You read that right.
Kerry Picket of The Washington Times notes an alarming radio interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In it, Pelosi calls for an investigation–presumably, by Congress–of the massive grassroots opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque.
She said:
There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City.
As for Pelosi’s comments, there are several issues at play here–or, should I say, several different reasons to be outraged. (We’ll cover most of them here at Big Peace.) Here are a couple:
1. Why not investigate the funding of a $100 million mosque–sorry, “cultural center”– when we’ve got a pretty good feeling the money is coming from nations who (like Saudi Arabia) adhere to Shariah as the law of the land?
Aside: So are we not supposed to be curious about funding for cultural centers? Any cultural centers? Is that what’s “un-American” today? Or does that reasoning only hold if we’re calling it a mosque?
Nancy Pelosi on a goodwill mission to one of the most brutal and bloodthirsty tyrants in the Middle East, Bashar al-Assad. The trip came barely two years after Assad murdered Rafic Hariri, the Lebanese former Prime Minister and outspoken critic of Syria’s iron grip on his country.
2. It’s about time the 70% of Americans opposed to the Ground Zero Mosque–including majorities of Democrats and independents–came to grips with the fact that the Left despises you. Conservatives have known for a while now that there’s no more hyperbole left in their quiver; the smallest deviation from the Party orthodoxy is met with a hail of accusations of foul intent and moral depravity. If you think you can have an honest disagreement about policy, you’re dead wrong. The Age of Obama has ushered-in a time of political demagogy that’s stunning and disgusting the average American.
3. Pelosi said, “I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded.” Who’s she joining?
4. This desire to investigate and harass opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque sounds strangely familiar. Over the last 20 years, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)– comprised of patrons of CAIR and so many Muslim Brotherhood front groups–has been pushing for criminalization of criticism of Islam or anything that amounts to “blasphemy” against any aspect of Islam (including Mohammad, Shariah, etc.). Appallingly, Barack Obama has co-sponsored, with Egypt, a like-minded resolution in the United Nations that free expression “may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights and reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order, or public health and morals.” (That would be Islam’s “reputation” and Shariah-based “morals.”) For more, see Nat Hentoff’s piece, “United Nations forbids defaming religion, specifically Islam.”
In 1984, Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick pilloried the motley crew of radical leftists gathered at that year’s Democratic National Convention as enamored with “San Francisco values.” It was shorthand for showing just how out of touch the Left is with the great majority of Americans. You can now add a breathless contempt for 70% of the country into that brew.