(CNN) – A national leader of the conservative Tea Party movement has been strongly criticized by Islamic civil rights leaders for referring to the proposed site of a New York City mosque as a place for Muslims to worship "the terrorists' monkey-god."
Tea Party Express organizer Mark Williams blogged on his Web site last week that the mosque - to be constructed near the former site of the World Trade Center - would be a "monument ... for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god and a 'cultural center' to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult."
Williams, who also referred to "animals of Allah," was rebuked Thursday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The group issued a release Wednesday calling on other Tea Party activists to repudiate Williams' remarks.
"It would be shocking if such ignorant comments failed to elicit a strong response not only from Tea Party leaders, but from other parties throughout the political spectrum," CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor said.
For his part, Williams was unapologetic toward Muslims.
"In the course of the article I described the 'god' worshiped by terrorists as 'a monkey god,'" he wrote on his Web site. "I was wrong and that
was offensive. I owe an apology to millions of Hindus who worship Lord Hanuman, an actual Monkey God."
Hanuman is known to followers of the Hindu faith as a symbol of strength and devotion, among other things.
Hanuman "is known as a destroyer of evil and to inspire and liberate," Williams said. "Those are hardly the traits of whatever ... it is that terrorists worship and worthy of my respect and admiration not ridicule."
The twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan were destroyed in an attack by al Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001.
From CNN Politics
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What an idiot. If he actually understood the history of religion he would understand that Muslims, Jews, and Christians all worship the same God. Who is the most current prophet is only what divides the basics of the religions. This is typical Tea Party ignorance at its best.
come on tea party.you voted one hatred bigget in repub .paul so either get your facts straight or you .WILL BE CONSIDERED LOOSERS LIK THESE HAT FILLED PEOPLE.oh by the way most of you pay no or less taxes than you did two years ago. JUST A FEW FACTS PEOPLE.IT TAKES MORE THAN CARRYING HATRED SIGNS
Ask a Christian how many gods there are, and he will say, "One". That's what Muslims also profess. If there is only one god, how could Muslim's worship some other god?
Muslims believe they worship the same God as Jews and Christians. When this Williams nitwit insults Allah, he also insults Jehovah and Yahweh and Elohim and Adonai and all the names under which God is worshiped.
So, do I hear some outrage from Tea Party Christians and Jews? I'm listening....
Too many of these tea partiers are reprehensible with their behavior. In his backhanded nonsense, Tea Party Williams did not apologize to the Muslim community. The majority of Islamic faith believe in peace & love for their families/communities and deserve respect from our leaders.
If these tea partiers were to ever gain office, this type of neoconservative nonsense exemplifies how dangerous their agenda could be, irresponsibly trying to provoke religious conflicts, instead of peace.
My God is better than your God. What is the big news here. Both religions practice the same intolerance of other religions. They are both in the same boat floating on the same sea of intolerance.
Amazing that CAIR should object. This is what Hamas and Fatah have been calling Israelis for generations (and worse). So, too, for our esteemed allies, the Saudis. They certainly can "dish it out," but cannot take it.
I know there is almost no point in commenting since no one ever listens to rational discussion anymore and no one will ever change their minds but this is just getting insane. The meaness, the name calling, the OVERT racism and other types of bigotry is just frightening. I am 40 yrs old , lived in the US my whole life (born in NYC) and for the first time in my whole life I feel like a minority (I'm Jewish). Scary times.
It drives me mad that new slantors blame the Muslim faith for terrorism. Al Qaeda is a militant group who hijacked the religion and twisted it to meet their personal needs......Not unlike what the right wing does with Christianity.
Ignorance isn't always bliss....I would love to know what exactly does mr. Williams knows about Islam or Christianity for him to denegrate other people's religion like that......If he would take a good look he would realize that both religions aren't that far apart....."Allah Akbar" means.."God is Great"....now can someone tell me where in our(I mean christians)scriptures isn't that written or who hasn't said that in thier life time.....Go figure, these people always like to talk about the "THEM"......but what one may not realize....one day the "THEM" might just turn out to be US.....
When MLK stated:"The mind is a terrible thing to waste"....I can still see that alot of you people didn't take notice....consequences is no coincident.....Go marinate on that for a minute
Regardless of how you feel about Muslims, such incivility is completely unacceptable. Most Muslims are good decent people. It's the extremist elements that give the whole a bad name. Kinda like Tea Partiers...
I feel that Williams' comments are appalling. While they might find favor amongst right wing extremists, any person that considers themselves near the center, by any measure, ought to condemn what he said.
Disgusting.
So where is his apology to Muslims?
Mark Williams needs to go back to grade school and re-learn his syllogisms.
Williams' mode of reasoning:
Some Muslims are terrorists.
Bob is a Muslim.
Therefore, Bob is a terrorist.
Bzzzt. Wrong answer, simpleton.
The US needs the Tea Party like the Gulf needs another hole in the pipe!
Barack Bows And Prays To Islam But rebukes Christianity and this Country....
You Dems elected a man that Hates the USA...
As a human being and as a Jew, I find Tea Party Express organizer Mark Williams' remarks despicable and disgusting. He is a piece of dreck. "The White Annoying Teabaggers" will never be a force in this country because thay are a farce.
This a perfect case of reaping what you sow. For over a year, libertarians were all too eager to let these nutbags into their rallies to augment their numbers. They rubbed elbows with racists and conspiracy theorists in order to try to advance their agenda. The problem, when you do that, is that the message becomes diluted and that's where we are right now. For every Ron and Rand Paul, there are dozens of birthers, tenthers, bigots and whatever else these teabaggers are calling themselves.
Limited government and limited intervention are noble goals. Pure Libertarians should be commended, but I don't see anything in any Libertarian literature that says that one race or religion is inferior to another. The tea party movement could've been a great rallying cry to improve this great nation but, instead, you let the lunatics run the asylum and we now associate the tea party movement with idiots like this guy.
You want a national party that will deliver smaller government and more personal freedoms? Then denounce racists, remove them from your party, and drive them back into the shadows where they belong.
Mark Williams SHOULD be strongly criticized. And it should be known he does not represent all Americans or all Christians.
Mr. Williams, in case you weren't aware, the God of Islam is the God of Christ and the God of Moses. By criticizing the Muslim God, you also criticize the Christian God and the Jewish God.
Do you claim that God as yours? If so, you are simply an empty can. Empty cans rattle the most.
Mark Williams, should have taken Michael Jackson's advice . . . "MAN IN THE MIRROR"
"Tea Party Express organizer Mark Williams blogged on his Web site last week that the mosque – to be constructed near the former site of the World Trade Center – would be a "monument ... for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god and a 'cultural center' to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult."
Another extremist heard from. Too bad my Republican Party is being led like fools to their final flushing down the toilet of history by such ignorant – paranoid – blantant lying, and hypocritical people like Williams.
Just one of a plethora of examples that shows the Tea Party members for what they are: bigots.
And the Tea Party movement state they are not Racist's or haters. How can they say that if one of their leader's is attacking all Muslims? That's ignoring the fact that many muslims are peaceful and law abiding citizens. It's also like saying that the imprisonment of Japanese American's was justified because some Japanese people attacked Pearl Harbor.
This is exactly the kind of idiot that the Tea Baggers would vote into office and thus catapult United States back into the stone ages. Bravo dummies! Bravo!
Tea Party = newly branded christian right
Good For the Tea Party!!!!!!!!!!!Ban all Muslims from entering the country the ideals of the muslims are outragous. Next to the Trade center? the muslims dont see why that would anger us. To bad they didnt have cruise missles during the crusades we could have finished this a long time ago. Death to your MONKEY GOD he is a terrorist. And the prophet mohammed is a great role model for nothing he's about as usefull as a poopy flavored lolipop......