Posted on 09/21/2005 10:58:47 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
A coalition of Muslim and civil libertarian organizations Friday demanded that Gov. Mitt Romney apologize for his comments last week, when he suggested that some mosques should be wiretapped.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts delivered a letter, which was co-signed by 21 other organizations, saying that Romney's comments characterized Muslims living in the U.S. as potential or actual terrorists.
"Governor Romney, the safety of Massachusetts is built upon the trust all residents -- citizens and immigrants -- have in their government," the letter stated. "Your willingness to profile and scapegoat an entire community based on religious affiliation only serves to erode trust and increase fear."
Romney said in a Wednesday speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., that U.S. counterterrorism efforts need to be focused on tracking Muslims that come into the U.S.
"How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who've come from terrorist-sponsored states? Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them?" the governor said, according to a transcript provided by his press aides.
He continued, "How about people in settings, mosques for instance, that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror? Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what's going on? Are we seeing who's coming in? Are we seeing who's coming out? Are we eavesdropping, carrying out surveillance on those individuals from places that sponsor domestic terror?"
While the Anti-Arab Discrimination Committee said Romney's remarks were "dangerous" and asked him to retract them, Romney told reporters that he stood by his comments.
"When it comes to protecting our citizens, there is no place for political correctness," Romney said at an unrelated press conference. "We should be doing more in terms of intelligence and counterterrorism in the state to protect ourselves from terrorists. We spend a lot of our resources thinking about response, but response can't protect us. We have to be able to prevent attacks."
Romney said that if U.S. intelligence officials have information that a person is "preaching messages of hate and terror," then there should be sufficient grounds to conduct surveillance on them in their places of worship.
"Surely, we have to recognize that some of this has gone on in mosques in the past," Romney said. "Most mosques are teaching doctrines of love and consideration, but there have been places of extremism where certain teachers have been identified as having been involved in or led to terrorist attacks. Let's not pretend that's not the case."
Merrie Najimy, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts, said Romney's comments "outraged" many Muslims, who feel as though they have been under surveillance and profiled since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
"When you do blanket surveillance without specific intelligence, then the whole community becomes suspect," said Najimy, who is also a teacher at Thoreau Elementary School in Concord. "When the leader of this state puts out statements like that, it encourages fear and hate toward a community they don't understand. It encourages hate crimes and general meanness."
Najimy, who is Lebanese, said she does not think American society has "come a long way" since the attacks of four years ago, and that her organization still receives calls from Muslim-Americans who say they've experienced job discrimination or harassment.
"If this is a man who's going to lead this country, and this is what he has in mind, then our civil liberties are at risk. We run the risk of becoming a police state," Najimy said.
Among the co-signers of the letter to Romney were the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the Islamic Society of Boston, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, The Interfaith Council of the Islamic Council of New England, and the Catholic Church of the Americas.
A coalition of Muslim and civil libertarian organizations
Why can't the writer condense 8 words into 4 characters ---> ACLU
I'd add those organizations to the list.
Hopefully Romney will not apologize and stick to his guns! We should have wiretapped these mosques a long time ago!
More press like this for Mitt will do nothing but thrust him in the forefront of the conservative movement, not necessarily the GOP, and make him one of the candidates in '08.
"When it comes to protecting our citizens, there is no place for political correctness," Romney said at an unrelated press conference. "We should be doing more in terms of intelligence and counterterrorism in the state to protect ourselves from terrorists. We spend a lot of our resources thinking about response, but response can't protect us. We have to be able to prevent attacks."
_____________________
"Response can't protect us!" Go, Mitt!
More press like this for Mitt will do nothing but thrust him in the forefront of the conservative movement, not necessarily the GOP, and make him one of the candidates in '08.
Uh, no, I think that a lack of willingness to out the extremists in your midst serves to erode trust and increase fear.
I hope he sticks to it and really sounds the warning cry in the public square.
The reason the Japanses were placed in the camps, becomes more evident everyday. Sad but true, we did have to protect the country. Still the Loyal Japanese citizens joined the fight against the Japanese Empire that threatened OUR country.
I wonder if any Muslims would do the same if placed in the camps??
Equal time for Christians and The Bible, Muslims!
Romney for President.
Romney said that if U.S. intelligence officials have information that a person is "preaching messages of hate and terror," then there should be sufficient grounds to conduct surveillance on them in their places of worship.
He comes up a little short here. Any individuals exercising their 1st amendment priviledges in the above manner should be treated as enemycombatants outof uniform, immediately taken into custody immediately transported to GITMO for "wall to wall" interrogation. Following interrogation, shot as espionage agents.
This would be an effective 1st step in cleaning up the mess created by our PC politicians and bureaucrats over the past 3-4 decades allowing unlimited entry by the followers of the demonic cult of islam. There should be no place in western civilization for this malignancy.
Maybe the GOP, but conservatives will continue to avoid him like the plague.
A couple phrases do not a Rino unmake.
The day after Simon Wiesenthal dies and you're already talking about putting concentrations of people in camps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.