Barack Obama campaigned in Michigan this week, and during his trip, he met privately with a prominent Muslim leader. It wasn’t especially noteworthy; candidates meet with prominent religious leaders frequently, from a variety of faiths, in communities nationwide.
Imam Hassan Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America, said in an email that he met with Obama at Macomb Community College. A mosque spokesman, Eide Alawan, confirmed that the meeting took place. During the meeting, the two discussed the Presidential election, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Iraq war, according to Qazwini.
At the end of the meeting, Qazwini said he gave Obama a copy of new book, “American Crescent,” and invited Obama to visit his center. […]
Born in Iraq into a long line of Shi’ite clerics, Qazwini and his family left for Iran to escape persecution under the regime of Saddam Hussein. He later moved to the U.S. and become head of the Dearborn mosque, one of the largest Shi’ite Muslim centers in the U.S.
No one cared. No one, that is, until Debbie Schlussel, one of the more unhinged members of the conservative blogosphere, argued the day after the Obama meeting, “Barack Obama claims he’s against HAMAS and Hezbollah and is offended by President Bush’s speech in Israel about Obama’s ethos of ‘appeasement.’ So why is he meeting with one of Hezbollah’s most important imams and agents in America, Imam Hassan Qazwini? … What was said? I think we can do the math.”
Schlussel went on to accuse Qazwini, without proof, of being “an agent of the Iranian government,” and a supporter of “Palestinian homicide bombings, HAMAS, and Hezbollah.” She added that the Wednesday meeting “says a lot about the company Obama keeps … and why he shouldn’t be President.”
Schlussel also quoted the Detroit Times Free Press article noting the Obama meeting, but omitted the one sentence that undermined her vacuous smear.
The article concluded, “Qazwini has also met several times with President Bush and other elected officials.”
Yep, this allegedly radical, terrorist-supporting agent of Iran is so dangerous, he’s been able to hang out with George W. Bush.
Schlussel’s attack was widely parroted by the far-right, with the usual suspects charactering the Obama meeting as something scandalous. One argued, “BHO isn’t even officially the Democratic nominee yet and already he’s meeting terrorist supporters — and Iran by proxy.”
And none of them though to click the link and read, “Qazwini has also met several times with President Bush and other elected officials.”
Better yet, Oliver Willis posted some photos of Qazwini hanging out with Bush, including one in which the president gives the imam a little smooch on the cheek.
Using the logic of absolute morons like Debbie Schlussel, we can only surmise that President Bush is a secret agent of Iran who wants to force us to gay marry while converting to Sharia law.
Qazwini also recently met with Pope Benedict.
Debbie Schlussel is a mainstream voice on the right. What she says, many of them believe. This is why the rest of us in the real world cannot have a rational conversation with these people.
As the far right slips deeper into madness as the year goes on, the vitriol of their attacks rises, keep this incident in mind. These folks just don’t know what they’re talking about. They’ve replaced reason with rage.