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Brown-Waite blisters Muslim

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."

[Last modified November 9, 2006, 23:05:19]