Despite the right-wing media's claim that their opposition to Park51 -- the planned Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan -- is not about restricting religious freedom, protests have sprung up nationwide in opposition to local mosques and Islamic community centers in the wake of the manufactured controversy. These protests follow the right-wing's relentless assault on not just Park51, but Islam in general.
Numerous
conservative media figures have claimed
opponents of the project have not talked about restricting Muslim's religious
freedom, such as Fox News' Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Palin,
Rick Santorum, Steve
Hayes, and Peter Johnson
Jr., as well as National Review Online, blogger Pam Geller, and the Wall Street Journal editorial
page.
Staten
Island, NY: "Muslim groups have encountered unexpectedly intense
opposition to their plans for opening mosques in Lower Manhattan, in Brooklyn and most
recently in an empty convent on Staten
Island." A June 10 New York Times article reported on
opposition to a proposed mosque in Staten Island,
New York that "have
focused overwhelmingly on more intangible and volatile issues: fear of
terrorism, distrust of Islam and a linkage of the two in opponents' minds." From
the New York Times article:
Murfreesboro, TN: Mosque
opponents are afraid the mosque "will be turned into a terrorist training
ground." An August 8 AP article
reported on the protests surrounding a proposed Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee by noting that "opponents of a new
Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer.
They are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a
terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the
U.S. government." From the AP:
Temecula, CA: "Foes of
proposed mosques have deployed dogs to intimidate Muslims holding prayer
services and spray painted 'Not Welcome' on a construction sign."
The AP also reported, "In Temecula, Calif., opponents brought dogs to protest a
proposed 25,000-square-foot mosque that would sit on four acres next to a
Baptist church. Opponents worry it will turn the town into haven for Islamic
extremists, but mosque leaders say they are peaceful and just need more room to
serve members." An August 19 Christian
Science Monitor article
further reported:
Florence, KY: "Stop the
Mosque," and "the takeover of our
country." The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)
reported in an August 16 article
that a planned mosque in Florence, Kentucky, has drawn protests. From the
article:
Gingrich compares Islamic center to
Nazis erecting sign near Holocaust museum, Japanese site near Pearl Harbor. On the August 16
edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Newt
Gingrich said, "Nazis
don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington. We would
never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl
Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the
World
Trade Center."
Nugent: "The mosque will attract
extremists and radicals who will try to harm America." In an
August 19 Washington
Times op-ed attacking Park51, Ted Nugent wrote that "[t]he mosque
will attract extremists and radicals who will try to harm America." Nugent
repeatedly referred to Islam as a "voodoo religion" and concluded, "If
additional American blood is spilled in the Big Apple, the politicians who
supported this mosque will be as guilty as the Muslim voodoo kooks who love
death and destruction in the name of Allah."
Cal Thomas repeatedly suggests
Park51 would be a terrorist front. In an August 3 column, conservative commentator Cal Thomas wrote: "Ask
yourself: if you wanted to infiltrate a country, wouldn't a grand strategy be to
rapidly build mosques from Ground Zero in New York, to Temecula, Calif., and
establish beachheads so fanatics could plan and advance their strategies under
the cover of religious freedom and that great American virtue known as
'tolerance,' which is being used against us?" In a July 21 post
on The Washington
Post's On Faith blog, Thomas wrote:
Franklin Graham:
"True Islam" can't be practiced in U.S. because "you cannot beat your
wife, you cannot do honor killings." On the August 19 broadcast of CNN's John King USA, Franklin Graham repeated
his frequent attacks on Islam, claiming that "remember true Islam cannot be
practiced here in this country. You cannot beat your wife. You cannot do honor
killing if you think your daughter has been misbehaved. You cannot kill her. And
they're protected by the laws of this country. We're not under Sharia law. We're
under the Constitution of the United States. And so we're
protected."
Limbaugh
suggests Park51 would be a "recruiting tool for domestic
extremists." On the August 3 edition of
his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh stated that if the
Guantanamo Bay detention center "is a recruiting tool for foreign
extremists, what about a World Trade
Center mosque being a
recruiting tool for domestic extremists?"
Beck asks,
Read more at mediamatters.org
"[A]fter you've killed 3,000 people, you're going to now build your mosque"?
On his August 18 radio show, Glenn
Beck said of Park51, "You look for things that are
uniting, I'm sorry, but the Cordoba Project is not uniting. If you wanted to
unite people, you don't spit in their face. You don't spit in their face. On the
tenth anniversary, after you've killed 3,000 people, you're going to now build
your mosque on there, really?" Beck has repeatedly falsely claimed that Park51 was
scheduled to open on September 11, 2011. He has also referred to the Islamic
center as "the 9-11 mosque," and has wondered if it is "a
possibility" that Park51's location is about "inoculation."
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