Like watching a snake slither towards its prey, former GOP congressman and current Donald Trump supporter, Rick Santorum, slowly makes his insidious way up to a verbal attack of Muslims this week on CNN.
To preface, Kristen Gwynne with the Rolling Stone once dedicated a full article to Santorum’s most vile statements sampling Santorum’s contemptous stance against abortion in cases of rape, same-sex marriage, birth control, immigrants, Palestinians, and definitely no public assistance to help those in need, that is, not gonna give “somebody else’s money” to blacks. And you know, for a man who considers himself to be an upstanding "Catholic” Christian, Santorum doesn’t seem to want to follow the compassionate and loving words of Christ. This is sadly commonplace within the Republican Party. The Rolling Stone could write books about the religious hypocrisy of pseudo-Christian leaders like Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and Ted Cruz. But I digress. Back to Santorum’s latest statements.
On Monday, Santorum made sure to call out and blame Muslims, with no proof, instead of simply calling out terrorists, for the recent anti-Semitic vandalism on a historic Jewish cemetary, and also for the recent bomb threats to Jewish centers and college campuses. Before Donald Trump made any kind of statement about the acts, CNN asked Santorum why isn’t Trump saying anything? Santorum couldn’t answer, but seemed to take joy with the racist answer he did give.
CNN: “Why doesn’t he say anything when it’s such a layup to do just what Hillary Clinton just did — put out a tweet saying, ‘This is disgusting. We hate it. I will not tolerate it. If I find the people who did it, I'll punish them!’ That’s it, yeah?”
Rick Santorum: “Yeah… If you look, I, if you look at the fact that the people who are, who are responsible for a lot of this anti-Semitism that we're seeing, I hate to say it, a lot of it is coming from the pro-Palestinian and Muslim community, so let's, you know, let's lay out that fact.”
CNN: “I don't know that it’s a fact, by the way. I don’ t know that it’s a fact. You have white haters who have historically targeted the Jews.”
Here is the video clip:
On the same day after Trump finally made a johnny-come-lately “weakly” (opposed to “biggly” statement saying the cemetery attack was “horrible and painful,” Santorum ramps up his goal to demonize Muslims again. When asked by Wolf Blitzer, why Trump waited so long to denounce the anti-Semitic attacks, Santorum again doesn’t have an answer for that, either, but instead, Santorum hatefully says Trump should have optimized on the attack: “This is a sweet spot for the president to be in, and I just am a little amazed that he hasn't 'hit’ on it.”
Here is the excerpt via Media Matters.
Rick Santorum: It doesn't make any sense to me why [President Donald Trump waited to denounce anti-Semitism], and I would just make the argument, as I tried to this morning, there's been a rash of anti-Semitism going on in college campuses now that's growing. I saw a report earlier that a 45 percent increase year-over-year from last year. It continues to grow. It's being perpetrated not just by the pro-Palestinian groups on college campuses, but also from progressive groups. This is a sweet spot for the president to be in, and I just am a little amazed that he hasn't hit on, not just what's happened to Jewish community centers, but also what's happening on college campuses.
Wolf Blitzer reminds Santorum there are also Jews in the pro-Palestinian protests, but Santorum couldn’t give a flip.
What would have been even more effective and truthful, would be if either Blitzer or the CNN host had reminded Santorum that whatever terrorist group was responsible, they should not be called out by their religion, but by their terrorism. And terrorists come in every nationality, gender, political party, economic status, age and religion.
The best part and ironic twist to this story is that following the attack on the Jewish cemetery, Muslim communities have raised over 132K to help restore it via launch good. This is not a new thing for Muslims. In 2015, Muslims unified to raise over 100k to help repair Black churches that had recently been vandalized/burned down. Why? Because Muslims, like Jews and Blacks know what it’s like to be prejudged, persecuted and victimized by terrorists.
In 2015, three innocent Muslims were murdered in their home by an atheist — a nonbeliever. What I wrote back then applies again — and it will always apply.
“Terrorists/extremists do not represent the religions, nonbelievers, or political parties from which they claim to hail. Rather, they damage, use, and scar those entities. Terrorists/extremists who use words to terrorize or physical violence to harm and murder, exemplify hate in its purest form. They will always represent the very worst in the human spirit—and in humanity.
Sometimes, it’s incredibly hard for me to wrap my brain around how hateful and ugly some people can be. Rick Santorum reminds me of this today. By using his position and agenda to lie, he perpetuates the hate-provoking myth that all Muslims are terrorists. This is hate speech and he should be banned from CNN or any media outlet that considers themselves reputable.
What Muslims just did, and continue to do, is show us what love looks like. Their act of kindness represents the best in our human spirit and in humanity.