Cordoba House versus Team B:  Key to the Global 21st Century

by Dr. Robert D. Crane

  The cat is now out of the bag.  The real issue in the Islamophobic attacks on Cordoba House was revealed officially on September 15th by Frank Gaffney’s monumental think-tank report, Shariah: The Threat to America, An Exercise in Competitive Analysis -Report of Team B II.

  The first excellent coverage of this new development on Capitol Hill was Daniel Luban’s analysis on Sep 16 in IPS reporting on Team B’s coming out party the day before, which highlights the linkage of Cordoba House to what Team B calls the “Great Shari’ah Conspiracy”.  This new linkage was supported at this official launching ceremony by such as Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who is the influential ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who heads the House Tea Party Caucus. 

  The key word in the new campaign against Cordoba House as the ostensible agent of the “clear and present danger” of Islam in America and throughout the world is “totalitarian”, as in the report’s conclusion that the shari’ah is “the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time”. 

  This epithet was first invoked by Newt Gingrich fifteen years ago as a powerful political gimmick when he was Speaker of the House (see “Cordoba House: A Strategic, Legal, and Political Analysis” in http://www.thamericanmuslim.org, September 11, 2010).  Ironically, he was ousted shortly thereafter by the consensus of Congress as a totalitarian threat.  We should keep watch over this thread as a key to his bid now already launched for the U.S. presidency.

  We should keep this in mind also in our comments on Cordoba House and Park51.  Luban’s article unfortunately is entitled “Forget ‘Ground Zero Mosque”.  No way.  Cordoba House is the epicenter of what may well mark the future of human responsibilities and rights in the 21st century.  Cordoba House is a perfect symbol of America’s universal values.  This is why the purposes of Cordoba House, as articulated by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in his book, What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America, should be central to informed discussion on both domestic and foreign policy in America and throughout the world for the rest of our lives.

SEE ALSO:

All Bigoted Islamophobic Roads Lead to Frank Gaffney, Richard Allen Smith http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4332
Anti-Mosque Coalition’s Website Owned By Neo-Conservative Islamophobe Frank Gaffney, Alex Seitz-Wald http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/24/gaffney-mosque-website/
Michele Bachmann Endorses Call for Anti-Muslim Inquisition, Daniel Luban http://thefastertimes.com/diplomacy/2010/09/16/a-new-report-offers-prescriptions-for-an-anti-muslim-inquisition/
Bent on Confusing the Public about Islam:  The Far Right Exploits Rifqa Bary’s Case to Distort Islam, Louay Safi http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/bent_on_confusing_the_public_about_islam_the_far_right_exploits_rifqa_barys/
Conservatives Chew Up Their Own in Battle Over Islamic Community Center, Bill Berkowitz http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributor/3601
Conservative Feud Grows Over Muslims White House Staffers, Shahed Amanullah http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/b/1726/
FBI Leaking To Neocon Conspiracy-Theorist Frank Gaffney?  http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/08/23/fbi-leaking-to-neocon-conspiracy-theorist-frank-gaffney/
Forget ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, It’s the Great Sharia Conspiracy, Daniel Luban http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52863
Fox & Friends crops Rauf’s CFR comments to fearmonger about Sharia law, Justin Berrier http://mediamatters.org/blog/201009140028
Fox Promotes NSS “Islamic Crescent Logo” Conspiracy Theory, Richard Bartholomew http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/fox-promotes-nss-islamic-crescent-logo-conspiracy-theory/
Free-speech hero or an anti-Islamic publicity hound? Geert Wilders is coming to America., Mark Hosenball http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/16/the-flying-dutchman.html
Gaffney: The left and Islamists are both “advancing the takedown of America”, http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201008230064
Frank Gaffney: At War with Islam http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2009/08/18/frank-gaffney-at-war-with-islam/
Frank Gaffney: Obama Duped America Like Hitler Duped Chamberlain http://www.alan.com/2009/06/08/frank-gaffney-obama-duped-america-like-hitler-duped-chamberlain/
How Many Muslims Contributed To New Right-Wing ‘Team B’ Report On Islamic Sharia Law? None, Matt Duss http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/15/team-b-sharia-report/
Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims, Nihad Awad http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islamophobia_machine_targets_american_muslims/
Israelis, McCain Neocons Behind Anti-Islam “Obsession” DVD, Kurt Nimmo http://www.infowars.com/israelis-mccain-neocons-behind-anti-islam-obsession-dvd/
Media rife with anti-Muslim rhetoric in weeks leading up to 9-11 anniversary http://mediamatters.org/research/201009090008
The Misinformants: What ‘stealth jihad’ doesn’t mean, Lisa Miller http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/28/stealth-jihad-conveys-paranoia.html
Mosque debate is not a distraction, Glenn Greenwald http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/23/park51
MPAC’s Response to Frank Gaffney’s Slander http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=249 
NeoCons Make Unapologetic Call for McCarthyism against Muslims http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/09/16/the-neocons-make-unapologetic-call-for-mccarthyism-against-muslims/
Neoconservatives hate liberty as much as they love war, Glenn Greenwald http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2007/02/14/neoconservatism
Obsession:  Deja Vu! Never Again?, Jeff Siddiqui http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/obsession_deja_vu_never_again/
The Pathetic Desperation of the Anti-Kagan Campaign http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/individuals/frank-gaffney
Progressive radio show in NY serves up neocon moonshine about Islam, Philip Weiss http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/progressive-radio-show-in-ny-serves-up-neocon-moonshine-about-islam.html
Review: Documentary “America at a Crossroads”, Rafia Zakaria http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/r/2479/
Right-Wing Nuts: “Obama is a Mooslim, Convert Mooslims” http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/09/right-wing-nuts-obama-is-a-mooslim-convert-mooslims/
The Right’s Anti-Islam Extremists, John Guardiano http://www.frumforum.com/confronting-the-rights-anti-islam-extremists
On Team B-ing, Spencer Ackerman http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/09/16/on-team-b-ing/
Specter Embraces Pipes Islamophobia, Richard Silverstein http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/05/15/specter-embraces-pipes-islamophobia/
The Terror Industry And Anti-Jihadism, Who Benefits?, Richard Silverstein http://www.eurasiareview.com/201009168239/the-terror-industry-and-anti-jihadism-who-benefits.html
Why the GOP embraced Islamophobia, Joe Conason http://www.salon.com/news/politics/republican_party/?story=/opinion/conason/2010/09/12/islamo