Fiery Rhetoric on American Islam

From Ground Zero to California, politicians are promising to keep America safe from Sharia law and Muslim conspiracies. Fearmongering and the election season.

The Ground Zero mosque in New York has gotten the biggest headlines, but that controversy is part of a broader movement in some Republican circles that sees a real and present danger: the “Islamization” of America.

Congressmen last fall demanded an investigation into a purported Muslim fifth column infiltrating Capitol Hill.

Newt Gingrich is calling for legislation to keep Sharia law from taking over American courtrooms. Critics call it the New McCarthyism. Defenders call it a war for the survival of America.

Guests:

Samuel Goldsmith, staff writer for the New York Daily News.  He has been the paper’s lead reporter on the Ground Zero mosque story.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), who represents Arizona’s 2^nd District, which includes Maricopa and Mohave Counties, and towns like Glenndale, Peoria and some of Phoenix.

Intisar Rabb, professor of criminal law, constitutional law, and Islamic and comparative law at Boston College Law School.

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and professor of theology at, and former president of, the Chicago Theological Seminary. Read her Washington Post/Newsweek columns on the fear of Islam and what she calls the "new McCarthyism," and on the mosque controversy at Ground Zero.

David Gaubatz, author, along with Paul Sperry of "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America."