“The unfolding presidential elections are laying bare what the real dangers are in the new American condition…. Religious intolerance marks one candidate debate after another – a sweeping denigration of Islam. And it is going to backfire.

“The code word ‘Islamofascism’ has become a staple of rhetoric. It braces the talk not only of pundits, but of all the major Republican candidates – from the tough guy at one end, Rudy Giuliani, who lambastes Democrats for not using the word or its equivalent, to the ‘nice’ candidate at the other end, Mike Huckabee, who defines Islamofascism as ‘the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced’.

“The pairing of ‘Islam’ and ‘fascism’ has no parallel in characterizations of extremisms tied to other religions, although the defining movements of fascism were linked to Catholicism – indirectly under Benito Mussolini in Italy, explicitly under Francisco Franco in Spain.

“… there is a broad conviction, especially among many conservative American Christians, that the inner logic of Islam and fascism go together. Political candidates appeal to those Christians by defining the ambition of Islamofascists in language that makes prior threats from, say, Hitler or Stalin seem benign. The point is that there is a deep religious prejudice at work, and when politicians adopt its code, they make it worse.”

James Carroll in the Boston Globe, 21 January 2008

Earlier this month, Newsday columnist and Fox News contributor James Pinkerton joined former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign as a “senior adviser” who “will work at the intersection of policy and strategic messaging”. Pinkerton, who worked in the White House under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, says he “felt called” to join Huckabee’s campaign.

Three months before Pinkerton joined the campaign, he recorded an episode of Bloggingheads.tv with Mother Jones editor David Corn. During their conversation, Pinkerton declared that he would handle “American Muslims” by putting “a cop in front of every mosque” in America.

PINKERTON: You asked me what I would do about American Muslims. Answer is I’d put a cop in front of every mosque until I was completely satisfied nothing was going on there.

CORN: You’d put a cop in front of every mosque?

PINKERTON: That’s what I said. […]

CORN: I mean, do you have any proof that every mosque deserves a cop in front of it?

PINKERTON: I said, I would put one in there just for safe keeping all the way around.

Think Progress, 16 January 2008

Jewish leaders are condemning e-mails attacking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for secretly being a radical Muslim who attended a Wahhabi madrassa, false allegations that have been circulated on many Jewish and other list-serves.

Referring to “hateful e-mails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama ‘s religious beliefs and who he is as a person,” officials from nine national Jewish organizations sent an open letter to the Jewish community Tuesday “reject[ing] these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates.”

The non-partisan, multi-denominational coalition of leaders noted that they were not endorsing any candidate, but felt that “attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy.”

Obama, whose middle name is Hussein and who spent some of his childhood in Islamic Indonesia, has faced a whispering campaign about his background since before he even announced his candidacy for president. But the volume and vitriol of the attacks have intensified following his victory in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, which has propelled him in the polls.

Several Jewish organizational leaders noticed an increase in the number of e-mails they were receiving post-Iowa and in the run-up to February 5, when 22 states will be voting in the Democratic primary. They include some of the nation’s largest by population and by Jewish community (New York, California, Illinois) and could well determine who becomes the presidential nominee for both parties.

“Jews have suffered smear campaigns in the past and we should be sensitive and responsive to these kinds of attacks,” said Nathan Diament, director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Diament was joined by Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and several heads of nonsectarian organizations in signing the letter.

Obama himself refuted the Internet accusations, as well as the suggestion that he took the oath of office with a Koran, during a Democratic candidates’ debate in held Tuesday night in Nevada, which will on Saturday host the next Democratic primary.

In response to a question for an MSNBC moderator alluding to the e-mails in circulation, Obama said, “Let’s make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible.” His campaign has also posted a fact sheet stating that, “Barack Obama is not and has never been a Muslim. Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.”

It also explains that Obama’s father, a Kenyan immigrant whom his mother divorced when he was two, was raised as Muslim but was “a confirmed atheist” by the time he came to America, and that his stepfather practiced a “brand of Islam” that also accommodated beliefs such as animism and Hinduism. While he occasionally visited an Islamic center as a child in Indonesia, the suggestion that he was educated at a Wahhabist madrassa has been utterly discredited.

Though the Internet chatter about Obama’s Muslim ties might be false, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t hurt him in a campaign.

“We could be in for a really ugly campaign from the far right,” said someone in the Jewish community involved in the drafting of the letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I fear it’s going to be a problem for him in the future. It’s no reason for anybody not to vote for him now or in the future, but everyone’s got vulnerabilities.” He said that the Obama campaign asked for the letter to be drafted, an assertion confirmed by other Jewish leaders but not immediately by the campaign itself.

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Several days before a hearing in which a zoning board denied a request to build a mosque here, a Bellbrook pastor and her husband received a phone call from a woman urging local residents to show up at the board meeting and oppose the mosque, the husband said.

The caller said the mosque should be blocked “because of what it says in the Quran, and these are bad people,” said Brooks Heck, whose wife Terry is pastor of Bellbrook United Methodist Church. Brooks Heck is pastor of South Park United Methodist Church in Dayton. The caller identified herself as a member of First Baptist Church of Kettering, now located in Sugarcreek Twp., Brooks Heck said.

About 300 people showed up for the Thursday night meeting when the board of zoning appeals voted 5-0 to deny a variance request that would have permitted the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton to build a mosque for up to 975 people and a family center for up to 400 on 15 acres it owns on South Alpha-Bellbrook Road. The board denied the request because of the adverse impact on neighborhood traffic and property values.

Barry Jude, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Kettering, said he didn’t know of a calling campaign prior to the board meeting, but he said there have been announcements at his church urging Sugarcreek Twp. and Bellbrook residents to oppose the zoning. “We promote and propagate Christianity first and foremost,” he said.

Karen Dabdoud of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Cincinnati said she was surprised by the zoning denial. During a public hearing in October, township officials “told us this was a pretty simple and straightforward application and they didn’t see any problems with it,” she said.

“This kind of thing is unfortunately very common across the country,” Dabdoud said. “It’s usually framed in terms of traffic and property values, but underneath it is a situation of religious tension.”

Dayton Daily News, 13 January 2008