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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: Howlin
Here's the link to the story

I think the author makes some leaps hare, and I think the title of the piece is an absolute cheap shot at Bush. In her defense, she wrote it right after 9/11, when a lot of pundits were writing emotional stuff that some probably wish they could take back. And, significantly, she mentions that Bush had Abdullah Al Arian (Sami's son) expelled from a post 9/11 White House meeting when it became clearer who he really was.

I do have to say that Candidate Bush was very poorly served by his advisors - the FBI has known about Sami Al Arian for many years - they just weren't able to do much about him until after 9/11. This guy is plugged in tight, and it took 9/11 to change the political climate sufficiently to drain this particular swamp.

241 posted on 02/20/2003 9:57:05 PM PST by CFC__VRWC
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To: hchutch
What is the slander?
242 posted on 02/20/2003 9:57:43 PM PST by Jael (Thy Word is Truth!)
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To: Howlin
Thanks Howlin, I found a link on o'reilly's website. I haveto tell you it makes me sick. I take it President Bush hasn't made a statement about this yet?
243 posted on 02/20/2003 9:57:48 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: Jorge
Condemning Bush for associating in anyway with Muslims.

Step away from the Straw man!

244 posted on 02/20/2003 9:58:37 PM PST by dagnabbit
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
I saw part of the o'reilly interview. I wish I could remember all of the details...like what it was about the professor that got under o'reilly's collar

O'Reilly asked the Professor about some people and if he knew about their background .. and the Professor denied knowing the problems

O'Reilly ended the interview telling the Prefessor that if he was the CIA that he would follow the Professors every move he made ..

Looks like they did

245 posted on 02/20/2003 9:59:44 PM PST by Mo1 (DC Chapter .. Patriots Rally for America IV .. on Saturday, March 1st)
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
He's not going to; this is a spat between two ego driven conservatives.

Most of this stuff happened a couple of years ago. This is just something that the interent and the news are doing.

246 posted on 02/20/2003 10:00:01 PM PST by Howlin
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To: Howlin
How has he exploited difference when the people he is confering with are tied to Hamas?
247 posted on 02/20/2003 10:00:30 PM PST by Jael (Thy Word is Truth!)
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To: Mo1
So the bottom line is the President didn't have a clue, and Gaffney thinks Norquist did! I think I figured it out!
248 posted on 02/20/2003 10:01:27 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: CFC__VRWC
And, significantly, she mentions that Bush had Abdullah Al Arian (Sami's son) expelled from a post 9/11 White House meeting when it became clearer who he really was.

And then apologized profusely for that expulsion.

249 posted on 02/20/2003 10:01:55 PM PST by dagnabbit
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To: Jael
How has he exploited difference when the people he is confering with are tied to Hamas?

I didn't make that statement.

And don't bother posting to me again. I'm not replying again.

250 posted on 02/20/2003 10:02:36 PM PST by Howlin
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To: CFC__VRWC; Howlin
"the FBI has known about Sami Al Arian for many years -"

I find this very strange..

251 posted on 02/20/2003 10:03:09 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: Jael
Good question.
252 posted on 02/20/2003 10:05:02 PM PST by dagnabbit
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
What's so strange is that EVERYBODY has suspected him for years, even connnected the dots; I don't know whether they left him out there to watch him, or just didn't have the proof.

He really worked his way into the system though; this PC crap is part of the problem. Wouldn't want to offend the people who are out to destroy us, would we?

253 posted on 02/20/2003 10:05:04 PM PST by Howlin
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To: Fred Mertz
I think I have missed something. Who was arrested today?
254 posted on 02/20/2003 10:06:05 PM PST by Jael (Thy Word is Truth!)
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
As for as I know when this was first brought up over a year ago .. no the President didn't know

255 posted on 02/20/2003 10:07:12 PM PST by Mo1 (DC Chapter .. Patriots Rally for America IV .. on Saturday, March 1st)
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To: Howlin
What a pathetic sorry situation. I could not believe it when the news reported the guy was the LEADER of the north american whatever it is.
256 posted on 02/20/2003 10:07:27 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
like what it was about the professor that got under o'reilly's collar.

Probably the matter of the prof leading a chant of "Death to Israel" at an event that was on tape.

President Bush never hung out with the guy and fully approves of today's arrests.

257 posted on 02/20/2003 10:07:29 PM PST by cyncooper (God Be With President Bush)
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To: Mo1
Howlin said it was put together a long time ago. If it was, the President should have been told. :( I'm shocked that he wasn't.
258 posted on 02/20/2003 10:08:02 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: Fred Mertz
So what the heck..why choose sides?
259 posted on 02/20/2003 10:09:18 PM PST by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops....)
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To: CFC__VRWC
Isn't the head of the CIA a democrat? Still?
260 posted on 02/20/2003 10:09:58 PM PST by Jael (Thy Word is Truth!)
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