Republican Congressman Peter King (R-New York) has said that there are “too many mosques in this country.”
King is the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. And as an outspoken advocate of strong anti-terror measures, he has been unafraid to ruffle some feathers in his drive to protect the homeland.
When asked to clarify his statement, King did not revise his answer, saying “I think there has been a lack of full cooperation from too many people in the Muslim community.”
Gosh, I wonder why American Muslims aren’t feeling too cooperative? Could it be because we have elected congressmen saying that there are too many mosques in America? Maybe that doesn’t foster an environment of trust?
Just a thought…
Please share widely!
then the Quakers
then the United Church of Christ
then…the list will never end until the christianists have full fielty.
…I’ve never seen a mosque in the US. Or, actually, in Germany.
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I’ve seen a couple in Tel Aviv, though.
Maybe Peter King can do without their votes in his district, but if the GOP is going to win Michigan, they’re going to need to dial down their dismissive attitude.
That this statement will not get anywhere near as much traction as a story that the MoveOn ad did.
…just a hunch.
I saw a comment in another thread that it's extremists on BOTH sides and a self-serving news media that accounts for crap like this taking over the entire political discourse until the pundits thrash so violently it just magically appears in an amendment in the senate floor!
That being the case, I fully expect this to get two full weeks of media coverage culminating in a constitutional ammendment repudiating this rat bastard's remarks in a record that will last until the end of time.
There's no way this would just slip down the memory hole and dissappear, right?
The late and influential Albert Ellis, who practiced a very tough style of psychotherapy with books like How to Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything: Yes Anything! was very fond of pointing out how the world was not fair. No use boo-hooing about it.
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Action, of course, is not the same as boo-hooing. One of today’s injustices is the IOKIYAR principle. Atrios recently pointed out that Democratic filibusters are always described in the press as obstructionist. Republican filibusters are always described as denying a bill the “60 votes needed for passage”.
I had to google that acronym. It was worth it, though. It needs a corollary – INOKIYAR – for things like being gay, donating to planned parenthood (unless you’ve seen the light since), admitting you still like the Dixie Chicks, etc.
The first line of defense against Muslim extremists is — Muslim non-extremists. Who, after all, is more likely to know what’s going on? Who is best positioned to convince people not to become fanatics? Hint: It is not Rudy Giuliani or Dick Cheney.
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Antagonizing non-extremist Muslims for political gain is just typical, right-wing stupidity. (Me good/you bad/me hate bad)
When you compare the number of Americans victimized by terrorists who regularly went to mosque in this country to the number killed by American terrorist churchgoers, I find myself wondering if this is a path he wants to go down.
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Can You explain to me what “American terrorist churchgoers” are? Some example would be nice too.
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On the women’s rights front, isn’t the Headscarf , Niqab, or the Burqa a sign of oppression? Correct me if I’m wrong but in the Islamic Countries that have Sharia Law if women are caught not wearing these can’t they can be beaten and or killed?
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http://news.bbc.co.u…
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What about “honor killings”?
http://en.wikipedia….
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Please no politically correct “it’s the Islamic/Muslim culture” answers either.
If you’re going to invoke 9/11, at least do it in a way that makes sense. The 9/11 hijackers were not Americans and never went to mosques in this country (as a bonus, they did not immigrate illegally either. All the walls in the world would not have effected their mode of entry). You do realize that, right? The problem isn’t too many mosques in the US, it’s mosques in Saudi Arabia that promote violence against the West. Mosques in the Wahhabist tradition that are funded with American oil money funneled through the Saudi royal family.
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Timothy McVeigh was a good Christian, until he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City. Eric Rudolph liked to crack the Bible when he wasn’t setting off bombs at abortion clinics.
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As for the “throw and see if it sticks method”, there’s no denying that many countries with Islamic populations have a sick, retrograde approach to women’s rights and equality. I have no idea how that applies to this discussion. Are you saying that permitting Muslims to open mosques will lead to honor killings in the US?
How do you know the 9-11 hi-jackers weren’t regular visitors to mosques in this Country? A number of them were here for a while, some of them trained at a flight school. That did not happen overnight.
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Glad to see you admit a number of them were here Illegally, granted it was on overstayed visas but they still were Illegal Aliens.
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Yep I’ll give you these 2 scumbags, not sure about McVeigh being a radical Christian though.
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Here’s a few:
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http://michellemalki…
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You talking about terrorists in your first statement, then you bring up Americans in the second, which one is it?
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So we have the 9-11 hijackers and the ones from Michelle’s site to name a few. Not to mention the stories that are covered up in the media. The Muslim Sniper was an Illegal Alien also. Yes I consider all of these murders Terrorist acts.
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Now are you going to tell me that none of these people(I use the term people loosely here) ever went to mosques on a regular basis? C’mon be realistic here of course they did.
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I hope not but it seems to be happening all over Europe including so called non-Muslim Countries I.E. Britain. I bet you Britain has more mosques than America does. Coincidence?
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Honor Killings in Europe:
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http://www.boston.co…
I went to the Michelle Malkin site. She is a cheerleader for the Iraq war and hence of dubious honesty. In any case, her list was of random losers. That was her title.
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The Boston Globe article certainly talks about an increasing number of honor killings and associated violence against women. (Conservatives, by the way, have not distinguished themselves on the violence against women front.) However, it is not as if it is a huge plague.
So what in the world are you arguing?
None of this makes sense or is useful. It only makes sense if you want more fanatics.
…Malkin is a racist and has no credibility whatsoever, a couple of observations.
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One, IIRC, the 9/11 perpetrators went to flight schools in relatively isolated areas. It strains credulity to believe that those areas would have many mosques.
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Two, Eric Rudolf was a member of the christianist Army of God movement. He bombed not only clinics that provided abortion services, but also gay bars and the Atlanta Olympics. It is probable that his AoG comrads protected him for a number of years. I won’t opine on whether other AoG adherents also committed criminal acts, but there are a number of members of christianist organizations that have.
Honor Killings in Europe:
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I’m not sure what this adds to the discussion. It’s tantamount to the logical fallacy of relative deprivation. They (in Europe) have bad problems, so our (US) relatively minor problems should be ignored. That’s silly.
America also has the highest prison population, the highest infant mortality rate in first world countries, and the highest percentage of murder by gun.
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Coincidence?
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Hey, what are you worried about honor killings for? You aren’t a muslim woman, Asa. More people died in the US last year at the hands of registered Republicans than terrorists. think about it.
America only has more people who claim they are Christian.
…it is the people who claim to be christian that define christianity. Not Jesus. The christians use Jesus as a marketing symbol, something like companies use Aunt Jemima to sell substandard maple syrup, or Betty Crocker and cookbooks.
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Here in Germany, the term is “Christlich” which, literatlly translated, means “Christ-like.” They aren’t necessarily very Christlich, either.
25-27%(and rising everyday) of the US jail population are Illegal Aliens.
http://www.usillegal…
http://www.americanc…
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You think that might have something to do with it?
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Too many Mosques = Honor killings. Look at Britain. I posted a link in the earlier post about it. My point being I don’t want that coming to America and for that matter anywhere in the world but hey who am I to question the Islamic “culture” right? And no I’m not saying all Muslims engage in those atrocities but there are quite a few that do.
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Why aren’t they speaking out against it? Could they be scared of something?
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Yea “registered Republicans” killed more US Citizens than terrorists. Have some more moveon.org, ACLU, koolaid.
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Again could you explain that one to me? I’m not sure who you hate more America or Republicans?
That was an excellent non-sequiter!
I guess my only question for you is: What is it you hate so much about America that you want to dissallow constitutional freedom of religion?
…in my last corporate job, in the Boston area, I worked with Muslims and with Hindis. They knew I was gay (still am) but they were some of the nicest people I have come across.
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Indeed, it was from one of the Muslim men that I heard about Ramadan. I suppose that, if he wanted to go on a diet, that’s one way of doing so, but I did not notice any reduction in his belt size.
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One of the points that should be made is that the US has been pretty successful in integrating people of various religions into the–may I say it?–the Gesellschaft–the community. There have been bumps along the path, but, by and large, the US has been successful. Actually, Germany has been, also, fairly successful with its substantial Turkisch influx during the Wirtschaftswunder. There is a very large Turkisch poppulation here in Munich, and, oddly enough, the fellow who runs the liquor store across the street is Turkisch. We do not inquire into his religion (Christlisch oder Islamisch).
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France and GB have had more severe problems.
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Let me continue. The burqa, I’ll set that aside for the moment. But the Kopftuch (headscarf)? Give me a break. Russion women have been photographed wearing babushkas (headscarves) for a number of years. No religious symbolism. I don’t know why they want to wear them, but maybe it helps keep their hair clean.
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But here in Munich, we oftentimes see women who are wandering aroung the city wearing black head scarves. There are also a number of women who are wearing beautifully colored and printed headscarves. I suspect that they are mostly Indian. I wear a baseball cap.
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Funny story. About a dozen years ago we were in a middle-class restaurant in Munich. Across from us was a family, probably from India. The woman was wearing the colorful head scarf. She was accompanied by the (presumably) husband, and three children. We were watching them out of curiousity. The father was trying to calm down the children. The lady’s body language said “who are these people? why am I here?” It was truly a sight to behold.
…and I argued absurd positions on order to mock your statements. That’s my explanation.
Maybe the 9/11 hijackers did go to a mosque. They all but trumpeted their intentions, and Bush’s law enforcement apparatus couldn’t figure out what they were up to. However, there’s no proof of that, and the onus is on you to prove a positive, not on me to prove a negative. No matter how many times you come back to that.
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If you don’t think McVeigh is a radical Christian, then what is he? A mainstream Christian?
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Of course the 9/11 hijackers were here illegally, and of course the GOP’s plans wouldn’t have stopped a single one.
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Give me a source who doesn’t make things up, and I’ll be happy to discuss it.
Damn, how many accounts do you have?
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Eric Rudolph was already mentioned:
http://www.decaturda…
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David McMenemy:
http://www.qctimes.c…
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Clayton Wagner:
http://en.wikipedia….
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Paul Hill:
http://en.wikipedia….
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James Charles Kopp
http://www.courttv.c…
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Mark David Uhl
http://www.huffingto…
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Stephen John Jordi:
http://www.boston.co…
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Brenda Kaye Phillips
http://www.cwnews.co…
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Robert F. Weiler Jr
http://www.wusa9.com…
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Let’s not forget the Klan’s use of religious symbols and requirement to be a Christian. So add thousands of more to the list. Basically, this is a home grown al-Qaeda.
http://www.cursor.or…
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But I don’t think that was sabutai was going, but I won’t speak for him. Perhaps this is more what he was talking about. The Winkler family is one example of the many Christian families plagued by domestic abuse:
http://www.usatoday….
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For the record, I don’t think women should wear burqas or hi-jab.