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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

GOP distrust of Muslims reaches boiling point

Posted on Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 10:30 AM

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In America it seems there's no problem, no matter how complex or intractable, that can't be solved by a braying lynch mob. It's as familiar as apple pie, if not quite as reassuring.

Take the controversy over the proposed Islamic cultural center at Ground Zero. Critics of the plan have been saber rattling for weeks now: 'Building a 15-story mosque at Ground Zero is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah,' wrote Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America.

Burlingame believes that the real plan is for triumphalist Muslims to rub our noses in it. How she knows this she omits to say. It's safe to assume she hasn't noticed how provocative her own words are. In fact Burlingame believes we're witnessing a clash of civilizations.

'What just happened is like spraying swastikas all over a Jewish memorial,' said Andy Sullivan, a construction worker at Ground Zero during 9/11. Well no in fact it isn't, Andy, and it's quite important to point that out.

First of all, it isn't a mosque, it's an Islamic cultural center which, although it would include a mosque for prayer, would be 15 stories tall with a swimming pool, an auditorium and other amenities that make it more like a YMCA than an militant Madrasah.

Sullivan has fallen for the same knee-jerk depiction of Islam as a single monolithic form of faith, inherently violent and extreme, and of all Muslims as incapable of being moderate. At times it seems the objections to this center are largely driven by the same nativist sentiments we hear about in the Tea Party.

According to Politico Republicans have shifted completely away from the Bush administration line on relations with Islam and they've obviously made the political calculation that bashing Islam and Muslims is a winning issue for them. Blame the Tea Party, it has done a sterling job of releasing the inner bigot in people.

'George Bush made every attempt to reach out,' said Congressman Peter King, a leading critic of the mosque project. 'The Muslim community did not reciprocate, did not respond.'

So how, amidst all this rage, will religious tolerance make an appeal? Mob rule, however well intentioned or passionate, shouldn't trump the American constitution or the bill of rights - simply because we're dealing with an unfavored minority. Either we are who we say we are or we are not. Difficult choices like this give us the chance to really be who we say we are.

This proposed Islamic center is planned as a center for moderate voices. We should be strongly encouraging them to speak up, not sending them packing to triumphalist applause. In New York, in any case, these people are our friends and neighbors, they are not shadowy militant cells who no one knows and who know no one, plotting our or anyone's demise.

Despite what some critics are hatefully claiming, this Islamic center wasn't planned as an insult to the memory of 9/11; the people who run it are not the Taliban. It will be located over two city blocks from the 9/11 site. There already is a major and historical Christian church located within blocks of the ground zero and no one is calling for its dismantling, as yet.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had it right when he praised the president, calling the comments a clarion defense of the freedom of religion. 'This proposed mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan is as important a test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime,' Bloomberg said in a statement.

Al Qaeda, not Islam, attacked New York on 9/11. In fact al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion. But this is the kind of complicating detail that lynch mobs hate, which is why it bears repeating.

'This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable,' said President Barack Obama on Friday. 'The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.'

That commitment must be absolute, or it's meaningless. Like George W Bush before him, the president has taken a measured and clear thinking line on Islam as a religion of peace. Bush was not pilloried for it by the pundits, neither should Obama be.

UPDATE: As Josh Marshall noted today in Talking Points Memo: 'We're in a midst of a spasm of nativist panic and raw and raucous appeals to race and religious hatred. What effects this will have on the November election strikes me as not particularly relevant. What's important is compiling some record of what's afoot, some catalog for understanding in the future who was responsible and who was so willing to disgrace their country and their principles for cheap advantage.'

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107 comments

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hollabackgurl | Sep 07, 2010, 04:34 PM EDT

Making blatant threats of violence against the President is against the law, Maloney.

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maloney | Sep 03, 2010, 09:07 PM EDT

As big a threat as the muslims are, they aren't anywhere near as bad as obummer, slew foot pelosi, reid, frank & so on. I hope I'm wrong but I think soon it will be time to stop talking. Clean your firearms & make sure your powder is dry. Duherty, just a little bias, just, maybe

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domuscanus | Sep 03, 2010, 01:21 PM EDT

Doherty, stop banging the drum for the Dems. They wasted one opportunity after another by being just a tad too slick and cute for their own survival in a leadership role. Yes they could-but now they can't. Fact of life, read the numbers. As for "Blame the Tea Party, it has done a sterling job of releasing the inner bigot in people". that's a rather lazy way of dismissing those who disagree with your own peculiar take on the cultural vandalism planned for an area in New York that suffered at the hands of mass murderers. When a convent was established near Auschwitz by Catholic nuns whose intention was to pray for the lost souls of Hitlers madness, they were ordered by Rome to dismantle it as it was considered extremely insensitive. Those Muslims who plan to build a mosque close to sacred ground can do no less. Abandon this idea, and who knows what the future may hold for them, perhaps they will be seen more sympathetically for such an act of humanity toward their fellow human beings. In the meantime, put the drum away.

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OHofmanndawg | Sep 03, 2010, 09:50 AM EDT

Wow, this article certainly sounds slanted in favor of our Marxist President Obama. I'm going to scroll up now and discover who wrote it. Well, what do you know? Cahir O'Doherty wrote it. You know, he's the guy who carries the water for Obama!

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Monsoonman | Aug 31, 2010, 10:51 AM EDT

The house shills getting you to check or bet,,,,lol!

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IrishAndProud | Aug 30, 2010, 11:47 PM EDT

None of us knows Dennis Miller's ancestry, regarding the Civil War. Chances are though, that he did have ancestry in it. My own great-great grandfather fought under Grant at the seige of Vicksburg Mississippi, and later under William T. Sherman, and was with him on the march to Atlanta. I doubt Sherman (or any number of other historic figures) would have been quite so coddling of a 13-story Confederate Center just three blocks from the Gettysburg area.

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hollabackgurl | Aug 30, 2010, 01:06 PM EDT

You're mistaken to confuse the view of the GOP with the view of the majority of Americans. I don't support religious or ethnic discrimination, nor do I think that the Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan will be a haven for terrorists. You guys need to get a grip and move on, seriously.

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hollabackgurl | Aug 28, 2010, 02:42 PM EDT

O'Doherty what have you against the American majority? It looks like you follow the far left minorities hate America view! The Muslims are just trying to stick their finger in America’s eye. My son has spent three tours in Iraq, and Afghanistan, as a USMC officer and I take it personally when someone tries to kill my son!!!

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patrick1945 | Aug 25, 2010, 01:23 PM EDT

Boy you sure got it bad against Republicans. Have you notice Mr. O'Doherty that your viewpoint is always opposite to that of the American people. Any Muslim bashing as you call it, was the result of promoting this Mosque at Ground Zero. It's not a question of right to build if they actually own the property, it's a question of should they build it there. No matter what kind of spin you put on this Mosque, it will always be a shrine to terrorism in the minds of Americans.

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seanomelbourne | Aug 23, 2010, 11:21 PM EDT

My great grandfather fought under Grant,I doubt if Miller donned the uniform of the U.S. Miller should thank Ulysses for the freedom he enjoys to vilify that which he disagrees with.

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Monsoonman | Aug 22, 2010, 11:03 PM EDT

He has that same scruffy beard and disheveled look of Ulysses S. Grant. But instead of engineering battles, Miller engineers brilliant social commentary, without drawing a drop of blood.

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seanomelbourne | Aug 22, 2010, 09:15 PM EDT

Dennis Miller a maudlin type. He reminds me of sadsack.

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DennisQ | Aug 22, 2010, 05:46 PM EDT

Just a footnote to the person who claimed that Iraqis are not Arabs. You are confusing them with Iranians. Both Iraqis and Iranians are Muslims, but only Iraqis are Arabs.

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DennisQ | Aug 22, 2010, 05:35 PM EDT

If we're going to encourage other societies to cast out the murderers in their midst, we could start with our own. The siege of Fallujah was a murderous rampage by U.S. Marines who were frustrated because they were losing, and they knew it. These are not the only Marines who've gone on murderous rampages out of frustration - the Haditha Marines come to mind as well. These thugs have come home to tumultuous welcomes as heroes.

The most notorious American murderer was Lt. Ilario Pantano, who directed his subordinates to look away while he shot and killed two unarmed Iraqi prisoners. Pantano retained an expensive attorney that his mother's Wall Street friends paid for. He beat the rap and is now a Marine Corps celebrity. He's running for Congress in the district outside Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Lt. Pantano will be a guest speaker at a rally to oppose the Islamic Center on Park Place. He belongs in prison as the murderer he is, but he will no doubt receive a honorarium for addressing a right wing crowd. They are calling him a war hero.

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Monsoonman | Aug 21, 2010, 06:02 PM EDT

Dennis Miller had it right the other night: Until the "peaceful muslims" militantly and proactively rise up and cast out the jihadists who hide in their midst to commit murder in the name of their religion...they have NO credibility.

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