Speaking with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News Monday night, Sarah Palin said: “It sounds cliched to say that the president is disconnected from the American people on this issue, but how else do you describe it? He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.”
Her reaction came in response to Obama’s comments late last week when he defended Muslims in having the same religious rights as others in the country, when he noted: “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country” which includes “the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.
“This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable,” the president said.
His comments have created a firestorm among Republicans who have turned the mosque into a major issue heading into the fall political campaign, according to
Politico.
Palin, darling of the
tea bag movement, added: ““Nobody argues that that freedom of religion that the Muslims have to build that mosque somewhere.”
Palin continued, noting the purpose of the mosque: ““If the purpose of this mosque, as we are lead to believe, is to create this tolerant environment, to avoid anything like a 9/11 ever repeating, you have to ask why didn't one of those 100 [existing] mosques already accomplish such a thing. So I don't buy into that reason, that that's the purpose of this location being chosen.”
