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Go Home Uncle's Cousin's Former Roommate

JONATHAN CHAIT JULY 26, 2010

Uncle's Cousin's Former Roommate

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Robert Wright on the Weekly Standard's use of guilt-by-association to attack the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan:

Rauf’s wife, who often speaks in support of the project and during one talk reflected proudly on her Islamic heritage, “failed to mention another feature of her background: She is the niece of Dr. Farooq Khan, formerly a leader of the Westbury Mosque on Long Island, which is a center for Islamic radicals and links on its Web site to the paramilitary Islamic Circle of North America (I.C.N.A.), the front on American soil for the Pakistani jihadist Jamaat e-Islami.”

Got that? Rauf’s wife has an uncle who used to be “a leader” of a mosque that now has a Web site that links to the Web site of an allegedly radical organization.

I guess it's pretty serious:

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8 comments

My wife's cousin's uncle has an ex-wife who used to be a Communist. Therefore I am a dangerous radical. Degrees of separation don't protect you in right-wing anti-Islamic circles.

- liberal reformer

July 26, 2010 at 12:00pm

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Meanwhile. over at The Daily Palin, Andrew refers in a post this morning to The New Republic's "baseless smears." There is no antecedent to this, except references to anti-Semitism. So much for Andrew's specificity. One assumes that the smear reference is a swipe at Leon Wiesletier because you, Jonathan, have written that you do not think Andrew is anti-Semitic. Clearly, writers from The New Republic have rattled and unsettled him. It even knocks him off of his game, viz, his All Trig All the Time mode. Months back Andrew wrote about the lack of intellectual honesty at The New Republic. He asseverated that he knew whereof he spoke, because he worked there, as a writer and then editor of the publication. My question for this fraud is: how come he stayed so long if what he now alleges was the case? In his preposterous post of this late morning, he says that his record on opposing anti-Semitism goes back decades. But Andrew has changed his views on matters Levantine, just an iota. Sometimes he is honest about this, most of the time not. One does not expect him to banner his change of Weltanschauung in every relevant post, but when he writes things like his record goes back decades ...., well. Now, his new opinions and friends obviously do not ipso facto make him an anti-Semite. Only a purveyor of enthymematic propositions would assert that. But he himself wrote about Jewish neoconservatives in a passage that Wieseltier cited that was at the very least, razor-blade close to an anti-Semitic trope. Me thinks thou doth protest too much, Andrew.

- liberal reformer

July 26, 2010 at 12:19pm

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lib ref, Wiesltier had also written in the past that Sullivan wasn't an antisemite. Not clear if he took it back, stopped short of taking it back, or what, exactly. Can't speak to Sullivan's general antisemitism or not (he's certainly overwrought about Israel currently, and will undoubtedly move on to something else- he in the past was equally overwrought in the opposite direction), but I know that one specific charge of Wieseltier's, that Sullivan was claiming that Jews couldn't discuss christianity, was a gross mischaracterization.

- miceelf

July 26, 2010 at 2:44pm

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Yes, mice, I know. I believe I have read everything back-and-forth between AS and LW. Leon seems ambivalent about whether or not Andrew is an anti-Semite.

- liberal reformer

July 26, 2010 at 3:50pm

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PS, here's the link to Wright's piece which somehow didn't show up for me: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/a-mosque-maligned/ Even better is what's next, as it was completely anticipated by lib ref: "The odd thing is that the author of this piece, Stephen Schwartz, is a self-described neoconservative whose parents were, by his own account, communists. You’d think he might harbor doubts about how confidently we can infer people’s ideologies from the ideologies of their older relatives. You’d also think he might disdain McCarthyite guilt-by-association tactics. You’d be wrong."

- miceelf

July 26, 2010 at 3:52pm

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The web site of the Islamic Circle of North America currently has a picture of a smiling little girl with Tweety and Sylvester the Cat from Looney Toons. In the current news section: "New York (July 21, 2010)- The Islamic Circle of North America is pleased to announce Muslim Family Day 2010, being held at Six Flags locations across the United States in celebration of Eid Al-Fitr." Rauf's wife's sister's best friend's cousin knows this kid who's going with this girl whose uncle used to work for a mosque that today links to a radical group of Muslims indoctrinating our youth in American culture.

- jmorton

July 26, 2010 at 4:02pm

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My interest in Andrew Sullivan is low to moderate. Does he have to be on all the threads?

- frippo

July 26, 2010 at 9:59pm

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frippo, just as all associations lead one back to Kevin Bacon or Islamic extremism, all TNR conversations are ultimately about TNR alumni, usually sullivan.

- miceelf

July 27, 2010 at 8:19am

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