Islamophobia is the new black.

"We want to push back against the extremists." So said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (near left), lead organizer of the effort to establish a community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. The response of right-wing blogger Pamela Geller (far left) sums up the hyperbolic deceit passing for modern conservative discourse: "Monster Mosque Pushes Ahead in Shadow of World Trade Center Islamic Death and Destruction."

A timeline of this most recent example of the dominance of right-wing media bias in US politics shows Geller's almost comic overreaction was the controversy's fault line. Glenn Greenwald posted a remarkable exchange between a CNN anchor and interfaith group director that illustrates the mainstream media's anti-Islamic bias:

Lemon: Don't you think it's a bit different considering what happened on 9/11? And the people have said there's a need for it in Lower Manhattan, so that's why it's being built there. What about 10, 20 blocks ... Midtown Manhattan, considering the circumstances behind this? That's not understandable?
Patel: In America, we don't tell people based on their race or religion or ethnicity that they are free in this place, but not in that place ...
Lemon: [interrupting] I understand that, but there's always context, Mr. Patel ... this is an extraordinary circumstance. You understand that this is very heated. Many people lost their loved ones on 9/11 --
Patel: Including Muslim Americans who lost their loved ones ...
Lemon: Consider the context here. That's what I'm talking about.
Patel: I have to tell you that this seems a little like telling black people 50 years ago: you can sit anywhere on the bus you like -- just not in the front.
Lemon: I think that's apples and oranges -- I don't think that black people were behind a Terrorist plot to kill people and drive planes into a building. That's a completely different circumstance.
Patel: And American Muslims were not behind the terrorist plot either.

The shameless demagogues running Fox News have long equated a few hundred deranged al Qeada thugs with 1.4 billion practicing Muslims. It appears CNN is heading down that same ratings-grabbing road. Fox stooges have, naturally, attempted to slap the one-size-fits-all 'extremist' label on Feisal Abdul Rauf. One of the more educational retorts to this deliberate ignorance is a NY Times opinion column detailing the beliefs and practices of "... Sufism, the mystical form of Islam, which in terms of goals and outlook couldn’t be farther from the violent Wahhabism of the jihadists", which Feisal Abdul Rauf practices:

(Feisal Abdul Rauf's) videos and sermons preach love, the remembrance of God (or 'zikr') and reconciliation. His slightly New Agey rhetoric makes him sound, for better or worse, like a Muslim Deepak Chopra. But in the eyes of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, he is an infidel-loving, grave-worshiping apostate; they no doubt regard him as a legitimate target for assassination.

Taking a wit-sharpened scalpel to Fox's attack dogs, Jon Stewart gives toothless poodle Glenn Beck an especially satisfying evisceration:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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In case you missed it, here's a killer line from John Oliver:

Muslims are allowed to put a mosque near Ground Zero, just like Catholics can build a church next to a playground.

Finally, a columnist for the NY Daily News named Michael Daly, who's been profiling the heroism of police and fireman since long before Sept 11, 2001, makes a convincing case that blocking the so-called 'Ground Zero mosque' is just what the terrorists want.