Mirza A. Beg
Saturday, June 20,
2011
The Republican debate of June 13th moderated by John King of CNN was generally a collegial affair. It was essentially a "Knock Obama" rally, with understated minor differences among the candidates.
Except, when CNN moderator John King asked former Godfather Pizza magnate, Harman Cain, " You recently said you would not appoint a Muslim to your cabinet and you kind of backed off a little bit and said you would first want to know if they're committed to the Constitution. You expressed concern that, quote, "a lot of Muslims are not totally dedicated to this country." Are American-Muslims as a group less committed to the Constitution than, say, Christians or Jews?"
Cain backpedaled a bit and said," I would not be comfortable because you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims, those that are trying to kill us. And so, when I said I wouldn't be comfortable, I was thinking about the ones that are trying to kill us, number one. Secondly, yes, I do not believe in Sharia law in American courts. I believe in American laws in American courts, period. There have been instances --"
John King turned to other candidates and asked their views on the subject. Some candidates were uncomfortable, but not former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.
Trying to resuscitate his dying campaign, stridently he said, "Now, I just want to go out on a limb here. I'm in favor of saying to people, if you're not prepared to be loyal to the United States, you will not serve in my administration, period." He added "We did this--we did this in dealing with the Nazis and we did this in dealing with the communists. And it was controversial both times, and both times we discovered after a while, you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country. And we have got to have the guts to stand up and say no."
For those who do not know, Gingrich was approvingly referring to the Red baiting campaign in early 1950s by the Republican senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and his cohorts. It has been widely condemned as the most shameful period in modern US history. It lives in infamy as McCarthyism. Yes, as to quote Gingrich, there were "some genuinely bad people"- the people who maligned and tried to destroy decent Americans by innuendo as Gingrich does.
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