THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: 'This is not above your pay grade,' ex-Alaska governor tweets
WASHINGTON - Republicans pounced Sunday on U.S. President Barack Obama's comments supporting the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero, painting him as out of touch less than three months before key mid-term elections.
Democrats and Republicans squared off on whether it was appropriate for Obama to wade into the fray over the Islamic centre, which would include a mosque and would be built two city blocks away from the site of the former World Trade Center.
At a Friday Iftar dinner at the White House to mark Ramadan, Obama said Muslims "have the same right to practise their religion as anyone else in this country," including by building a mosque in lower Manhattan.
But the next day Obama appeared to dial back from his support, clarifying that he was commenting on rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and not on "the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there," a location he acknowledged as "hallowed ground."
Conservatives swiftly seized on Obama's comments, which came after the White House had for weeks declined comment on the controversy and deemed it local issue, and several prominent Republicans hammered home the message on Sunday political talk shows.
"This is not about freedom of religion, because we all respect the right of anyone to worship according to the dictates of their conscience," U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on Fox News Sunday. "But I do think it's unwise ... to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of a terrorist attack. And I think to me it demonstrates that Washington, the White House, the administration, the president himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America." >>> Michael Mathes, Agence France-Presse | Sunday, August 15, 2010
