Outside the Beltway

Why are people’s views about Islam so screwed up ? Mostly because the only things they know about it tend to be the worst possible aspects of all.

A small slice of what people at the epicenter of the Park51 controversy have to say.

Barely half of Americans think Muslims have a Constitutional right to build a mosque near the World Trade Center and 18% think mosques shouldn’t be allowed anywhere. That’s why we have a 1st Amendment.

The Associated Press tells its reports to stop using the phrase “Ground Zero Mosque.” That’s a good thing.

Sarah Palin decided to get involved in the “Doctor Laura” Schlessinger controversy, and in the process displayed a blatant misunderstanding of the First Amendment.

Twenty percent of Americans still believe that Barack Obama is Muslim. Not only is it wrong, it says something rather disturbing about our country.

If the response to Cordoba House isn’t basically being anti-Muslim, what is it?

Some Republicans are start to wonder if it’s such a good idea for their party to be so closely associated with the heated rhetoric surrounding the future of this former Burlington Coat Factory.

Given public opinion on the proposed Islamic community center that is currently cominating the news, we would expect that opposition to the project would be strongest in Manhattan itself.

How did the future of this former Burlington Coat Factory turn into a national political issue ? Well, it’s a rather interesting story.

Ross Douthat’s latest New York Times column demonstrates an appalling misunderstanding of history in the context of immigration.

A major part of the problem with the seeming growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in some quarters of US politics is that it seems to equate Islam as “the enemy.” If that’s the case, then US foreign policy has some ‘splainin’ to do.

The GOP is playing a dangerous game with the anti-Islamic rhetoric that it seems to be courting these days.

President Obama’s decision to speak out on the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” has turned what was a hot-button cable news item into a political issue that even his fellow Democrats don’t want to deal with.

If it was called the “Burlington Coat Factory community center” would anyone care about Cordoba House?

President Obama waded into the “Ground Zero” mosque controversy at a Ramadan dinner last night.

The American Family Association has ramped up the nation’s anti-Muslim sentiment yet again.

Greg Gutfeld claims to be working to build a gay bar next door to the controversial Cordoba House Muslim cultural center a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Turnabout is fair play: Strippers are picketing a church that’s picketing their strip club.

Hezbollah can tolerate the restoration of a synagogue, but many Americans are apoplectic about a Muslim community center and mosque two blocks from where the WTC once stood.

Protests against mosques aren’t just limited to Manhattan. And that’s a problem.

Sharron Angle’s views about the role of religion in politics are disturbingly similar to those of people who believe that the Bible itself should be the law of the land.

Sharron Angle has moved on from Second Amendment solutions to First Commandment ones…

A number of disturbing incidents point towards increased anti-Islam hostility in the United States.

The Anti-Defamation League has taken an unfortunate stand on a issue involving religious tolerance and bigotry.

Can a public university expel a student for a religiously-motivated aversion to homosexuality?