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Video: Presidential Shoo-In Herman Cain Thinks Americans Have Right To Ban Mosques
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 17, 2011
Modified Jul 17, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 17, 2011
Modified Jul 17, 2011
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This morning on "Fox News Sunday", our favorite pizza magnate-turned-presidential candidate Herman Cain weighed-in on a debate over whether communities should have the right to ban Muslims from building mosques in their neighborhoods. And he used only the most airtight logic in completely misinterpreting the Constitution to argue his views: "They have a right [to ban a mosque]...That's not discriminating based upon their particular religion. There is an aspect of them building that mosque that doesn't get talked about. And the people in the community know what it is and they're talking about it." Watch him discuss the hallowed ground of Murfreesboro below:
Last week, Cain inserted himself into the debate over whether the community of Murfreesboro, Tennessee could stop a planned mosque from being built. He told reporters at a campaign event that, "This is just another way to try to gradually sneak Sharia law into our laws, and I absolutely object to that...This isn't an innocent mosque." This morning, he stuck to and elaborated upon his views:
Our Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state. Islam combines church and state. They're using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community, and the people of that community do not like it. They disagree with it.
Fox News host Chris Wallace pressed Cain further, asking whether he's willing to restrict people because of their religion, to which Cain replied: "I'm willing to take a harder look at people who might be terrorists, that's what I'm saying. Look, I know that there's a peaceful group of Muslims in this country. God bless them and they're free to worship. If you look at my career I have never discriminated against anybody, because of their religion, sex or origin or anything like that."
So, to make this clear, Cain believes there are peaceful mosques, but there are also ones which aren't "innocent"...but how can we distinguish between the two? Cain believes we can't—so he has no choice other than to resort to scaremongering: "I'm simply saying I owe it to the American people to be cautious because terrorists are trying to kill us, so yes I'm going to err on the side of caution rather than on the side of carelessness."
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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