Posted on 02/20/2003 4:19:54 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Conservatives Fight Over Islam
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003
WASHINGTON – A fierce, nearly three-week running battle of accusations and counter-accusations between two conservative icons has brought to the front burner a long-festering debate among President Bush’s supporters on how far the White House should go in seeking Islamic support.
Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, has accused two White House officials – Ali Talbah and his predecessor Sukhail Khan – of putting President Bush in the company of “people who have made no secret of their sympathy for terrorists, provided them financial support, excused their murderous attacks and/or sought to impede the prosecution of the war against them.” Gaffney reiterated these charges in his Washington Times column Tuesday.
Gaffney’s initial comment in this flap came at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Jan. 31.
His remarks sparked a stinging rebuttal from Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and one-time confidant of Newt Gingrich when the latter was speaker of the House.
“There is no place in the conservative movement for racial prejudice, religious bigotry or ethnic hatred,” Norquist told Gaffney in a Feb. 5 letter. He went on to accuse his fellow conservative of attacking each of the two White House officials because of their Muslim faith.
Norquist then banished Gaffney from further attendance at his influential coalition meetings that he holds every Wednesday, pending an accepted apology to Tulbah and Sukhail. He added, “It is important that we, as conservatives, stand up against bigotry, racism, and religious hatred whenever it raises its ugly head.”
Gaffney replied with a three-and-a-half page single-spaced letter to Norquist that offered no apology. Gaffney not only refused to apologize but also cited chapter and verse of quotes from radical Islamic fundamentalists (Wahhabists) who had been received cordially at the White House.
He also stressed that he had taken pains to “express distinction between such Islamists, and what is, I believe, the majority of Muslims in this country whom the former [Wahhabists] are determined to recruit, intimidate, and dominate through a variety of techniques.”
The CSP boss took Norquist to task for his involvement with Islamic Institute, through which, Gaffney argued, Norquist and his associates had been instrumental in “promoting and facilitating Wahabbis’ access to the executive and legislative branches of government” and thereby “could prove politically damaging and strategically detrimental to our cause and the well-being of our country.”
Norquist says Islamic Institute “was formed to promote within the Muslim world the fact that the Koran and Islam are perfectly consistent with a free and open society.”
In an interview with NewsMax.com, Norquist said he wrote his letter because the two young White House Muslims whom Gaffney criticized were merely underlings carrying out decisions made by more senior White House officials.
“He decided to single out the kid who was a Muslim in both cases, even though the people making decisions are Presbyterians and Catholics, not Muslims,” the ATR president said.
In his latest column, Gaffney reports that one Muslim representative in a group visiting the Oval Office just days after 9/11, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, had said two days before the attack: “This country is facing a terrible fate. This country stands condemned.”
Why FBI Couldn’t Find Him
When FBI agents visited Yusuf’s home, they were stunned to learn from his wife that he was unavailable because he was with the president.
However, Norquist, while “not vouching for anyone,” said the Muslims who had access to the president passed muster with the Secret Service and the FBI or they wouldn’t have been there.
“If they were a security risk, not if they said something stupid, if they were a security risk or a problem ... the Secret Service would pull them out,” he said.
Gaffney describes as “bizarre” FBI Director Robert Mueller’s decision to speak to the American Muslim Council last year despite that group’s “long record of activities hostile to the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war on terror.”
Walking the sometimes unclear lines between peace-loving Muslim Americans and those who pose a threat is a dilemma symbolized by the bitter dispute between Gaffney and Norquist, two well-known conservatives in the Bush constituency.
Ooh, that sounds like a threat. Do you want this board to become even more monotonous in terms of the amount of dissent it allows?
Say hello to TLBSHOW.
Of course TBLBLOWS knows all about Bush's terrorist friends. LOL
This is all because Gaffney is bitter at Norquist
You might learn something
Fred, it's not too late.
WALK TO THE LIGHT!
I guess watching paint dry made you too sleepy, huh?
Neocons about to conduct another purge?
Never did get over that Trotskyist stuff, did you guys?
It's fairly evident for all to see. That's the good thing about a public forum...even if we are in the Smokey Backroom.
I won't even bother to tell you what it meant. I'll just let you tremble with fear. Idiot !!!!!!!!!!
There are pictures, in case you missed that element of the story.
Do you think they're friends?
Mercy no. If that were the case, I'd lose all respect for a lady I greatly admire. ; *)
It's my enemy; and it should be your's too.
This is what many people say about fundamentalist Christians because some kooks who claim to be Christians bomb abortion clinics, shoot abortion doctors, encourage the murder of homosexuals etc.
I am a Christian. Don't tell me who should be my enemy.
BULL ... this has NOTHING to do with Howlin .. This is about YOUR posts
YOU are the one that has been going from thread to thread posting pictures and quotes from articles of something that happened over a year ago
If you are referring to Sami Al Arian, I have to demand that you back this up. I live within 2 hours of USF and spend a lot of work time in Tampa. The Al Arian controversy has been going on for years, and I have followed it to some extent. I haven't ONCE heard President Bush's name mentioned in connection with him. And believe me, if the media down here thought they could do damage to the President by linking him to Al Arian, they would be joined at the hip in the public's mind.
I'm waiting for your proof.
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