(NEW YORK)(September 17, 2010) I grew up in the 1950`s. In those years Americans did not respect Asia. We spoke about "hordes" of Chinese, depersonalizing people for political reasons. Why would we compare Chinese to a "horde" of locusts? It`s easier to train people to kill locusts than to convince them to kill fellow human beings.

Perhaps the most damning libel of that era was that to "Chinese" or to Asians in general, "life is cheap." I thought we had grown out of such racist pretensions. No one today would seriously believe or publicly state that "To Chinese [or Asians] life is cheap." The remarks would be unthinkable. So how could the publisher of the NewRepublic, Martin Peretz, make the claim that "But frankly, Muslim life is cheap..." and wait almost ten days to apologize: Peretz`s remarks have created a controversy:

I am in the process of writing some very critical remarks about the Islamic world, about the Ground Zero mosque, and about the aftermath of what happened recently in Gainesville, Florida and the Muslim reaction around the world. I believe we are entitled to make critical comments about religion, especially when those remarks bear some relationship to political or legal matters encompassed in religious activity. Religious beliefs or actions should no more be immune to criticism and controversy than any other beliefs. On this I clearly disagree with Mohammedans, who seek to ascribe talismanic significance to documents and pieces of paper as "sacred." But "Muslim life is cheap?" To make such a remark, or even to contemplate such thoughts, is hideous. Today we are engaged in a growing nostalgia about President George Bush and his actions after 9/11. Bush clearly delineated "Islam is not the enemy." Bush, of course, did the right thing. [One of my upcoming columns will be titled "Maybe Islam is the enemy" so stay tuned for that one. But I challenge beliefs, not the sanctity of human life in the Muslim world.]

I don`t want to rile up by Jewish friends or readers, but here are some thoughts that may rile. Mr. Peretz is a strong supporter of Israel. I happen to love Israelis and I certainly respect their grieving for the Holocaust. I went to a Jewish funeral in Boynton Beach, Florida earlier this month for the wonderful mother of a close friend in West Palm Beach. I was early for the funeral and wandered through the cemetery. I was reminded again by the inscriptions in the Jewish cemetery of the horrors that have been inflicted on innocent people based on anti-Semitism. But I have also seen Israelis and pro-Israel supporters in the United States dehumanize Palestinians. A particularly outrageous lie was Golda Meir`s: she denied that Palestinians even existed. All the easier to kill them and occupy their land. Through the decades Israelis have treated Palestinians as sub-humans. I have always known that eventually the true victims of Israel`s Holocaust against the Palestinians, beginning in 1948 and continuing to this date, would be the Israelis themselves and their supporters. That is why I pray the current peace negotiations will succeed, although I am very skeptical they will.

Mr. Peretz`s attempts to delegitimize the entire Muslim world should cause him, and every supporter of Israel, to ponder the question of why peace never comes while Palestinian lands are expropriated and Palestinian wells are reserved for Israeli use. While he has apologized, and we should accept his apology, his original remarks were an insight into Peretz` soul. Perhaps Peretz` support for Israelis has led him to dehumanize and demonize not only their Palestinian adversaries but all Muslims in general. When babies are left to die at Israeli checkpoints, when women are clubbed, when children are bombed with white phosphorous, when prisoners are tortured, every Israeli dies a little death as such practices are tolerated and passed on to the next generation through compulsory military service. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, O Israel, it tolls for thee. Ultimately, whatever our political beliefs, "our enemies are always human." Life is never cheap as I learned on the flight line at Dong Ha and with an unexpected revelation in the U Minh Forest. I am delighted Mr. Peretz has apologized, and I hope he will ponder my broader thoughts on the issue. As for my Muslim friends, they can expect my criticism in the next few days. I love them equally with my Israeli friends. But I will be as unsparing of my criticism for Muslims and Muslim-majority nations as I am with Israelis. I will never believe, however, that "life is cheap" for either side or any side in the Middle East or anywhere else in this life. "The enemy is always human."

I am a Christian of the twenty-first century, for whom life is never cheap.

Here are my thoughts on the article:

Rick Lazio, the gubernatorial candidate from Suffolk County, doesn`t like it. Sarah Palin, though not exactly a New Yorker, has resoundingly "refudiated" it. More importantly, plenty of ordinary citizens vocally oppose the establishment of a Muslim community center and mosque near the World Trade Center site. But no matter how offensive their presence may be to some people, Muslims have always been a part of lower Manhattan`s past. In fact, Islam in New York began near Ground Zero. From an historical perspective, there could hardly be a better place for a mosque. Perhaps it`s time to "refudiate" racism and religious intolerance, once and for all. Sarah Palin is a fundamentalist, so even fundamentalists have rights, until they break the law of the land. A religious fundamentalist who obeys the law should be free to practice his or her chosen religion, warts and all. Christian fundamentalists believe all sorts of irrational things, such as that the Jesus of the gospels and the monstrous Jesus of Revelation are the same person, and that King David was "the man after God`s own heart" even though he had a man-sized idol in his own house (a Teraphim), and killed every woman when he "smote the land," and ordered the slaughter of the lame and blind when Jerusalem was taken from the Jebusites. Jesus had compassion for the lame and the blind. David said that he "hated" the handicapped and ordered Joab to murder them. Ah, the sweet joys of fundamentalism, which allows anyone to believe anything! We allow Baptist churches and synagogues to be built anywhere, so why not mosques? Should we prefer one brand of fundamentalism to another?

One of the first Arab-American enclaves in New York City was located on Washington St. in lower Manhattan - the very area in which the World Trade Center was later built. Founded by Arabic-speaking Christians and Muslims from Ottoman Syria in the 1880s, it was called Little Syria. The heart of Little Syria was full of outdoor cafes where non-Arab visitors sometimes gawked at men smoking hookahs and trading gossip about the Ottoman Empire. In a 1903 article, the New York Times called the neighborhood "quaint," noting the "uniform politeness" of its inhabitants. Just about everyone who has travelled among Muslims has noted their politeness and hospitality to strangers. The Palestinians are noted for their hospitality to Americans, even though our government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the government of Israel, which uses the windfall to herd Palestinians into giant open-air corrals like animals, so their land and water can be stolen by Jewish "settlers" unmolested. Of course this was the primary cause of 9-11 and the subsequent wars. And yet 80% of Muslims profess to like the American people. It is only our government they despise, and it`s hard not to agree with them. Is American and Israeli hubris and hypocrisy preferable to Arab quaintness and politeness? Perhaps not. Lower Manhattan is also the final resting place of Muslims and other Africans, often slaves, who were forcibly resettled in New York when it was still New Amsterdam. The African Burial Ground, discovered in 1991, is six blocks away from the proposed Muslim community center. Scholars continue to debate the religious identity of the hundreds buried there, but the fact that some of the dead wore shrouds and were interred with strings of blue beads, frequently used as Islamic talismans, suggests Muslim were among the enslaved people who helped build Manhattan into a bustling city.

Mark Twain once pointed out that one of the greatest lies is the one about the white man being less savage than the men of other races. Perhaps Bubba needs to follow the advice of the Hebrew prophets, Jesus Christ and Michael Jackson, and confront the "man in the mirror." Of course, this history of Islam in lower Manhattan means little to the families of 9/11 victims who are protesting the proposed center. Far more troubling than their protest is how readily some political groups have used this issue to advance their own anti-Muslim agendas. Comments by Lazio and Palin are mere drops in an ocean of right-wing vitriol. In one outright lie, the Web site of the National Republican Trusthas declared that the organizers of the mosque "intend to erect a shrine to the 9/11 terrorists." Is there any doubt that Palin is the anti-Christ and that George W. Bush was her John the Baptist, making America`s crooked paths straight on the path to Armageddon?

Rhetoric that treats Muslim-Americans like hostile foreigners fundamentally - and intentionally - skews the story of New York and its Muslim community. Racism and intolerance are anti-American, but of course the anti-Christ is hardly in favor of such negligible as compassion and justice. For most of American history, Muslims have come to New York seeking freedom and opportunity - like every other group of immigrants. In 1847, for example, sailor and slave Mahommah Baquaqua escaped from the Brazilian ship Lembranca, docked in Manhattan. He went on to co-write one of most important African-American memoirs of the 1800s. "The Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua" poignantly describes the moment when, confined to a cell in the bow of his ship, Baquaqua broke down the door, bowed to his master`s wife, and ran away. Once on the docks, he managed to utter the only English word he knew: "free." What could be more quintessentially American than that?

I am reminded of Joseph fleeing the wife of Potiphar. All human beings want to be free, and to be treated justly. Why do white Conservative Christians insist that they are the Chosen Few, the way the Pharisees did? Muslims in New York have also embraced the city`s belief in freedom of religion.

Perhaps they are the only true Americans remaining. Everyone else wants to be "more equal" than Muslims.

In 1893, John Lant, a white convert to Islam, performed what was celebrated as the city`s first public adhan, or call to prayer, from a third-floor window in Union Square. "The melodious call of the Muezzin," the Times deemed it. Why not let everyone pray as they please, and only infringe on the liberties of people who break the law of the land?

Today, more than half a million Muslims live in New York City, including 10% of all public school children. According to one informed estimate, there are roughly 1,000 Muslim officers in the NYPD. Their historical birthplace is near Ground Zero. Trying to prevent them from building a community center there denies their stake not only in New York`s history but in its future, too. If Americans want to live in peace with their neighbors, perhaps it`s time to reconsider living by the Golden Rule. That would mean not contributing to the suffering and premature deaths (i.e., murders) of completely innocent Palestinian women and children. If we only chose to stop abusing innocent women and children, we might find peace is not so elusive, after all. Would 9-11 have happened if Americans had practiced what they preached? In a word, no. So all the fears really are irrational fears. If I keep abusing my neighbor`s mother, wife, sisters and children, of course we are going to have a very rocky relationship. White racists were always sure blacks were, by nature, inferior and dangerous. But guess what happened when white racists finally stopped abusing black women and children? We finally began to achieve racial harmony. The real problem is not mosques being built "too close" to Ground Zero. The real problem is the daily abuse of Muslim women and children at the hands of the government of Israel, with the blessing (in the form of advanced weapons and tons of cash) of the government of the United States. If we want peace, for once we should use our hearts and our brains.

"Five days that dismembered Barack Obama"

SYNOPSIS: Andy Martin says Barack Hussein Obama`s stumble on the Manhattan mosque issue has transformed the 2010 election from a mid-term contest into a referendum on the president Andy Martin says that in 45 years of political involvement he has never seen anything similar to Barack Obama`s self-inflicted wound over the New York City mosque Andy asks "Who Pays and Who Prays?" at the proposed Lower Manhattan mosque; we still don`t know

(CHICAGO)(August 17, 2010) By nature I`m not someone who hides his views; I don`t like keeping my feelings a secret. When you put on a false face and lie to people it eventually catches up with you. I sleep well at night. I`m not perfect but I try to be honest. I would rather be liked or disliked for what I really believe that have people attracted to me because of my "pretend" opinions. That`s why I`m not such a good political candidate but a much better analyst and columnist. I was the first name on Barack Obama` enemies list because I was the first writer to start asking the hard questions about Obama`s mysterious family tree. This month we "celebrate" exactly six years since I wrote my first column on Obama and exposed that he was a Muslim. That column is one of the seminal pieces of recent American politics: Nevertheless, in 45 years of political experience I have never seen anything quite like the past five days. I`m out of breath. I saw the stories on Barack Obama`s "endorsement" of the controversial Manhattan mosque Friday evening August 13th. I said to myself, "This is explosive." Because I had a court hearing to prepare for on August 16th I could not sit down and write. Saturday the 14th, another explosion. Obama "reversed" his endorsement and said his Friday night support was "inoperative." Monday the 16th while I was in Springfield, U. S. Senator Harry Reid sneak-attacked. Reid gave no warning that he was about to drop a bomb on Mr. Obama.

Where do I begin? Let me start at the beginning. Rush Limbaugh calls his occasional retrospectives "caller clinics." Because I am a writer we`ll call phase one of this column "Reader Rehab." When I wrote the first critical story on Barack Obama in August 2004, my research and analysis was initially ignored by the liberal media elites. We did a lot of investigative work on the story, checking African tribal lore, Islamic traditions, the Arabic language and the practices and history of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Out of that effort came the view that Obama was a closeted Muslim, and that he was hiding his religion in plain sight. As Obama became the subject of increasing scrutiny my original column became his opponents` Rosetta Stone. My analysis was the prism through which Obama`s opposition sought to unlock his hidden past. In retaliation, Obama`s campaign team launched relentless attacks on me. By 2008 Obama had a full-fledged dirty tricks operation focused on discrediting my work. Then Obama moved into the White House. I kept searching for Obama`s "roots;" his supporters kept up their war to discredit my writing. Obamabots are still attacking me, still posting lies, still trying to deceive the media and the public. Why is Obama obsessed with me? It`s obvious. I`m still trying to find the facts and search for the truth about who he really is.

Somewhere along the way my early columns on Barack Hussein Obama became a book (see below) and the book in turn became the first "Bible" of the "Birther" movement.

Although the liberal media invented the term "Birther" to ridicule Obama`s opponents, I turned the tables on the media elite and accepted the derogatory description. When they called me the "King of the Birthers" I said "Call me `Your majesty.`" So what if they call us "Birthers?" I still keep trying to find the facts and search for the truth about the mysterious Mr. Obama. Where is his original, typewritten birth certificate? Still hidden in Hawai`i. Why is he hiding it? I should point out that "Birthers" are a coat of many colors. At one end of the spectrum is my work. I scrupulously stick to the facts. Just the facts. At the other end of the spectrum are people who peddle unprincipled lies about Obama. Yet, as bad as Barry Obama is, I still do not condone lying about him. Why lie about Obama when the truth is more than bad enough? And so we arrive at August 17, 2010. The great Ozymandias "Barack Obama" lies in ruins. All for nothing. Or, rather, all for a mosque near ground zero? Unbelievable.

First, my overall opinion. (This not the "full truth" because we have a real treat for the Birthers coming in a few days.) Obama is not going to recover from this wound. His self-inflicted wound. There have been a lot of people still sitting on the fence so to speak. They had doubts about Obama`s religion, and they were prepared to believe he was a Muslim, but they still held back looking for the missing nail in Obama`s coffin. Amazingly, Obama put the final nail in his own coffin in the past five days.

Since Friday, Obama has tried to confuse and defuse the mosque issue. But seasoned politicians like Senator Harry Reid know a dead duck when they see one. Obama is a dead duck. Obama has converted the 2010 election from a "mid-term election" into a referendum on him. He. The One. He has lost control of his message.

What do you say when your own senate majority leader sticks the fork in you? You say nothing. You`re toast.

The only chain of events remotely comparable is President Lyndon Johnson`s realization early in 1968 that he was politically dead. He had lost the Democratic Party. Johnson quit a few days later.

On Friday Obama defended the so-called "Mosque at Ground Zero." He unequivocally stated "That includes the right to build..in Lower Manhattan." The Washington Post said that Obama had "forcefully joined the national debate." The Post`s headline was "Obama defends plan for Ground Zero mosque." The New York Times headlined that "Obama strongly endorses Islam Center Near 9/11 Site," and stated that "Obama delivered a strong defense Friday night of a proposed...mosque near ground zero in Manhattan..." Were all these people wrong? Don`t they speak English? Don`t they understand???

By Saturday Obama had retracted his statements (in Watergate-speak Obama`s Friday night remarks became "inoperative") and claimed that his Friday night remarks were not an endorsement on the "wisdom" of building at ground zero. In 18 hours the "endorsement" had shifted into a non-endorsement. Obama had routed himself. Muslims could not have been happy at the way they were quickly thrown under the bus. If Obama hoped to curry favor with Islamists, he shot himself in the foot with his overnight flip-flop.

By Monday, yesterday, we had a full-fledged supernova exploding across the political world. A senate candidate in Florida started running an anti-Obama ad criticizing BHO`s endorsement of the mosque: The liberal news media are in greater disarray than Napoleon`s army retreating from Moscow. What can they do? Harry Reid shanked his maximum leader. The New York Times and Washington Post are trying to dilute the impact of Reid`s reversal by shifting the blame to "Republicans" and amorphous "Democrats." Reid`s anti-mosque statement was immediately watered down by liberal journalists:

But was Reid`s act of self-preservation really a "betrayal?" I don`t think so. Reid simply wants to save his seat. He saw where voter sentiment was going. Reid`s stab in the back anticipated public opinion in September and October. Liberal media will not be writing about Obama and the mosque in September and October. Obama can silence the liberal media, and he does. But the "word of mouth" in the aftermath of Obama`s remarks is going to be fatal. "Word of mouth" can make a movie, or break a president. "Obama is a Muslim; pass it on." What possessed the man? Integrity? Honesty? He hasn`t had any of these for 49 years. Why suddenly did Obama become a man of honor on this obscure local issue? One writer suggested it was because "Obama is now president." But being president hasn`t activated Obama`s integrity gene before. He`s been lying from the day he moved in to the White House and started gorging himself on Waygu (Kobe) beef at the taxpayers` expense ($75 a pound!).

I think Obama simply slipped. Without realizing it, he let his guard down. He`s tired. He has begun to realize he`s going to be a one-term president and he has started factoring that awareness into his mental state and political discourse. King Andy Martin is preparing to lead his "Birther Brigades" against the evil occupant of the White House in 2012. The outcome is not in doubt. Let me illustrate the media`s Big Lie in the mosque controversy with a small truth. My mom (yes, she loves me) lived for many years in Alexandria, Virginia. Her home was a block away from a church. The neighbors raised "holy hell" when the church wanted to expand (I tied to find the church on the Internet, but couldn`t; it was just past Vernon View Drive on the George Washington Memorial Parkway heading towards Mount Vernon). With all due respect to my Muslim brothers, and my Episcopal friends who support the mosque, opposition to church building and church expansion is nothing new. But not until the Manhattan Mosque did we find opposition to a religious facility transformed into a holy war by the liberal media. Most of us have probably heard at some time of a controversy involving expansion of a church. You would think that no one had ever objected to construction of a church the way opponents of the Manhattan Mosque are being portrayed as racist morons.

One of the great moments in Shakespeare is Caesar`s dying declaration "Et tu, Brute," "even thou, Brutus." I`m sure that if Shakespeare were around today he would write "Et tu, Harry." Without realizing it, Harry Reid may have doomed Barry Obama. Reid`s dagger is the one that Obama will not be able to remove. Unconsciously, perhaps, Harry Reid`s decoupling from Obama on the mosque issue was the moment when Obama`s downfall crystalized. The political fallout from Obama`s obsession with Islam has become his fatal attraction. Anyone seen Obama near a Christian church recently? Doubtful. I am sure you will in the days ahead. But it will be too late. It`s been an unbelievable five days. And the deconstruction of Mullah Obama because of his "mosque madness" is just beginning.