Fighting is raging in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan today after forces loyal to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara — who won last year’s presidential election according to the U.N., the African Union, and other international observers — have pinned down Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president who refuses to relinquish power, in “a bunker beneath his residence.”

The international community and the U.S. government have been united against Gbagbo, who has been fighting tooth and nail to retain power, and is accused of committing numerous war crimes. Gbagbo has even attacked U.N. personnel and facilities, prompting the international body to launch a rare offensive against his beleaguered forces last night. Now, Gbagbo is reportedly negotiating a surrender and the conflict, which analysts just days ago feared could spin out of control, could now come to an end within “hours.”

That is, unless some in the American Christian right, who want to turn this into a religious battle, have their way. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor yesterday to give a lengthy speech in defense of incumbent Gbagbo and his powerful wife, whom Inhofe called “good friends.” Inhofe painted a picture of the conflict in polar opposition to the facts on the ground, accusing challenger Ouattara of “rigg[ing]” last November’s elections, and ludicrously claiming that Gbagbo’s forces “don’t have any weapons.” Thus, Inhofe demanded an immediate ceasefire in the conflict, even though Gbagbo’s forces have already been routed. Watch a portion of Inhofe’s speech:

Why would Inhofe defend a war criminal tyrant in contradiction to every international human rights organization and his own government? As Salon’s Justin Elliott reported last week, Gbagbo, an evangelical Christian, has “longtime ties to the Christian right in the United States,” in part through a secretive international network of powerful evangelical Christians known as the Fellowship. Inhofe and many of his colleagues have reportedly lived in the Fellowship’s congressional boarding house on C Street in Washington.

But Ouattara is Muslim. So last night, Fox News Host Glenn Beck defended “the current Christian president” Gbagbo, downplaying the atrocities he has committed, and excusing his refusal to leave office by saying that “he fears that [Ouattara] is going to round up all of [his] supporters and kill them all.” Beck also attacked President Obama for supporting Ouattara, noting the challenger is “a Muslim.”

And today, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, who has repeatedly defended the dictator, said that Gbagbo’s impending departure is a “great tragedy” because the country is now “going to be into the hands of Muslims.”

While it seems clear now that both sides in the Ivory Coast have some blood on their hands, according to human rights monitors, Gbagbo has much much more, and is clearly violating the will of his people. But to Inhofe, Beck, and Robertson, it seems this doesn’t really matter, as long as he’s not Muslim.

Today, CNN posted a generally feel-good story on Oklahoma’s rising Latino population, noting that “Latinos now account for 9% of Oklahoma’s 3.8 million residents, and are the largest minority group, surpassing the number of Native Americans.” The reporters also point out that, as the state’s Latino population has grown from 179,000 in 2000 to more than 332,000 in 2010, state lawmakers have passed a series of anti-immigrant laws. One of those lawmakers is state Sen. Ralph Shortey (R).

Shortey recently introduced a bill which would reinterpret the 14th amendment’s citizenship clause to deny the U.S.-born children of undocumented women citizenship. He is also the leading sponsor of the “Arizona-plus” bill which would go beyond Arizona’s controversial immigration law by allowing police to confiscate property belonging to those in the country illegally. Shortey shared his own views on the growing Latino population in his state with CNN:

Republican state Sen. Ralph Shortey said he’s not surprised by the increasing number of Latino residents; Oklahoma can be a comfortable, prosperous place to move, legally or illegally, he said. [...]

Culturally, Shortey said, Oklahoma isn’t changing. Latino residents “are not assimilating and enriching the culture of Oklahoma. They are invading the culture,” Shortey said. “Oklahoma is not the melting pot…(Latinos are) not doing their culture any favors when it’s shoved into Oklahomans’ faces.”

In the past, Shortey has also complained that Latinos “won’t call the police. They’ll call the local gang dealer to help them with a problem.” He also indicated that Native Americans have “already lost this country once” and some of his “friends” fear “losing this country again.”

Proponents of the immigration bills that Shortey has sponsored claim that their position is all about public safety, economic fairness, and the rule of law. Meanwhile anti-immigrant legislation that was passed in Oklahoma in the past has had a terrible effect on the state’s economy. Although, based on Shortey’s statements which seem to suggest that his qualms with immigration are largely cultural, past bills may be considered successful on the basis that they drove thousands of Latinos out of the state.

And as Shortey accuses Latinos of shoving their culture in people’s faces, CNN’s story focused on a Mexican immigrant turned U.S. citizen who built “a small empire of businesses feeding Oklahoma City’s appetite for Tex-Mex.”

Protests continued in Afghanistan today as thousands have fled into the streets to protest radical Florida pastor Terry Jones’s Quran burning which took place late last month. Hundreds have been wounded in violence and dozens have died, including 7 UN workers in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The New York Times reported on Saturday that the media had largely ignored Jones’s stunt, and it was mainly Afghan President Hamid Karzai that brought the issue to life. Karzai “provoked people to take such actions. Karzai should have called on people to be patient rather than making people more angry,” one Afghan political analyst said.

Karzai has been widely criticized for publicizing the Jones incident. “He’s an extortionist,” said NYU professor and author Irshad Manji on CNN last night, adding, “he is now currying favor with the extremist elements in Afghanistan in the hope, perhaps a vain hope, they will preserve his life. Never mind how many other people get killed.” The Washington Post also noted:

[M]any U.S. and other Western officials in Afghanistan say Karzai has played a more damaging role. They say that his initial statement condemning Jones four days after the March 20 Koran burning was provocative and that it informed many Afghans of an event that was not widely known and helped mobilize public anger toward the United States. [...]

“When I read his statements and accusations against Americans, it’s like an amazing sense of his willingness just to humiliate,” said one Western diplomat here. “It’s not that he would like to confront the issue in partnership but just to retaliate through humiliation, like someone owes him something.”

While Karzai originally appeared to be bothered by Jones’s affront to Islam, a Karzai spokesman said his “primary concern” was getting information out about Jones’ exploit to ordinary Afghans:

“This is a very religious Islamic country, and the president is the leader of this Muslim country,” said Waheed Omer, a Karzai spokesman. “The president saw it as his moral and religious duty on behalf of the Afghan people to condemn this.

“People would have been informed anyway. This was something that would not have kept a low profile in a country like Afghanistan,” he said. “The president’s primary concern was not to prevent this information from getting to the people of Afghanistan.”

So essentially, Omer appeared to admit that Karzai was motivated more so by politics than by his concerns about Jones’s act. Al Jazeera’s DC bureau chief Abderrahim Foukara agreed. “I think he’s trying to stir the pot in the hope it will bolster his political position,” he said yesterday on MSNBC.