Apparently, Hating Muslims Is Now A Family Value

The American Family Association has ramped up the nation's anti-Muslim sentiment yet again.

Doug Mataconis · · 25 comments

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association has declared war on every Muslim in the United States:

Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for Ground Zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government. Each one is a potential jihadist recruitment and training center, and determined to implement the “Grand Jihad” of which Andy McCarthy has written. Here is the strategy, in their own words, in the words of “An Explanatory Memorandum” circulated by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1991 which outlines “the General Strategic Goal” for the Islamic movement “in North America.” Read it and shudder: Muslims “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions…It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny…” (emphasis mine) Because of this subversive ideology, Muslims cannot claim religious freedom protections under the First Amendment. They are currently using First Amendment freedoms to make plans to destroy the First Amendment altogether. There is no such thing as freedom of religion in Islam, and it is sheer and utter folly for Americans to delude themselves into thinking otherwise.

The major problem with Fischer’s screed is the fact that he ignores the fact that there cannot possibly be a connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and American mosque projects such as the so-called “Ground Zero” mosque:

I take it there’s a document called “An Explanatory Memorandum” attributed to the Muslim Brotherhood that has taken on a role analogous to that of the infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The document is not necessarily fraudulent; the Muslim Brotherhood is an extremist Sunni transnational organization that might very well be planning for world domination. Of course, they are about as likely to achieve this goal as Pinkie and the Brain. And the Muslim Brotherhood does not speak for all of Islam. It doesn’t even speak for all Sunni jihadists; I understand there is a nasty rivalry going on between MB and al Qaeda. Someone here had said that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the main guy behind the Cordoba House Islamic center, is a Sufi. This is a detail I have yet to see in a news story, but I can confirm it is true. He is the imam of a Sufi mosque in lower Manhattan, about ten blocks north of the proposed Cordoba House site. Thus, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. I can say this because there is no way the Muslim Brotherhood, or al Qaeda, or the Taliban, or any other organization dedicated to enforcing dogmatic Sunni Islam would have anything to do with a Sufi. In fact, Sufis in the Middle East have suffered terribly from attacks by Sunni terrorists.

Of course to someone who sees all Muslims as “the enemy” there is no distinguishing between sects and there is, of course, no such thing as a Muslim who doesn’t agree with the murderous ideology of men like Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Atta. It’s same type of mindset that doesn’t see a distinction between a black man who commits a rape and African-Americans in general.

None of this should come as a surprise, the AFA has been a font of Islamophobia for some time now.

Back in November, for example, Fischer called for the expulsion of all Muslims from the United States military in the wake of Major Nidal Hassan’s rampage at Fort Hood. And, that’s not all:

The AFA, a non-profit that has a strong presence in the social conservative community, and is even a co-sponsor of the Value Voters summit. AFA describes its purpose as follows: The American Family Association represents and stands for traditional family values and exists to motivate and equip citizens to reform our culture to reflect Biblical truth on which it was founded. And Fischer has a lurid history of writing some pretty inflammatory stuff on AFA blog, such as that the U.S. should impose “legal sanctions for homosexual behavior.” And, as former TPMer Zachary Roth reported in May, Fischer said in a radio broadcast that Hitler used gay soldiers because they “basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after.”

Fischer’s attitude contrasts quite starkly with the sentiments that George Washington expressed in a 1790 letter to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island:

To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island. Gentlemen, While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens. The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and happy people. The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy. G. Washington

Apparently, in Fischer’s world at least, bigotry is a family value, it is not, however, an American one.