David Barton’s interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show was filled with the usual gimmicks and distortions we have come to expect from the Right’s favorite pseudo-historian, but also came with a big surprise: Barton told Stewart that he supported the right of a Muslim-majority jurisdiction that could hypothetically want to implement Sharia law. This clearly contradicted Barton’s past opposition to Sharia law, yet it helped Barton represent himself on The Daily Show not as a partisan Christian Right activist but as someone who generally supports religious influence in government:
Stewart: Do you feel like the majority in a locality should be able to determine…
Barton: Yes, yes, and here in New York City, there’s schools that are 100 percent Hasidic Jewish, and I think they should be allowed to have Hasidic Jewish practices there because all 100 percent kids are…
Stewart: So you would allow, like, let’s say Dearborn, Michigan was majority Muslim…
Barton: And it is.
Stewart: Are you all right with Sharia law and the whole business…
Barton: Sure, sure.
Stewart: Well, that’s consistent.
Barton: But for somebody from the outside to come in and say “I don’t like this, you can’t do it” that’s what I have trouble with.
Now, Barton is walking back from his comments during his WallBuilders Live radio show with Rick Green. Barton and Green explain that he didn’t realize Stewart asked him about Sharia law. Rather, Barton says he answered a different question that Stewart did not ask, and has therefore been completely consistent:
Maybe antics like this are why real historians don’t take Barton seriously.
