The Republican stance on this, led by Mr Gingrich, and designed to create a climate of fear with respect to non existent threats (imposition of Sharia in the US) and alienation of Islam in general rather than Al Quaeda narrowly (an instance of straightforward prejudice, lumping as it does the vast majority of ordinary American Muslims together with a tiny radical few), is one of the most despicable political moves I have seen in my lifetime. It makes President Bush, for all his faults, look like a beacon of tolerance, careful as he was to indicate that we are emphatically NOT at war with Islam, that there is emphatically NOT a clash of civilizations.
Our interests and image abroad, the lives of Muslim Americans (and likely our own soldiers abroad) and our great and foundational tradition of religious freedom are all harmed by this. And for what: a few talking points in a midterm election, and a half baked attempt to cast the President as "other".
It is deeply troubling.
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