When I get concerned at widespread public acquiescence in the military’s use of abuse and torture in the war on terror, I have to remind myself how many Americans really feel about the war we’re in. This poll should relieve us of any lingering illusions:
The survey found 44% favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way. The survey showed that 27% of respondents supported requiring all Muslim-Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29% thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising. Cornell student researchers questioned 715 people in the nationwide telephone poll conducted this fall. The margin of error was 3.6 percentage points.
Michelle Malkin isn’t alone. And these beliefs were held most strongly by those with strong Christian belief. What version of the Gospels are they reading?
THE PRINCE AND ISLAM: Prince Charles has been doing his small bit to encourage inter-faith dialogue and discourse. He is unfairly maligned in my opinion. His recent effort has been to encourage Muslims not to execute apostates. Now this was a small aspect of political I slam I was actually unaware of. If you’re a Muslim convert to Christianity in many Islamic states, you can be executed? In rpivate discussions with British Muslim groups, Charles was told essentially to stay mum:
It is understood that the Muslim group, which included the Islamic scholar Zaki Badawi, cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims against speaking publicly on the issue. It argued that Islamic moderates could have more influence on the traditional position if the debate remained largely internal. A member of the Christian group said yesterday that he was “very, very unhappy” about the outcome.
Isn’t freedom of religion something we should insist upon in Iraq?
MISC: It turns out that the correct spelling is “verklemmt” …
if you spell it the German way, which I think most people would. The Yenta character on Saturday Night Live used the word as if it were Yiddish, but it’s not–it’s high German for “overwrought”–it just sounds Yiddish and funny to the English ear.
And, in our continuing series of corrections to obscure ’80s album titles, the group was Missing Persons, the album title was “Spring Session M”, and the song was “Walking in L.A.” Yes, we care about accuracy here.
ALL-TIME MALKIN AWARD NOSTALGIC ENTRY: How could we forget the classic Pat Robertson fund-raising pitch:
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
Now, that’s how it’s done, ladies and gentlemen.
The Dish 