Jacob Sullum notes that Newt Gingrich‘s position on the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero amounts to a rather paradoxical argument that protecting American constitutional values means abandoning them altogether:
In Gingrich’s mind, “apologists for radical Islamist hypocrisy” include not only the avowedly moderate Muslims who are trying to build Park 51 (whom he identifies, with little evidence, as “stealth jihadis”) but anyone who defends their right to do so. Unlike Sarah Palin, he does not concede that right. Also note the arrogant condescension involved in declaring that Muslims have no need for Park 51 because they already have plenty of mosques. But my favorite part is his Orwellian claim that we must violate religious freedom in order to preserve it—because if the community center goes ahead as planned, the next thing you know we’ll be living in a Muslim theocracy where all other religions are banned.
Well frankly, Gingrich has been arguing that we need to abandon the Bill of Rights in order to preserve it for some time now. In this vintage Josh Gerstein piece from 2006, he was straight up calling for restrictions on free speech, and it didn’t even involve a Muslim-free zone around Ground Zero:
“This is a serious, long-term war,” the former speaker said, according an audio excerpt of his remarks made available yesterday by his office. “Either before we lose a city or, if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people.”
Mr. Gingrich acknowledged that these proposals would trigger “a serious debate about the First Amendment.” He also said international law must be revised to address the exigencies posed by international terrorists.
“We should propose a Geneva Convention for fighting terrorism, which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are, in fact, subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous,” he said.
This speech was given at “an award dinner billed as a tribute to crusaders for the First Amendment.” Less funny is that the Obama administration would probably agree with some of what Gingrich was saying.
