NEW YORK TIMES LETS ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOT SLIDE

Damien Cave has an article in The New York Times about Terry Jones, the Florida preacher who plans to burn Korans on September 11 (and by the way, whatever their thoughts on the "Ground Zero mosque," could one or two "responsible" Republicans possibly bestir themselves to condemn that?). Cave is pretty good about listing the many signs of increasing anti-Muslim rage in Florida, but he lets a rising star of the GOP (and, I think, quite possibly a Sarah Palin running mate in 2012) slide:

Some of the opposition predated the controversy about the proposed Islamic center near ground zero. In March, for example, Allen West, a retired Army officer running for Congress in Broward County, told a group of supporters that "Islam is not a religion" but rather "a vicious enemy" that was "infiltrating" the United States. (A campaign spokesman said last week that Mr. West meant to refer to radical Islam, not Islam generally.)

The hell he did.

What does Allen West think about Islam "generally"? Earlier this year, he appeared on a panel and was asked by a RedState blogger whether jihadists commit violence because they have a "warped" view of Islam. This is what he thinks about that, and about Islam in general:

Let me say this, and I don't care being popular whatever. The first thing you got to do is to study and to understand who you're up against. And you must realize that this is not a religion you are fighting against, you are fighting against a theo-political belief system and construct. You're fighting something that's been doing this thing since 622 AD, the 7th century,1388 years.

You want to dig up Charles Martel and ask him why he was fighting the Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732? You want to ask the Venetian fleet at La Ponto, why they were fighting a Muslim fleet in 1571? You want to ask the Germanic and Austrian knights why they were fighting at the Gate of Vienna in 1683? You want to ask people what happened at Constantinople and why today it's called Istanbul because they lost that fight in 1453?

You need to get into the Koran, you need to understand their precepts, you need to read the Sura, you need to read the hadiths, and then you can really understand that it's not a perversion, they are doing exactly what this book says.

(Emphasis added.)

He couldn't possibly have made himself any clearer than that.

Damien, do yourself and your readers a big favor and get informed.



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And for crissakes, Damien, in the West speech you linked, he says:

Islam is a totalitarian theocratic political ideology, it is not a religion. It has not been a religion since 622 AD, and we need to have individuals that stand up and say that.

Do you actually regard that as ambiguous, or subject to interpretation?