The fact that the GOP is now experiencing the kind of outrageous character assaults against Muslims that many Dems, like US House Representative Keith Ellison, have endured only means that the push back has come much later than it should have.
Reuters/Rebecca Cook
Are you or are you not a card-carrying member of the pro-Shariah, Muslim Brotherhood network trying to force the citizens of the United States of America to submit to the hateful will of Allah?
I haven’t heard anyone in the network of scholars, validators, or activists — profiled in the just-released Center for American Progress report Fear Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America — utter the above statement precisely. However, the propaganda of a growing American-based network agitating against the spread of Shariah Law, an entirely fabricated fear-mongering movement, sounds a vibe close enough.
Recently, Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller — who is a key player in the Fear Inc. report, decided to focus her anti-Muslim rants at a Muslim GOP candidate, David Ramadan, that former Reagan administration Attorney General and Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation Edwin Meese was helping to support in a local Virginia House of Delegates race.
Geller wrote:
James Lafferty, SIOA board member and VAST [Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force] chairman, just advised me that Ed Meese bought into stealth jihadist David Ramadan’s ruse. That’s just what this country needs, more Muslim Brotherhood plants in the
legislature.
“Stealth Jihadist”? “Muslim Brotherhood plants”? This kind of character defamation and disgusting insinuations about Americans running for elected office in this country demands the strongest of responses. There should be no place in our political discourse for
these kind of bigoted assaults.
My colleague at The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg has been doing his part to darken Geller’s luster — but it’s remarkable how fear of the “fear network” has silenced so many from defending
Muslim-Americans and frankly, Muslims around the world who don’t deserve
this abuse.
To get the real feel of the defamatory tone attempting to insinuate that a Muslim, in this case a loyal GOP Muslim-American, read this press release calling for people to come learn about David Ramadan. One of the primary protagonists of the Center for American Progress Fear, Inc. report, Frank Gaffney — someone I have known and had respectful disagreements with for a very long time — appears as a lead in this McCarthyesque press conference:
Press Conference
Government Center
1 Harrison Street S.E., Leesburg Virginia
August 10, 2011
5:30 p.m.
Among those participating in the press conference will be:
