Giuliani Adviser: "Too Many Mosques"

Rep. Peter King's Remark Draws Fire From Muslims, Democrats

(AP)  A homeland security adviser to Rudy Giuliani came under fire Thursday for claiming there were “too many mosques” in the United States - and defended himself by saying his point was that not enough Muslim leaders cooperate with law enforcement.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and the top GOP member on the panel, said his comments to the Politico Web site were taken out of context. Democrats said Giuliani should drop him as a campaign adviser.

“I stand by everything I said other than the fact that the Politico totally took it out of context,” King said Thursday.

In the Politico interview, King said: “Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement.”

Giuliani, speaking to reporters Thursday in Northern Virginia, chuckled at the suggestion he dump King as an adviser.

"I've known Pete for 41 years, so I'm not about to do that," Giuliani said. "I know exactly what Pete meant. I knew before I even heard the clarification. What he means was that there are mosques in which violence is preached. I know that from my own investigations of Islamic terrorism. I also know that there are many mosques in which it isn't."

As for any political fallout, King told The Associated Press: “Rudy can take care of himself. He's a tough guy, but I would think that campaigns would respect someone like myself who says things that might be politically incorrect but are accurate in that too many Muslim leaders in this country do not denounce extremism.”

The congressman was denounced by the DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that has long accused King of lobbing unfair attacks against American Muslims.

“We call on Republican leaders and other people of conscience to repudiate Representative King's bigoted remarks and to support the civil and religious rights of all Americans,” said CAIR official Corey Saylor.

Both the Muslim group and the Democratic party called on Giuliani to drop King from the campaign. Giuliani spokeswomen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Democratic party spokeswoman Stacie Paxton called on King to apologize and urged Giuliani to drop King as his homeland security adviser, saying “this type of bigoted language has no place in public discourse.”

King said his point was not that there were too many mosques in the United States, but that too many of those mosques do not cooperate with law enforcement - a claim he made in 2003 and 2004 which also prompted criticism.

“I know of any number of mosques in New York that are under surveillance by law enforcement because they have suspicious links, at the very least radical links, that are inappropriate,” he said.

[missingamerica]

If that was his direct quote, his saying "it was taken out of context" is pure evasion.

[aesop2-2009]

Given that I think all religion is ridiculous, I would say that there are to many churches, synagogs and mosques in the United States. Let''s shut them all down. Maybe there would be peace on earth without all the religious nuts.

[re_evolve]

Given that I think all religion is ridiculous, I would say that there are to many churches, synagogs and mosques in the United States. Let''''s shut them all down. Maybe there would be peace on earth without all the religious nuts.

Posted by aesop2 at 05:05 PM : Sep 20, 2007


We''ve seen how it works with religion, let''s see how it works without. Better I bet.

[searingtruth]

"Do not carelessly take the hope of others my friends. We all derive that most precious gift from so many different sources. From deep within ourselves, from belief in good and benevolent supernatural forces, from belief in ordered and ultimately just natural forces, and from a plethora of other deeply held and personal beliefs uncounted. Our fight is not with hope fellow citizens, it is with intolerance, despair, suffering, and death.

In fact, we need not fear the beliefs of others, only their imposition upon us."
SearingTruth


"Humanity always eventually works together, whether we want it to or not. The only difference is whether we work together before, or after, massive death and destruction."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[gkc99]

"Yeah well, the Quakers weren''''t plotting terrorist attacks either..."--Posted by sbbm

William Penn and the Quakers helped the Indians, and your neocon pals have already told us how they were terrorists!

Guess anyone who doesn''t knuckle under to neocon scum is a terrorist.

[linfinster]

I believe he was talking about the mosques that preach violence and hatred against anyone not agreeing with them. I didn''t hear the actual statements as a whole and that is really what we all need to do.

But to comment on this quote from the article ..
%u201CWe call on Republican leaders and other people of conscience to repudiate Representative King''s bigoted remarks and to support the civil and religious rights of all Americans,%u201D said CAIR official Corey Saylor.
If there are people on US soil that may or may not be US citizens gathering and inciting the kind of anger and hatred Rep. King was actually commenting about, and seems to be preparing for some kind of future action * , I want someone looking out for us citizens! Where is the balance?
I''d LOVE to hear what he has said about the Govmt''s role in past US attacks. What constitutes security? And, just what can be said to a group of like-minded people -that is growing in numbers, encouraging violence, showing a capability that exceeds our imagination?
We are not saying target ALL mosques! But there ARE those that are very ANTI AMERICAN and THEY are dangerous.
So SFU and put your energies into a more productive action, like .... fixing the American Justice System. Now THAT is a screwed up system.

* I based my statement accusing some mosques of this mindset because I have seen hidden video used in a TV documentary showing it exists in many big cities. Very scary!! Search for yourself and see.

[nyckate]

Poor poor Pete King isn''t drinking the Koolaid any longer - the fool must be mainlining it!!

[pupspop]

The constitution guarantees the citizens of the United States to practice any religion they wish too. However, the constitution does not guarantee any citizen or foreigner the right to break the fifth of the ten commandments, to wit: "Thou shalt not kill". Islam extremists or fanatics obviously believe it''s their right to take lives in the name of Islam.

[wfbdem]

The constitution guarantees the citizens of the United States to practice any religion they wish too. However, the constitution does not guarantee any citizen or foreigner the right to break the fifth of the ten commandments, to wit: "Thou shalt not kill". Islam extremists or fanatics obviously believe it''''s their right to take lives in the name of Islam.

Posted by Impupsdad

And no christian has every killed, right? What about Irag? We invaded on false pretense. Islamic terrorists killed 3600+ people on 9/11. How many are dead in Iraq because of our invasion? Get off your damm high horse.

[socrates392]

If there are so many Muslims in America helping terrorists, how come we never hear about specific cases. I know there have been some, but it is hardly an epidemic. Honestly, all this surveillance of mosques reminds me more of "Red Scare"-type paranoia than anything else.

[micma-2009]

I think that there are too many closeted racists and closeted homosexuals in the Republican party and in the American political process.

[mommajommah]

I say , King, run for prez and you got my vote.

[cdfoxtrot]

This shows, yet again, why Guiliani is nothing more than an extremist nut-job who will be even more dangerous than the current moron-in-chief, if he gets to be the Prez.

[likeitis5050]

Time to stop with all the political correctness that just fosters subliminal hate...say what you mean and mean what you say...even if it pi..ss..es people off. He''s right. Here we are fighting a war on terror and too polite to ask why the he11 all the muslims in this country aren''t out protesting terrorism. I haven''t heard of any. They all claim to be ''peaceful'' and claim to disapprove of the terror tactics, but they won''t come out in force. Why is that? Could it be because they are hiding terrorists behind their ''peaceful'' platform? Action walks...bullsh1t talks.

[sftodd]

typical hatemongering by repuglicans who get more desperate each year as they stoop to even lower levels, once thought beneath them -- their time is gonna come

Guilliani has repeatedly proven himself to be an enemy of the First Amendment and the Freedom of Speech -- just look at his blatant and repeated attempts to intentionally violate the U.S. Constitution with respect to public funding for art museums that did not share his religious beliefs. He knew he was violating the U.S. Constitution, but he did it anyway.

[gretagreen]

Creepy -- like Giuliani.

[cdfoxtrot]

It would be career ending if any politician were to say the same thing of Synagogues. I guess Muslim-bashing is okay in the US of 2007.

[andrew_693]

yeah, and while they are at it, they should shut down Christian churches also since, Eric Rudolph, the bomber of the 1996 Olympic Games was an ultra right wing bozo just like Timothy MacVeigh, another militia patriot Christian. Another terrorist organization they should shut down that also spreads hatred is the kkk as well as all the neonazi groups, why should they have more rights than muslims?, they also blow up people, and kill them as well, they have the blood of thousands. While we are at it, since we banned the president of Iran from walking to the 9-11 memorial, we should also ban militia members and right wing para military groups from driving in front of where that Federal building in Oklahoma stood.

[socrates392]

It would be career ending if any politician were to say the same thing of Synagogues. I guess Muslim-bashing is okay in the US of 2007.

Posted by cdfoxtrot at 07:41 PM : Sep 20, 2007

Just imagine what would happen if a politician said the same thing about fundy churches?! Even though it''s the fundy Christians voted in these stupid neo con war mongers!

[sftodd]

Impupsdad -- uh, excuse me, but the Bible is not the law of this land . . . yet, to wit: keep your f''ing mouth shut. It''s you and your christian buddies who legitimize religion and make Islamic extremist possible -- Imagine no religion, no god to kill or die for, I wonder if you can.

If we believe absurdities (that god exists), we shall commit atrocities (9/11) -- Voltaire

It is religion that makes terrorism possible, once we stomp out religion, there will be no more suicide terrorists.

[sftodd]

Wow, I bet King would have been leading the effort to round up Jews in Nazi Germany -- it''s scary how similar republicans are to the Nazi''s who scapegoated and then slaughtered millions of innocent people. Too bad Americans can''t remember last year, let alone what happened 65 years ago.

[cyberdjs4]

I always try to image no religion but I keep waking to a startling realization: There would be a lot of zombies with no King.

That is a scarier image than priests sodomizing children.

[sftodd]

I hear you Cyber, but I''d rather have zombies without kings than stupid sheep carrying out the orders of some lunatic like Pat Roberston

[socrates392]

I hear you Cyber, but I''''d rather have zombies without kings than stupid sheep carrying out the orders of some lunatic like Pat Roberston

Posted by SFTodd at 08:44 PM : Sep 20, 2007

If you take away one king, a new king always arises from the zombie ranks. Better to keep Pat Robertson than risk the rise of a new charismatic luny like Adolf Hitler!

[seven-pesos]

you''re not gonna find any muslims in the south.

muslims and rednecks don''t mix.

in order to live in the south you gotta be white trash, redneck, phony christian, bush loving repubican snakes.

war, hate, flag wavers, bible thumpers...

oh well, that''s the south for you, folks.

[name_verify]

LIBERAL = TERRORIST APOLOGIST

[socrates392]

LIBERAL = TERRORIST APOLOGIST

Posted by screen_verif at 10:32 PM : Sep 20, 2007

Has the Dept. of Homeland Security found you yet, traitor? You shouldn''t threaten ex-presidents!

[truthheals]

The nazis are happy to see their legacy living on!

[homespunlady]

Is this guy repeating history rather than learning from it?
Wasn''t it the late 30''s through mid 40''s that a National leader and his minions DEMONIZED A RELIGION and progressively banned it''s followers until they were nearly exterminated with millions of innocents killed being called "collateral damage" to insure "national security"?

[flreason]

"...once we stomp out religion, there will be no more suicide terrorists.

Posted by SFTodd at 07:50 PM : Sep 20, 2007"

Then how do explain the North Vietnamese terrorists in the Viet Nam war? Religion is sometimes the justification, but territory disputes are the real root of terrorists'' actions.

It''s also interesting that your rhetoric ("stomp out religion") is also violent. A tad hypocritical, don''t you think?

Most of the modern leaders who embraced non-violence were religious: Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, etc.

Religion isn''t the problem--it''s the competition for wealth, whether in the form of land or other material possessions. Stomping out religion, even if it were possible, wouldn''t change that.

[flreason]

Another politician caught saying what he was really thinking.

We need to bring back vaudeville--as job security for all the tap-dancing politicians. They''d make a great chorus line, if they could be kept from fighting for the spotlight. LOL

[forthepeopl1]

and we are given any of them 25000 in grants to up grade their security..our tax dollars, i have tryed to get a grant for my all american mosques and was told no you dont qualifie because you are a american..

%u201CI stand by everything I said other than the fact that the Politico totally took it out of context,%u201D King said Thursday.

In the Politico interview, King said: %u201CUnfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there''s too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement.%u201D

so keep it up washington,keep bending over for all non-americans just keep it up..

[signof4]

Just another example of leftwing media bias. The man said, "there were too many mosques who are sympathetic to al-Crapola." The leftwing must really be getting scared if they have to resort to stuff like this.

[hwy71so]

I know. Lets all just say the things that won''t offend people. All''s well and the truth doesn''t matter.

Political Correctness gives me a rash.

If the muslim''s are in opposition to the welfare of this nation, then yes, there are too many mosques.