WND's first national convention: A spectacle of birtherism and bigotry

With the guest lineup of World Net Daily's Taking America Back 2010 national conference, it was no surprise that birtherism and bigotry were prevalent throughout the convention. After all, WND's Joseph Farah and Jerome Corsi are perhaps most (in)famous for their repeated birther attacks against President Obama.

Displaying shocking ignorance of his own publication, Farah kicked off WND's first national convention by asking if “anyone at WorldNetDaily ever asserted” that President Obama “is foreign-born.” We can. It turns out that one of WND's commentators, Craige McMillan, has referred to President Obama as an “illegal alien” in at least three separate posts on WorldNetDaily's website. Despite Farah's suggestion that WorldNetDaily held itself above the tired questions about President Obama's citizenship, Jerome Corsi was quick to jump on the case.

Questioning the president's citizenship, and thus his eligibility as president, was not the only way speakers at WND's convention attacked Obama. Speaker after speaker attacked Obama's faith as a Christian. Jerome Corsi alternatively claimed that Obama “doesn't believe in God” and that he's a Muslim, Floyd Brown claimed that Obama “hates Christianity” and “is a Muslim,” while Aaron Klein said that the president “has a certain affinity toward Islam.”

Other attacks against Obama included the zombie lie that Obama supported “infanticide” and an absurd demand by Corsi that Obama “come out and renounce Lucifer.” Floyd Brown also stated that the “most important step” for the next session of Congress is to impeach President Obama.

Anti-gay bigotry was also out in force at the Taking America Back convention. WorldNetDaily founder, editor, and CEO Joseph Farah suggested gay marriage would lead to “sexual anarchy” and claimed that opposing gay marriage was akin to opposing “sexual offenses” such as “polygamy, incest, statutory rape, child pornography, molestation, [and] prostitution.” Noted anti-gay bigot Robert Knight similarly compared a gay marriage ban to bans on polygamy and incest. However, Jerome Corsi refused to be outdone in this vein, going so far as to link same-sex marriage to pedophilia and bestiality.*

Speakers at the convention were also, to put it mildly, displeased with Imam Rauf's proposal to build an Islamic community center in Manhattan to serve an existing Muslim community as a place for worship and community. After nine months of right-wing anti-Muslim bigotry and incidents of violence against mosque sites nationwide, WND's speakers decided to rachet up the rhetoric against the Islamic community center by declaring that its intention is to promote further attacks by Muslims against America. Aaron Klein flatly stated that “the individuals behind” the Islamic community center in Manhattan don't “have peaceful intentions.” As well, WND speaker William Murray said that the purpose of the community center is to host “raiders” to “do even more damage” in America.

Just how does WorldNetDaily plan to top all of this with its next national convention?

This post originally stated that Corsi linked same-sex marriage to cannibalism. In fact, he linked same-sex marriage to marrying a cantaloupe. Media Matters regrets the error.