Glenn Beck And The Park51 Imam Appeared On GMA Together In Happier Times
Depending on how much you’ve been reading about the whole Park51, Lower Manhattan mosque uproar — or I guess depending on who’ve you’ve been reading — you’ve likely stumbled across some mention of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf‘s friendly history with both the Republican party and Fox News. Or previously friendly relationship…it soured sometime around May of this year. Point is, some fairly prominent figures on the right have come into contact with Rauf before and worked quite happily with him, dare we say supported him.
That friendly history is now proving somewhat tricky (also, it makes for some great clips on The Daily Show) since the Iman has been dubbed a suspect person with possible terrorist ties and how to explain the prior friendliness. Case in point: Media Matters (naturally) has dug up a clip of Glenn Beck on Good Morning America with the Imam in 2006, and they appear to get along just fine. Beck, meanwhile has been highly suspect of the Iman, and ‘his ties’, since the Mosque story moved to the media forefront a few weeks ago. In fact the conversation between Beck and Rauf, which is about the violent reaction to the cartoons depicting Mohammad and threats to the Pope, is not only civil but fairly interesting (not the least because it’s strange to see Beck embraced in such a quintessential MSM setting).
The part of the clip Beck is going to be called to explain is when he notes that “I believe it’s a small portion of Islam that is acting in these ways…But radical Islam is evil. They’re hijacking a beautiful religion and they need to be stopped…I think the entire world is in denial. I think there is a cancer that is radicalized Islam and it must be cut out or it’s going to kill all of us, including the good Muslims.
At which point Beck gestures to Rauf to include him in his “good Muslim” definition. Interestingly when Rauf responds to say that much of radical Islam is driven by political issues you can hear Beck agree with him. Not that this is so far from what Beck himself has said on his show (as highlighted by Jon Stewart).
However, the fact of the matter is that if you watch the entire clip what you soon realize is that you are watching quintessential Beck, and even way back in 2006 he was not really saying anything much different than what he has been saying on his show since it shifted into the media klieg lights after his move to Fox (there’s even a Germany 1939 reference, but alas, no chalkboard). What is different perhaps to his claim that because of radical Islam we are on the brink of World War III is both Diane Sawyer‘s and Imam Rauf’s calm, studied reactions.
Meanwhile, as damning and/or embarrassing as Media Matters wants to make this out (and it is eye-opening to see Beck in a rational discussion with people from the outside world) I am going to hazard a guess here that when Beck responds to this he is going to say he didn’t know much about the Rauf, and then focus on (blow up) the part of clip where Rauf appears to compare radical Islamists like Ahmadinejad with American, Born-Again Christians (“flip side of the same coin”). To be clear, Rauf highlights this in an effort to point out that when “political issues or government policy becomes a means to fulfilling a religious agenda that’s where the danger lies” and part way through the camera even catches Beck nodding along, however I doubt the second half of that remark will be what makes it to air tonight. Watch for yourself below.
Update: Glenn Beck responds on his radio show today.
Related: FLASHBACK: In 2006 joint appearance, Beck appeared to call Imam Rauf a “good Muslim” [Media Matters]
