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Conservatives Fight Over Islam
NewsMax.com ^ | Feb. 20, 2003 | Wes Vernon

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.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: cair; gaffney; norquist; yusuf
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To: Fred Mertz
Gee, maybe we think slandering White House aides is wrong. Did you stop to think of that? Or is the concept of right and wrong confusing you?
141 posted on 02/20/2003 8:41:42 PM PST by hchutch ("Last suckers crossed, Syndicate shot'em up" - Ice-T, "I'm Your Pusher")
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To: Southflanknorthpawsis
Maybe you'll get what you deserve.

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?

142 posted on 02/20/2003 8:41:57 PM PST by aristeides
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To: Howlin
"The people who say these things about Bush are totally clueless"

Say hello to TLBSHOW.

Of course TBLBLOWS knows all about Bush's terrorist friends. LOL

143 posted on 02/20/2003 8:43:01 PM PST by Jorge
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To: TLBSHOW
Like I said what has happened to all of you? This isn't the way we solved problems before

This is all because Gaffney is bitter at Norquist

144 posted on 02/20/2003 8:43:17 PM PST by Mo1 (DC Chapter .. Patriots Rally for America IV .. on Saturday, March 1st)
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To: Fred Mertz
You'd be best advised to listen to TLB on occasion.

You might learn something

Fred, it's not too late.

WALK TO THE LIGHT!

145 posted on 02/20/2003 8:43:23 PM PST by cyncooper (God Be With President Bush)
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To: Fred Mertz
Oh puhleeeeze. We all know that you are a lonely and pitiful desperado, but trying to make something out of a typo.

I guess watching paint dry made you too sleepy, huh?

146 posted on 02/20/2003 8:44:28 PM PST by Southflanknorthpawsis
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To: hchutch
When people have called you on questionable tactics, you've attacked them. I'm sick of your tactics, and so are others.

Neocons about to conduct another purge?

Never did get over that Trotskyist stuff, did you guys?

147 posted on 02/20/2003 8:44:54 PM PST by aristeides
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To: TLBSHOW
This has been all about Grover and all the bots want to make it about The President, I'd like to know why?

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.

148 posted on 02/20/2003 8:45:37 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: aristeides
Do you think that unsubstantiated allegations and smears are acceptable tactics? Maybe they are for the Clintons, but I don't think so.

Where is the proof for Gaffney's claims? Two Freepers who HEARD his comments at CPAC have posted about them, and they back Norquist's side of this argument, or at least understand why he may have gone over the top.

Gaffney is not an innocent who has been wronged, IMO.
149 posted on 02/20/2003 8:46:47 PM PST by hchutch ("Last suckers crossed, Syndicate shot'em up" - Ice-T, "I'm Your Pusher")
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To: aristeides
If you interpreted that as a threat you must be a sniveling little paranoid weenie sitting in a corner.

I won't even bother to tell you what it meant. I'll just let you tremble with fear. Idiot !!!!!!!!!!

150 posted on 02/20/2003 8:47:06 PM PST by Southflanknorthpawsis
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To: Jorge
Of course TBLBLOWS knows all about Bush's terrorist friends.

There are pictures, in case you missed that element of the story.

151 posted on 02/20/2003 8:47:29 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: aristeides
It's better than tolerating smear tactics.

If that makes me a neocon, then so be it.
152 posted on 02/20/2003 8:47:58 PM PST by hchutch ("Last suckers crossed, Syndicate shot'em up" - Ice-T, "I'm Your Pusher")
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To: Mo1; Fred Mertz; Sabertooth; Howlin
no howlin made it about the president even after she was freepmailed it wasn't. blame her not me. fred and sabertooth and you know I am telling the truth.
You made it about the President and if he is stupid enough to take advice from Grover and if he still does after this then it is about him and that is not my fault it will be his.
153 posted on 02/20/2003 8:48:44 PM PST by TLBSHOW (God Speed as Angels trending upward dare to fly Tribute to the Risk Takers)
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To: Fred Mertz
You mean like the picture of Todd standing with Ann Coulter?

Do you think they're friends?

154 posted on 02/20/2003 8:49:27 PM PST by Howlin
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To: TLBSHOW; aristeides
That's the way it is, TLB.

Now, I'm going to depart from this thread.
155 posted on 02/20/2003 8:50:22 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: Howlin
Do you think they're friends?

Mercy no. If that were the case, I'd lose all respect for a lady I greatly admire. ; *)

156 posted on 02/20/2003 8:50:54 PM PST by Southflanknorthpawsis
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To: Howlin
Quit being so petty and obtuse. You must be better than that, I hope.
157 posted on 02/20/2003 8:52:22 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: dagnabbit
Haven't forgotten. Unfortunately, radical Islam is not just a religious belief, it's also a political ideology, specifically, a radical utopian ideology, whose adherents have expansionist designs, and who like other totalitarian adherents (fascists, communists), view violence as an appropriate means to their ends.

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.

158 posted on 02/20/2003 8:53:09 PM PST by Jorge
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To: TLBSHOW; Howlin
no howlin made it about the president even after she was freepmailed it wasn't

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

159 posted on 02/20/2003 8:53:09 PM PST by Mo1 (DC Chapter .. Patriots Rally for America IV .. on Saturday, March 1st)
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To: TLBSHOW
Not to mention the one just busted today was a friend of The Presidents.

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.

160 posted on 02/20/2003 8:53:12 PM PST by CFC__VRWC
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