As he opened Sunday's Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, host Zakaria brought up his background as a secular Muslim as he condemned Donald Trump's "bigotry and demagoguery" in the show's regular "Fareed's Take" segment. At one point, he seemed to compare himself to secular German Jews who criticized Adolf Hitler in the 1930s as he referred to the diaries of Victor Klemperer and showed archival footage of Hitler inspiring an audience to chant, "Heil!"
Religion
By Tom Blumer | December 13, 2015 | 2:10 AM EST
Josh Lederman at the Associated Press spent the final two paragraphs of his Wednesday evening report on a meeting between President Barack Obama and Israel's President Reuven Rivlin describing "the White House's annual Hanukkah celebration." He wrote that Rivlin "lit a menorah that was made in his homeland during the 1920s."
What was said before Rivlin lit the menorah should have been news. As seen in a Wednesday afternoon White House video, Rabbi Susan Talve essentially hijacked the event to praise a series of leftist causes, touching many of the Obama administration's pet projects along the way: open-ended immigration and "refugee" acceptance; Black Lives Matter "activists"; gun control; paranoia over "Islamophobia, and homophobia and transphobia"; and "justice for Palestinians as allies committed to peace."
By Brad Wilmouth | December 12, 2015 | 11:25 PM EST
On Friday's Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, as guest and NBC host Chuck Todd attempted to psychoanalyze Donald Trump supporters, host Mitchell compared Trump voters to those who supported segregationist Alabama Democratic Governor George Wallace in the 1968 presidential campaign, as she and Todd both suggested that Trump supporters believe America was "great" when it was more "majority white."
By Brad Wilmouth | December 12, 2015 | 4:58 PM EST
It may sound like a parody, but CNN Newsroom on Friday actually ran a piece highlighting the plight of Satanists seeking greater acceptance of their beliefs in the predominantly Judeo-Christian U.S. as a preview of this Sunday's edition of This is Life on CNN.
As This is Life host Lisa Ling appeared live at the end of the 2:00 p.m. hour of CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, Ling ended up recalling the case of a woman who viewed Satanists as defenders of "civil rights" and joined their group as the mother blamed the "imposition of Christian values" at school for her gay son committing suicide.
By Mark Finkelstein | December 11, 2015 | 7:00 PM EST
It's one thing to dump on Trump, as author Rick Perlstein did on today's With All Due Respect, calling The Donald a modern-day George Wallace, and floating "fascism" about him. But Perlstein took things a nasty step further, denigrating Trump supporters in the ugliest terms.
Per Perlstein, Trump has unleashed forces in his supporters "that are more animalistic than human." Perlstein added that spectacle of the US losing to ISIS has filled Trump fans with "childlike, impotent rage."
By David Limbaugh | December 10, 2015 | 10:07 PM EST
As the Christmas season approaches, I want to explain why I am so enthusiastic about the subject matter I've written about in my new book, The Emmaus Code: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament.
By Tom Johnson | December 10, 2015 | 9:09 PM EST
Between Christians and Muslims, which group poses the greater threat to religious liberty in America? To Marcotte, there’s an obvious answer: Christians. In a Wednesday Salon column, the lefty pundit claimed that “the big difference between conservative Muslims and Christians in this country is that only the latter have a massive, organized movement that is backed by an entire political party to force their theocratic views on the non-believers.”
Marcotte’s peg was Sean Hannity’s recent statement on his radio show that we ought to find out whether would-be Muslim immigrants to the U.S. favor sharia. Marcotte deemed Hannity’s remark “breathtaking in its hypocrisy,” given that Hannity, “like nearly all conservatives these days, is a strong believer in the Christian version of ‘sharia law,’ i.e. forcing conservative religious beliefs on the non-believers by law.”
By Matthew Balan | December 10, 2015 | 7:36 PM EST
CNN did a 180 in its coverage of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter attacking Donald Trump as an "asshole" on Tuesday over the presidential candidate's controversial proposal to ban Muslim immigration to the U.S. On Tuesday's OutFront, Erin Burnett spotlighted how the Democratic mayor "spoke out" against Trump with his crass term Burnett's program ran the soundbite of Nutter uncensored, and an on-screen graphic trumpeted, "Philadelphia Mayor: Trump's An 'Asshole'". Just over 24 hours later, Anderson Cooper confronted the outgoing mayor on his CNN program on Wednesday over the crude retort.
By Mark Finkelstein | December 10, 2015 | 8:19 AM EST
The last person you'd imagine backing Donald Trump's Muslim ban might be Mika Brzezinski. Yet on today's Morning Joe, a reluctant Mika came close to doing just that. Brzezinski springboarded off the news that the visa screening program failed to stop Tafsheen Malik from entering the country although she was already radicalized at the time.
While professing her opposition to the plan, she called the news "incredibly disturbing." When former Obama car czar Steve Rattner admitted that the process in place "had failed," Mika suggested: "are you saying something that might be in line with Donald Trump's policy?" Mika went on: "I'm not sure Donald Trump's concept is good for our country," but "we just had a slaughter." Concluded Brzezinski: "someone tell me something better than what Donald Trump is saying," adding sarcastically "and there's got to be something better because everybody has been sitting here for days, just lambasting him."
By Curtis Houck | December 9, 2015 | 9:32 PM EST
According to a Wednesday night post on the website Long War Journal by Thomas Joscelyn, a former detainee held at Guantanamo Bay named Ibrahim Qosi has rejoined the world of Islamic terrorism and ascended to a leadership post in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) following his release in July 2012.
By Ken Shepherd | December 9, 2015 | 9:12 PM EST
During a Hardball segment with two Republicans critical of Donald Trump's comments on temporarily halting Muslims from entering the United States, MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked the Log Cabin Republicans's Gregory Angelo, "suppose he said no gays could come in the country?"
By Dylan Gwinn | December 9, 2015 | 8:17 PM EST
Lions safety Isa Abdul-Quddus and running back Ameer Abdullah are both Muslim. They’re also both upset at Donald Trump’s calling for a ban on Muslim immigration, and for his call for a Muslim registration plan.