Al Franken: Conservative Criticism To Mosque 'Disgraceful,' Gingrich Nazi Comparison 'Offensive'

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that conservative criticism of plans to develop a mosque and Islamic community center in close proximity to "Ground Zero" in New York City is "one of the most disgraceful things that I've heard."

"I don't know how many of you have been to New York, but if a building is two blocks away from anything, you can't see it," he said, according to the State Journal-Register.

“It’s a community center. They’re going to have a gym. They’re going to have point guards. Muslim point guards,” Franken said, to laughter and applause.

“They (Republicans) do this every two years. They try to find a wedge issue, and they try to work it.”

Franken also reportedly called out former House Speaker Newt Gingrich specifically for incendiary comments about the proposed religious center earlier this week.

"The most offensive thing I heard was from Newt Gingrich: 'We can't let the Nazis put up a building next to the Holocaust Museum," asserted the Democratic Senator. "That's equating all Muslims with Al Quaida. George W. Bush said Al Quaida is 'a perversion of Islam.'"

Gingrich analogized building the religious establishment near "Ground Zero" to Nazis putting up signs close to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. on Monday's edition of "Fox and Friends."

In sharing his take on the matter, Franken told his audience, "I lost a friend in 9-11 and I understand the feelings of the families."

Comments

[Lindsay Schutz]

01:46 PM on 09/22/2010

It's a friggin islamic center in manhattan!! Who cares?

[rshrink]

09:44 AM on 08/22/2010

I hope that George Bush's library is at least miles away from a public school. Is anyone checking?

[geoffstaples]

11:25 AM on 08/22/2010

Unfortunately, it is immediately adjacent to the university where Laura Bush is said to have sold drugs as a college student.

It is in a densely populated urban area with 6 public schools within a mile and 10 public schools within 2 miles.

It's about 15 blocks from my house and we are not amused.

[rshrink]

12:13 PM on 08/22/2010

Then I think they need to put a museum dedicated to the Iraq war across the street from his museum.

[rshrink]

08:56 AM on 08/22/2010

Building this center will give our American kids a place to play, worship and build positive relationships. Lets get busy and promote more of this kind of thing. It might help get our country back on track. I would a lot rather hear about kids playing and worshiping, than about more shootings every evening on the news.

[rshrink]

08:43 AM on 08/22/2010

While I am in agreement with the sentiment of Franken's comments, I just have to take issue with referring to George Bush, the war starter. I hope someone builds another museum for George Bush which is based on truth, which reflects all of the horrible things he did. I will donate the first 10 dollars for that too. I might even go twenty.

[PlatoSunTsu]

02:02 AM on 08/22/2010

Al has character and integrity...so much for the other "senators"...

[ChaCubed]

05:55 PM on 08/21/2010

The anti-"GroundZero Mosque" is a shill: it is no different than all the other protests against the bullding of mosques and other Muslim facilities elsewhere. In an interview, the Iman of this mosque listed 3 or 4 other protests against mosques being built in the city and surrounding areas; this article lists others http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html; and there was one in the town I live in which was spearheaded by Black Christian ministers who, similary to the "Ground Zero Mosque", didn't want a Muslim school and community center built in their "Christian neighborhood".

[ChaCubed]

05:41 PM on 08/21/2010

Al Franken: loved him as a comedian/writer/actor, love him as a Senator.

[Richard Pearce]

05:17 PM on 08/21/2010

I wonder how many years it will be before being associated with the OMB (Order of Muslim Bashers) will be as problematic for (at least the national) political associations and politicians as being associated with the triple K?

[gra8whit]

11:07 AM on 08/21/2010

One thing Republicans are good at - jingoism. And they are really good at using jingoism, whether they truly believe in it or not, to rile up a uninformed public to vote to put them in power. Then, they serve their true masters - the corporations that take them on golfing junkets and fund them through legalized bribery called campaign contributions.

[James M 1985]

05:22 AM on 08/21/2010

A lot of the rhetoric from the right about the Cordoba House project has been vulgar and offensive, as has their rhetoric about Islam and Muslims for years.

However, while I think anyone with half a brain would agree that they have the right to do it, that doesn't mean that they should. For an organization claiming to be seeking to "build bridges", putting it so close to ground zero seems more like burning bridges.

This is not a radical position, it is even a position held by Muslims themselves.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Mischief+Manhattan/3370303/story.html#ixzz0w4TscDTW

Even Miss USA Rima Fakih came out against it.

Imam Rauf knows exactly what he is doing, and it isn't building bridges of understanding. There has been much wrong committed against Muslims in America since 9/11 and I'll condemn genuine Islamaphobia whenever I see it. This is not Islamaphobia, although the behavior of some opponents of the center is Islamaphobic, principled opposition to the center is not an Islamaphobic act.

No one serious is suggesting that the government step in with legal measures, what I think most people want is for Imam Rauf to do the right and wise thing of his own volition.

Imam Rauf has the constitutional right to build Cordoba House wherever he wants, but I hope he finds the wisdom and grace not to build it so close to an open wound in our nation, this only reopens the wound, it does not heal it.

[Takebackourmoney]

12:55 PM on 08/21/2010

There is a mosque operating at the site right now. Do you think they should tear it down.

[MarkAntney]

01:32 PM on 08/21/2010

Prejudice and bigotry has little basis in logic, it resonates through fear, ignorance, oppresion, and intimidation,....so you asking a logical question is Moot.

Case in point (well two actually:)),

Look up how MLK was villified by Conservatives, yet he barely raised a hand in Anger and pleaded with those he lead, preached to, and represented to not respond to the Terror inflicted upon them with violence (again look it up yourself).

Also, notice long after Thurgood Marshall won the LEGISLATIVE battles for voting/Civil rights and (not enough notice) Equal Right s for women, how they had to dig up his grave recently to try to refight their lost causes.

No basis in logic, reason, or even law, some folks are vehemently against others that are different from themselves.

We're flying Confederate Flags all over the place and unless folks don't know what that Flag Represented towards treason, tyranny, terrorism to our own Country,...Yet have no problem with it,...

Why such a problem over a Mosque/Cultural Center?

While you're also buying ALL those Petro products directly based on products from the MEast?

Another Fake Issue they have to cook up, for they refuse to deal with their abject failure(s) when they led the country. I'm sorry, I mean Historic Failures:):):)

[Norak]

11:49 PM on 08/21/2010

I believe it is currently an empty building.

[SMC281]

01:55 PM on 08/21/2010

The location of the community center wasn't even an issue until Pamela Geller decided it was. In December of 2009, Laura Ingraham told Daisy Khan (the wife of Imam Rauf) that she liked the idea.

[James M 1985]

01:28 AM on 08/22/2010

My opinions of the Islamaphobe Pamela Geller aside, building the center there is still self defeating.

If Imam Rauf genuinely is trying to create bridges of understanding, building so close to ground zero against broad public opposition is not a good way to do it, it almost seems to defy any logic and reason.

Personally I am troubled very deeply by some of the positions taken by Imam Rauf...

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/02/the_archbishop_of_canterbury_w.html

Such a position is a slap in the face to those of us who believe in separation of church and state. I'm not going to criticize the Christian Right for such things on the one hand and welcome it from the likes of Imam Rauf on the other.

I do not want what they have adopted in Britain coming to America, the notion of a separate set of laws and courts for one group of people is fundamentally anti American, I believe there should be one secular law for all as there is today, that is the only way our country can work.

[CivilGargoyle1]

01:46 AM on 08/21/2010

Dear Newt,

Like yourself were a group of Nazis to put up for example pro Nazi signs, of which statements you didn't specify, near the Holocaust museum it would only amplify and illustrate their hateful resourcefulness.

So Newt, you seem certain that one of the purposes of the Muslim center is to inflict pain and insult to the 911 victims. You live for venom.

[Steelsil]

01:25 AM on 08/21/2010

Them Repuuublicans wuz just joshin' about likin' the Constitooooshun, an' all. Shoot, it sez ragheds is just as good as Christian white folks. Ain't no way that they'uns believe thet.

[theothersideofsilence]

10:06 AM on 08/22/2010

Scary, isn't it?

[CivilGargoyle1]

01:03 AM on 08/21/2010

Thanks Al for being a strong person and Senator. I agree with you and the President. Yes it's a wedge issue from the wedgie party. What I find most troubling is the ease and intensity that these made up issues are purchased and the anger and hate echoed by those who are so willing to buy without question. Hate unfortunate has been a tempting and cheap commodity for many in the MSM.

[Neils60]

11:08 PM on 08/20/2010

I'd love to hear what Franken has to say about Harry Reid's, Howard Dean's, and Rima Fakih's (a Moslem, Miss America--2010) opposition to the location of the mosque? He's been strangely silent about these folks.

[interlude]

11:41 PM on 08/20/2010

So have chief wingnuts Boehner and Cantor.

[James M 1985]

05:47 AM on 08/21/2010

Rima Fakih isn't alone, there are lots of Muslims who think that putting Cordoba House so close to ground zero is unwise and tasteless, particularly for an organization that claims to be devoted to "building bridges".

Neda Bolourchi, a Muslim who lost her mother on 9/11 wrote a good piece on this in the Washington post.

The insistence on this particular location baffles me, the Imam's stubborn insistence on building Cordoba House there seems to be burning for more bridges than he can ever hope to build. By choosing and unwisely insisting on this location Imam Rauf seems to have doomed Cordoba House even before it is built.

Most Americans view it as an insensitive poke in the eye, with a job as difficult as building bridges between Islam and the west Imam Rauf is clearly of to a shaky start with the mixed messages the center sends.

Would not a better way to build bridges have been to relocate Cordoba House, because of the sensitivities involved. Would that have not sent a stronger message of peace and tolerance?

[Norak]

11:51 PM on 08/21/2010

A problem for many is that the source of funding to build the center has not been revealed.

[theothersideofsilence]

10:20 AM on 08/22/2010

I am taking your comments here at face value. I thought the NRA march on Columbine was insensitive. I did, however, agree with their right to do so. I think it takes a great deal of tolerance to allow room for others at your table, especially, when you don't like or agree with them. Perhaps, 50-100 years from now we will look back at the symbolic act of locating the center next to the monument to our pain as a defining moment for our society. After all, it was not "courteous" for Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat--by that, I mean it wasn't a "bridge-building", peaceful message. Perhaps, when one is thinking toward a more distance vision of tolerance and peace, one is prepared to cause some short term discord. I would hope that the disturbance caused by this mosque will be short term with the possibility of some long-term tolerance. That is why, I find your objections to be unsupported and, perhaps, a bit disingeneous.

[Anbreen]

09:31 PM on 08/20/2010

Here's the WPRST of it!

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/outrage-over-plans-to-build-library-next-to-sarah-palin-201008193017/

[interlude]

10:33 PM on 08/20/2010

Hilarious.