Tuesday, March 18, 2008

View from Hysteric Heights

Over at his blog View From A Height Joshua Sharf lets us know that the Muslim hordes have apparently conquered the Colorado House District 6 Republican Assembly. Sharf explains,

The Republicans in State House District 6 in Denver are about to make a terrible mistake.

At their Assembly on March 1, they nominated a terror apologist, and an avowed enemy of Israel, with no credible conservative credentials as their candidate to succeed Rep. Andrew Romanoff. Her name is Rima Barakat Sinclair.

Mrs. Barakat Sinclair is a local Muslim activist, who 1) works to discredit Israel and for its destruction, 2) has a stated goal of getting Muslims involved in the political process, and 3) builds alliances with mainline and liberal American churches, and leftist political organizations. When engaged in anti-Israel propaganda, she usually goes by Rima Barakat. When engaged in broader political work, she goes by Rima Sinclair, as she did at the Assembly.

Now, note that he presents no evidence for his claim that Sinclair works for the "destruction" of Israel. That's quite a bold and salacious claim. Sharf should back it up.

Moving on to bullet #2 we see that Ms. Sinclair is apparently agitating for American Muslims to utilize their constitutional rights and participate in this great democracy. Apparently that's some sort of offense in Mr. Sharf's America.

Sharf goes on to level legitimate criticisms, questioning Sinclair's conservative bona-fides. That is a legitimate basis for scrutiny and, if the evidence supports, a political attack. Unfortunately Sharf prefaces his legitimate inquiries with evidence-free hysteria and disturbingly un-democratic rantings about Muslims. Is it really Sharf's position that Muslim citizens of the United States should not be participating in the political process? That is a frighteningly xenophobic world view.

For the record Sharf has cross-posted this over at the Denver Post blog "Politics West". Link.

2 comments:

nameerf said...

This is an example of the pot calling the kettle black. I personally know both Joshua Sharf and Rima Sinclair. Sharf has nothing against Muslims in general holding public office, and he has good reasons to be against Sinclair holding a public office. Rima Sinclair won the republican nomination in the first place by misrepresenting herself as a pro-life candidate. She doesn't remember telling the Rocky Mountain News in 2004 she "would like to see a pro-choice president?" Please. When it comes down to it, this isn't about Jews vs. Muslims or Israel vs. Palestine. This is about a dishonest candidate being challenged by an honest one. Shame on you for getting hysterical and accusing Joshua Sharf of being xenophobic! Didn't you click on his links? Everything he says about Rima Sinclair is backed up by fact, not emotion.

Anonymous said...

On August 1, Josh Sharf posted to his blog about an interview his opponent gave to a Jordanian newspaper. He ridicules her alleged statement that "Jordan would be transformed into being a substitute nation for the Palestinians sometime in the next few years." He then goes on to suggest that the Royal family of US ally in the region, Jordan, are "the humanoid form of alien space lizards."

I am not making this up:
http://www.jsharf.com/view/2008/08/rima_campaigning_in_the_foreig.html

Jeez, where could these ideas have come from? As it turns out, Sharf's good friend Neil Dobro, founder of Americans Against Terrorism, spoke to the J-GOP just last month, asserting that the solution for the mideast problem was to turn Jordan into the Palestinian homeland! Also, he started off his presentation with a clip from "Attack of the Clones" or "Clone Wars" or whatever it was, on the basis that Arab leaders are actually Sith Lords.

Perhaps Sharf and Dobro think this is all a cute joke.

Having attacked his opponent now, during the campaign, on the basis of her views concerning the Middle East conflict, it is now time for Sharf to step forward with his views:

Does he support an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel according to mutually agreed-upon borders?

If not, what solution does he propose for the 5 million Palestinians now under Israeli control?

Has he visited the region? If so, under whose sponsorship? What was the media coverage?

When asked by us his position concerning the Bush administration's peace initiative, his response was "no comment".

If he is going to attack his opponent on her views on this matter, as he has done now, as a registered candidate, "no comment" is no longer an option.