She Turned Me into a Newt! I Got Better…
I've been enjoying watching Republicans twist themselves in pretzel-like shapes in denouncing the proposed mosque to be built near the World Trade Center site. In the Washington Post, Newt Gingrich- for a time the most prominent Republican in the country- argues that we shouldn't allow a mosque....until churches and synagogues are allowed in Saudi Arabia. Quoth the Newt:
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.
And they lecture us about tolerance.
First, Gingrich's use of 'Islamists and their apologists' here is what's truly arrogantly dishonest. Come on Newt. You know you wanted to say 'liberals'.
Secondly, and more importantly, I find the comparison with Saudi Arabia here baffling. Conservatives are always saying how exceptional the US is, yet here a one of the movement's prominent voices seems to argue that if the House of Saud refuses to allow religious toleration, then we should by extension follow suit. Whatever happened to the idea of rising above the standards set by countries that we quite rightly think of as backward?
To me, that the mosque has stirred up comparatively little outrage is a sign of the health of the American spirit nine years after 9/11- most people just don't care and simply will carry on living their lives. Only demagogues like Gingrich- representing the vanguard of conservative 'thinking' on religion and politics- are truly out of line here.
