GOP's anti-Muslim moment harms America
By: Cahir O'Doherty | Published Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 1:05 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:47 PM
Politically, the
GOP's stance against American Muslims' right to build a new Islamic center in lower
Manhattan marks a defining moment in the nativist resurgence gripping America.
Today, unfortunately, our most experienced conservative leaders are falling over themselves to reinforce
Al Qaeda's toxic message that we're at war with Muslims, that America does not honor Islam.
By standing up for old fashioned American decency
President Obama, they say, made a terrific, far reaching political mistake that will cost him dearly in November.
Really? This is Barack Obama we're talking about, one of the most cool headed political players America has produced in fifty years. I can't stress how much that's worth remembering.
It's been fascinating to watch how Obama's presidency continually strips his conservative opponents of their best political instincts, because they've walked into every trap they set for him. Again and again.
The reason is clear: Obama inspires in his foes an implacable opposition of a kind that we simply have not seen before. It's something new. Bolstered by overconfidence, his opponents consistently overplay their hands.
Being certain that you're correct is quite fatal in politics. It leaves no room for maneuver. It shuts down. But still they keep coming with their ultimatum dumbshows. Take Former
Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example. This week he claimed the new Islamic center project 'would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.'
To suggest, as Gingrich does, that someone trying to build a tolerance center for moderate Muslims in
New York is the equivalent of killing six million Jews is insufferable nonsense, obviously.
But that's not what fascinates me. The truly interesting thing is that a political figure of Gingrich's experience is now uttering such credulous nonsense without a sharp and immediate reprimand from his own party.
If you want to find the the GOP leadership these days just look for all the red faces. Behind the scenes, it must be hoped, the calmer heads are working hard to cool the rhetoric. Because at risk, no less, is the Muslim point of view both at home and abroad.
After two of the longest wars in American history, it's unspeakable that so many conservative politicians could be this blinkered, this narrowly partisan and this tone deaf to foreign policy in the
Middle East.
The Tea Party rhetoric - and its remarkable enthusiasm for cathartic purges of all kinds - has blinded the party to the real danger its been put in. In pursuit of the populist vote they've put the public in the drivers seat.
Let's review: after allowing the Tea Party to set their agenda, African Americans, the gays, the undocumented and the Muslims have been crossed off the GOP's mailing list for 2010 and 2012.
My how that big tent's contracted. Taken together, that's a pretty large cross section of the
United States standing out there in the cold. So who'll be left to vote for the GOP in 2012?
It's turns out that, after all, there is a great deal to be said for experience and nuanced governance. Popular wisdom says that Republican's will sweep to victory in November, but popular wisdom also appears to have stripped them of their longstanding political smarts.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.PhlutiePhan | Sep 07, 2010, 01:43 PM EDT
I would ask you to look at this picture very closely. Is the Prez giving everyone the finger? What about the way that his eyebrow is pushed up? There is a message here.
maloney | Sep 03, 2010, 08:43 PM EDT
Article after article the overwhelming majority of posts are patriotic, logical conclusions to the events going on around the world. So how do the haters of common since manage to not see what at least 80% of the rest of us do. Head ass itis I guess. Muslims themselves need to get off the fence. Oops I forgot they lie to achive thier goal of taking over the world. How many christians do you know that chance thier name from Barry Sotoro to barack hussein obama?
patrick1945 | Sep 03, 2010, 06:06 PM EDT
President Obama must wake up every morning and say to himself or openly what can I do to upset the American public to day. Let's see the people favor this and it might be the thing to do, so I'll be against it. I Know what is best even though I was elected to do the people's will based on my campaign promises. His apology world tour telling the world's he's sorry for the existence of The United States has really worked. RIGHT? The Republicans are hoping and wishing he sets many more traps before the November elections, which based on past performance he will.
OHofmanndawg | Sep 03, 2010, 09:43 AM EDT
Cahir O'Doherty, you need to pony with the truth that you're a share the wealth Marxist Democrat who voted for Obama. Quit pretending you're an objective writer. You're about as objective as Chris Matthews!
wristtwister | Sep 03, 2010, 08:17 AM EDT
The Muslims are playing "good cop, bad cop" with this. The mosque is nothing more than a battlefield monument to the ones caused 911. It's their "stick in the eye" to America.
hancock | Aug 25, 2010, 11:18 PM EDT
That Mosque site was chosen there for a reason and, it wasn't for convenience from Queens.
DennisQ | Aug 25, 2010, 08:54 PM EDT
The Muslims who are building the community center on Park Place had nothing to do with the attack on September 11th. Attempts to blame them for September 11th are based on collective guilt, as though all Muslims share the blame for what some Muslims did. Collectively blaming Muslims resembles the bigots' collective blame of Jews for the murder of Christ.
We don't believe in collective blame; it's wrong and it's bigoted. Do you think white people deserve blame for what Jeffrey Dahmer did? Or for that matter, what Hitler did? Of course you don't.
The site of a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan is geographically convenient to Muslim population centers throughout New York City, even the Bronx and Queens. The Muslims shouldn't have to relocate to accommodate the putative "sensitivities" of people who wrongly blame Muslims for September 11th.
patrick1945 | Aug 25, 2010, 01:03 PM EDT
Why do Muslims want a Mosque which will forever be referred to as "The Ground Zero Terrorist Memorial Mosque" or in like terms by the majority of Americans. A reminder of terrorism and anti-Muslim feelings this Mosque, if built at Ground Zero will be. Move it and gain respect for Muslims. Also 80% of the American people are not Republicans, I'm a registered Democrat myself.
longislander1940 | Aug 23, 2010, 11:02 PM EDT
WE AMERICANS DO NOT WANT A MOSQUE NEAR THE SITE OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER WHERE 3000 PEOPLE WERE MURDERED. THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER PLACES TO BUILD.WE ARE NOT AGAINST ALL MUSLIMS, ONLY THE ONES THAT MURDER FOR ALLAH.
DennisQ | Aug 22, 2010, 02:29 AM EDT
The war against Islam, which started well before September 11th, might have been the reason the government failed to communicate what they knew about bin Laden's intentions. We know from the 9-11 Commission hearings that the August 6th Presidential Daily Briefing informed the White House that al Qaeda was determined to strike in the United States. No one in the World Trade Center was aware of the danger they were in. If they had known what the government knew, they might have made career changes for their own safety.
Here's an ethical question. Does the government have an obligation to inform private citizens of danger, even if doing so complicates defense interests? I'd say it does. Hundreds of World Trade Center workers were well past retirement age. Many had homes in Florida and other locations where they might have chosen to be if they'd had even a faint inkling of an attack on the American homeland.
We now continue to be told less than the complete truth of what the government knows about terrorist attacks. People go to their jobs every day oblivious to threats that other Americans know about, but don't tell them. Is this ethical? Shouldn't government advise citizens when they're in danger?
jmchrystal | Aug 20, 2010, 05:17 PM EDT
Excellent insight. I it really amazing that with all of mankind's technological advancements, that so many brains of humans are still as unsophisticated as they were in the caveman era.
DennisQ | Aug 20, 2010, 02:22 AM EDT
We're at least ten years into a massive campaign to promote fear of Muslims. It started before September 11th, because Clinton imposed economic sanctions on Iraq and demonized Saddam Hussein. He also famously bombed what turned out to be an aspirin factory in Sudan.
It's hard to remember what the pre-9/11 Islamophobia was about, because the attacks made it unnecessary to promote fear of Muslims. For some reason, the extremists and zealots who hated us for our freedom haven't attacked us at home since then. Nobody can really explain why, but it is commonly believed that our military and police are doing an outstanding job keeping us safe.
It's not yet the end of August, but American combat troops have left Iraq . . . not exactly Mission Accomplished, but hey, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, didn't we? We sure taught him a lesson, didn't we?
Time to stoke the fires of Islamophobia! People are dutifully responding to survey after survey that they fear Muslims and wish they would go away. Just for the record . . . how many Muslims have we killed over the past, say, twenty years - several hundred thousand? But not to worry - that's not why they're mad at us. They hate us for our freedom.
IrishAndProud | Aug 20, 2010, 12:49 AM EDT
Add Howard Dean now, to the fast-growing list of Democrats who oppose sticking a mosque in that spot.
allentown | Aug 19, 2010, 10:37 PM EDT
Is it true that under Muslim law in Iran Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky would have been stoned to death?
IrishAndProud | Aug 19, 2010, 07:08 PM EDT
Riiiiiggght, Hollabackgurl -- and you of course (by inference and default) are NOT an 'ideologue or crank' (particularly since you represent the fringe-kook 26% pro-HaMosque crowd on this, according to none other than Time Magazine). Everyone who opposes you is just an opinionated 'idealogue,' whilst of course you yourself reflect the normal, average 'way things are.' Give me a break and come off it. How about try disputing a single thing I said, in that last post? I would love to see you try.
DennisQ | Aug 19, 2010, 04:02 PM EDT
We need a new 9/11 Commission. The last one was permitted to slide by with all sorts of inaccuracies and implausibilities because of "9/11 fatigue." But since the understandings of that commission are being used as the basis of new decisions, we need to re-evaluate the evidence.
We're told, for example, that the attackers were religious extremists who were prepared to die for their beliefs. Is there any support for that, other than the fact that the 19 hijackers were all Arabs? It's likely that 19 Arabs would all be Muslims, but the question is whether they were all extremists willing to commit suicide. The evidence thins out remarkably at this point. In fact, there are reports that these guys went to meet Allah with booze on their breath. There is no way that this happened.
I'm also suspicious of the timing of this story - it looks like a political manipulation at a time when the same people who got us into Iraq are looking to get us into a war with Iran. We're also learning that our combat troops have finally left Iraq. Is the Mosque story an intentional distraction from the failure of the Iraq war? That possibility cannot be discounted.
hollabackgurl | Aug 19, 2010, 03:42 PM EDT
IrishandProud you're an ideologue and crank and you're not worth debating; McNabb1966 I honestly respect how you feel on the issue (for the record, I'm not a fan of Islam or any overtly patriarchal religion) but how can you make the claim that you know what the motivation behind the site really is? Telling me I don't implies you do. Where did you come by that information?
McNabb1966 | Aug 19, 2010, 02:48 PM EDT
@hollabackgurl... First of all, I never said that Al Qaeda speaks for all Muslims. But I'm not going to ignore Al Qaeda's motives for committing mass murder, either. Secondly, Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan don't speak for all Muslims, either. So, again...let's not distort the issue here. The slaughter of Muslims by other Muslims is not a sufficient argument for why Cordoba House must be built at Ground Zero. The fact of the matter is that you don't know what the motivation really is but you can't explain why they have to build at that location. And while you're at it, explain to us exactly how Cordoba House facilitates "tolerance?" There are already two mosques in lower Manhattan and nobody is demanding that they be shut down.
IrishAndProud | Aug 19, 2010, 02:35 PM EDT
It's not a 'Muslim Tolerance Center,' hollabackgurl. It is an ISLAMIC VICTORY MOSQUE (or 'HaMosque,' as it's now being called, seeing as it has the backing of Hamas, the anti-Israel, antisemitic terrorist group), deliberately being put up near Ground Zero as a middle-finger-in-the-eye to the USA. If groups like HAMAS are openly backing this thing -- and its Imam fundraiser flatly ruling out not taking funds from Iran (whose leadership has openly threatened another Holocaust by wiping Israel off the map)...how can you call this anything other than what it is?
hollabackgurl | Aug 19, 2010, 02:28 PM EDT
The 9/11 attack was carried out by Al Qaeda, under the direct order of its leader Osama Bin Laden. Between his organization and the Taliban, more ordinary Muslims have been killed than by any other group. These people speak for all Muslims the way the man who shot abortion provider Geroge Tiller speaks for all Christians.
McNabb1966 | Aug 19, 2010, 02:27 PM EDT
More deep thinking from the Left: Per Russell Simmons on Larry King Live...."If you're blaming Muslims for the attack on 9/11, then you need to change your mind. We didn't- did we blame Christians at the first World Trade attack? We didn't." Hip hop hooray!
FastEddy | Aug 19, 2010, 01:57 PM EDT
The GOP are not the only ones ... How about the National Organization for Women (NOW). Anyone? ... anyone? ... is anyone there anymore?
McNabb1966 | Aug 19, 2010, 12:30 PM EDT
@hollabackgurl...That's very easy. This is a very unique situation involving the murder of nearly over 2,700 people at Ground Zero. The terrorist attack was, like it or not, carried out by Muslim extremists. That's a fact and it means that in this case it's fair to question the motives behind building an elaborate Muslim cultural center as close as possible to the site of those deaths. This is not about opposing Islam or preventing Muslims from practicing their religion. Opponents of Cordoba House feel that it is inappropriate to build it near the site of so much death and destruction. We don't believe that Cordoba House is intended to promote "tolerance."
chesapeake | Aug 19, 2010, 11:54 AM EDT
The writer is full of something besides common sense and knowledge of the American people.
hollabackgurl | Aug 19, 2010, 11:17 AM EDT
McNabb1966 needs to explain how insisting that a Muslim tolerance center not be built is not an anti-Muslim sentiment?
jamieLM | Aug 19, 2010, 09:47 AM EDT
Right on McNabb. If Americans mistrust Muslims and their motives, they have good cause. Who's busy building bombs to leave in parked cars? Who's going overseas for "training" and then coming back here. How about that incident at Ft. Hood? I haven't heard any loud condemnation from the peaceful Muslim community whenever there are attacks, or potential attacks, on Americans either here or abroad. Many of these radical Muslims live and flourish among the general Muslim communities in every state. If we're wary, cautious, or if we question motives, then left-wingers call us "racists" and "bigots" and blame the big-bad GOP. We were clueless at Pearl Harbor and then on 9-ll. Now the Muslims insist on rubbing salt in our wounds. The message is - WE DON'T CARE if you feel that this center/mosque is insensitive and disrespectful to the victims and their families. Sensitivity is not a 2-way street.
McNabb1966 | Aug 19, 2010, 07:08 AM EDT
The same wingnuts who are in agreement with O'Doherty on this issue are basically the same wingnuts who were calling Jewish people "Nazis" and knife-wielding Turkish thugs "peace activists" a couple of months ago. So, there is not a lot of deep thinking going on in the heads of apologists like olovely. The fact of the matter is that this issue is not "anti-Muslim" or "anti-Islam" or an "attack" on religious freedom or the Constitution. This is just another excuse for the Left to do the only thing they know how to do really well: accuse their opponents of "racism" or "bigotry." It's their default response to issues they can't handle intellectually. They're all drunk on the koolaid and not thinking clearly. Or maybe Cahir just likes the attention... lol Drink up, wingnuts!
IrishAndProud | Aug 19, 2010, 01:37 AM EDT
olovely, Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda is a Muslim organization, and Bin Laden himself is a Muslim...were you not aware of that?
olovely | Aug 18, 2010, 10:53 PM EDT
It's pathetic that so many posters here think all American Muslims are intending jihadists. Islam did not attack us, neither did the Muslim world - Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda did. The fact that you don't know that after ten years of war means that they succeeded far more than they could have dreamed of.
rcrdskpr@aol.com | Aug 18, 2010, 10:02 PM EDT
o'doherty suffers from cranial rectal inversion, as do so many liberal elitists. how about a statue in downtown dublin to william of orange? think it will fly?
jamieLM | Aug 18, 2010, 09:14 PM EDT
How pleased would Muslims be if a group of radical Christians blew up a mosque, killing a lot of Muslims and then a Christian church/center was to be built near the cite? They'd be screaming about how "insensitive" the Christians are! This issue isn't about legality, it's about "sensitivity" and "respect" for the victims and their families. This issue transcends party lines. Not every issue is defined by the "big, bad, GOP." Give it a rest.
jamthecat | Aug 18, 2010, 08:16 PM EDT
Finally some common sense on this site instead of the typical (and diseased) Islam-bashing that's become so prevalent from both commentators and commentors, alike. Thanks for that, Cahir.
IrishAndProud | Aug 18, 2010, 05:31 PM EDT
Typical arrogant elitist you are, JamesMurphy: 'polls mean nothing.' That's how guys like you brush off the American majority -- because of course, they're just stupid, ignorant, and to be utterly ignored (not to mention name-called and mocked) because they don't prostrate themselves before YOU and YOUR thinking. Of course, if the polls actually showed support for anything on the LIBERAL side of things (a mythical fantasy, nowadays), you'd be the first to trumpet them. And britfether...home-schoolers in the USA have consistently out-performed their public school counterparts, for many, many years now. Try again.
knockatee | Aug 18, 2010, 01:15 PM EDT
If it's not a political issue, then why did the people of Staten Island object so strenuously to the sale of a building to a Muslim group; it can't be that it was close to hallowed ground? As for Newt Gingrich, I became an American citizen after he introduced his Contract with America just so I could vote against what it stood for.
Nicomax | Aug 18, 2010, 01:03 PM EDT
Then all mosques close to Ground Zero should be closed down- Actually, some are trying to impede Muslims throughout America, not unlike the Japanese internment in 1942. Not sure how much the German Lutherans or Italian Catholics were pushed around back then, but as we know they looked more like the rest of us.
allentown | Aug 18, 2010, 12:45 PM EDT
Is it true that to destroy the infidels, the Quran directs Muslims to lie? Could this Imam be lying? This Republican believes he is.
feeneycj | Aug 18, 2010, 12:35 PM EDT
this is not a political issue. this is a grieving family issue. show some empathy Cahir instead of just mindlessly bashing for anti-GOP points.
shidoobe | Aug 18, 2010, 12:11 PM EDT
I am a a lifelong GOP voter and NOT Anti Muslim. I just object to this mosque being built where a friend of mine died. This is all political and it sucks! This has NOTHING to do with Democrats and Republicans, it has to do with respect or lack there of for the families that lost loved ones.
jdi2269 | Aug 18, 2010, 12:04 PM EDT
YO CAHIR....YOU ARE OUT OF TOUCH AND VERY IGNORANT !!!!~
PhlutiePhan | Aug 18, 2010, 11:18 AM EDT
I'd like to know "what planet you have been living on". As a Navy Veitnam-era veteran with Eastern European roots, I can tell you that the history of Muslim victories is rife with the building of a mosque to celebrate. My German ancestors intermarried with Muslims in Hungary after the Magyars were killed off. For that reason, I have a Muslim surname. You give President Obama way too much credit since you emphasize the "O" in Obama. He is very sympathetic to "Muslim interests" and even sent his wife and children to vacation in Moorish centers of Spain to "send a message".
mrkennedy | Aug 18, 2010, 10:41 AM EDT
I have a solution to the mosque problem. BUILD A SYNAGOGUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOSQUE!!!
DeaconJack | Aug 18, 2010, 10:19 AM EDT
Another idiot of the fourth estate taken in hook, line, and sinker, by the golden mouth of Osama Obama! Wake up man and watch what he does--NOT what he says!
manhattan | Aug 18, 2010, 10:18 AM EDT
Now that you wrote the ignorant statement that it is the big bad right wing are the only people against the Mosque being built at ground zero, read the column written by April Drew called " Ground Zero Irish Families." You have a nerve insulting all those opposed to the site. In fact the picture shown of Damien Meehan is a boy from my manhattan neighborhood. How many friends and relations did you lose that day?
britfether | Aug 18, 2010, 10:17 AM EDT
Look, the TPN is a nothing more than a big moise with no teeth. You hve to be ablr to red to vote and everyone knows that TPN members can't read; they all did "home schooling" int heir trailer parks. I joined their blog so I could find out something about them adn I couldn't take the Black, Latino, Gay and President bashing without writing something and within one hour I was notified by the blog that I would no longer be able to write anything on it. In other words I was censored by them!!!! Tha's real American and really backing up what they say about freedom of speech and the Consititution isn't it? They censor their blogs from any criticism and they allow idiots to fan the fires of radical and seditious talk so they can fire up a non-existent base that when they have rallies in DC can't find each other because there are so few of them. The only rubbish that nees to be taken out on the curb is the Republican party and the way they are licking the boots of the TPN so they don't look like the party of NO, the TPN does.
DLW12183 | Aug 18, 2010, 09:57 AM EDT
This is rubbish!
John G. Hogan | Aug 18, 2010, 09:51 AM EDT
C O'D........certifiably over'dosed on 0's kool-aid
JamesMurphy | Aug 18, 2010, 09:39 AM EDT
Right on, Cahir. The Party of No and their acolytes, the Tea Baggers, have short memories. Who was it that that gave us George W. Bush, unquestionably the most incompetent president in America's history? Who was it that gave us the army of empty suits in Congress who supported him? Who was it that got us into an illegal war in Iraq? Who was it that did away with regulation, allowing the economy to plunge into the abyss? We all know who? But, as I say, they have conveniently short memories. Polls mean absolutely nothing. It's votes that count. As, too, do the beliefs and behavior of caring, unselfish people. Wake up you right-wingers. Remember the past. Look to the future.
francisquinn | Aug 18, 2010, 09:11 AM EDT
If I was paying for this "liberal" giberish I would cancel it immediatgely.....but it actually motivates me to contribute time and money to the Tea Party cause and candidates who understand what Americans want.. When will these "liberals" realize that the polls are trying to tell BO what is really happening.
IrishAndProud | Aug 18, 2010, 04:02 AM EDT
Oh, and Cahir...I wouldn't be too quick to jump all over the GOP and/or Tea Party movement for 'excluding' blacks from their tent (which you have ZERO evidence for)...seems to me there are more blacks involved in the Tea Party than there are whites in the NAACP...and secondly you've just applauded black people's votes being NULLIFIED by a single, unelected man in judge's robes, over Prop 8 in California -- which over 70% of black voters supported. Cry your crocodile tears over ethnic minorities elsewhere, Cahil -- because they're bogus.
IrishAndProud | Aug 18, 2010, 02:25 AM EDT
...which came AFTER they created a Ground Zero in Manhattan, in 2001.
olovely | Aug 18, 2010, 12:32 AM EDT
In fairness we've been building ground zero's around mosques since 2003.
IrishAndProud | Aug 17, 2010, 11:03 PM EDT
BTW Cahir...why should a bunch of illegal aliens (whom you daintily call 'the undocumented') be on ANYONE's list? They're not citizens! We know the liberals want their votes, hence the push for amnesty and the goodies that would follow (that's why they're now called 'undocumented Democrats.') And further, how can a tent be shrinking when it's swelled to capacity and beyond with the American majority -- who plan to vote GOP, even if (like me) they're not registered Repubs, themselves? (Gallup has just found the GOP is now leading the Dems by the largest spread in the history of the generic ballot: 50%-43%...and that swells to 12 POINTS when only LIKELY voters are asked). Sorry, Cahir...but it's YOUR little tent that is too small, because it excludes the vast and varied American majority -- and you're not even an American, yourself! So please, take your little, suffocating box passing for a tent, and go...back...home. You're just a mouthy little kid, who wandered into the yard from down the block and is mocking us on our own land. Kids like that need to be escorted off the property.
IrishAndProud | Aug 17, 2010, 10:37 PM EDT
Did you even read my post, olovely? I disputed his claims, plenty -- including his overall diatribe about this being the big, bad Republicans when clearly it's a majority of the country opposed to this -- including I might add liberal Democrat Gov. Paterson in NY who agrees with me about this mosque and who's working behind the scenes to get it moved -- and it looks like that's about to happen. Slan, mosque!
olovely | Aug 17, 2010, 10:21 PM EDT
None of you are disputing his claims, not one of them: you're opting for character assassination instead. That makes it plain that you can't refute a single point he's made. No wonder.
Monsoonman | Aug 17, 2010, 09:33 PM EDT
Another nonsensical lefty post that doesn't earn a bouton from me.....Is this the best you can do Irish Central?
pat1505 | Aug 17, 2010, 08:26 PM EDT
As many Democrats oppose this as Republicans. Cahir how about some objectivity here, you're nothing more than a herald trumpet for the left. Cahir lets put a British War Memorial at Bloody Sunday or how about a Buddhist Temple at the USS Arizona memorial just because somebody has a right that doesn't mean what they do with that right is right. Cahir you seem to be a champion of tolerance so explain to me the about the tolerance of the 19 hijackers or that Islam has a death penalty for adulterers and Gays, you are a tolerant hypocrite and in case you're wondering I'm a registered Democrat.
IrishAndProud | Aug 17, 2010, 05:45 PM EDT
Alright, let's try this again (the second time, for this post -- if you don't like the dissent you get, Cahir, then don't post the article in the first place): "GOP, GOP, GOP...blah, blah, blah. You are obsessed with the GOP, Cahir. It's rather obvious to even the casual observer that this whole 'mosque' thing (and the overall political landscape nowadays) is really, REALLY bugging you -- I would imagine because you feel powerless to stop it and you're angry about that. You just cannot grasp that the USA is no longer embracing Obama or the Demo-rats, and you're flatly bitter. I thought you were supposed to be all happy, with the Dems in charge of the White House and both Houses of Congress, and the Repubs lacking the numbers (especially in the House) to stop anything. So...why are you blaming them for Obama's ongoing, self-inflicted, and rather dramatic fall from grace? Either you're A) saying the American people (who you're not even a part of) are stupid, and therefore gullible to the GOP's drivel (and that includes most elected Democrats, who are running from Obama on this thing faster than the runs through a colon), or B) you're saying the American people are already a bunch of collective bigots and the GOP is merely pandering to them. Which is it, Cahir? You cannot pretend this is all just the bogeymen Republicans, by themselves with no public connection. You cannot leave the American public out of this picture, because public sentiments are what shape politics -- and look where those sentiments are, nowadays (hint: not in YOUR corner). So again, Cahir...which is it?"