As if we needed another example of how some in our country use racial politics to divide us. Along comes a right-wing nut named Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan Administration official, who is once again trying to use race, religion and the politics of fear to divide people. This is one of the primary reasons why the Republican Party is becoming increasingly isolated from the realities of what real Americans are feeling all over this country. Think Progress has a blog up today about some comments Gaffney (an almost legendary figure in moronic conspiracy theories) made during a Take Back America conference last week during which Gaffney (in the presence of some Republican lawmakers) spouted off some of the following garbage as part of a panel discussion on “How to understand Islam.”
GAFFNEY: If Bill Clinton, on the basis of special interest pandering and identity politics, was properly called the first Black American President, on that same basis, Barack Obama should be called the first Muslim American President. […] But there is evidence that a lot of Muslims think he is Muslim. But whether he is or whether he isn’t, the key to me, is is he pursuing that is indistinguishable in important respects from that of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose mission ladies and gentlemen, we know from a trial in Dallas last year, is to quote to destroy Western civilization from within by its own miserable hand. That’s what we need to keep our eye on.
BILL FEDERER: In Islam, if your father is a Muslim, you’re automatically a Muslim. Since Barack’s father, stepfather, and grandfather were all Muslim, the Muslim world views him as Muslim. Mohammad allowed his warriors to say they’re not Muslim to gain advantage and um, but he’s uh, Islam permits you to lie to advance Islam, Saul Alinsky allows you to lie to advance your communist agenda, you can put them together.
WALID SHOEBAT: I came from an American mother, Obama came from an American mother. I came from a Muslim father, Obama came from a Muslim father. […] Did you know that your President knows how to do the call to the prayer in eloquent classical Arabic? […] No one can do this in classical Arabic language unless he grew up and was raised as a Muslim.
These wacko conspiracy theories are designed to scare conservative whites of privilege and conservative whites in middle America into thinking people of color are out to get them and President Obama is their new leader. This is the kind of garbage far too many people believe and champion (this absurd notion that President Obama is a Muslim and this even more idiotic idea that it is a bad thing to be a Muslim/all or most Muslims are terrorists. It’s pure insanity, but it has been somewhat, and sadly, effective with some extremists on the right).
It seems as though these nuts just fall off trees and far too many moderate right wingers pick up the nuts and tolerate them.
The arrogance and bigotry of some of these extremists is staggering.
During the panel, Shoebat advocated entering Arab countries and converting Muslims to Christianity. He also went on a rant about how Muslims in meat packaging plants are contaminating America’s food supply because their hands are unclean.
What is laughable is that they refer to people in other countries as the extremists.
