The American Muslim (TAM)

Rick Santorum’s Muslim Problem

Sheila Musaji
Posted May 24, 2012 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly Version

Rick Santorum’s Muslim Problem

by Sheila Musaji

Here is Rick Santorum’s original entry from our TAM collection Islamophobia No Longer Questioned, Even By Our Elected Representatives

Rick Santorum Former R-PA Senator, Presidential Candidate - has called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf “a jihadist”.
— Santorum gave a lecture on Islam in which he said “A democracy could not exist because Mohammed already made the perfect law. The Quran is perfect just the way it is, that’s why it is only written in Islamic (sic).” defended Franklin Graham’s anti-Muslim comments.
— He said “Jihadism is evil and we need to say what it is ... “We need to define it and say what it is. And it is evil. Sharia law is incompatible with American jurisprudence and our Constitution. “Sharia law is not just a religious code. It is also a governmental code. It happens to be both religious in nature an origin, but it is a civil code. And it is incompatible with the civil code of the United States.” ** Interesting double standard here, since in January he said regarding the law on abortion “Abortion doesn’t conform to the natural law. Why? Because we don’t—all life should be respected. And so this agitation of having secular laws inconsistent with the natural law is something that we’ve dealt with in America from its very founding. But we have to recognize that there is a place for the articulation of the sacred law, or the natural law, or the universal law, and that they need to be in the public square and they need to be involved in the political discourse because there are moral components to every single law we pass.” 3/11 He also called Sharia “evil”
— Santorum pointed out what he thought were the main differences between Christians and Muslims. Santorum said Christians, who believe in Jesus Christ, never governed or conquered anyone, but Mohammed was a warrior and killed people. Santorum has defended the Crusades. He said “The American Left hates Christendom. They hate Western civilization.” And, “The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical.”
— He told a New Hampshire political dinner audience that Muslim immigrants in the U.S. left their home countries “because of sharia law,” adding that “sharia law is incompatible with American jurisprudence and our Constitution.”
— In a speech, he said ”…They are in a whole new war with us. We can choose not to be in one; doesn’t mean we aren’t. We are in a war, and theology is its basis. Just like we were in a war against Communism, and ideology was its basis. We need to understand that. What must we do to win [against Islam]? We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate. ... The other thing we need to do is eradicate, and that’s the final thing. As I said, this is going to be a long war.”
— Santorum Says Equality ‘Doesn’t Come from Islam’ But From ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’

Max Blumenthal wrote an article Santorum warns of “Eurabia,” issues call to “evangelize and eradicate” Muslims in which he notes

... In 2007, a few months after Santorum was ousted from the Senate in a landslide defeat, he accepted an invitation from right-wing provocateur David Horowitz to speak at “Islamo-Fascism Campus Awareness Week.” As I documented in my video report on Horowitz’s appearance at Columbia University that year, “Islamo-Fascism” week was a naked ploy to generate publicity for the frenetically self-promoting Horowitz while demonizing Muslim-Americans as a dangerous fifth column who required constant government monitoring and possibly worse. The event was so extreme that even Jewish groups like Hillel known for promoting Zionism on campus rejected it.

There is no video documentation or transcript of Santorum’s speech at Horowitz’s “Islamo-Fascism Awareness” event. However, I was able to find a transcript of a speech Santorum delivered at Horowitz’s invitation in March 2007. During his address, the ex-Senator declared the need to “define the enemy,” but he made little effort to distinguish between the general population of Muslims and violent Islamic extremists. If anything, he seemed to conflate the two.

Here are a few of the remarkable statements Santorum made at Horowitz’s event:

“What must we do to win? We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate.”

“Look at Europe. Europe is on the way to losing. The most popular male name in Belgium—Mohammad. It’s the fifth most popular name in France among boys. They are losing because they are not having children, they have no faith, they have nothing to counteract it. They are balkanizing Islam, but that’s exactly what they want. And they’re creating an opportunity for the creation of Eurabia, or Euristan in the future…Europe will not be in this battle with us. Because there will be no Europe left to fight.”

We should “talk about how Islam treats homosexuals. Talk about how they treat anybody who is found to be a homosexual, and the answer to that is, they kill them.”

”...the Shia brand of Islamist extremists [is] even more dangerous than the Sunni [version]. Why? Because the ultimate goal of the Shia brand of Islamic Islam is to bring back the Mahdi. And do you know when the Mahdi returns? At the Apocalypse at the end of the world. You see, they are not interested in conquering the world; they are interested in destroying the world.”

“The other thing we need to do is eradicate, and that’s the final thing. As I said, this is going to be a long war.”

The Islamophobic rant Santorum delivered at an event organized by a known bigot was no less extreme than anything contained in Ron Paul’s newsletters. But don’t wait for the American mainstream press to discuss Santorum’s disturbing views on Muslims as anything other than proof of his “authenticity.”