ByJerry Higgins
Within the last month, we have discussed the GOP Presidential candidates on this blog, here and here. As has been highlighted, the candidates level of regard for people who aren’t Judeo-Christians is highly questionable, to say the least.
Taking this point further, an example that seems to have passed by relatively unnoticed is Michele Bachmann’s own connections to major players in the American Islamophobia community. On April 1, 2009, for instance, Bachmann conducted an interview with frontline Islamophobe Pamela Geller.
Geller is the co-founder and executive director of the organizations Stop the Islamification of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Her usual partner-in-ignorance is Robert Spencer. (See more on them here and here.)
In her interview with Bachmann, the two women spoke critically of President Obama’s opening four months in office. In a discussion that was mostly based around tax and economic issues, the two eventually wound their way to Islam. Geller claimed that Obama is conducting a war on American sovereignty, and that the United Nations is, of course, a front for the Organisation of Islamic Conference. At the end of this mini rant by Geller, Bachmann wholeheartedly agreed with Geller’s declarations.
They also discussed the appointment of James Cole to the position of Deputy Attorney General within the State Department. Bachmann says his appointment is frightening because Cole has said that, in some instances, Sharia Law should be invoked. Sharia Law, for those unfamiliar, is how Muslims employ their religious teachings to differentiate between what is halal (good) or haraam (bad). (This is similar to how Jewish people employ Halakha.)
The Islamophobes’ scaremongering has some people fearing that any respect for Sharia Law, much less those who practice it, will eventually lead to the death of the US Constitution.
Anyway, in 2010 Michele Bachmann again met up with Pamela Geller, this time at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Annie Taylor Award night.
David Horowitz, CEO of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, who was a Marxist in his youth, is an “activist” who’s throwing much financial weight behind the far-right. He represents the money behind Jihad Watch and its director, Robert Spencer, reportedly paying Spencer over $130,000 a year to write and maintain the Jihad Watch website. Horowitz himself believes that all Muslim student groups in the US are run by the Muslim Brotherhood, and he has even been quoted as saying that these student groups were formed by the terrorist group Hamas.
It is comforting to see that Michele Bachmann, a GOP Presidential candidate, is keeping such esteemed company.
Bachmann’s, who’s hatred of the LGBT community is the stuff of political legend, fear of Muslims should really come to no one’s surprise.
After she agrees with Geller’s pronouncements of Islamophobia, Geller mentions that “It’s going to be a long four years.” Yet again, Bachmann robotically responds, “Yea, I agree,” then further insisting that “this can be instructive to Republicans to never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever again give in to the temptation of wanting to be liked.”
It’s clear that temptations rooted in anger and misunderstanding will be the guiding lights of Representative Bachmann’s presidential campaign. What’s less clear is just how many Americans will be sucked in by her hard-line proclamations of fear and separation.