Santorum Calls for ‘Long War’ to ‘Eradicate’ Islam

by Richard Silverstein on January 9, 2012 · 25 comments

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Tagged as: Islam, islamophobia, republicans

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yankel January 9, 2012 at 11:03 PM

In time of economical uncertainty, xenophobia sells everywhere and the further you go down the IQ scale the better the sales. More than anything else, Santorum’s choice of this kind of language (let alone this brand of ideology) indicates his evaluation of his constituency.

One needs not be Einstein-reincarnate to realise that now, more than ever before, coexistence is not only the best survival strategy but, practically, the only one.

Unfortunately, the religious-right – in the US and the Middle East alike – seems to thrive on their apocaliptically-suicidal tendencies.

oranaise January 10, 2012 at 4:42 AM

So very well-said, Yankel. Ignorance and reluctance to co-exist will be humanity’s downfall. This pattern exists beyond economical uncertainty. It also prevails in countries where the military budget far exceeds all else.

Israel, USA, Syria and Saudi Arabia all have these extremists. It is in straying from logic, good and knowledge that we find ourselves in the deep realms of ignorance and evil. Albert Einstein made many good points; one of which was the case for human stupidity, another, the genius of refusing to defend a land with guns and force alone. For in the end, we all get what we deserve.

yankel January 10, 2012 at 10:07 PM: “in the end, we all get what we deserve.” – I wish this were true.

Unfortunately, the worse the bad guys get, the more of the innocent they manage to take down with them.

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Strelnikov January 9, 2012 at 11:22 PM

Before he was in government, Santorum did legal work for the World Wrestling Federation. I think that explains a lot about the guy; he thinks the whole thing is a TV show where there are no conseqences to whatever you say. His handlers have gone to great lengths to keep Rick Santorum from making a fool of himself in front of the cameras, and he still does it anyway. As for the “kill `em all” speech Max Blumenthal found, there were a lot of non-entities making similar speeches during the Bush II years. I am not excusing Santorum; he proved he was a cretin by saying those things for money. He is a sign of how far we have slipped as a country since 1965.

Maybe this electoral season is the end for the GOP as we have known it since the 1980s. Possibly the people in charge of that party will realize how the conservative movement has decayed, and they will finally sever their ties, force the Tea Party to become a real political party, and clean their house. If not, then Goetterdaemmerung it is.

rfjk January 10, 2012 at 7:35 AM: …Possibly the people in charge of that party will realize how the conservative movement has decayed…

That asking too much. The liberal and moderate factions have mostly bolted the party with blood suckers, maniacs and ideologues in majority control.

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Dorothee January 10, 2012 at 5:30 AM

The lack of intellectual capacity, the extent of plain stupidity, and of religious and/or ideological delusion of all the candidates shock many Europeans, although, of course,
it is only a matter of degree…

fiddler January 10, 2012 at 9:37 AM

Well, we do have our own “Untergangster des Abendlands” – think only of Geert Wilders and Thilo Sarrazin, Christoph Blocher, and all those right-wing populist parties sprouting like mushrooms, though they’re not calling for all-out holy war yet.

Elisabeth January 11, 2012 at 1:07 AM

This guy is much, much more scary than even Geert Wilders: At least Wilders is completely secular, has no Armageddon fantasies and (as far as I have heard) never talks of waging a war.
And some of the things Santorum says would not float in Europe. Mohammad being the most popular male name in Belgium, how does he come up with this stuff?

(I actually looked it up -I know even that is crazy- and the most popular names are Jean/Jan, Marc, Luc and Michel.

Brussels (where people with a Muslim background are concentrated) has Jean, Mohamed and Michel as top three. That’s where Santorum has his ‘facts’ from no doubt.

fiddler January 11, 2012 at 9:22 AM: Being secular doesn’t cut it for me if it’s paired with the deep-seated bigotry, hatred even, that Geert “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam” Wilders so proudly displays.

All three I mentioned centre around the notion of a “Judeo-Christian” Occident; afaik, Wilders even wants to write it into the Dutch Constitution. This may be a cultural rather than religious theme, but, religion being a part of culture, isn’t that a distinction without a difference?

Blocher’s party sits in the Swiss government, and Wilders has the Dutch one by the balls. Right now, Santorum has nothing.

That said, yes, Santorum’s rhetoric is more wild-eyed-crazy, and last thing I’d want is a competition over who can boast the scariest guy. And I agree with Dorothee that it’s only a matter of degree.

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rfjk January 10, 2012 at 7:14 AM

One could only hope republican rank and filers are as stupid as Santorum. I’d say most everyone commenting here could beat this loser and become president.

pabelmont January 10, 2012 at 1:33 PM

Altho the answer to (bad) speech is said, in America, to be more (and better) speech, the answer to more (enemy) babies cannot be more (friendly) babies.

World is overpopulated. Water shortages, crop failures, global warming — coming on us all, and in large part because there are so many of us doing what people do. Overpopulation means this: Goblins gonna getcha!

Someone should mention this to the highest teachers of all the religions which presently teach large-scale reproduction. Tell the Muslims, true, and the (fundamentalist?) Jews, and the many Christians who are having more than 1 baby.

Tell the Chinese that we appreciate their head-start and recognize their sacrifice. Talk to the fundamentalist Christians in USA who prevent birth-control and abortion (facts, teaching, materials and services) worldwide.

Or, of course, vote for Sanctorum.

dickerson3870 January 10, 2012 at 9:48 PM: RE: “World is overpopulated… Someone should mention this to the highest teachers of all the religions which presently teach large-scale reproduction.” ~ pabelmont

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

(excerpt) Quiverfull is a movement among some conservative evangelical Christian couples chiefly in the United States, but with some adherents in Canada,[1] Australia, New Zealand, Britain and elsewhere.[2] It promotes procreation, and sees children as a blessing from God,[2][3][4] eschewing all forms of birth control, including natural family planning and sterilization.[5][6] Adherents are known as “quiver full”, “full quiver”, “quiverfull-minded”, or simply “QF” Christians. Some refer to the Quiverfull position as Providentialism,[7] while other sources have referred to it as a manifestation of natalism.[8][9] Currently several thousand Christians worldwide identify with this movement.[5] It began to receive significant attention in the U.S. national press in 2004…

SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull

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Zhu Bajie January 14, 2012 at 7:02 PM: To me it looks as if the Muslim-haters also hate the Chinese. For what it’s worth, there are loads of Muslims in China. I have a few in every class and every university has a halal dining hall.

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Imad January 10, 2012 at 4:54 PM

I don’t believe for an instant that Santorum is a bona fide Muslim-hater. I think he’s just another opportunist, loud mouthed politician riding the latest Islamophobic band wagon as a way to feather his political nest.

Sean Wilson January 10, 2012 at 8:49 PM

Meanwhile, the New Atheists want to eradicate ALL religions from the face of the earth, and nobody bats an eyelid.

dickerson3870 January 10, 2012 at 8:57 PM

RE: “Do I believe that Rick Santorum really affirms this narischkeit in full? He’d have to be a certified nutcase if he did.” ~ R.S.

SEE: Father First, Senator Second, By Mark Leibovich, Washington Post, 4/18/05

(excerpt) In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.
Upon their son’s death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen’s parents’ home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.
“That’s my little guy,” Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father’s hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.
He and Karen brought Gabriel’s body home so their children could “absorb and understand that they had a brother,” Santorum says. “We wanted them to see that he was real,” not an abstraction, he says. Not a “fetus,” either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described — “a 20-week-old fetus” — on a hospital form. They changed the form to read “20-week-old baby.”
Karen Santorum, a former nurse, wrote letters to her son during and after her pregnancy…

ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61804-2005Apr17.html

dickerson3870 January 10, 2012 at 9:33 PM

RE: “The other thing we need to do is eradicate, and that’s the final thing. As I said, this is going to be a long war.” ~ Santorum
“Do I believe that Rick Santorum really affirms this narischkeit in full? He’d have to be a certified nutcase if he did.” ~ R. Silverstein

FROM THE GREAT JENNIFER RUBIN AT THE RENOWNED WASHINGTON POST:
Santorum is no extremist, By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, 01/02/12

[excerpts] At the start of the primary season, when politicial pundits and insiders thought about Rick Santorum (which was infrequently), they considered him to be a hardliner, a sort of Michele Bachmann from the 1990’s. But the reality, once his record was recounted and the debates unfolded, proved to be something else. And, moreover, in comparison to his opponents, he has come to be seen as a practical politician rather than an ideological zealot…
[Blah, blah, blah (various inanities) ]
…Frankly, were Santorum in the Senate today, one suspects he’d be right in the middle of the GOP caucus, pushing for the best cosnervative deals but unwilling to wreck havoc to get there.

SOURCE – http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/santorum-is-no-extremist/2012/01/02/gIQATacXWP_blog.html

P.S. I am really impressed with Jennifer Rubin’s nifty concept of Santorum’s being “unwilling to wreck havoc”. The notion of wrecking havoc is so incredibly clever!

Ahmad January 10, 2012 at 10:37 PM

I only have one thing to say:
GOOGLE “SANTORUM”.

Maqsood Chaudhry January 10, 2012 at 11:58 PM

Well, These are the intentions of some of the American politicians which they want to en-cash right before next elections in November this year. Muslims everywhere in the world in general and specifically in the United States are victims to such venomous speeches. Public opinions are thus modified and an ordinary American, being entranced by such crooked politicians, develop a perception, further leading to dichotomy between Islam and Christianity.

Tater Gumfries January 11, 2012 at 8:43 AM

If you want to be fair, there’s plenty of countries whose leaders feel this way about Judaism and Christianity.

yankel January 11, 2012 at 11:21 PM: You might be right but yours is a speculation and even if you’re right, they not necessarily act upon their hateful feelings and even if they do, they’re not in a position to cause nearly as much harm as can be caused from the position Santorum is vying for.

Revealing one’s criminal mind (in public!) exposes a dangerous willingness to act upon it.

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Stop January 11, 2012 at 2:31 PM

Santorum is insane. Jewish people need to stand up to these people.

Evangelical Christians love Israel, yet they believe nearly all Jewish people will die when Jesus returns. 144,000 of them will turn into Christians and be saved.

Some even believe you have to create an apocalypse for Jesus to show up.

They are not your friends, they believe you will all be sent to hell for not accepting Jesus.

But, very few will admit this to Jewish folks.

They are setting you guys up for another Holocaust. They’re as friendly towards you as Islamists. At least the Islamists are honest, and just as crazy.

Raquel Baranow January 11, 2012 at 6:07 PM

No doubt, God hates all the organized religions, a Messiah would abolish money and this is our karma: peak oil, geometric world population growth, global warming, (not to mention the CIA killed JFK, etc.) & the funny-money scams.

Jason May 20, 2012 at 5:11 AM

How does Islam want to “destroy the world” or dominate it?

Only because Muslims are suffering the world over (agree or not) they are awaiting the return of Jesus PBUH to help create justice, peace and love. If you actually bother to read the Quran, you will see that the primary tenements are Peace, Love and Respect before any other.

Nothing should contradict this.

Even war is only allowed if it is to create peace, in fact even before war, the Muslims would repeatedly ask for the oppression to desist. Muslims are bound by Word of God to love every human being and killing or hurting even 1 single innocent person on the planet, is as if “He had wiped out the whole of Mankind”.

Finally Muslims are also bound by the Hold Book to respect all cultures, religions and beliefs.

So all the points in this article contradict the very basic basis of the religion of Islam, so you are either looking at the hill-billies of the Arab world and thinking they are Muslim, or you refuse to see the evil in the world where homosexuals are shot every day in Cuba, Mexico, America and the world over…

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