Newt GingrichJames K. Glassman is a rarity: a Republican who believes, and is willing to say, that President Obama "is the greatest public diplomat we've had in decades."
Glassman, who served as undersecretary for public diplomacy under George W. Bush, also believes that the controversy over the planned Islamic community center will hurt the U.S. image among Muslims abroad. And he believes that Obama's task, like his predecessor's, is to replace the conspiratorial narrative about a United States as an enemy of Islam with one in which a tolerant, freedom-loving country does right by Muslims.
The problem"”for the White House, for mosque supporters, for basically everyone"”is that so few people believe this is possible. Over the weekend, Politico's Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman pointed out the Republican defenders of the "ground zero mosque" were vastly outnumbered by Republicans who catered to "hostility toward Islam among many Republican voters" and saw openings to attack Democrats over national security. There's no question that those Republicans are winning the argument. But they're winning the argument because they're not the only people who think big shows of American tolerance will fail to stop terrorists from recruiting.
For Republicans who oppose the mosque, the task is simple, if not exactly straightforward: They don't want a debate about religious freedom in America. They want a debate over whether you trust the Obama administration.
In that sense, they may be getting help from Obama's supporters, who may have promised too much about his appeal to the Islamic world. Before and after Obama took office, some foreign policy realists said that his election, all by itself, would smooth over relations between America and the "Arab street." Said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in February 2009: "I do think that with the election of President Obama, there are many changes that are out there and a different image of the United States." In his first week in office, Obama announced a schedule for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. In June, he gave an address to Muslims in Cairo that was acclaimed by all the right people.
But did this do anything for non-American Muslims or for Americans themselves? The 2009 Arab Opinion Poll, conducted by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, showed Obama single-handedly spiking Muslim optimism about American foreign policy up to 51 percent. In the 2010 poll, it fell back to a Bush-level 16 percent. The Obama magic fell flat here, too: In February 2010, a poll for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies found 53 percent of Americans viewing Islam unfavorably.
The bad feelings weren't all Obama's fault. They were the result of reality crashing in, of foreign policy remaining a mess. But they're like the bitterness that Americans feel about the 2009 economic stimulus, which was oversold and has become politically toxic because its success is hard to measure. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the promise of the Cordoba Initiative, the group involved in the planned mosque for Lower Manhattan, is easy for conservatives and Republicans to deride. When Americans are asked to look past their initial reactions and back the building of the mosque because it will send a good message, they're being asked to believe in a new kind of hope and change.
And that's pretty much what the new crop of Republicans thinks about the mosque. A lot of their groundwork has been done by political and religious figures whose opinions of Islam"”wicked, bent on conquest"”were considered fringe in the Bush years and dismissed by his White House. Some of the GOP's strongest recruits are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who start their discussions of what the Muslim world really thinks with the credibility they earned in the field. They've pounced on this issue to make the case that Obama doesn't take radical Islam seriously enough as a threat.
TodaysMedia.init(); MostLiked RecentlyShared Like Slate on FacebookFBOpenGraph.init();More Politics columnsA Mosque You Can't Believe InRepublicans don't oppose the Islamic community center near ground zero so much as they oppose Obama's support of it.David Weigel | Aug. 16, 2010Crazy Enough To WinWhy Democrats shouldn't feel overconfident about beating some of those wacky Republican nominees.David Weigel | Aug. 12, 2010Finishing SchoolThe case for getting rid of tenure.Christopher Beam | Aug. 11, 2010Search for more Politics articlesSubscribe to the Politics RSS feedView our complete Politics archiveplaceAd2(commercialNode,'bigbox|2',false,'')ÂChristopher Walken as backup radio show host http://slate.me/9J1rl0
ÂLevi Johnston for mayor! http://slate.me/bm18zP
ÂWhere's the Ground Zero mosque? 39 experts explain http://slate.me/9iv5U6
 placeAd2(commercialNode,'twitter',false,'')Israel's Next Top Model: Soldier in Facebook Controversy Defends Prisoner PhotosJames J. Kilpatrick, Conservative Commentator DiesCourt Stops Gay Marriages Indefinitely in CaliforniaThe Biggest City You've Never Heard OfWhat It's Like to Be a Tourist in North KoreaPhotos of the World's Top CitiesWhy Gates Seems Set on a 2011 DepartureHow Renters' Aid Is Boosting the Housing MarketThe Phony-Number MakerWATCH: Alleged Craigslist Killer Commits SuicideWATCH: Michael Douglas Battles Throat CancerWATCH: Mom Arrested in Kids' Drowningfeatured advertiser links Recommended For You var OB_multi_MP_url= 'http://www.slate.com'; var OB_multi_MP_count = 5; var OB_ads_only = true; var OB_ads_only_what_is_outbrain_str ="[What's This?]"; SPONSORED CONTENT var pl = "right_rail"; var anc = document.getElementById('bizbox_links_' + pl).getElementsByTagName("a")[0]; anc.innerHTML = bizbox_latest_title; anc.href = bizbox_latest_href; ClickTrax.init();Hitchens: Six Reasons"”Besides Israel"”We Can't Let Iran Get NukesWhy Do Some Drugs Cost $8,000 a Dose?It's Not as Hard as You Might Think To Meet the QueenThe United States Is Wasting Billions on Wind EnergyIs Ella a Birth Control Pill or an Abortion Pill?The Good News About the Economy: International Trade Is BoomingplaceAd2(commercialNode,'leaderboard|2',false,'');site map | build your own Slate | the fray | about us | contact us | Slate on Facebook | searchfeedback | help | advertise | newsletters | mobile | make Slate your homepage© Copyright 2010 Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLCUser Agreement and Privacy Policy | All rights reservedBF_BB_DATA = null;(function( ){document.write('');var sid="77FMJ7";var c=""; var b="";BF_BB_SCRIPT=document.createElement('script'); BF_BB_SCRIPT.type="text/javascript";BF_BB_SRC="http://buzzbox.buzzfeed.com/wd/BuzzBox?sid=" + sid + c + b + '&it=1&cb=' + (new Date()).getTime();setTimeout(function() { document.getElementById('BF_BUZZBOX').appendChild(BF_BB_SCRIPT); BF_BB_SCRIPT.src=BF_BB_SRC; },1);})(); var SlateComments = {}; SlateComments.loadEcho = function() { var script1 = document.createElement('script') script1.src = 'http://js-kit.com/for/slate.com/comments.js'; document.body.appendChild(script1) } document.domain = 'slate.com';checkVisitorId( 'slate.com' );selectMostTab('2');_qoptions={qacct:"p-5cYn7dCzvaeyA"}; document.domain = "slate.com"; Meebo('domReady');Levi Johnston for mayor! http://slate.me/bm18zP
Where's the Ground Zero mosque? 39 experts explain http://slate.me/9iv5U6
Read Full Article »