Days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush visited a Washington, D.C., mosque to declare that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam” and to urge Americans to treat their Muslim neighbors “with respect,” citing stories of American Muslims who were afraid to leave their homes after the attacks.
So, naturally, conservatives have been attacking President Obama for making very similar remarks at the end of an address about the recent the terrorist shooting in San Bernardino.
Joining the fray on Tuesday was Virginia Republican Rep. Robert Hurt, who told Virginia talk radio host John Fredericks that the Obama administration is so obsessed with “the premise that America is racist” that it wants Americans to “not be concerned about all these threats and not be concerned about the fact that 14 people” were killed in San Bernardino.
“I think that this administration begins with the premise that America is racist and America needs to get a grip and get a hold of itself and not be racist and not be concerned about all these threats and not be concerned about the fact that 14 people, innocent people, were murdered at a Christmas party by Islamic terrorists,” Hurt said. “That is their concern, and that is so far away from the real concerns of the American people, who are not racist in general and don’t need to be lectured about how to treat other human beings.”
“Obviously we should have respect for all human beings regardless of their religious faith,” he said. “Obviously. It’s the premise of our country. And we don’t need to have finger-wagging by this administration at a time when they should be sitting in the Oval Office developing strategy, delivering resources to law enforcement, to intelligence agencies to make sure that this never happens again.”
The congressman added that “a lot of it has to do” with “this apologist embarrassment about America and about what this country stands for.”
