POLITICO: The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama's defense of a mosque near ground zero marks a dramatic shift in the party's posture toward Islam — from a once active courtship of Muslim voters to a very public tolerance after Sept. 11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust.
Republican leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11 rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence — always controversial inside the party — that Islam is a religion of peace. This weekend, former Bush aides were among the very few Republicans siding with Obama, as many of the party's leaders have moved toward more vocal denunciations of Islam's role in violence abroad and suspicion of its place at home.
The shift plays to a hostility toward Islam among many Republican voters, and it fits with traditional Republican attacks on Democratic weakness on security policy.
"Bush went against the grain of his own constituency," said Allen Roth, a political aide to conservative billionaire Ron Lauder and, independently, a key organizer of the fight against the mosque. "This is part of an underlying set of security issues that could play a significant role in the elections this November."
Obama's remarks provide a clear, national focus for the simmering question of Islam in American life, and Republicans showed every sign Saturday of beginning to capitalize on it, with Republican candidates in New York and Florida seeking to inject the issue into local races as Democrats largely held their silence.
That stance in the GOP — both in terms of political strategy and policy views — appears to be carrying the day. Most of the potential Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Sarah Palin, came out sharply against the mosque.
And while most of its opponents note that they aren't opposing Islam, just this project, Republican attempts to build bridges with Muslims are few and far between — although some say that's because early post-Sept. 11 efforts were met with deep resistance. Republicans have stopped winning the Muslim votes they once split with Democrats, and largely stopped seeking them.
The spectrum ranges from silence on the issue to politicians and groups, like Keep America Safe, led by Liz Cheney and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, gearing up to engage the battle over the mosque and the basket of other issues involving the Obama administration's relationship with Muslims at home and abroad.
"The president supports a mosque at ground zero led by a man who blamed America for 9/11, his top intelligence official preaches the true meaning of jihad, and his attorney general can't even say the words 'radical Islam,'" said Michael Goldfarb, an adviser to Keep America Safe. "You start to worry they don't understand who the enemy is, and so Republicans might understandably feel like they have to spell it out for them." Continue reading and comment >>> Ben Smith & Maggie Haberman | Sunday, August 15, 2010
It is heartening to read that Republicans are now starting to take a harsher line on Islam. So they should. Islam has been given a pass for far too long. It's high time that Westerners woke up.
The fact is that this should not be a left v. right issue. The harsh reality is this: Islam is not compatible with democracy. The separation of church and state, mosque and state in the case of Islam, is the sine qua non of a democracy. Without that separation, no democracy can function. Islam categorically does not recognise such a separation. In Islam, religion and politics are ONE, and utterly inseparable.
If we in the West wish for our civilisation to survive, then we shall have to take a harsher stance on Islam, for Islam has snuffed out all the cultures of the countries it has been allowed to enter.
As for this cultural center / mosque so close to Ground Zero... It is an outrage to build such an edifice so close to where all those poor people perished.
Faisal Rauf, the imam behind this project, says he wants to build bridges between the faiths. He'll never build bridges this way; on the contrary, building this cultural center / mosque in that location will only fan the flames of Islamophobia in America. It will have the opposite effect.
Muslims should show some sensitivity towards the people that suffered directly as a result of 9/11. The fact that they can build this center doesn't mean that they should. They should back off. That way they will gain in acceptance. The fact is that by far the majority of New Yorkers do not want this center to be built. Muslims should respect their wishes. To build this structure is nothing short of an act of provocation. – © Mark
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