Bryan Fischer

Searching For Bryan Fischer: One Top Social Conservative's Record Of Xenophobia

Jillian Rayfield | August 16, 2010, 8:40AM

Bryan Fischer

Top social conservative Bryan Fischer has attracted a lot of notice over the last week for his polarizing comments about Muslims. And while Fischer may be the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the conservative Christian group the American Family Association, AFA spokesman Cindy Roberts remains emphatic that his "analysis" of the "issues" is his and his alone. Roberts told TPM that Fischer's writings, many of which are featured on Fischer's AFA website blog "Focal Point," are "his personal opinion" and "not AFA's position."

But Fischer and the AFA alike, both with ties to mainstream conservative politicians, have a long and colorful history of championing social conservative causes that are often discriminatory, and in some cases, just plain bizarre.

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Bryan Fischer

Social Conservative Bryan Fischer: Paterson Wants To Impose Sharia Law On New York

Jillian Rayfield | August 13, 2010, 3:37PM

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the American Family Association who said there should be "no more mosques, period," now believes that Gov. David Paterson is attempting to impose sharia law on New York.

Paterson had offered to help the Cordoba House developers get state land for their proposed Muslim community center that's become known as the "Ground Zero mosque." Fischer wrote in a blog post today that Paterson "quite deliberately offered to grant Islam a favored status under New York public policy that is denied to Christian churches."

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Stephen Colbert

Colbert: Bryan Fischer's Right -- NYC 'Mosque' Is 'Weapon Of Mass Construction' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | August 13, 2010, 10:20AM

Stephen Colbert agreed with critics last night who say that the "Ground Zero mosque" is a "weapon of mass construction" and a "slapping eye-stab" to America. In fact, Colbert said he agrees with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association "who blogged where angels fear to tweet," and said that there should be "no more mosques, period."

"Every permit granted to a mosque," Colbert continued, "is one denied to an American house of worship" -- "a mall."

He added that we should also ban barns since Timothy McVeigh used one of those. And since Unabomber Ted Kaczynski used a shack "let's get rid of shacks. And just to be safe, let's get rid of Shaq. After all, I think I've seen him in a turban," Colbert said, referring to the 1996 movie Kazaam.

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American Family Association

Top Social Conservative Doubles Down: 'Every Single Mosque' In U.S. Is Terror Threat

Jillian Rayfield | August 12, 2010, 1:19PM

Bryan Fischer of Americans United with a mosque inset.

Bryan Fischer, who wrote a blog post this week arguing that the U.S. should have "no more mosques, period," explained to TPM today that "every single mosque is a potential terror training center or recruitment center for jihad" and thus "you cannot claim first amendment protections if your religious organization is engaged in subversive activities."

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Feisal Abdul Rauf

'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam Was A Bush-Era Partner For Mideast Peace

Megan Carpentier | August 12, 2010, 8:20AM

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Karen Hughes

Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour. That tour, which includes stops in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is designed by the public diplomacy office to explain to Muslims abroad what it's like to be a Muslim in America.

Outside of how getting constantly called a radical by American politicians busy flacking the proposed "Ground Zero mosque" for political purposes might affect Rauf's view of what it's like to be a Muslim in America, there's one other big problem with King's and Ros-Lehtinen's accusation: Rauf already represented America in this way, under the Bush Administration.

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American Family Association

Top Social Conservative: 'No More Mosques, Period'

Jillian Rayfield | August 11, 2010, 1:02PM

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the American Family Association, wrote a blog post yesterday on the AFA's site arguing that the United States should have "no more mosques, period."

"This is for one simple reason," he writes. "Each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government."

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Jon Stewart

Daily Show Introduces Mosque Opponents To Halal Meat Carts (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | August 11, 2010, 10:14AM

Jon Stewart was a little bit confused last night about the controversy over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque," and with people like Tennessee Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R), who said that Islam may be a "cult" and not a religion.

"You know," said Stewart, "I can see being confused by Scientology, or the thing Madonna does with the red bracelets, or this whole Justin Bieber craze, certain 'World of Warcraft' guilds, Harry Potter book clubs. But I think 1400 years" pretty much qualifies Islam as a religion.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

'Museum Of Tolerance' Director Opposes Mosque But Built Museum On Muslim Cemetery

Rachel Slajda | August 6, 2010, 5:57PM

The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles

The group behind the recently opened "Museum of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.

"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New York.

"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why create pain in the name of religion?"

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Religion

The New GOP Anti-Mosque Talking Point: Ground Zero Is Our Auschwitz

Megan Carpentier | August 4, 2010, 4:46PM

Protesters against the proposed Cordoba House, a community center and mosque near ground zero (Islamic Center of America inset).

It isn't enough for Republicans to call on "peaceful Muslims" to "refudiate" the mosque and community center proposed for a site near Ground Zero, or to imply that the funding for it comes from terrorist organizations, or even to tell American Muslims that their religious freedoms should be held hostage to the decisions of the Saudi government. Nope. The new Republican talking point used to try to stop the construction of the community center and mosque -- and to make political hay of that opposition -- is that Ground Zero is their Auschwitz, and the Muslims who seek to build anywhere near it should know better, just like some nice nuns did in the eighties.

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Muslims

#BigotryFail: Plan To Harass Muslims With Dogs At CA Rally Collapses

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 3, 2010, 6:17PM

In the end, the people trying to stop the construction of a mosque in Temecula, California were vastly outnumbered by the crowd welcoming the growth of the Muslim community in Riverside County. Last week, we told you about the plan by some conservatives opposed to the construction of the new mosque to show up over the weekend outside the Temecula-area Muslim group's current digs to tell those inside they weren't welcome. To prove the point, the group planned to bring dogs -- which one protester characterized as pretty much the Muslims' mortal enemy, saying that Muslims "hate dogs."

Here's how it all turned out: the anti-mosque protesters were outnumbered by pro-mosque supporters, the local tea party disavowed the protest and called it hate speech, the protester we talked to dropped off the face of the earth and only one dog made it to the planned protest.

It was a fittingly unexpected end to an extraordinary tale.

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