“It is ridiculous and insulting, that because I nominated Sohail Mohammed — that people some how think that means I’m for Sharia Law. It’s crap.” Chris Christie sure talks a lot of crap. He has previously said that “this Sharia law business” — i.e., concern about Sharia in the U.S. — “is just crap.”
The problem with this outburst, which the mainstream media and Islamic supremacists like Hamas-linked CAIR’s hate-filled Hussam Ayloush are hailing, is that the objections to his appointment of Sohail Mohammed to a Superior Court don’t center around some secret plan Mohammed has to make rulings according to Sharia. They have to do with his associations and allegiances. Daniel Greenfield has noted that “Sohail Mohammed is a board member of the American Muslim Union, an organization that has interlocking leadership with groups that have fundraised for Hamas and hosted a Hamas speaker. The American Muslim Union is closely interlinked with Qatanani’s Islamic Center of Passaic County.” Sohail Mohammed was the New Jersey Imam Mohammed Qatanani’s lawyer. Greenfield adds: “Despite the fact that Mohammed Qatanani was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is behind both Al Qaeda and Hamas, despite his own guilty plea to being a member of Hamas, and despite the fact that even in the United States, he had defended a charity that provided funds to children of suicide bombers (this is done as an incentive to reassure terrorists that if they die their families will be taken care of), Qatanani was not deported.”
Imagine if Christie had appointed a judge who had similar ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The mainstream media would not be hailing him then. But what exactly is the difference between Hamas and the KKK, other than that the Klan is not as violent?
“Christie deftly defends appointment of Muslim Judge at RJC meeting,” by Matt K. Lewis for the Daily Caller, March 31:
Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s meeting in Las Vegas on Saturday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded calmly, but strongly, to a question about Sharia Law, taking the occasion to address lingering concerns about a Muslim judge he appointed in 2011.
“Sohail Mohammed knows as much about jihad as I do, being an Irish-American kid from Newark, New Jersey,” Christie said of the Indian-American judge who immigrated to America as a child. “It is ridiculous and insulting, that because I nominated Sohail Mohammed — that people some how think that means I’m for Sharia Law. It’s crap,” he said to applause. “And I will not ever apologize for making him a judge — in fact, I’m proud of it.”
“Sharia Law won’t come into New Jersey,” Christie continued, “and to suggest otherwise is nothing more than internet blog B.S.”
Much has been made of Christie’s gaffe about “occupied territories,” but I think this exchange was probably more instructive in the long run. If Christie runs for president, this is one of the lingering questions he will have to continue to address. And his ability to defend this appointment — in what might have been a challenging environment — speaks well of his political courage and ability to communicate. The fact that Christie actually garnered some applause is indicative of his ability to do just that.
Yes, he sure can bamboozle people with nonsense — always an asset for a 21st-century American politician.