MotherJones Blog: Romney Digs Himself Deeper on "No Muslims" Statement

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Romney Digs Himself Deeper on "No Muslims" Statement

Mitt Romney recently said that he would not have any Muslims in his cabinet because their population in the United States isn't large enough. His exact words were: "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration." The various idiocies of that statement were previously discussed on MoJoBlog here.

Romney tried to defend himself by saying:

"[The] question was did I need to have a Muslim in my Cabinet to be able to confront radical Jihad and would it be important to have a Muslim in my Cabinet," said Romney. "And I said, 'No, I don't think that you have to have a Muslim in the Cabinet to be able to take on radical Jihad anymore than during the Second World War we needed to have a Japanese-American to understand the threat that was coming from Japan or something of that nature.' I just rejected that argument..."

That seems to misrepresent what the questioner asked. The questioner describes his own question thusly: "I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today."

Now the original questioner, an American born Muslim named Mansoor Ijaz (full disclosure: Ijaz is or was an occasional commentator for Fox News, CNN, and other places) is lashing out at Romney's dissembling. Via Huffington Post:

Ijaz scoffed at such an interpretation of what transpired.

"I can tell you," he said, "that Romney's push back, meaning his statement about the Japanese is all bullshit. He never talked about the Japanese at that point. Everything he said today is simply trying to reconfigure this item, which is he doesn't feel there is a need to put people of Islamic faith into his cabinet."

..."This guy is lying now to the American people."

Ijaz also told the National Review: "My question was crystal clear, and so was his answer."

By keeping this alive, Romney is inviting (1) Ijaz to keep speaking out and (2) reporters to keep digging into his record on Muslims. And it isn't pretty stuff.

From TPM:

[Irma Aguirre, former finance director of the Nevada Republican Party] says Romney made the comments three months ago at Lawry's restaurant in Las Vegas, at a different event from the one chronicled in the Monitor op-ed. Aguirre says that she was at the event with local Republican George Harris, who asked Romney the relevant question. She described the exchange this way:

"His question was something to the effect of, 'Considering the problems that we have with the Jihadist movement and the problems we have with the Middle East, would you consider having a Muslim as an adviser that can guide you as to what kind of decisions to make with regards to the Middle East?'"

"He said, 'Probably not.'"

Aguirre added that what Romney said next surprised her. "He said something to the effect of, 'They're radicals. There's no talking to them. There's no negotiating with them.' I can't remember the exact words he used, but that was the explanation. We left thinking, 'Wow, what a racist comment. He automatically assumed that all Muslims are radical.'"

Harris, a self-described registered Republican who's also the state GOP finance chair and who asked Romney the question, confirmed this account in a telephone interview with TPM Election Central.

These could be supporters of a different candidate pushing an agenda—everyone is suspicious this time of year. Whatever the circumstance, Romney would be well-advised to make this go away.

Comments

Good stuff!

Keep up the good work.

Posted by: capt on 11/28/07 at 7:52 AM Respond

No Muslims in his cabinet because their population in the United States isn't large enough. Mormans are only 2 percent of the population. Vote for Mike Huckabee, another good ol' baptist from Hope, AR.

Posted by: Raul on 11/28/07 at 9:35 AM Respond

Mitt Romney is being accused of Religious Bigotry?
He has been suggesting that everyone else is bigoted because we should not talk about Mormons, but here he expresses his views of Muslims in general.
Listen to this episode of the Hot Conflict Radio show discussing Mitt Romney on Islam.
http://www.hotconflict.com/blog/2007/11/mitt-romney-isl.html

Posted by: Saleem Siddiqui on 11/29/07 at 3:16 PM Respond

Romney said no....the muslim contends Romney said no...However you spin that the answer justifiably is no....Unless you're a Clinton...there, is doesnt' even mean is!

Posted by: charlie baker on 12/21/07 at 10:46 AM Respond

Mormons and Muslims actually have a lot in common--I was raised Mormon, and growing up the only non-mormon girl my brother was allowed to date was Muslim. This was because my parents knew her father was enforcing the same standards they were trying to enforce--she was totally covered up all the time (no chance for my brother to see her upper arms--as a girl I was raised with the same strict dress code). He also checked in on them a lot when they went out, and sometimes sent along a third or forth person to watch over things (one chaperone apparently wasn't enough when it came to my brother being along with his daughter!). Aside from the anti-drinking and smoking regulations, Mormonism also has many of the same larger concepts of god and punishment (not that this word is usualy used). MOrmons see themselves as being very different, but it usually comes down to small differences that only other Mormons would notice. Both religious groups are also characterized by extreemists--there is a large fundamentalist influence in Utah, and individual wards contain a lot of families that are nazzi mormon (even if not fundamentalist).

Posted by: eek on 01/23/08 at 8:53 PM Respond