Extremists of Many Stripes Gather at Values Voter Summit 2011
The extremism was most vivid in the main exhibit halls. Maybe the weirdest bunch in were from the American Society for Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), a self-described Catholic organization whose representatives seemed to be wearing red cloaks. The TFP table had a particularly noxious pamphlet – “10 Reasons Why Homosexual ‘Marriage’ is Harmful and Must be Opposed” – that argued that same-sex marriage “ignores a child’s best interests” and that it “turns a moral wrong into a Civil Right.” The pamphlet blamed same-sex marriage for forcing Christians to “betray their consciences by condoning … an attack on the natural order.” Another TFP pamphlet warned hysterically about the dangers of “socialism,” which, for some unknown reason, given our hyper-capitalist economy, they seem to think is on the march and targeting “traditional marriage” and “parental rights.” Anti-gay propaganda from the FRC and AFA was also on hand.
There was a table operated by the “Shariah Awareness Action Network,” a coalition that includes anti-Muslim hate groups. They were giving out material against the so-called “9/11 Mosque” – actually a Muslim cultural center run by a moderate cleric and called Park51 – that claimed “it will be a place for Islamic radicals around the world to celebrate their victory.”
The network’s representatives were hard-selling a November conference they will be holding in Nashville that will bring together members of the anti-Muslim hate group Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) and activists from the anti-gay hate group Traditional Values Coalition. The conference promises to reveal how Shariah law, which can never exist in the U.S. given our Constitution, “poses a threat to our American way of life.” The same folks were distributing copies of WorldNetDaily, a publication best known for pushing crazy conspiracy theories and birtherism. The table for David Horowitz’ Freedom Center, which funds SIOA, had a pamphlet giving the top 10 reasons why the U.N. needs to be abolished. It claims the U.N. is in an “obsessive war against the free world.”