The right's cynical and offensive attacks on religious freedom

It's beginning to look like there isn't anything that members of the right-wing noise machine won't say – no innuendo they won't happily spread; no former taboo they won't happily breach – in their determined effort to do whatever it takes to derail the Obama Presidency, paralyze the American government and help Republicans to electoral success this fall. In the modern world of 21^st Century political hardball as practiced by the Fox News right, no lie is too big to utter, no tiny shred of an argument too flimsy to feature in a screaming headline.

Time and again, the pattern repeats itself:

1. Over on the extreme fringe, some shadowy scam artist twists the truth to manufacture a fear mongering "story" about some supposed treachery committed by a Democratic politician or, even "better," the President himself.

2. Next, sometimes after several weeks or months of being widely ignored, the "story" will pop up in right-wing talk show world (i.e. Limbaugh, Hannity, Michael Savage, O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, etc…).

3. Conservative activists stage a "grassroots" protest against the supposed treachery.

4. The protest and "public outcry" are reported breathlessly by Fox News or the front page of the Washington Times.

5. Once front-paged by these "news" outlets, it's only a matter of days (or even hours) before conservative politicians seize upon the story and start mouthing prescribed talking points developed by the Karl Roves of the world.

6. Next come the tepid and/or wimpy replies from fearful Democrats who are worried about "alienating independent voters" by standing up against bigotry or for some other principled position.

7. This, of course, proves irresistible to the supposedly responsible mainstream media with its slothful and terminal addiction to he said/she said debates.

8. Last but not least comes the pious pontificating from the right-wing "think tanks" who assure us that "while the story has probably been exaggerated somewhat, it's understandable why activists would be concerned."

The rights gins up a religious war

If this description sounds like a farfetched parody then check out the debate of late surrounding the proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan and the right's latest efforts to question president Obama's religion. The media back and forth on these matters (they don't even deserve to be called "issues") makes the despicable "swift boating" of John Kerry look like a pillow fight.

Consider some of the following recent developments (courtesy of Justin Elliott and Frank Rich):

• The New York Times reports on the development of the cultural center in a long piece last December. Months pass with scarcely a ripple.

• Months later, the Fox News of newspapers, Rupert Murdoch's incendiary rag, the New York Post, seizes on the ravings of a blogger who once alleged that the president was the "love child" of Malcolm X to gin the matter up into a controversy.

• The cultural center (which was to be located on a former Burlington Coat Factory and a block away from a "gentlemen's club" near where the twin towers fell) is quickly dubbed the "Ground Zero Mosque" and described as being located on "hallowed ground." Its patrons and supporters (some of whom were actually defenders of President Bush and the war in Iraq) are quickly recast as "radical Islamists."

• Soon, the right-wing media empire kicks into gear and conservative politicians start reciting their lines. Dishonest charlatans like Newt Gingrich compare the proposed building to a Nazi memorial in a Jewish community.

• Before long, the story has quickly morphed into a revival of the moronic allegation that the President is actually a Muslim. Soon thereafter, the American people are treated to the offensive spectacle of Senate Republican leader giving a tepid, mumble-mouthed statement that implies as much.

The reaction in North Carolina

Sadly, if you thought this absurd story was purely a national media brouhaha that would bypass North Carolina, you were wrong. This week, in keeping with steps 5 though 8 above, North Carolinians received the embarrassing news that:

1. their utterly ineffective but ever-opportunistic senior senator felt a need to speak out against the "ground zero mosque" (as if anyone in any place of responsibility in New York gave a hoot about what he says),

2. the senator's election challenger felt compelled to tell us, ever so bravely, that she had no position,

3. a veteran political reporter saw fit to bother to "report" on their statements, and

4. a local right-wing propaganda shop did its worst to continue to spread the manure even further by calling attention to the tut-tutting "analysis" of another right-wing "think tank" that – you guessed it – defended those who call the President a closet Muslim. Click here to read a Locke Foundation staffer talk about "the reasons why mainstream media outlets ought to cut some slack to those Americans who believe Obama does practice Islam."

Making lemonade out of lemons

It's hard to imagine anything very good coming out of this cesspool of lies, insinuations and ignorance – at least in the near future. In the longer run, however, there is hope if more and more honest and intelligent people of all political persuasions stand up and reiterate the following facts:

1. No one is proposing to build a "mosque" on the land on which the twin towers stood. A cultural center with a prayer room is not a mosque and a former clothing store near a strip club is not "hallowed ground."

2. If, however, a private party or group did want to build a mosque (or a church or a synagogue or a temple or a shrine) on such land that they owned and it comported with local zoning laws, then they have an absolute constitutional right to do so. Notwithstanding the blathering or nincompoops like Richard Burr, Newt Gingrich and the denizens of the Rupert Murdoch Empire, this is one of the central freedoms for which our country (and its flag and Constitution) stand. It's a freedom for which hundreds of thousands of men and women have given their lives.

3. President Obama is a practicing Christian. He is also probably heck of a lot more devout and faithful than a lot of the dishonest wretches who have attacked him - be in Mitch McConnell, William Kristol or their North Carolina toadies.

4. If, however, the President (or any other American leader) were a Muslim (or a Jew or a Hindu or a Zen Buddhist or an atheist), that would be his or her business – a matter for his or her conscience. As Colin Powell said back 2008:

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

In the days ahead, let's use these latest cynical and despicable acts by the far right as a "teaching moment" – a means of spreading Powell's wisdom and reminding a new generation of Americans about the principle of religious freedom and the dangers posed to our Republic when cynics and know-nothings seek to shamelessly and hypocritically undermine it.