score one of his biggest propaganda victories yet

By Gene Lyons

snip:

Regardless of how hard they try to disguise it, if only from themselves, those who would forbid the project express an essentially tribal view of Americanism specifically repudiated by the U.S. Constitution. "Is there any reason to oppose the mosque that isn't bigoted, or demagogic, or unconstitutional?" asks Michael Kinsley. "None that I've heard or read. "Make that two of us. Regardless of motive, it’s all about "prohibiting the free exercise" of somebody else’s religion. The End.

Actually, I’d go further. Are there any arguments against the project that don’t also violate the elementary distinction between "some vs. all" we were all supposed to learn in sixth grade? Nonillegal codemakeRemote('duboard.php?az=html_table')e that I’ve seen. Broadly speaking, the loftier the rhetoric the more craven the appeal to primitive concepts like the collective guilt of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims for 9/11, a deranged act of mass murder committed by a tiny heretical sect.

snip:

Walking the neighborhood, a New York Daily News reporter recently took note of the Pussycat Lounge, a strip joint two blocks from ground zero, and the Thunder Lingerie and Peep Show. Also Off Track Betting facilities, along with "17 pizza shops, 18 bank branches, 11 bars, 10 shoe stores and 17 separate salons" offering what’s euphemistically called "bikini waxing." Evidently, not everybody understood it was all sacred ground until Republicans decreed it.

Regardless, now that the issue’s joined, President Obama’s stuck with it. Insulting our Muslim allies and giving Osama bin Laden a huge propaganda victory by making the struggle against terrorism appear to be a war against Islam -- exactly as he claims -- would be a strategic disaster.


read the full article on salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/news/ground_zero_mosque/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/08/18/gop_islam_war&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110