Today, the nation gathers together in memorium of the countless Americans from all walks of life who lost and gave their lives on — and after — 9/11. In anticipation of this somber day, the New York GOP sent out “a kitchen-sink mailer in the hotly-contested Queens congressional special election depicting a mosque superimposed over the scarred Ground Zero site on one side, and Democrat David Weprin alongside President Barack Obama on the other.”

The incendiary flierwas sent out on behalf of Republican businessman Bob Turner who is seeking to take former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D) seat. As seen below, the front of the flier features a gold-domed mosque rising out of the ruins of the World Trade Center site with a quote from Weprin stating “I support the right of the mosque to build.” The other side places Weprin next to Obama and reads “Weprin stands with Obama — and they stand together in support of the mosque at Ground Zero”:

Registered voters in New York congressional district 9 received the mailer “in the past week, landing in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary” of the attacks. It was intended as a “chaser” piece to Turner’s TV ad that blasts Weprin for his support of Park51. Calling it “a purposeful and confrontational act of provocation,” the TV narrator says, “It’s been 10 short years. Everyone remembers. Some, though, want to commemorate the tragedy by building a mosque on Ground Zero.”

It is important to note that several Republicans like Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Ted Olson — whose wife died in the attacks — support the construction of the Islamic Center. They join most religious leaders, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, and families of the 9/11 victims in support.

Bob Turner, the Republican running to replace former Rep. Anthony Weiner (R-NY), said he thinks the law President Obama signed last year to provide health benefits to Ground Zero workers sicked by toxic debris went too far. In an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board, Turner offered reluctant support for the so-called Zadroga bill, but said it was “too broad” in covering volunteers along with paid workers:

“I probably couldn’t go home if I didn’t support the Zadroga bill. I have firemen in my family, but is that bill beyond criticism? No,” he said. [...]

“I think it is a little too broad,” Turner said.

“My call would be to protect police, fire, emergency workers, construction workers, etc.

“If someone said, ‘I volunteered’ or walked through there, it’s just not the type,” added Turner, who faces Democrat David Weprin in the Sept. 13 special election.

The bill, named after slain NYPD Detective James Zadroga, sets aside funds to monitor the health of first responders and clean-up crews who toiled in the toxic debris of the collapsed World Trade Center towers. Volunteers played a critical role among the 40,000 people who worked at the site following the attacks, and some havealready died from illnesses contracted there. Others are struggling with illness from the site to this day. “That day, and for months after, there were no uniforms. Volunteers worked next to rescue crews for weeks,” John Feal, a Ground Zero worker turned activist, told the Daily News. Moreover, volunteers were, of course, not paid for their time nor covered by the health insurance policies police officers, firefighters and others enjoy.

Weiner was one of the Zadroga’s bill’s fiercest proponents, engaging in a heated House floor exchange with Rep. Pete King (R-NY) after Republicans nearly killed the bill during the lame duck session of Congress in December. But Turner’s stance is especially ironic considering that he’s made the terror attacks a central part of his campaign, exploiting the images of Ground Zero to attack his Democratic opponent’s support of the proposed Islamic community center near the site. “It’s been ten short years. Everyone remembers,” the ad’s narrator says.

“For Bob Turner to turn his back on those New Yorkers, but use images of the burning towers in campaign ads — a circus monkey can out-politic Bob Turner, he’s an embarrassment to the Republican Party,” Feal added.

Leading up to last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, some on the right — led by Frank Gaffney — dredged up their anti-Muslim, Islamophobic fury, claiming that leaders of the American Conservative Union — which puts on CPAC — had been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and other “radical Islamists.” Gaffney told ThinkProgress in an interview at CPAC that ACU board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Kahn were the main perpetrators of this alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration.

Also at CPAC, ThinkProgress asked Norquist to respond to Gaffney’s allegations. Norquist said conservatives have to “knock that stuff down and just make it clear that there’s no place for that in the party of Reagan.” He added that he thinks the right’s Islamophobia “will go away because it doesn’t work. I would like it to go away because it’s the wrong thing to do.”

Right-wing anti-Ground Zero Islamic community center crusader Pam Geller hosted a panel at CPAC, “The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.” During the question and answer period, ThinkProgress asked Geller — who also said that CPAC has been “corrupted and been compromised by Muslim Brotherhood operatives” — to respond to Norquist’s call for calm. “Grover’s got to go, Suhail Kahn’s gotto go,” Geller said dismissively, adding that the whole ACU board “has got to go!” After the event, ThinkProgress caught up with Geller and asked her to expound:

GELLER: I think that he should resign his seat and let true conservatives — … Here is a man, where the basic premise of freedom of speech. This is the tenant of conservative values. … So I think there’s something really wrong at CPAC.

TP: And you said something about the Muslim Brotherhood at CPAC? What did you mean by that?

GELLER: I didn’t mean anything about it. It’s been documented that he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

TP: Who does?

GELLER: Suhail Kahn and Grover Norquist.

Watch the video clips:

ThinkProgress also asked Geller who she wants to see run for president in 2012 to help advance her views. “I think that the only person looking at a world that’s changing in the way that it’s changing catechistically, John Bolton would be my candidate,” she said.

See below for transcripts: Read more

In an age where the blackhole of Islamophobia threatens to engulf reasonable discourse, the Park51 proposal is undoubtedly its singularity. The mere mention of a possible Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York City whips the right wing into apoplectic rants about Muslim Nazis and “spooky mosques” that create a “hot bed” for militants.

Manipulating visceral prejudices into a national platform, no right-wing fringe figure has succeeded more in turning hyperbole into a career than conservative blogger and “provocateur” Pamela Geller. Leading the anti-Park51 rallies in New York this September, Geller’s once-fringe vitriol has earned her a national spotlight, a place among mainstream conservatives, and now, an award named after Annie Taylor — the first American to survive a trip over the Niagara Falls — for “her efforts in defense of Judeo-Christian civilization.” Never missing an opportunity to elevate her incendiary rhetoric, Geller used her acceptance speech at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend conference last Friday to claim that not only is the proposed center a “triumphal mosque,” it is “the second wave of the 9/11 attack“:

GELLER: You have to understand that we’re in a war. We are at war now. It’s not coming. It’s not around the corner. We’re at war now. The GZM is the second wave of the 9/11 attack.…We are under attack. Obviously, the violent jihad, the academic jihad, the sociological jihad, the cultural jihad, the academic jihad, we have been infiltrated at the senior level of the DOD. …This is not a conventional war. Each one of you must fight this war…you’re each activated….We have not yet recovered the bodies from 9/11 and we’re under attack with ground zero mega mosque. And make no mistake, Cordoba, iconic of Islam’s conquering of the West, it’s quite deliberate….It’s a triumphal mosque. Because one shmuck in New York says “it’s a mosque of healing” doesn’t make it so. It’s ridiculous, it’s insulting.

Watch her speech:

This thoughtless comparison appears to be a new rallying cry for Geller. Reacting to news that Park51 applied for federally-funded grants, Geller called the request the “latest Islamic attack on the American people in the second wave of the Ground Zero mosque.”

Hearing the pied piper, many other GOP lawmakers like Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Rep. Pete King (NY) followed suit, declaring the application “outrageous” and an “affront to all those who were murdered on 9/11.” Unfortunately, while her rhetoric wreaks havoc on civil discourse and tolerance, there is no indication that she will stop. As her Muslim-bashing ally Robert Spencer pointed out, “even Annie Taylor said nobody should ever do that again. But the winner of this award keeps on doing it.”

Just days after 9/11, President Bush delivered a speech at an Islamic center in Washington, DC to remind Americans that the terrorists that carried out the attacks on New York and Washington did not represent Islam. “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war,” he said.

“You did something that a lot of people thought was a real effort to unite. You reached out to the Muslim world” after 9/11, NBC host Matt Lauer told Bush this morning during a live interview. Referring to the right-wing-ginned-up controversy surrounding the Islamic community center near Ground Zero this year, Lauer said, “If I look at your words there, it makes it seem to me as if that you’re saying that the rights of Muslims should not be denied for the sake of the sorrow of others, is that fair?” But Bush said he wouldn’t get dragged into the debate. When Lauer then asked Bush to comment on the recent spate of Islamophobia in the U.S., the former president offered a fairly weak response:

LAUER: Well without saying whether they should build the community center or not are you disappointed by the increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in this country that we’ve seen recently?

BUSH: I think most Americans welcome freedom of religion and honor religions. I truly do. And the problem with the arena today is a few loud voices can dominate the discussion and I don’t intend to be one of the voices in the discussion.

Watch it:

The Islamophobia that has dominated American political discourse over the past two years is more than just “a few loud voices.” GOP members of Congress, Tea Party leaders, and conservative pundits — including those who were once top advisers to President Bush — have recently promoted anti-Muslim rhetoric and advanced the ridiculous and non-existent fear that somehow Sharia law will take over America.

In November 2001, Bush seemed to pre-empt the narrative many progressives put forth in the uproar and Islamophobia surrounding Park 51 Islamic center. “We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion,” Bush said, adding, “our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship, even to their fellow Muslims.”