Joseph Lieberman, You Don’t Speak for Muslims

Joseph Lieberman is a chameleon-like politician who has weathered many political storms throughout his career. From running as Vice President along with Al Gore to the recent health care reform efforts, he has been a controversial figure. His trajectory has been one of a politician who started out as a liberal progressive but has increasingly taken on the causes and issues of the right-wing.

He has embraced and aligned himself with controversial figures such as Pastor John Hagee,whose Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conferences he has spoken at and attended in the past. He even compared Hagee to Moses! Hagee believes in the Rapture and end times ideology which say Jesus will return to earth and lift all his followers into the clouds and all other human beings will eventually be destroyed in tumultuous chaos. It is an ideology that also states that all the Jews will be annihilated except for a few thousand who convert to Christianity. This is what Pastor John Hagee believes, isn’t it strange for Lieberman to compare him to Moses?

This brings us to our topic today in which John Lieberman casts himself as the spokesperson or analyst who knows the inner feelings of Muslims. Responding to news that President Barack Obama’s administration is no longer using the misnomer “Islamic terrorism,” Lieberman responded by saying “this is not the first time that Obama administration has tried to tiptoe around referring to Islam in its security documents and that it’s time to ‘blow the whistle’ on the trend. ”

The Fox article in its entirety,

Lieberman: Omitting ‘Islamic’ Terrorism from Security Document Dishonest, ‘Offensive’

Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Obama administration Sunday for stripping terms like “Islamic extremism” from a key national security document, calling the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.

The Connecticut independent revealed that he wrote a letter Friday to top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan urging the administration to “identify accurately the ideological source” of the threat against the United States. He wrote that failing to identify “violent Islamist extremism” as the enemy is “offensive.”

The letter was written following reports that the administration was removing religious references from the U.S. National Security Strategy — the document that had described the “ideological conflict” of the early 21st century as “the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism.”

Lieberman told “Fox News Sunday” this isn’t the first time the Obama administration has tried to tiptoe around referring to Islam in its security documents and that it’s time to “blow the whistle” on the trend.

“This is not honest and, frankly, I think it’s hurtful in our relations with the Muslim world,” Lieberman said. “We’re not in a war against Islam. It’s a group of Islamist extremists who have taken the Muslim religion and made it into a political ideology, and I think if we’re not clear about that, we disrespect the overwhelming majority of Muslims who are not extremists.”

Lieberman, in his letter, noted that prior Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon documents also did not refer to “Islamist extremism.” He expressed dismay that the administration’s review of the Fort Hood shooting, in which alleged shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan was said to have had contact with a radical cleric beforehand, omitted the term.

“Unless we’re honest about that, we’re not going to be able to defeat this enemy,” Lieberman told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s absolutely Orwellian and counterproductive to the fight that we’re fighting.” (emphasis mine)

Can you imagine the chutzpah involved in stating that “we disrespect the overwhelming majority of Muslims” by not using terms such as “Islamic extremism.” Hello Joe, Muslims feel disrespected when hypocritical politicians attempt to sully the name of their faith in a way that paints all Muslims as extremists. That is exactly what is done when offensive, wrong and illogical neologisms such as “Islamic extremism” are employed. They shed no light on the problem at hand, instead, it obfuscates the threat to America.

The disclaimer he gives about “we are not in a war against Islam” is an empty statement. It is stating the obvious, but when he then turns around and advocates usage of terms such as “Islamic extremism,” he contradicts himself because he falls into the trap of implying that extremism is intrinsic to Islam. A connection which is as absurd as comparing John Hagee to Moses.

 

Lynne Torgerson Meets some Real Conservatives

Rep. Keith Ellison

Lynne Torgerson, an Independent Conservative who we profiled before as an opportunist who was trying to play off of people’s fears to win votes confirms our suspicions in an interview with some die hard anti-Muslims.

Hart Van Denberg breaks it down.

When you launch an independent campaign to unseat the first American Muslim to ever hold a seat in Congress, and you introduce yourself to the public by saying the guy is unfit for office by tarring him with a guilt-by-association link to Islamic militants, it’s only a matter of time before right-wing Christians with a persecution complex come calling, looking for some action.

And so, over the weekend, Lynn Torgerson was interviewed by a couple of people most folks have never heard of, Babe Huggett and Warner Todd Huston, in an online-only broadcast from BlogTalkRadio called “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Conservatism.” What ensued was ensued was a journey through the two hosts’ dark paranoia.

Sometimes Torgerson went there with them, sometimes she didn’t. Mostly, she had a hard time getting a word in edgewise, as the hosts gradually steered her away from her criticisms of incumbent 5th District Rep. Keith Ellison, and towards an endless attack on Islam. Here are a few highlights:

Ellison and the Council on American Muslim Relations

Torgerson: “He has been a person who has regularly appeared at their fundraisers and CAIR regularly appears at Keith Ellison’s fundraisers. So here we have an elected federal official with too close of ties to a named co-conspirator organization funding terrorism.”

Note: A Texas jury convicted five Holy Land Foundation organizers in 2008 of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas, which the U.S. government has labeled a terrorist organization. CAIR was listed as unindicted co-conspirator in that case, but the link is used by right-wing activists, lawmakers and journalists to paint CAIR as a terrorist front — an accusation the group vehemntley denies.

Ellison has supported CAIR group and spoken at its gatherings aimed at generating better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. He has known the group’s leader since the two were at college together, and has received campaign donations from some CAIR members.

Moderate Muslims

Haggett: Muslims “squeal and they scream for tolerance. And if you criticize them, they immediately accuse you of bigotry. Yet they are the most intolerant of people, correct, when it comes to their religion? They consider themselves superior and either you’ve got to convert or die.”

Torgerson: “I think we have to be careful. There do exist moderate Muslims.”

Immigration

Haggett: “Here’s the problem with moderate Muslims. As long as they are 1 percent or less of the population in any given area, they can be such model citizens. They can be wonderful. They’re just nice and sweet and everything. And then when their numbers increase, to like 2 to 5 percent, they start proselytizing, and then they start pushing, and at 5 percent they get more aggressive. And when you get to 10 percent, like they have in France right now, that’s when the riots start. that’s when the lawlessness starts. That’s when the burning of cars starts — you know its winter season because that’s when the cars are going up in flames. … Should we allow unlimited immigration of Muslms into this country? I don’t think so.”

Torgerson: “Right. I would agree with that position. These are very difficult issues to address. But I do think we do need to limit immigration.”

Note: For a reality-based review of the riots in France, click here.

Infidels

Haggett: “We have to be very careful about letting Muslims in because unfortunately a good Muslim is forbidden by the Koran to live among the infidels unless he intends on using (his) demographics to convert the area he moves to to Islam. So, what do you see as the threat of Islamic sharia law getting established here, because in the UK they’ve had massive Islamic immigration and you start getting Islamic no-go zones where people who are not Muslims literally take their lives in their hands going into these areas. Like firemen. Like ambulance people. They get attacked because they’re not Muslims.”

Huston: “Not only that, but these same communities start pushing for a parallel set of laws. They want to have their own courts. They want to settle their own issues. And unfortunately England has allowed this to happen.”

Torgerson: “Yes, clearly we cannot have in the United States separate sharia courts and separate sharia law. This particular form of radical Islam that cannot be practiced in the United States. All people, no matter what their religion or nationality, in the U.S. have to be subject to the U.S. Constitution.”

Note: The UK sharia courts exist outside the legal system. And here are some basics on Islam.

Death Cult

Haggett: “To me, Islam is a religio-political death cult. So how do you manage to divorce the politics from the religion. Because essentially anytime it imposes its will through sharia it goes from being a religion that somebody practices, you know, within their religious community to a political statement. And that’s the whole aim of Islam, to be dominant in all areas, including politics.”

Torgerson: “These are very difficult issues I think to even grasp and then to formulate into words.”

Subversion

Haggett: “If Islam is so antithetical to the American political system, why are men like Keith Ellison running for, and getting into office? Are they trying to subvert us from within?”

Torgerson: “I’m not sure.”

Note: Later, when asked why she stalled on that answer, she said she hadn’t ever thought about whether Ellison’s faith is actually trying to subvert us from within and added that no evidence of any such nefarious plot actually exists. Torgerson has hinted before of some shadowy effort by Muslims to take over the world. But, maybe because she’s a lawyer and sensed too many assertions masquerading as questions wrapped into one, Torgerson balked in the interview with Haggett.

Lawfare

Haggett: “It doesn’t matter what your background is. The first time that anyone — you could be a saint, you could walk on water — the first time you say something a Muslim doesn’t like, they’ll immediately shout “bigotry” at you. I mean, it’s just the way they work. As a lawyer, what are your thoughts on the Islamic practice of Muslims using lawfare (sic) in their cultural jihad to overthrow western civilization in general and America in particular?”

Torgerson: “Did you say ‘lawfare?’”

Haggett: “‘Lawfare.’ It is a thing that Muslims do — especially the cultural jihadists — when they want to get sharia established, they’ll start bringing lawsuits. It can be the most frivolous lawsuits. It doesn’t matter. But they will bring lawsuits against anybody who speaks out against them, or like the wearing of the hijab. My research has shown that the muslim veil, that the women wear, is not a requirement in their religion. Yet they will force the issue and claim it is, and then sue if you try to say, ‘no, you can’t wear that in here,’ because it establishes a hostile atmosphere for other muslim women who do not wear it. Right?”

Torgerson: “With regard to the law I think we need to do exactly what we are doing, which is expose what this radicalized form of Islam is trying to accomplish and how the are trying to accomplish it. One is through terrorism and one is through culture. And to expose that is to bring to light the infringements on, I think, our freedoms of speech. We need to educate America that this is not a left or right issue.”

Ibrahim Hooper

Haggett: “The head of CAIR wants sharia law to sub-plant the Constitution.”

Torgerson: “Yes I believe that statement has been attributed to Ibrahim Hooper”

Note: Nihad Awad is the Executive Director and co-founder of CAIR. Hooper is CAIR’s national communications director. A Muslim convert, he once worked as a worked as a news producer at KSTP-TV.

The full interview is here.