As the United States woke to the news of the deaths of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. citizens, politicians and pundits were already blaming Islam, as a religion, for the violent protests at the U.S. Embassies in Libya and Egypt. Here are some statements that portray Islam as a violent religion, linking all Muslims to the extremist actions of a contingent of violent protestors:
Todays riot in Cairo is a warning that weakness will lead to demands for Islamist supremacy. Obama should rethink his Cairo speech
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) September 11, 2012
The “offensive” film is a pretext. EVERYTHING is a pretext for the Religion of Perpetual Outrage. ==> is.gd/ru9YXH
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) September 12, 2012
Lesson from Egypt, Libya etc: while we are not at war with Islam, mainstream Islam is at war with us.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) September 12, 2012
Is it now official U.S. policy that the First Amendment has an exception for “denigrating” religion, specifically Islam?
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 12, 2012
Muslims Attack US Embassies… drudge.tw/OpIWRs
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) September 12, 2012
Rep. Allen West (R-FL), who has a history of anti-Islam bigotry, also released a statement this morning to the same effect:
Americans need to question whether the deaths of these innocent patriots could have been avoided. The Obama Administration touted the Arab Spring as an awakening of freedom, which we now see is a nightmare of Islamism.
Even more concerning, is the initial response to these attacks last night from the embassy officials of the Obama Administration was to apologize for a Facebook video that supposedly hurt Muslim feelings. President Obama’s policy of appeasement towards the Islamic world has manifested itself into a specter of unconscionable hatred.
And former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin piled on:
The embassy actually apologized to the violent mob attacking us, and it even went so far as to chastise those who use free speech to “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” (Funny, the current administration has no problem hurting the “religious feelings” of Catholics.)
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.