Campaign adviser to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid, Congressman Peter King (R-Seaford, N.Y.), was quoted by The Politico as saying that the there are “too many mosques” in the United States. Rep. King’s statement also advocated profiling American Muslims and with a broad brush, painted them as radical Islamic sympathizers. Read the full quote from The Politico:
In the Politico interview, King said: “Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there’s too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement.”
King stands by what he says, but listen to his explanation:
A homeland security adviser to Rudy Giuliani came under fire Thursday for claiming there were “too many mosques” in the United States — and defended himself by saying his point was that not enough Muslim leaders cooperate with law enforcement. [...]
“I stand by everything I said other than the fact that the Politico totally took it out of context,” King said Thursday. [emphasis added]
Seriously, how could The Politico not pick up on that?
Republicans like to claim quotes were pulled out of context but there is absolutely no way that what King actually said even remotely resembles the point he claims he was trying to make.
3 Responses to “Giuliani Adviser: “Too Many Mosques” in the U.S.”
Radical Muslims aren’t usually found at the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They meet each other at mosques. Think about it.
A radical cell was rooted out of my old apartment complex in Brooklyn. Living in the shadow of some of the illustrious Brooklyn mosques, like the one referred to in matt’s comment, and riding a subway to work everyday where people attending those mosques, brings this issue home to people in NY, where many radical Muslims live and, by the way, like to attack once in a while — people in other parts of the country can play nice with the theory of Muslims, particularly the radical ones. I don’t see the point — they are real and they are here. We need people to talk cold, hard facts, even if it ruffles some feathers.
The bottom line is that problem is not Giuliani’s aide’s statement being factually wrong. The problem is that Giuliani’s aide didn’t speak in a politically correct or constitutionally sound manner. He sees a real problem (too many mosques — the prime meeting places and indoctrination camps of militant jihadists) but comes up with the wrong solution. The fact is that there are a lot more people sympathetic to the enemy sitting in mosques than anywhere else in this country.
Logic dictates that if your enemy and their sympathizers are a subset of a certain group (in this case, Muslims), it makes sense to analyze that certain group (Muslims) or maybe even take measures to stop giving that group places to meet and conspire. Does the gov’t place moratorium on mosques? If mosques did not involve a religion — yes. Since a religion is involved and given our constitution’s protection of religion, no. Should the gov’t watch mosques like a hawk? Absolutely, especially the ones in Brooklyn.
The truth is that if there were no Muslims in America, there would be no radical jihadists here. Mr. King speaks truth. It’s just not pretty truth. We only like pretty truth in the 21st Century, thank you. I am not calling for getting rid of all Muslims or all mosques (maybe some need to go, if they are involved in bad stuff — I’ve seen churches shut down for one man’s illegal activity… Branch Davidians anyone?). We do need surveillance, like crazy, and get rid of the radical jihadists.
“Too many mosques.” Do we say there are “too many churches” when nutjobs like Eric Rudolph go on their little terrorist sprees? Of course not.
By the way, I live just a few blocks away from Al Farooq mosque. This was the mosque whose own members took the initiative to turn in one of their mentally unstable members who had been threatening the mayor:
Members of the mosque characterized him as a nut and notified the police of Thomas’ nascent plans. Twenty-eight-year-old mosque member Mohamed Houras said Al Farooq is frequently a destination for such people: “They come in all the time. These guys go to jail, convert and then show up at the mosque with plots. They talk jihad, but they’re out of their minds. Of course we call cops.”
That’s not to say Al Farooq is a center of peace love and tolerance. Radical Islamicism is a real problem. But mindless hysteria doesn’t do anything to combat the problem. People like Peter King and the other hysterical conservative paranoids are simply to dense to be any use in the struggle against it.
Something to say?
yes, we need more wonderful mosques like al farooq in brooklyn, where the blind shiek abdul rahman preached the destruction of the united states and gave refuse to ramse usef and gave the fatwa that blessed both wtc attacks. oh what wonderful places, more i say, more of them!!!
liberals smear away, but rudy just picked up another million religious conservatives with king’s comments.
Left by matt
September 20, 2007 at 10:04pm