Cain Tries to Backtrack on Comment About Muslims: I Was Thinking About the Ones That are Trying to Kill Us
June 14, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media During the New Hampshire GOP Primary Debate, Herman Cain attempted to backtrack on his earlier statement that he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet, claiming he was taken out of context. Q: Are American Muslims as a group less dedicated to the Constitution than say Christians or Jews? CAIN: First, the statement, would I be comfortable with a Muslim in my administration, not that I wouldn’t appoint one. That’s the exact transcript. And I would not be comfortable because you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims, those that are trying to kill us. And so when I said I wouldn’t be comfortable, I was thinking about the ones that are trying to kill us, number one. Secondly, yes, I do not believe in Sharia law in American courts. I believe in American laws in American courts. Period. There have been instances where… there have been instances in New Jersey. There was an instance in Oklahoma where Muslims did try to influence court decisions with Sharia law. I was simply saying very emphatically, American laws in American courts. KING: And so on that point, Governor Romney let me come to you on this subject. What Mr. Cain is saying, that he would have, my term, not his, a purity test or a loyalty test. He would want to ask a Muslim a question or a few questions before he hired them. But he wouldn’t ask those questions of a Christian or a Jew… CAIN: Sorry. You are restating something that I did not say. Okay? If I may. KING: Please, let’s make it clear. CAIN: When you interview a person for a job, you look at their work record, you look at their resume and then you have a one on one personal interview. During that personal interview, like in the business world or anywhere else, you are able get a feeling for how committed that person is to the Constitution, how committed they are to the mission of your organization… KING: But when I asked you this question the other night though, you said that you would want to ask the Muslim those questions, but you didn’t think you would have to ask them to a Christian or a Jew. CAIN: I would ask certain questions John. And it’s not a litmus test. It is simply trying to make sure that we have people committed to the Constitution, in order for them to work effectively in an administration. Romney responded by saying: Of course we’re not going to have Sharia law applied in U.S. courts. That’s never going to happen. We have a constitution and we follow the law. No, I think we recognize that the people of all faiths are welcome in this country, our nation was founded on a principal of religious tolerance. That’s in fact why some of the early patriots came to this country and we treat people with respect…with their religious persuasion. Not to be outdone by Cain, Newt Gingrich followed up by doubling down on the Muslim bashing fearmongering. For the record, here’s what Cain did say via Think Progress — EXCLUSIVE: Herman Cain Tells ThinkProgress ‘I Will Not’ Appoint A Muslim In My Administration : Earlier this week, Cain gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he declared that , “based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.” ThinkProgress caught up with the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza today at the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss his comments further. We asked him, in light of his statements on Islam, would he be comfortable appointing any Muslims in his administration. Rather than skirting the question or hedging his answer, as most presidential aspirants are wont to do, Cain was definitive: “No, I will not”: KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge? CAIN: No, I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly. The question that was asked that “raised some questions” and, as my grandfather said, “I does not care, I feel the way I feel.” I was asked, “what is the role of Islam in America?” I thought it was an odd question. I said the role of Islam in America is for those that believe in Islam to practice it and leave us alone. Just like Christianity. We have a First Amendment. And I get upset when the Muslims in this country, some of them, try to force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.
Continue reading …Mitt Romney, and, more surprisingly, Michele Bachmann looked like the big winners in last night’s Republican debate in New Hampshire, analysts say. Bachmann, who announced her candidacy during the debate , was “at ease and forceful without looking at all crazy or out-of-control,” writes EJ Dionne Jr. at the Washington Post…
Continue reading …Hackers from the group Lulz Security have claimed responsibility for what they say was a “small, just-for-kicks” hack of the Senate website. The Senate sergeant at arms confirmed that hackers gained access to the server that supports the Senate’s public website, but said damage was minimal because the intruder did…
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Critics round on writer and BBC for promoting assisted dying in film that included footage of man’s death at Dignitas clinic Sir Terry Pratchett has defended his BBC2 documentary, which showed the death of a millionaire hotelier suffering from motor neurone disease, against criticism from groups opposed to assisted dying. In Choosing to Die , screened on Monday night, the 63-year-old writer, who has Alzheimer’s disease, went to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to see Peter Smedley take a lethal dose of barbiturates. Michael Nazir-Ali, the retired Bishop of Rochester condemned the programme as “science fiction”, while Care not Killing (CNK) described it as “a recipe for elder abuse and also a threat to vulnerable people”. Asked why he wanted to make the film, Pratchett told BBC Breakfast: “Because I was appalled at the current situation. I know that assisted dying is practised in at least three places in Europe and also in the United States. The government here has always turned its back on it and I was ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland, at considerable cost, in order to get the services that they were hoping for.” Smedley, 71, travelled from his mansion in Guernsey to the clinic, which over the last 12 years has helped 1,100 people to die. Pratchett said: “Peter wanted to show the world what was happening and why he was doing it.” He added: “You can tell in the film that I’m moved. The incongruity of the situation overtakes you. A man has died, that’s a bad thing. But he wanted to die, that’s a good thing.” Campaigners accused the BBC of helping to promote assisted dying and of consistently portraying the practice favourably. Writing on the Christian Concern website , Nazir-Ali said: “Real life is quite different from Sir Terry’s science fiction … The Judaeo-Christian tradition is a surer guide. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is about acknowledging the gift and dignity of human life which, whether ours or another’s, we do not have the competence to take.” CNK’s campaign director, Dr Peter Saunders said: “This latest move by the BBC is a disgraceful use of licence-payers’ money and further evidence of a blatant campaigning stance. The corporation has now produced five documentaries or docudramas since 2008 portraying assisted suicide in a positive light. Where are the balancing programmes showing the benefits of palliative care, promoting investment on social support for vulnerable people or highlighting the great dangers of legalisation which have convinced parliaments in Australia, France, Canada, Scotland and the US to resist any change in the law in the last 12 months alone?” Pratchett is a patron of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law to allow assisted dying. The organisation’s chief executive, Sarah Wootton, said: “At the heart of the assisted dying debate, and Choosing to Die, is choice and protection. People suffer at the end of life, and therefore people take difficult decisions about their own deaths. As uncomfortable as it may be we need to face up to the reality of what is going on, both at home and abroad.” Assisted suicide Terry Pratchett Television Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk
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After more than a month of intense campaigning, Turkey has cast its verdict, handing a major victory to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Literally, one in every two voters cast their ballot for the prime minister’s party as it increased its share of the vote for the third election in a row – a noteworthy achievement in democratic societies these days, where officeholders cannot usually escape the corrosive effects of being in power. For several reasons, the outcome of this election was seen to be more critical than usual. In short, Sunday’s vote may have been one of the more important in recent Turkish political history.
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Theresa May says proposals represent minimum compliance with supreme court ruling on sex offenders’ human rights A maximum of 1,200 convicted sex offenders a year will be eligible to challenge their inclusion on the sex offender register for life, under Home Office proposals likely to come into force from early next year. The decision by the home secretary, Theresa May, to give registered sex offenders a chance to be removed from the register follows a supreme court ruling that indefinite registration without any right to a review amounts to a breach of human rights. May’s decision to comply with the ruling comes despite David Cameron describing it as “completely offensive” during a Commons row over human rights legislation in February. May pledged she would do the “minimum possible” to comply with the ruling, which she said placed the “rights of sex offenders above the right of the public to be protected”. The “non-urgent” remedial order published by the Home Office proposes that sex offenders who are currently required to register with the police for life will have to wait 15 years after their release from prison to apply to be considered for removal from the register. Convicted juvenile sex offenders will have to wait eight years after their release. A sex offender who fails to get their name taken off the register would have to wait a further eight years before they can apply again. The Home Office says that there are currently 44,159 people on the sex offender register in England and Wales, of whom 23,310 are on it for life. Every sex offender sentenced to 30 months or more is currently automatically placed on the register for life. Any applications for removal from the register will be reviewed by the police with the local multi-agency public protection panel, which includes prison and probation staff. The sex offenders will have to demonstrate they have reformed and no longer pose a risk to the public. The Home Office assessment says that a maximum of 1,200 offenders will be eligible to apply each year to be taken off the register, but adds: “It is not possible to predict what proportion of those eligible … would apply for a review.” It says it is similarly not possible to predict success rates from reviews. Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said the supreme court ruling had forced May to make the concession but predicted that very few offenders would actually succeed in being removed from the register. “There will be no shortage of applications because they will want the embarrassment and stigma of being on the sex offender register removed,” he said. “I think that the number who will succeed will be very small because they have to prove they are no longer a danger to the public which will be extremely difficult.” In his supreme court ruling, Lord Phillips said there had to be circumstances in which “an appropriate tribunal could reliably conclude that the risk of an individual carrying out a further sexual offence can be discounted to the extent that continuance of notification requirements is unjustified”. The case was brought by two sex offenders. The first was Angus Thompson, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who was jailed for five years in 1996 for two indecent assaults and other offences of actual bodily harm. The other was JF, a teenager, who was sentenced to 30 months for two offences of rape of a child under 13 and other sexual offences. He was 11 at the time of the assaults. Michelle Skeer, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “The reality is that the risks posed by some offenders can never be completely eliminated, but we will continue to do all in our power to keep them to a minimum and believe that the proposed review process strikes the right balance between individual rights and public safety.” The Home Office minister, James Brokenshire, said the draft order would ensure that strict rules were put in place for considering whether sex offenders who were placed on the register for life should ever be allowed to be removed. Sex offenders’ register Children Child protection Crime Theresa May Human rights Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Theresa May says proposals represent minimum compliance with supreme court ruling on sex offenders’ human rights A maximum of 1,200 convicted sex offenders a year will be eligible to challenge their inclusion on the sex offender register for life, under Home Office proposals likely to come into force from early next year. The decision by the home secretary, Theresa May, to give registered sex offenders a chance to be removed from the register follows a supreme court ruling that indefinite registration without any right to a review amounts to a breach of human rights. May’s decision to comply with the ruling comes despite David Cameron describing it as “completely offensive” during a Commons row over human rights legislation in February. May pledged she would do the “minimum possible” to comply with the ruling, which she said placed the “rights of sex offenders above the right of the public to be protected”. The “non-urgent” remedial order published by the Home Office proposes that sex offenders who are currently required to register with the police for life will have to wait 15 years after their release from prison to apply to be considered for removal from the register. Convicted juvenile sex offenders will have to wait eight years after their release. A sex offender who fails to get their name taken off the register would have to wait a further eight years before they can apply again. The Home Office says that there are currently 44,159 people on the sex offender register in England and Wales, of whom 23,310 are on it for life. Every sex offender sentenced to 30 months or more is currently automatically placed on the register for life. Any applications for removal from the register will be reviewed by the police with the local multi-agency public protection panel, which includes prison and probation staff. The sex offenders will have to demonstrate they have reformed and no longer pose a risk to the public. The Home Office assessment says that a maximum of 1,200 offenders will be eligible to apply each year to be taken off the register, but adds: “It is not possible to predict what proportion of those eligible … would apply for a review.” It says it is similarly not possible to predict success rates from reviews. Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said the supreme court ruling had forced May to make the concession but predicted that very few offenders would actually succeed in being removed from the register. “There will be no shortage of applications because they will want the embarrassment and stigma of being on the sex offender register removed,” he said. “I think that the number who will succeed will be very small because they have to prove they are no longer a danger to the public which will be extremely difficult.” In his supreme court ruling, Lord Phillips said there had to be circumstances in which “an appropriate tribunal could reliably conclude that the risk of an individual carrying out a further sexual offence can be discounted to the extent that continuance of notification requirements is unjustified”. The case was brought by two sex offenders. The first was Angus Thompson, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who was jailed for five years in 1996 for two indecent assaults and other offences of actual bodily harm. The other was JF, a teenager, who was sentenced to 30 months for two offences of rape of a child under 13 and other sexual offences. He was 11 at the time of the assaults. Michelle Skeer, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “The reality is that the risks posed by some offenders can never be completely eliminated, but we will continue to do all in our power to keep them to a minimum and believe that the proposed review process strikes the right balance between individual rights and public safety.” The Home Office minister, James Brokenshire, said the draft order would ensure that strict rules were put in place for considering whether sex offenders who were placed on the register for life should ever be allowed to be removed. Sex offenders’ register Children Child protection Crime Theresa May Human rights Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Israel’s foreign minister says a US-born Israeli arrested in Egypt is not a spy. 27-year-old Ilan Grapel was arrested Sunday at a hotel in Cairo, where he was working for a legal aid group. (June 14)
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Israel’s foreign minister says a US-born Israeli arrested in Egypt is not a spy. 27-year-old Ilan Grapel was arrested Sunday at a hotel in Cairo, where he was working for a legal aid group. (June 14)
Continue reading …Suit against Kardashians over card struck down; Chicago family file lawsuit against members of ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ cast; Singer-songwriter Carole King writing memoir. (June 14)
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