Couldn’t disagree with you more. I think absent WTC 93 & 9/11 most Americans could care less about islam & muslims. Before the government decided we “needed” tons of muslim refugees and immigrants, islam was barely on the radar. The truth is, the combination of the above has awoken a lot of people to the fact that there is evil in the world and it wants to kill, convert or subjugate them regardless of what they or their governments have done or not done.
My biggest problem with Paul is that he ignores this aspect of the equation. Which means he is either dumb beyond belief (which is a disqualifier). OR, he is deliberately covering it up (traitor, also a disqualifier). I suspect that much like Jimmy Carter, Paul receives middle east “funding”. I would love to see that investigated/disclosed.
Bigger question after he said this is why is he helping islam in any way in any forum? Who in the world was he trying to impress with this? What votes does he get ? How does “smearing the bottom rung candidate help him?
Where's the disagreement? I never said that BEFORE 9/11, we hated Muslims, or BEFORE we had such massive Muslim immigration to the US, we hated Muslims. Quite the opposite, the sympathy for "the plight of the Bosnian Muslims" and "the poor Kosovo Muslims" was overwhelming in this country, which was the reason so many got into the US in the first place, without the American public objecting. I am saying that since 9/11, we have learned to hate them -- and lying about that serves no purpose.
How does “smearing the bottom rung candidate help him?
I don't think that it was a smear -- I am very sure that he believes it to be true. What it did was give context to his statement to her in the debate about, "To declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims, and to say all Muslims are the same..." If he would have said to Romney or Gigrich, it would have been off-base. But he said as a response to Bachmann because he knows she hates Muslims. She lied (has repeatedly misstated in spite of repeatedly being corrected by the media) and baited him, and he fell into the trap in that debate with her. In the Leno interview, he just provided the context as to why he said what he said to her. That "bottom tier candidate" was not going to take him down. Can't blame him for that. He's in this to win.
Like it or not (which admittedly I don't), there 1.8 million Muslims in this country and they are Americans or on their way to being Americans. That's a fact we have to live with, because they aren't going away. So we have a few choices -- send them all back, which I'd have no problem with but you and I know is never going to happen -- treat them as a "special group" with outreach and all the BS jockeying for power and influence via CAIR -- or treat Amerian Muslims as simply "Americans" like anyone else, no special favors, no special status, no derision or exaltation to "victim" status, no special classrooms for Muslim prayer -- "You are just an ordinary American, act like it but go to jail if you commit a crime against us". The latter is what he is going for. Given we aren't going to do #1 and we've tried #2 and it hasn't worked, what other choice is there?
Likewise, there are Muslims in the world whether we like it or not, and unless we are up for a Crusade, then we have to deal with them diplomatically, too. Again, we aren't prepared to blow them off the map, so why antagonize them with rhetoric when it does no good?
I really don't think that he is like Carter and has ME funding, largely because he makes a point of cutting off foreign aid to "Israel's enemies too" (read "Muslim countries") Graft-ridden ME potentates would not be at all happy with that, so they wouldn't have much reason to support him if they aren't going to get anything out of it -- $$$ really is an even more powerful motivator than Israel-hatred to their leadership.