Burning Quran isn't a result of Right wing hate
The Right Doesn’t Want You to Remember How Pastor Jones Got So Hate Filled
After even the Catholic Church had joined General Petraeus and two other generals in denouncing the planned Quran burning by Pastor Terry Jones in Florida, a few of the Right began to deliver petulant denials of stoking such violence, cloaked in tepid statements burnished in childish “it’s his fault!” isms. Basically, their talking point yesterday read: “Yeah, burning the Quran would be bad, it would be insensitive, just like building the mosque!”
Like children, instead of acknowledging that their bigoted statements had contributed to a culture and society of hate which fed Pastor Crazy Jones’ this idea that he should burn the Quran (and show those evil Muslims a thing or two), they lined up like peevish children apologizing to the kid they beat up only because their parents insisted they do so. But of course, their parents only wanted them to because they wanted little Johnny to be a big star on the football team. The apology was never meant to be sincere or a lesson or a vow to not do it again.
Yesterday, after weeks of ginning up hate, we had the RNC talking point denial of stoking violence memo via Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page and Boehner tried it on ABC News’ Good Morning America –a mistake, as he was obviously more concerned with his tan than any sort of real leadership on this issue and he sounded like a spoiled frat boy. The one thing we heard in all of their CYA talking points puppetry was a rather petty and obvious comparison of burning books to building a community center.
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Media Matters reports:
In a September 6 blog post to his website The Blaze, Glenn Beck wrote:
What is wrong with us? It’s just like the Ground Zero mosque plan. Does this church have the right? Yes. Should they? No. And not because of the potential backlash or violence. Simply because it is wrong.
In a September 8 post to her Facebook account, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin wrote:
Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.
A pause while we digest that this is coming from the same person who raised the question of banning books she found socially or morally objectionable from the Wasilla Library. The librarian took an oath to not allow censorship and Palin fired the librarian. In 1996, Ms. Palin claimed to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were “rhetorical.” If by “rhetorical” she means she had to rehire the librarian after a show of support throughout the community, she would be correct.
Perhaps it’s not wise to take moral guidance from those who can’t make the connection between why both burning and banning books is “antithetical to American ideals”.
Clearly the RNC talking points go out en masse and no one bothers to remind candidates that they will be saying something that flies in the face of their own actions. Oh, do carry on!
Fox News Contributor Fred Barnes Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier:
But look, this is similar in one way to the Ground Zero mosque, the mosque that is planned to be built on the fringe of Ground Zero. And that is, it is what Sarah Palin called an unnecessary provocation. And this is a provocation, and that’s what General Petraeus is worried about.
I consider all of this right wing hatred an unnecessary provocation. I’m just sayin’. Where does that leave us?
John Boehner on the September 8 edition of ABC News’ Good Morning America:
“Well, to Pastor Jones and those who want to build the mosque: Just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.”
But lo, my naughty children….how did Johnny get that bruise of bigotry on his knee? Shall we review the weeks leading up to yesterday’s chorus of false equivocation and quick back-pedaling? Shall we take a look at how the right honors the 9-11 anniversary by propagating anti-Muslim rhetoric? Good times!
Here’s a quick ride through the last few weeks in Right Wing land, and no sir, I don’t have any idea how Pastor Jones got the idea that the Quran should be burned and is evil!
Media Matters reports:
On the August 16 edition of Fox & Friends, Newt Gingrich:
Gingrich compares Islamic center to Nazis erecting sign near Holocaust museum, Japanese site near Pearl Harbor.
On his August 18 radio show, Glenn Beck said of Park51:
Beck asks, “[A]fter you’ve killed 3,000 people, you’re going to now build your mosque?” “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 10th 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.
This is odd for a man who will be charging hundreds of dollars via Ticketmaster for a Beck 9-11 rally in Alaska with Sarah Palin. Naturally, said rally will take place on September 11, because nothing says heart-felt sorrow and serious thought like a pep-rally designed to enrich the speakers. Who is the evil grifter making money off of hate, again? The Park 51 people? So confusing…
During the August 16 edition of Fox News’ On the Record:
Palin calls Park 51 a “stab in the heart” for Americans and a “slap” to 9-11 victims. Fox News contributor Sarah Palin claimed that it was “an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9-11.” Palin later said, “[T]his is a slap to those innocent victims who were murdered that day on 9-11.”
Unlike charging hundreds of dollars on 9-11 for a rally; that is not a stab in the heart or insensitive. Gosh, maybe it is insensitive. Maybe just because you can, Beck and Palin, doesn’t mean you should. Ya’ know what I mean?
But the fun isn’t over yet. On the August 11 edition of Fox & Friends:
Geller absurdly compared NYC Islamic cultural center to building a KKK “shrine” near black Alabama church.
Yes, because the two are so….no. See, the Muslims are not a part of a hate group…Gosh, it’s like talking to children.
On the September 7 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, co-host Bill Hemmer said of Park51:
Hemmer: Park51 could be “the first stop for a radical jihadist who comes to America who wants to go pray.”
Or not. It could be a community center with many other activities that happens to have rooms for Muslims to pray.
During the August 31 edition of Fox & Friends, right-wing radio host Neil Boortz:
Park51 is “being built to commemorate a great victory over the United States on 9-11.”
Um, no. Just no. Not.
In an August 19 Washington Times op-ed attacking Park51, Ted Nugent wrote:
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.”
Yes, but if a right wing nut job listens to all of this hate and decides to do something stupid like, I dunno, burn the Quran and put our troops and other Americans in danger, that would so NOT be the fault of right wing leaders and celebrities. ‘Cuz, you know, it’s OK when they do it. It’s OK when they put our troops, who are fighting a war the Right started for a cause they claim they believe in and you are a traitor if you don’t– oops, that was when Bush was in office, in jeopardy. Sigh. Do help me keep up!
And saving the best for last: On his August 25 radio show, Limbaugh:
Compared the right-wing campaign against Park51 to the Cold War, claiming, “We’re now fighting the mosqueovites.”
Notice that he admitted then that it was a right-wing campaign. But today, oh, Rhett, today is another day!
Today is the day when we are supposed to forget, Dorothy, how we got here. We are to forget that the Right used Park 51 as a get out the vote tactic to stir up their base and now, when the chickens come home to roost, they are scattering and covering their behinds but not a one of them has had the honor, the integrity, or the love for our freedoms to take a firm, unequivocal stand against bigotry and hate.
Updated 5:28 PM: Pastor Jones admitted that he was ginned up over Park 51 when he falsely claimed that he would cancel the Quran burning because the Imam agreed to move Park 51. This, in fact, is not true, but it serves to demonstrate why the Right had their talking points so tightly orchestrated yesterday and it also suggests that the GOP and Pastor Jones see this matter the same way, which should humiliate the GOP but clearly does not.
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