It isn’t enough for Republicans to call on “peaceful Muslims” to “refudiate” the mosque and community center proposed for a site near Ground Zero, or to imply that the funding for it comes from terrorist organizations, or even to tell American Muslims that their religious freedoms should be held hostage to the decisions of the Saudi government. Nope. The new Republican talking point used to try to stop the construction of the community center and mosque — and to make political hay of that opposition — is that Ground Zero is their Auschwitz, and the Muslims who seek to build anywhere near it should know better, just like some nice nuns did in the eighties.Former Bush speechwriter William McGurn fired the largest opening salvo in this barrage of criticism in the pages of the Wall Street Journal in concert with former Bush adviser Dan Senor’s OpEd yesterday morning, followed by by the anti-mosque advocate Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Fox News and former Reagan Education Secretary and Bush I Drug Czar William Bennett on CNN. National Review editor and Fox News contributor Rich Lowry made reference to the parallel on Monday as well. All seemed to be speaking from the same script, referencing events long since passed with which most views and readers would be unfamiliar.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=123100