The round-up of the formally named “Washington Briefing” put on by the Family Research Council’s C4 entity, Focus on the Family Action, described an “impressive A-list of conservative leaders and public officials [who] packed the schedule from early morning till late in the evening” who spoke to the 1700 attendees about “pressing family issues” as they sought “energy and encouragement.” And in keeping with the gathering’s goal of energizing its religious right base with strategic messaging, a new emphasis on terrorism was on display beginning with Dobson opening the two-day conference calling it a “family issue.”
Dobson shared his view of the War on Islamo-fascism by looking at the big-picture numbers. He made clear he does not believe all Muslims are terrorists, but a small percentage obviously are. With an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, Dobson said, a small percentage adds up to a lot of trouble.
He said the estimates are that 10 to 15 percent do buy into the notion that jihad calls for the killing of infidels.
“Let’s say that’s grossly overstated, and it may be,” Dobson said. “What if it’s 4 percent worldwide? What if 4 percent want to take us down and are willing to give their lives for it? When the point of negotiation is that the other person wants to kill you, there’s not a whole lot to talk about. So, what if it’s 4 percent? That’s 48 million people in this world who want to kill us. What if it’s one tenth of 1 percent? It’s 12 million people that want to kill us.
“We’re in a war and it’s time that we recognized it.”
Dobson said he sees the effort to stop terrorists as having a place among family issues.
“Because if we don’t have security for ourselves, our children, for future generations,” he said, “there is no future for the family.”
No doubt Dobson has read the same exit polls as we have showing that 86% of voters in 2004 who thought that terrorism was the most important issue were Bush voters, and 73% of voters who thought the Iraq war was the most important were Kerry voters. Religious right voters can now expect to hear their leaders joining Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Tony Snow and others in the right-wing echo chamber putting a pro-Bush, “pro-family” spin on the war on terror by adding it to their growing roster of dubious “pressing“ family issues.
