Michigan Journal

Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: Perspectives

After the leading Republican candidates refused to attend a debate at a historically black university in Baltimore (in addition to refusing invitations from the NAACP and National Council of La Raza, among others), someone told them to come to Dearborn.

This, we're certain, was meant as a joke, but the candidates, immune to irony and perhaps wishing to pay homage to Dearborn's most famous Nazi sympathizer, agreed.

So here they are, not knowing they've arrived in the very center of all they despise. There's Sen. John McCain, who believes a religious litmus test is appropriate in electing the president. He said recently that Christianity is an important qualification for those who wish to lead the country; a country he says was "founded primarily on Christian principles," never mind the immortal words of Jefferson, Madison, Adams and other of the founders of the nation, who, on many occasions, stated clearly and unequivocally that America is not a Christian nation.

Then there's Tom Tancredo, whose stock in trade is Muslim bashing. He has said that the U.S. should bomb Mecca and other Muslim holy sites as a "deterrent" to terrorism. Tancredo has further asserted (in an NPR interview) that American Muslims celebrate when other Americans are killed in terrorist attacks and that "Muslims attack us because it's a dictate of their religion." Tancredo's rants against immigrants are also well-known. Immigration, he says, threatens "the very survival of Western Civilization."

Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney (a Mormon who might not pass the McCain Religious Fitness Test), Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter and Sam Brownback, all of whom have made their own questionable remarks regarding immigration and religion, are also in Dearborn.

We at The Michigan Journal are perplexed that a group of politicians dominated by anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim candidates who are dismissive of all minorities, should come to a city well known for its high proportion of all these groups.

Although ostensibly a forum for debating economic reform, the candidates should be held accountable for their words and we believe that Dearborn is an appropriate setting for calling them out.

Although the candidates will try to dismiss the concerns of those they've disparaged, we at The Michigan Journal hope that all who have the opportunity today will demand that these men explain themselves to the very people they've attacked.

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