Gregg Sargent has been waiting for word about the Islamic cultural center from prominent New York politicans, including Weiner and Schumer:
Weiner wants to be mayor of New York. Last I checked, that city is home to a few Muslims, all of whom would become his constituents. Yet he can’t bring himself to stand up for their right to worship two blocks from Ground Zero. The guy he wants to replace, Michael Bloomberg, had the guts to do this very eloquently yesterday. Where’s Weiner?
Other members of Congress, such as Jerrold Nadler, have stood up and done the right thing, vocally condemning the opposition for what it is. Yes, Nadler’s district includes Ground Zero. But again, Weiner wants to represent the whole city, and Schumer already represents the whole state.
Perhaps the most notable fact about this whole event is that Chuck Schumer was able to both keep quiet and stay away from TV cameras. I don’t know when that last happened, but it’s been a hell of a long time.
Update: Forgot to add: Fuck Joe Lieberman.
eemom
does anyone know if there is actually a constituency in NY other than wingnuts who don’t want the mosque there?
BR
Here’s Weiner:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/06/anthony_weiner_strongly_defend.html
Oh, sorry, that’s Weiner saying that Israel was right to blow innocent people away in a raid on human rights activists in international waters.
Allison W.
Its things like this that make it hard for me to like Weiner. I want to see what everyone else sees, but there is something about him that rubs me the wrong way. I definitely don’t like or trust Schumer – never have.
Jeff Fecke
Actually, I support Chuck Schumer in his decision to shut up. I support it so much that I think he should do it all the time.
Allison W.
@eemom:
I haven’t seen any.
Svensker
Schumer was waiting to find out if was bad for Netanyahu or not. Apparently it was neutral, so he kept his trap shut.
jrg
Religious freedom is a concept that many ‘muricans are too stupid to understand and/or too lazy to consider. Dems like Schumer know this. So, rather than being a leader, and taking a stand that requires an explanation, he’d rather just surf the wave of the status quo.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. — H. L. Mencken
Mark
Weiner’s wife is muslim, btw. He’s a complex man.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Mark: All the more reason he should tell The Quittah to stop telling those East Coast sohialist, elitists what to do.
NonyNony
@Mark:
Possibly an explanation for why he’s not getting involved, since it could make his wife the target of partisan attacks.
beltane
In the Sargent story it says that Schumer “supports the plan” for building the Islamic center. That is the moment where the good senator then goes and hides under his desk until the storm blows over.
Schumer and Weiner wouldn’t even have to mount a vocal defense of religious liberty. All they need to do is remind their constituents that it is a bunch of Republican out-of-towners, led by the hated Sarah Palin, who are most against the plan. I don’t recall NY’ers being much in favor of having people from places like Wasilla telling them what to do.
mistermix
@NonyNony:
Or he’s the kind of gutless pol who will yell, stomp and write op-eds when the issue is a sure winner in the polls. I think I like my explanation better.
dmsilev
Re: your update, isn’t that the sort of thing that you should just put at the end of all posts, even those dealing with gardening or pet care? Sort of like a ‘Carthago delenda est’ for the modern age?
dms
Jay in Oregon
I though that was implied in pretty much any scenario.
EDIT: Beaten to the punch by the good dmsilev, I see…
flotsam
Honestly, the reason that you don’t see more people coming out in favor of it is that they are scared to death of being wrong. They are petrified that they will come out with a strong statement saying the Rauf is a good guy, a moderate, etc and then a week later someone finds a grainy video of him in a mosque in Detroit of Northern Virginia saying that Jihad is the only answer and Sharia law for all…that is pretty unlikely (I know because the place I work has done quite a bit of checking into the guy and he seems pretty genuine) but that just goes to show how gun shy the left is about embracing Islamic leaders and then finding out that they have made radical statements in the past.
Adam Collyer
@mistermix:
Come on, Mix. That’s pretty unfair. Nony gave a perfectly viable reason as to why Weiner might not wish to get involved in this fiasco.
Also, since this issue is a non-story and a completely manufactured controversy, I’d rather let the Mayor’s statement be the end of it and let us, the New Yorkers who actually live in Tribeca and the Financial District, handle it. I don’t need Weiner or Schumer discussing it anymore. It’s been dealt with.
Cacti
@mistermix:
But isn’t yelling a better indicator of someone’s “progressive” bona fides than, you know, standing up for the Bill of Rights?
NotOnMyRegularComp
@NonyNony:
Which makes his silence all the more shameful, the kind of assholes who hate Muslims for building a religious center will never trust a guy married to one. It’s only a matter of time before they come for her and their future kids, since half-breeds aren’t Real Americans anyway.
Kryptik
The more I read about this, the more I find myself seizing and threatening to pop a blood vessel either in my eye or my brain.
It’s just…good fucking jesus christ on fire. We really have internalized in this country the idea that ‘ALL ISLAM = EVIL TERRORIST SCUM!!’, haven’t we? Even those that try to be reasonable still seem to couch the idea that this place is somehow a conquest for all of Islam and a message of subservience to Allah and Bin Laden.
And good christ, in the two free dailies in the city that I read, Metro and AM New York, you know what their pictures were for the story about Bloomberg and the 9-0 landmark issue? A protester with a cardboard sign declaring ‘ISLAM BUILDS MOSQUES AT THE SITES OF THEIR CONQUESTS AND VICTORIES’. That’s the best picture they thought of to characterize it all, and it definitely didn’t look like it was meant to mock these idiots.
Fuck all, why don’t we just fucking kick out every brown skinned motherfucker in this country so these assholes can have their lily-white financially fucked country. Like TNC said about the Sherrod issue, it feels like the last few weeks…hell, months…have radicalized me in the worst possible way.
I just can’t read anything in the news anymore these days without wanting to punch some dumb motherfuckers in the head.
aimai
I can’t forgive Weiner for coming out full bore pro-Israeli gunmen shooting innocent peace activists. I just can’t. He’ll never get another dime out of me. Complex man? That was not a complex issue.
aimai
MattR
@Adam Collyer: If Weiner is going to hold his tongue and never support Muslims during a controversy in order to prevent his wife from becoming the victim of partisan attacks, then he really needs to get out of politics.
cleek
“Fuck Joe Lieberman”
one should make a habit of starting the day with those words. that way, if he somehow slithers into your consciousness, you will have preemptively dealt with him.
Jay C
@flotsam:
Of course, part of the problem is that the “left” (as well as large swaths of the middle and right) – has bought into (or been co-opted into) accepting an incredibly overbroad definition of “radical” – basically, anything up to and including even admitting to being Muslim.
Xanthippas
Guess Weiner isn’t our YouTube hero of the week anymore.
Dan
Why did you pick only Jewish congressmen/senators to ask about? Isn’t there another senator from the State of NY who isn’t jewish? Has she taken a position? do you care? Aren’t there districts throughout the Five Boroughs that aren’t represented by Jews? Are you trying to suggest that jewish politicians are caving on this, when in fact, only the ADL, a NGO, has come out against the cultural center?
MattR
@Dan: Jewish politicians are caving when they refuse to condemn the protesters and/or the ADL.
Chuchundra
Is this like back in the 80’s when every black pol was pointedly asked to denounce Louis Farrakhan?
Hey Jew, what do you and your Jew friends think about this mosque business? C’mon, we know you all hate the muslims. Prove that you don’t.
IM
It is true: I just looked at the web site and while Gillibrand had time to comment on Lockerbie, Iran and Asian carp, no word on the center.
A politician representing NYC should say something, at least after the whole thing blow up.
Cain
@Chuchundra:
They should ask the Sikh and Hindu communities. That should make the pot interesting.
cain
Lyrebird
@MattR: Uh, yeah, so that’s why there’s so much page space here devoted to J Street’s public support for the mosque?
Guess Dan & Chuchundra have the better analysis.