Weigel

Herman Cain Against the Muslim Brotherhood

It had been too long since Herman Cain spoke at length about his concerns with the spread of Muslim institutions in America. Robert Stacy McCain catches him at a launch event in Maryland.*

We have separation of church and state. Islam combines church and state, with what they call sharia law. This is why I’ve been making the statement when asked about putting Muslims in my administration. I said, no, I’m not comfortable with that off the bat. That’s not discrimination. That’s just being cautious, because there are incidents around this country, like the attempt to build the mosque in Murfreesboro, like the attempt to build the mosque next to Ground Zero. There are other exceptions all over this country. They use our First Amendment, with the church part, without judges sometimes recognizing that there’s another component. And so the bottom line is that I believe in American laws, American courts. In Murfreesboro, I talked to some of the people there. I had a conversation with one of the attorneys who was working on this case. And he said to me they know for a fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the building of that mosque.

A little context. The Murfreesboro mosque that Cain refers to is only now starting to break ground. For the past year, its opponents have said that the Muslim America Society, which funded the purchase of the new land, is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s a short journey from that accusation to the one that Cain makes – that the Muslim Brotherhood is “behind” the mosque. Cain is basically saying what Frank Gaffney says about Islam in America, and this speech gets the stamp of approval from Pam Geller, the blogger who did as much as anyone to turn the “Ground Zero Mosque” into a national controversy.

*Maryland’s primary comes right after the Florida primary, so Cain’s efforts there are extremely ambitious.