Indiana: GOP chair and councilman apologize to Islamic Association for other councilman’s Islamocritical statements
BY ROBERT SPENCER
JIHADWATCH.ORG
FEB 24, 2020
Here yet again, we see a local Republican Party demonstrating the cowardice that afflicts the party over all over the country. Jaime Bolser should not be allowing Hamas-linked CAIR and the establishment media to set the agenda. She should be prepared to explain how Stewart’s remarks were reasonable, as I did here. She should not be uncritically accepting Kasem’s claim below that criticism of Islam “can encourage bad things against the Islamic Center.” The Left and its Islamic supremacist allies routinely claim that critical words amount to violence, or lead to it, and hence must be suppressed. If that claim were consistently applied, Kasem couldn’t criticize Roger Stewart, because that would lead to violence against him. Indeed, no one could be critical of anything. But this argument only ever goes in one direction: Leftists claim that speech that dissents from their agenda leads to violence, never their own speech, and invertebrate Republicans such as Jaime Bolser obediently fall into line.
Another example of this stupidity played out a few months ago, when I spoke up in New Hampshire at the invitation of the Sullivan County Republican Party. New Hampshire State Representative Steven Smith, who became the top dog of the Sullivan County Republican Party shortly after I spoke, didn’t attend my presentation, and had no idea what I said, but when Democrats and the local establishment media began to raise a fuss, he apologized for my having been there anyway. Weasels and jellyfish of this ilk will be the end of our free republic.
Indiana: GOP chair and councilman apologize to Islamic Association for other councilman’s Islamocritical statements
FEB 24, 2020 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCERLEAVE A COMMENT
Here yet again, we see a local Republican Party demonstrating the cowardice that afflicts the party over all over the country. Jaime Bolser should not be allowing Hamas-linked CAIR and the establishment media to set the agenda. She should be prepared to explain how Stewart’s remarks were reasonable, as I did here. She should not be uncritically accepting Kasem’s claim below that criticism of Islam “can encourage bad things against the Islamic Center.” The Left and its Islamic supremacist allies routinely claim that critical words amount to violence, or lead to it, and hence must be suppressed. If that claim were consistently applied, Kasem couldn’t criticize Roger Stewart, because that would lead to violence against him. Indeed, no one could be critical of anything. But this argument only ever goes in one direction: Leftists claim that speech that dissents from their agenda leads to violence, never their own speech, and invertebrate Republicans such as Jaime Bolser obediently fall into line.
Another example of this stupidity played out a few months ago, when I spoke up in New Hampshire at the invitation of the Sullivan County Republican Party. New Hampshire State Representative Steven Smith, who became the top dog of the Sullivan County Republican Party shortly after I spoke, didn’t attend my presentation, and had no idea what I said, but when Democrats and the local establishment media began to raise a fuss, he apologized for my having been there anyway. Weasels and jellyfish of this ilk will be the end of our free republic.
“GOP chair, councilman offer personal apology to Islamic Association,” by Tyler Juranovich, Kokomo Tribune, February 20, 2020:
The head of the Howard County Republican Party offered a personal apology to the Islamic Association of Kokomo Wednesday for anti-Islamic Facebook posts one of the party’s council members shared.
Party Chairwoman Jaime Bolser said she spoke to Dr. Kasem Kasem, a member of the Islamic Association and a professor of chemistry at Indiana University Kokomo, and “offered an apology on behalf of our organization.”
“I also assured him these are not my beliefs nor the beliefs of the party,” she said. “I am humbled by his forgiveness. I look forward to meeting him and working with him in the near future.”
Kasem told the Tribune Wednesday he wanted “clear assurance” from the Republican Party and 4th District Councilman Roger Stewart that they do not tolerate the types of Facebook posts that have generated controversy and led to the resignation of Stewart’s predecessor, Greg Jones.
“When you have members of this party that keep saying these inflaming statements against Muslism and against our beliefs, it can encourage bad things against the Islamic Center,” Kasem said, referencing past vandalism incidents the center was victim of, including in 2016 when someone fired a bullet through the center’s window.
Late Wednesday, Stewart said he and Kasem have spoken. “We have set a meeting to begin the healing process in which I hope to have a continuing relationship with him and the Muslim community, working together so that we can help with opening a dialog for understanding for all those concerned,” said Stewart.
Stewart faced calls for his resignation Tuesday from the national Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after anti-Muslim posts he shared on Facebook….
Kasem said he is not personally calling for Stewart to resign.
“We want to clear up any bad thinking about what we believe in and what we don’t,” Kasem said. “The United States is as much of my country as it is his country. … We are useful citizens. We are doctors, professors and engineers. We contribute to this community. What we believe in encourages us to do good in the communities that we live in.”
