And then he and John Oliver turned it around on Catholics and Jews, in what I hope was a message to the ADL for going off the rails on this issue.
Yes, they went there.
Video and transcript below the fold.
Obviously in this day and age, Muslims will take any reason to party, especially in the face of continuing controversy over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque". It's an issue on which the President himself weighed in on Friday.
BARACK OBAMA (8/13/2010): I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground. But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.
Boom! Religious freedom. Boom! There you go. You can't be any more clear than that. "Let me be clear." Usually, when Obama says, "let me be clear", he's about to get into some very unclear shit. Usually, he says, "but let me be clear, there is no way I would not unsupport the kind of project this isn't." But you know, that's not what this was. This was the principled guy that people... I'm sorry, there's more?
OBAMA (8/14/2010): I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.
Oh, well that's walking it back a bit there. It kinda reminds me actually of his campaign slogan, "Yes We Can... But Should We?"
You know, we can, but I don't know if we should. Is it right? The President was very clear, though, the Constitution guarantees you freedom of religion. Really, you're loving the puns? Tossed 'em around in like 20 seconds.
Freedom of religion, though, says nothing about where. Who knew that the First Amendment had the same mantra as Century 21? Location, location, location. And the problem apparently isn't just location.
SEAN HANNITY (8/4/2010): I have the biggest problem with the controversial imam...
STEVE DOOCY (8/10/2010): He's the mastermind behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque...
ANDREA TANTAROS (8/3/2010): This radical imam, we don't know what he's planning on doing in that cultural center.
UNIDENTIFIED FOX BUSINESS CHANNEL FEMALE (5/27/2010): This guy is a radical.
SEAN HANNITY (5/20/2010): Should he even be in the U.S.?
Oh my God, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, he's a radical terrorist sympathizer! I had no idea! Because the name is so familiar. Where have I seen that name before? No fly list? No... America's Most Wanted? I don't believe that was it. War on Terror playing cards? Or was it....?
BRIAN KILMEADE (5/11/2010): To my immediate left, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. He is the founder of the Cordoba Initiative, the group proposing the center....
Holy shit, he was on Fox!!! Kilmeade, take the shot, take the shot! Taze him! Get him in a headlock! Oh, you're right next to him! Punch him Doocy-style! (arms flinging wildly)
So how is it exactly that we know Rauf isn't moderate? Perhaps a scholar familiar with Middle East issues told us so, a teacher, a healer of sorts.
GLENN BECK (8/10/2010): What did this "moderate" say just a few days after 9/11? Well, of course, what all moderates would say: "I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that did happen." Oh ho ho ho.
WOW!! Abandoning our values and principles somehow caused problems for us? And we weren't just minding our business, and got hit? What kind of scheming, America-hating extremist monster would say something so profoundly evil? Smash-cut-to-Glenn-Beck-three-months-earlier.
GLENN BECK (4/15/2010): I wasn't paying attention before 9/11. I didn't know what the heck was going on in the world. Now I'm paying attention. When people said they hate us, well, did we deserve 9/11? No. But were we minding our business? No! Were we in bed with dictators, and abandoned our values and principles? Yes! That causes problems.
(wild audience appluase)
What will he think tomorrow? That's what's so exciting about going to Glenn Beck University. What begins as Spanish class could just as easily finish the semester as a Mexican border shop project, you don't know. So I guess the real questions are this. Does this imam Rauf have serious ties to terrorist groups? Do radical sympathies supercede the Constitution and freedom of religion? Should we even make policy based on the perceived emotions of either victims or practitioners of certain religions? And should we continue to refer to an area around an old Burlington Coat Factory as "hallowed ground"? Now, by the way, GORE-TEX Columbia ski parka for $98? I feel like I'm stealing!
Obviously, I am not qualified to answer those questions. Those are the questions real journalists ask. Cue real journalists.
BOB SCHIEFFER (8/15/2010): Did the President say the right thing, and was it good politics?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Will his comments hurt Democrats in November?
ABC NEWS ANCHOR (8/15/2010): Will it follow him and his party all the way to the elections in November?
CNN ANCHOR (8/16/2010): How much political damage has been done?
DON LEMON (8/15/2010): The Republicans probably smell a little blood in the water here.
IS IT RIGHT OR WRONG?? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!? Missed it by thiiiiiiiis much. For more, we're joined by Senior Religion Correspondent, John Oliver. John, thank you very much. Here's something that's confusing me. A real confusing thing about this Islamic community center issue is how easy people are conflating al-Qaeda with all Muslims. Let me show you something Newt Gingrich said this morning.
NEWT GINGRICH (8/16/2010): Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
STEWART: Now, see, that's a respected conservative leader saying the Muslims who want to build a downtown community center are equivalent, uh, to Nazis.
OLIVER: Jon, what Newt Gingrich is trying to say is that Islam, like every religion, has to be responsible for its biggest assholes. So, that's what he's saying.
STEWART: But, I don't think that's how we do this. If an evangelical Christian, for instance, bombs an abortion clinic, we don't hold all evangelical Christians accountable....
OLIVER: Wha... wha... what...? Of course we do! Why else do you think we have metal detectors at Stryper concerts? Think about it.
STEWART: I have to, that's an old reference.
OLIVER: Right.
STEWART: Ah... why should religious groups, though, have to bend to people's worst suspicions about them?
OLIVER: Right. Well, because, Jon, there is a difference between what you can do, and what you should do. For instance, you can build a Catholic church next to a playground. Should you? Should you do that, Jon? Should you do that?
STEWART: I don't see any problem with it.
OLIVER: I'm just posing the question. Or, Jon, am I alone in thinking it's a little too soon for that? Let me give you another example, this time, of your people. Jews can wear yarmulkes on Good Friday to celebrate the day you successfully murdered our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's your right to do that, Jon. That's your right to wear that. But no one would actually be so insensitive as to actually do it.
STEWART: Jews... we, actually, many, do wear their yarmulkes on Good Friday.
OLIVER: Well, no, sure, the radical extremists, mind you. But the moderate peaceful Jews know to tone it down on such a sensitive occasion.
STEWART: We, we... oh, well, I... can we wear them on Christmas?
OLIVER: Jon, it's one day! We're just asking you not to wear them for one day. One day! One day of the year that Jews cannot wear their murder caps!
STEWART: They're not called murder caps.
OLIVER: That's all we're asking. One day.
STEWART: They're yarmulkes!
OLIVER: One day!
STEWART: They're kippahs!
OLIVER: It's not that big a deal.
STEWART: It's just... it's a... I find this offensive!
OLIVER: Oh.
STEWART: This is offensive!!
OLIVER: Well, that's the thing. Too bad, Jon. This is America, where speech, unlike religion, is completely protected.
STEWART: Yeah, but perhaps, perhaps, it shouldn't be this way. For instance, if these religious issues can be qualified, perhaps, I'm just thinking back to the Revolution, the Boston Massacre, those types of things. Do you think it's OK for you to go around with a British accent? Isn't that a little insensitive? Isn't that in some ways... I mean, you, for instance, is it too soon to have your stupid fucking accent in my, what I consider and I think many Americans would consider, my hallowed ears?
OLIVER: Oh, whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.... First of all, five people isn't a massacre, Jon. That is barely a plowing accident.
STEWART: No, that's not true.
OLIVER: Please, please. Second of all, you know what? Perhaps you're right. Or... perhaps... you should GO FUCK YOURSELF! (in bad Jersey accent) GO FUCK YOURSELF!!! GET OUTTA HERE!!
Sadly, the sentiment that Jon and John were brutally mocking with the Catholic church reference is something that seems to be shared by a vast majority of Americans. I think Jed is being waaaaaay too optimistic that the GOP is overplaying their hand here. This nation has shown time and time again, that left to our own devices, we're very adept and cruel at taking away the rights of minorities when given a chance (see: Prop. 8). Thank God it isn't, but if the cultural center near Ground Zero were actually put to a vote, whether it be of New York City residents, or the entire state, or the whole country, I'd bet that the proposal to build it would go down in flames by a double-digit margin. I just don't see the political blowback for the GOP on this, other than from Republican Muslims. (And I had no idea Grover Norquist's wife is Muslim.)
In this sense, it seems our politicians are just pandering to the supermajority that doesn't want the cultural center there, even when they believe Muslims have the right to build one there, instead of defending the First Amendment to the hilt.
But if anything, ask yourselves the uncomfortable question of why poll after poll shows a clear supermajority of Americans in opposition to the idea of a mosque being built near Ground Zero. And would we feel differently if it were a person or group that liberals despised? For example, if he gets the permit, Glenn Beck has the right to hold that rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, right? Are we being hypocrites here if we say that while he has the right to do so, he shouldn't?
Discuss.