A few weeks ago, on Slate’s Political Gabfest, I warned that the anti-Islam sentiment behind the Cordoba House controversy was a national security risk, saying, “By not allowing [Muslims] to be anywhere near Ground Zero I think you're not doing anything except breeding the kind of resentment that led to the 9/11 attacks in the first place.”
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I usually like being right, but not this time:
Islamic radicals are seizing on protests against a planned Islamic community center near Manhattan's Ground Zero and anti-Muslim rhetoric elsewhere as a propaganda opportunity and are stepping up anti-U.S. chatter and threats on their websites.
"We are handing al Qaeda a propaganda coup, an absolute propaganda coup," with the Islamic-center controversy, said Evan Kohlmann, an independent terrorism consultant at Flashpoint Partners who monitors jihadist websites.
And so the cycle of bigotry and violence continues with the help of America’s far-right conservatives and some cowardly Democrats, whose hatred and fear of Muslims is literally being broadcast around the world.
-Cord Jefferson is a staff writer at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.
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