“… the threat Obama poses is being taken very seriously. The right here is all of a tizz, in part because of the writings in the US of figures such as Frank Gaffney – a former senior official under US President Reagan – who says that Obama ‘hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote’ funded by ‘between $30m and $100m from the Mideast, Africa and other places Islamists are active’. Obama has promised change but writing in the Washington Times, Gaffney tells us that his election will in fact lead to ‘global theocratic rule under shariah, and the end of our constitutional, democratic government’. Unless James Bond intervenes. And Doctor Who. And Austin Powers.”

Hugh Muir in the Guardian, 28 October 2008

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — County and state GOP officials criticized the head of a New Mexico Republican women’s group for calling Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama a “Muslim socialist” and stating that “Muslims are our enemies.”

Marcia Stirman, the head of the Republican Women of Otero County, will be asked to step down, Sassy Tinling, the chairwoman of the Otero County Republican Party, said Wednesday.

In a letter published Tuesday in the Alamogordo Daily News, Stirman wrote that she believes “Muslims are our enemies.” Stirman told The Associated Press in an interview: “I don’t trust them at all. They’ve sworn across the world that they are our enemies. Why we’re trying to elect one is beside me.”

Tinling told KOAT-TV that Stirman’s opinions do not reflect those of the county GOP or the Republican Women of Otero County. The executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Matthew Kennicott, has said Stirman does not speak for the GOP and that her comments do not reflect its values and beliefs.

Associated Press, 24 October 2008

See also Associated Press, 22 October 2008, and CAIR press release, 23 October 2008

I’m anything but a fan of Colin Powell, and have no idea what impact (if any) his Meet the Press endorsement of Obama will have, but I was really glad to see him make the following point in explaining why he has rejected McCain’s candidacy:

I’m also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: “Well, you know that Mr.Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is: he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be President?

Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion: he’s a Muslim, and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

There has been much condemnation over the ‘Obama-is-a-Muslim’ line of GOP attack, but almost all of it has been on the ground that the attack is factually false as applied to the Christian Obama, not on the ground that it is a reprehensible and dangerous line of attack even if it were factually true. Powell bears much of the responsibility, and always will, for the horrific U.S. attack on Iraq (one which, just by the way, resulted in the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims), but he deserves credit for using the platform he had this morning to go out of his way to make this vital point when doing so was not necessary (and perhaps not even helpful) in advancing the cause of his endorsement of Obama.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com, 19 October 2008

“Why is it that Islamophobes continue to come up with ‘tests’ that American Muslims must pass in order to be considered moderate, or for that matter to be considered real Americans. Daniel Pipes has a test and I’m proud to say, that I like Hamza Yusuf would fail. David Horowitz has a petition for Muslim students to sign to prove their ‘moderation’ as part of his recent ‘Islamo Fascism Awareness Week’ whose four key principals any Muslim could agree with, but which would require any Muslim signing the petition to agree with the mischaracterization of terrorists and extremists as ‘Islamo Fascists’ thus blaming the religion of Islam for their criminal acts.

“But Hugh Fitzgerald’s suggestion that ‘Sheila Musaji needs to read Ali Sina, Ibn Warraq, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan. They were all born into Islam. They were all raised in Muslim milieus. They have all testified as to what Muslims say in front of Infidels, and what they say when they think they are among only fellow Muslims’ really shows up what they are after – the bottom line for these folks is that in order to be a ‘good Muslim’ or a ‘moderate Muslim’ you must be an ex-Muslim. If that is what it takes to be a ‘moderate’ then count me out.

“Now Robert Spencer comes up with his own ten question test which he asks me personally to reply to, and to which I will respond only because the voices of the Islamophobes are getting a wide audience in the United States at the moment, and when they are not countered it gives their readers the impression that it is because their arguments have some merit. I will respond, but have no real hope that the response will be seriously considered. At least it is out there for history to judge, and for any whose minds are not closed by blind hatred to at least consider.”

Sheila Musaji replies to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch.

The American Muslim, 10 October 2008

“Not since the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 has the religious faith of a U.S. presidential candidate generated so much distortion as the false claims generated by extremist critics that Senator Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, is a stealth Muslim. This is part of an Islamophobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide. As scholars of Islam and Muslim societies and concerned citizens for a fair and honest electoral process, we wish to set the record straight.”

Read the full statement at Tabsir.