Rudy Advisor Under Fire For "Too Many Mosques In This Country" Comment
Congressman Peter King (R-NY), who serves as an advisor to Rudy Giuliani's campaign, is being put on the hot-seat for his statement, "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam."
King now claims that his remarks were taken out of context, and that he was simply referring to there being too many mosques whose leaders are sympathetic to radical Islam. Now if that's true, then it would much easier to defend. On the other hand, he might have genuinely meant that there are too many Muslims in this country, and he's not backtracking from a rather impolitic statement.
So what do you think? Was he really just stumbling over his words? Here's a video of his interview with The Politico:
It's just my take, but he'll probably be able to live this down.
The problem, though, is that conflating America's Muslim community with radical Islam and terrorism is, as evidenced by this video, entirely natural for his kind (by which I mean ignorant, Fox-News type Republicans). And that's what Americans should be educated about.
September 20, 2007 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
this guy is a racist punk
we need to run a strong dem in his district and get rid of this clown who is the only republican congressman left from NYC.
September 20, 2007 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, technically speaking, he represents part of Long Island, which isn't part of NYC. You're thinking of Vito Fossella, who unfortunately still represents Staten Island and part of Brooklyn (and would have been defeated in '06 if any of the major Staten Island/Brooklyn Democrat had any balls or brains. In one of the worst years ever to be a Congressional Republican incumbent, the Dem nominee was a 4th tier nobody whose previous electoral accomplishment was coming in 3rd or 4th in a primary for a state assembly seat, IIRC. And he STILL got something like 43% of the vote.)
But anyway. I'd say King could be in trouble over this, but... hell, who are we kidding? He's a Republican. No way this is going to get any press. Not when there's important things to report on, like a joke Kathy Griffin told! Or OJ!
September 20, 2007 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter...
just ask peter king about the financial support provided by his long island constituents to the irish republican army during the 80s/90s.
September 20, 2007 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Pete (and everyone else), define "radical Islam".
Where's the line? How do we sort out the good 'uns from the bad 'uns?
Let's investigate and try alleged criminals, and leave religion out of it mmmkay?
September 20, 2007 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Although my impression has long been that Rep. King is a troglodyte, I don't think this video fairly addresses the question of what he meant by the words "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country...."
The most relevant context would be his words leading up to that phrase, and that's exactly what this video doesn't include.
September 20, 2007 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately we have too many Republicans in this country
September 20, 2007 6:29 PM | Reply | Permalink