RD associate editor Sarah Posner has a great piece in The Nation (republished by CBS News) on the religious war being fought at CPAC over the Muslim takeover of the event. To me, it’s the logical outcome of escalating purity tests and ideological adherence to a particular understanding of religion. The conservative movement is starting to understand that individuals like Glenn Beck cannot be the voice of the party, but the fight at CPAC shows that sanity is not necessarily returning to GOP politics.
According to Candace, a Maryland lawmaker is so disgusted by the hate targeted against homosexuals, that he changed his mind and will vote in favor of a marriage equality bill pending in the state senate. In the same way, the attacks on Grover Norquist at CPAC have forced him to speak out against Islamophobia. He now sees the hate in a very real and practical way.
However, there is only an ongoing escalation. If, as the Frank Gaffney wing of CPAC believes, all Muslims practice taqiyya (for Gaffney, it’s a way to say lying without appearing racist), then all Muslims are suspect. As such, Norquist is suspect because of his Muslim wife, and Suhail Khan is suspect because he believes in God. It provides a basis for the “fake Muslim” and “ex-Muslim industries.” However, it means that real Muslims, even conservative ones, must be cast out, because otherwise their entire premise for hate is taken away from the professional Islamophobes.
One of the individuals suffering from this purge, and fighting back, is Zuhdi Jasser. He is being accused of being in league with the Muslim Brotherhood in the run-up to his appearance in Peter King’s hearings on “something involving Muslims, but the topic of which is a moving target because I have no idea what I’m talking about.” Jasser, understandably takes umbrage.
The interesting thing is that Jasser does not paint himself as an ex-Muslim, which is why I think he has become a target. Although he engages in smearcasting, and the tactic is now being used against him, he actually presents a critical voice from within the community. As he says, rightly, he does not stand alone. There are many Muslims that find him appealing and persuasive in America. He is also firmly positioned in a reality-based community, so it is possible to have reasonable disagreements with him.
What’s happening now at CPAC is a taste of the purges that have to happen in the conservative movement, one way or the other. Excise the conspiracy theorists like Beck and Gaffney, or the rank-and-file membership and thought leaders like Norquist, Khan, and Jasser.
