WaPo Claims To Want “Conversation” About Religion, But Its New Blogger Wants To Silence Muslim Leaders

In response to the Washington Post's unfortunate decision to grant anti-Muslim gay-bashing bigot Jordan Sekulow his own blog, Think Progress noted last week that Sekulow had “shared [a] stage with far-right anti-Islam activist Geert Wilders,” adding that by giving Sekulow a platform, the Post is “legitimizing” bigotry. Wilders, for those unfamiliar with him, is perhaps best known for wanting to ban the Quran, new mosques, and Muslim immigrants in The Netherlands.

In response, Sekulow has tweeted that though he didn't meet Wilders, he was “proud” to share a stage with him:

At Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner notes Sekulow “describes himself as a 'human rights attorney' yet is proud to share a stage with someone who calls Islam 'the ideology of a retarded culture' and likens the Quran to 'Mein Kampf.'” Sekulow himself says America is at war with Islam and that “Muslim political leaders have forfeited their seat at the discussion table.” And he backs Oklahoma's nutty ban on Sharia law, which even former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson -- the relentlessly pro-war author of the infamous “smoking gun/mushroom cloud” argument -- says is nothing more than an effort to “taunt a religious minority.”

The Washington Post's On Faith describes itself as an effort to bring together people of diverse faiths in “intelligent, informed, eclectic, respectful conversation.” That goal is fundamentally incompatible with giving Jordan Sekulow a blog. He believes “Muslim political leaders” should not have a “seat at the discussion table,” and is “proud” of his association with a man who wants to ban the central text of a religion practiced by more than a billion people and compares it to the work of Adolf Hitler. Sekulow doesn't want a conversation; he wants war with Islam.