RWW’s Paranoia-Rama takes a look at five of the week’s most absurd conspiracy theories from the Right.
Sharia law is taking over the western world, or at least it is in the fevered imaginations of right-wing commentators, who this week made wild accusations about the Obama administration and others aiding extremist groups. Naturally, they also found time to criticize gay rights too.
5) You Know Who Else…?
Rep. Randy Weber hopes that Congress will soon take up his State Marriage Defense Act, which would make it more difficult for married same-sex couples to have their marriages recognized by the federal government.
To promote his bill, the Texas congressman stopped by the Family Research Council radio show “Washington Watch” to warn that “our society is under attack” by gay rights advocates and President Obama, whom he suggested is “intent on bringing America down.”
Weber also made clear his displeasure with Obama’s decision not to go to an anti-terrorism march in Paris with a tweet likening the president to Adolf Hitler, or saying that the president wasn’t enough like Adolf Hitler, or something: “Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reason.”
The congressman ultimately offered a half-hearted apology to “all those offended” by his tweet.
4) Thanks Obama!
It turns out that Harlem pastor James David Manning, famous for his warnings about the “homo demons” that President Obama is releasing into America, also has unusual insights to offer on U.S. foreign policy.
Manning told “Infowars” host Alex Jones that he found it quite “suspicious” that terrorists recently carried out attacks in France rather than the U.S., since America is “the big dog” which should “be the target of these kinds of attacks.” According to Manning, the only logical explanation for this discrepancy is that President Obama made a “deal” with terrorists to fund their violent actions and, in return, the terrorists agreed to wait to attack America until after Obama leaves office.
While Manning insisted that he was just asking the question, he did blame the Charlie Hebdo massacre on Obama’s “protection” deal, since it “open[ed] the doors for others to be attacked.”
3) Why Won’t Congress Investigate Whether Obama Backs Terrorists?
It’s too bad Allen West is no longer a member of the House of Representatives, because he knows what Congress should be doing with its time: finding out if Obama supports terrorism. At least that’s what the Florida Republican told Newsmax host Steve Malzberg, demanding that Congress look into “who Barack Obama is.”
“The most important thing that they have to do is evidence who Barack Obama is,” West said. “We have to put the president in the position to say of whose side are you on: Are you on the side of liberty and freedom or the Islamic terrorists? Are you on the side of the American people and true economic recovery or do you just want to continue to run around the country to talk about free community college tuition?”
During an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, West claimed that the Obama administration is “almost borderlining on providing aid and comfort to the enemy and aiding and abetting and material support” to terrorists.
2) ‘Muslim Free’ Gun Range Will Stop The ‘Islamization’ Of America
Already comfortable defending groups that refuse to serve gay people, some conservatives are now applauding an Arkansas gun range owner, Jan Morgan, who has declared her business a “Muslim free zone” — for safety reasons, of course.
Morgan, who has spoken at prominent conservative events such as The Awakening and the Values Voter Summit, won praise for her stance from the likes of Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, who defended her position by explaining that she doesn’t want to “facilitate murderers.”
Morgan put her “Muslim free zone” rule to work recently when she denied access to a South Asian father and son. They weren’t even Muslims, but because of their brown skin, Morgan apparently reasoned, maybe they were!
"When we went in, a woman asked, ‘Where are you guys from?’ We told her we were from Hot Springs. She said, "this is a Muslim free shooting range," so if we are [Muslim] and if we don’t like the rule, then leave. We said that we’re not Muslim, but my dad asked, ‘Why is it Muslim free?’ and they started having a conversation. Then, all of a sudden, I don’t know what went wrong, but she stopped us from filling out the paperwork and said ‘I don’t think you guys should be here.’ She told us to leave or she’d call the cops on us."
Not wanting to cause a scene, they left.
"We’re brown; I don’t know if she assumed we were Muslim," he continued. "When she first asked us, she said, ‘I would hope if you were Muslim you guys wouldn't be cowards and would be up front about it.'" The student told the Times he was born in the U.S. and lived in Hot Springs for ten years before going to college in a different Arkansas town; he considers Hot Springs his home.
Morgan, unsurprisingly, denied the allegations and accused the two people she turned away of having an “agenda” to “create the situation that occurred,” while standing by her concerns “about the Islamization of my country.”
1) Steve Emerson Is Quite The Expert
While Muslims or people who might be Muslim aren’t allowed into one Arkansas gun range, Fox News analyst and regular conservative commentator Steve Emerson is warning that non-Muslims aren’t allowed into many European cities, including the second largest city in Britain. Emerson appeared on Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show to promote the myth of European no-go zones, which the two described as mini-caliphates.
“Europe is finished,” Emerson concluded.
He alleged that non-Muslims now don’t dare enter the British city of Birmingham, which he described as “totally Muslim,” despite the fact that Muslims makeup a minority of Birmingham’s residents
After facing a tremendous amount of mockery and ridicule, including a rebuke from the British Prime Minister David Cameron, who called him a “complete idiot,” Emerson eventually apologized. He did, however, stand by his main point about the proliferation of “no-go zones” in Western Europe, which is also completely erroneous and unsupported by the facts.
Sher Zieve, a conservative columnist, went even further, accusing Obama of trying to set up “Shariah Controlled Zones” inside of America that will “stone” any non-Muslim who dares to enter.
