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Brown-Waite blisters Muslim

Instead of renouncing anti-Muslim remarks, she accuses the man of not condemning extremists.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published November 10, 2006

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite on Thursday angrily refused calls by a Muslim advocacy group to condemn a prominent Hernando County Republican who called Islam a "hateful, frightening religion."

Brown-Waite instead criticized Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of the Republican Party of Florida, both of whom last week demanded an apology from Commissioner Tom Hogan and his wife, Mary Ann Hogan.

On Friday, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist severed Mary Ann Hogan's relationship with his campaign.

"Mrs. Hogan expressed in her statements the views of many of my constituents, and while they do not encourage harmony in the community, they should demonstrate to you how many United States citizens perceive your faith," Brown-Waite wrote, responding to a Nov. 3 letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations asking her to denounce the Hogans' remarks.

In her three-page reply, Brown-Waite blasted the leader of CAIR's Tampa chapter, accusing him of anti-Catholic comments, saying he staged a 2004 political "ambush" of her meeting with a local doctor and has done little to condemn terrorism by Muslim extremists.

Not true, said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of Tampa CAIR.

"It's unethical and shameful for a congresswoman to resort to lies and fabrication in order to defend anti-Muslim bigotry," Bedier said Thursday.

Brown-Waite called Bedier a "master at manipulation," and said Bedier should ask families of those killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks if he's done enough to condemn Muslim extremists.

Bedier pointed out his organization's $10,000 cable TV campaign aired in 2005, which asked Muslims "not to allow our faith to be hijacked by criminals." CAIR sent a delegation to Iraq to plead for the release of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll, he said.

In September, after Muslims firebombed Catholic churches protesting Pope Benedict XVI remarks about Islam, he took up a collection to help the churches rebuild.

Brown-Waite's letter also accused Bedier of crashing a 2004 meeting between her and a local Muslim doctor.

"Imagine how surprised I was upon entering the home to find a group of eight or more men sitting in a semicircle preparing to have a discussion with me," she wrote.

Bedier said the event was arranged in several phone calls with Brown-Waite's assistant, and was not misrepresented.

Brown-Waite also accused Bedier of saying: " 'Catholic priests pose more of a terrorism threat by having sex with young altar boys than those who flew the planes into the World Trade Center.' "

"That's a lie. She's twisting it," Bedier said Thursday. "I said we cannot stereotype and blame Islam for the actions of a few individual criminals, just like you cannot blame Catholicism for the actions of a few criminal priests."

Bedier also said Brown-Waite deliberately waited to respond to his letter until after Tuesday's election.

Brown-Waite said the letter did not reach her office until Friday evening. On Monday and Tuesday she was too busy campaigning.

"I think the governor-elect was a lot busier than she was, but he took the time to make a statement," Bedier retorted.

Echoing Tom Hogan Sr.'s comments last week, Brown-Waite said Thursday, "It is an accurate truism that by far and wide not every Muslim is a terrorist, but it's historically accurate that every terrorist has been a Muslim with the one exception of the bombing of the Murrah building by Timothy McVeigh."

As for terrorist acts by the Irish Republican Army, Brown-Waite said: "That wasn't in our country."

Bedier said the statement was a mask for anti-Muslim bigotry.

"While she was writing this three-page letter to me, she could have written one sentence condemning violence against Muslims in Florida."

Brown-Waite's letter follows more than a week of controversy surrounding the Hogans' comments. While prominent state leaders and local politicians condemned the couple, the pair say they enjoy wide support from the community.

Tom Hogan Sr. helped found the Republican Party and was its first chairman, and has served as a state committeeman for four decades. Mary Ann Hogan, a former School Board member, served as state committeewoman and chairwoman of the party.

Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127

[Last modified November 9, 2006, 22:49:14]