Norquist the Tax Reformer: From Flat Tax to Jizya Tax?

There’s a National Leadership Conference sponsored by the Arab American Institute going on at the DoubleTree Hotel in Detroit this weekend.

We find it notable that one of the darlings of the conservative talk-show circuit, Grover Norquist,  is sharing a bill with, among other characters, Dawud Walid, Executive Director of CAIR-MI (Muslim Brotherhood), and whom our readers know well, and Wajahat Ali.  Ali is a co-author of “Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” the Center of American Progress report claiming to “exposes the Islam-bashing network in America.” It’s primary targets include Frank Gaffney, David Yarushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Steven Emerson.  The aim of the report is to slander criticism of Islamism as “Islamophobia,” and to minimize the danger of Islamist terrorism, especially in the United States. 

The conference program outlines an agenda for both domestic and foreign issues.  For example, attendees  will work to “Promote the civil rights of Arab Americans and American Muslims.” One workshop title is, “Defeating Hate Legislation: From Arizona Copycats to Sharia,” (“we will discuss the rampant emergence of hate legislation, including the Arizona copycat laws and Sharia bans now in nearly two dozen states across the country”).  They’ll work also to “Support Palestinian human rights and freedom.” If you read James Zogby’s analysis of the recent bid for Palestinian statehood you’ll get an idea of what kind of support is intended.

Norquist is the man who, as Pamela Geller explains it,  is most responsible for tricking George W. Bush into placing his moral prestige and the authority of his presidency behind the slogan, “Islam is a religion of peace.”