Mosque debate strains tea party, GOP

The proposed mosque is becoming a divisive issue between Republicans and tea party conservatives.
By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 8/18/10 4:27 AM EDT
The debate over the proposed mosque near ground zero, which has tied Democrats in knots, turns out to be just as tricky for their adversaries on the right — particularly those in the tea party.

Within the loose coalition of local and national conservative activist groups that form the tea party movement, a quiet tug of war is being waged between those who want to embrace the hard-line opposition that has emerged as the Republican Party line and those who have urged their fellow tea partiers to refrain from rallying opposition because it’s inconsistent with the movement’s focus on economic and constitutional issues.

Continue Reading Text Size
- + reset POLITICO 44
Video


While the debate is taking place within the confines of the movement, it nevertheless reflects a larger sense of unease on the right with an issue that is dividing both Republicans and tea party conservatives over tensions between core principles such as balancing religious freedom and property rights and the raw feelings evoked by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rising GOP star, warned Monday against "overreacting" to the threat of terror and painting "all of Islam" with the brush of terrorism.

Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, expressed similar apprehensions Monday.

“A president not only serves Muslim citizens, not only commands Muslims in the American military, but also leads a coalition that includes Iraqi and Afghan Muslims who risk death each day fighting Islamic radicalism at our side,” he wrote in The Washington Post. “How could he possibly tell them that their place of worship inherently symbolizes the triumph of terror?

Nowhere is the conflict more obvious than among tea party activists, who have sought to distinguish themselves from a Republican Party they say has strayed from its adherence to the principles of individual liberties and limited government. For tea partiers, the mosque dilemma also is representative of a larger philosophical battle that has raged within their movement almost from its inception last year in protest of what activists saw as the unchecked government expansion being pushed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. While some of the tea party’s earliest organizers have struggled to keep the movement tightly focused on fiscal and constitutional restraint, other activists and conservative interests have tried to direct the tea party’s energy toward national security or social causes including supporting Israel or opposing illegal immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41196.html#ixzz0wzlnCD1Z

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/41200