The attorney in question is named Samar Ali. At the time she was appointed to the Obama White House, Ali raised some concerns nationwide due to her specialization in Shariah-Compliant Finance and her association with the World Islamic Economic Forum, an organization that has essentially designated Shariah Finance as “missionary operations” to promote Islam and Shariah.
Now we find out that the embrace of the Shariah Finance Trojan horse extends across the aisle as well. Sources in Tennessee tell us that the Republican leadership in that state have seen fit to appoint Ali as the International Director of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
First, the obvious: this is bigotry. People who agree with what's written above are bigots. Specifically, religious bigots, though the racism isn't hard to infer, either. Those who criticize Ali based on this sort of tripe should be drummed out of respectable public conversation.
I'd also say they're conspiracy theorists, as Shariah Law is about as likely to hit Tennessee as a hurricane. However, that would be an insult to true conspiracy theorists, who are usually more entertaining, in a "Real Housewives of..." way. This is just boring ol' inference. Where's the Illuminati reference?
Anyway, these folks should be limited to exercising their First Amendment rights to sound like a moron in the nether reaches of the Internet, not Republican Party resolutions.
Alas, that's not what's happening. From Nashville Public Radio:
Some county Republican groups have passed resolutions against Haslam, saying they worry Ali is an inroad for spreading Sharia law in state government.Apparently this is driven by some Tea Party activists who've been attending county Republican Party meetings. Even though I'm a Democrat, I'm not so partisan as to think this is representative of the Tennessee Republican Party as a whole -- Bill Haslam pretty easily won their nomination for governor and he's the one who gave Ali her present position -- but I think what happens next will be instructive as to who is really in charge of the party.
***
Haslam was elected in landslide and polls show he remains very popular both within the GOP and the state as a whole. He is one of if not the most popular politicians in Tennessee right now. He along with Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander reign supreme over the Tennessee Republican Party. Or, at least they should.
The resolutions are interesting test of who is driving the bus. I don't have a dog in this fight other than not wanting my state to allow religious bigots a prominent public perch. This is really about the bounds of tolerable dissent within a political party. In a serious political party -- one that aspires to grow or at least not alienate those of us who aren't bigots -- criticizing the party's leader for hiring a capable employee who happens to be a member of a minority religion would be grounds for being shunned. Can anyone imagine party bosses like Richard Daley tolerating this sort of foolishness?
Haslam's reaction has been what I would expect, given that he clearly was initially caught off guard: he's downplayed the comments and defended Ali. Considering the fire is already lit, there's no win for Haslam in giving it more oxygen.
What I'm curious to see is what happens next. Namely, when the media spotlight goes away, will Haslam make sure the bigots are denied an official Republican Party megaphone? Will he make sure all future country GOP meetings are filled with enough non-bigots to kill any resolution like these? Will he make sure certain officials who allowed such resolutions to move forward are reassigned to tasks more benefiting their ability, like picking up the cookies from Kroger?
Bill Haslam isn't a bigot. How important is it to him to marginalize those who are?
No comments:
Post a Comment