Fareed Zakaria returns an ADL award and the $10K that went with it:
[…] I cannot in good conscience hold onto the award or the honorarium that came with it and am returning both. I hope that it might add to the many voices that have urged you to reconsider and reverse your position on this issue. This decision will haunt the ADL for years if not decades to come. Whether or not the center is built, what is at stake here is the integrity of the ADL and its fidelity to its mission. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain your reputation.
Zakaria’s action and letter are an interesting contrast to Anthony Weiner’s public silence and weasel-worded, evasive missive on the same topic.
r€nato
Oh goody, can’t wait to hear Abe Foxman go all ‘anti-semite’ apeshit on his ass.
r€nato
…if it had been me, I’d have given Abe back his award, but donated the $10,000 towards construction of the community center. (it’s NOT a ‘Ground Zero mosque’… why does Zakaria want to join in, in calling it that???)
4tehlulz
He should have kept the cash then turned around and donated $10k to the Cordoba House in the ADL’s name.
jeff
I think he may be found to have resigned to spend more time, etc. pretty soon.
JGabriel
Good for Zakaria. That’s a principled and honorable move.
.
JGabriel
@jeff:
I don’t know, Sidney Harman just bought Newsweek. I can’t think of any reason why he’d feel pressured to fire Zakaria, or kowtow to the ADL or the right.
.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know the consensus is that Weiner wants to be the next mayor. Is the Islamophobia really so strong in NYC?
ellaesther
I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain your reputation. Amen.
ellaesther
It also occurs to me that this is probably a better spot for that link I put in the open thread, to a compendium of Muslim responses to extremism that I posted.
So, here you go again!
Muslim responses to extremism.
jeff
@JGabriel:
I was thinking msnbc, not so much Newsweek. I actually am kicking myself for not offering $2 for it!
Lysana
Very happy with Fareed Zakaria right now. The ADL is out of its mind. Weiner needs to own up and call them out. Or did he use up his rage for the month already?
wondering
Why was anyone expecting the ADL to behave any better than it did? This is how they always act.
rikyrah
Weiner’s wife needs to return the wedding gifts and go back home to her parents.
burnspbesq
Well done, Mr. Zakaria.
Allison W.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No. I live here and I don’t see it. I could be wrong though. A Muslim from here in NYC might have a different experience plus I don’t hang around people who are that prejudice. Most likely Weiner has campaign donors who are.
JGabriel
Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No.
.
joe from Lowell
Nice!
This man had definitely gone up on my estimation.
It’s especially brave because…you know…he’s not named “John Smith” or “Irving Goldstein,” so he’s really opening himself up for the swarm.
Cacti
As one of the commentors to the linked piece noted…
It’s a shame that supposed progressive Anthony Wiener can’t speak out for First Amendment rights with the same energy he inveighed at Rep. Peter King.
kay
Well, I’m going to disagree.
Not with the letter or the return of the grant, which is great, but with Weiners’ silence.
Conservatives trumped this up. There’s no merit to it, and I mean none. It’s a pure, pre-midterm cheap shot.
I think there’s one and only one elected official or democratic representative who should respond to it, the mayor of that city, and he did, brilliantly.
This is one time we should let conservatives and allies talk, and talk and talk. They never fucking shut up, about anything, so that shouldn’t be a problem for them.
The real malice behind this, the meaning of what they’re doing, is going to get lost in a bunch of shouting and that’s what they want. They want the cover of conflict. They want the cover of noise. They want this to be “principled conservatives” on one side, and “angry liberals” on the other. They want to turn it into an political issue. It isn’t.
The voices in opposition have been clear and distinct, and are individuals, and that’s going to be most effective here.
Don’t give them what they want. Don’t give them a partisan and political conflict. Don’t put them in the driver’s seat.
kay
To explain, I was thinking about the attacks on groups, and I can list them. Black people, gay people, Hispanics, and now Muslims. Sorry to be so crude, but I was thinking of the attacks in a tactical sense, how to oppose. I think it’s a given we oppose.
The attacks on black people, gay people and Hispanics were framed by the Right as political disagreements. It’s bullshit, they’re not really going to do shit with the 14th Amendment, but that’s the field they want to play out the conflict on, and media will always oblige. So we had to accept their framing and ground, and act as if these were political or governmental matters, and make a lot of Democratic versus Republican noise, and that gives them cover. The 14th amendment is now a political conflict, and they want political conflict.
This one is different. There’s no legislative fix here, even if they stretch. They can’t really hang this on politics, and take advantage of the cover that a big noisy he-said she-said fight gives them. They wandered into the purely moral and non-political arena, and I think we can beat them there. Kristol admits it: there’s not a thing President Obama can do as a governmental matter, yet Kristol wants him to act. Kristol wants him to act (speak) because it’s then “Left versus Right” rather than “decent people versus scumbags”.
I want to put more thought into the response. I don’t want to react. I’d like to put them at a disadvantage, and not let the pick the terms. It occurs to me that this attack lends itself to a different approach, if we can come up with one.
Frank
This is how a leader acts. Zakharia is a leader. Just like Mayor Bloomberg is a leader.
We all heard Wiener’s eloquent outburst on the House floor this week. The man can talk. This is why Wiener’s silence speaks such volumes at this time. How pathetic! Yes, I know an election is coming up and all that.
What good is to be in elected position and not do what you were elected to do? Your constituents (not FoxNews) needs Wiener to speak up. Now!
kay
@Frank:
I think that’s a mistake. That takes it into the political realm, and that’s where they want it.
They (Republicans, I mean, I don’t have any opinion on the ADL, I think they’re a private group) have no reason to be in this at all.
There’s no government interest here. None. They conceded on that point. Make them defend it outside government.
Bloomberg was the absolute best (and only) person to address the local interest, and he did that.
They lost on Schaivo because they shouldn’t have been in it. The elaborate governmental interest they constructed fell apart under scrutiny, and the were left with the raw political calculation they had made. That was ugly, and Americans got it. This is ugly too.
kay
@Frank:
Frank, we won on the 1st Amendment issue, and then we won on the local permitting issue. Those are the two governmental functions.
They conceded there’s no First Amendment discussion here. We won. They then lost the local issue.
All they have left is the sentimental argument, and it’s as weak as could be.
A person could engage them there. I don’t know who it should be, but it shouldn’t be a person who is in the political arena.
Sarah Palin has no discipline and is completely ego-driven and incapable of not responding to a direct attack. I would like to find someone who can make her respond. She’ll lose.
pickledjazz
Fareed is a straight talker and I admire that!
Anthony Weiner said what he had to say. Coward? nah, I think not!
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@rikyrah: I don’t agree.
He said this in his letter to Bloomberg: “I feel strongly that the constitutional protection of religion from the overreach of government means that elected officials should endeavor to stay out of the business of deciding where houses of worship may or may not be.” That’s all I feel needs to be said on his part. I’d bet Huma would also like to avoid the right wing “ZOMG he’s just saying that because his wife is a moosleem and did you know she once lived in Saudi Arabia” craziness that would follow his really wading into this. Bloomberg has spoken and spoken well as mayor of NYC.