Republicans on Islam: “Objective” of Muslim-Americans is “Convert All Infidels or…Kill Them.”

(Herman Cain (Chas Greer)

Is the “objective” of all Muslims really to “convert all infidels or to kill them”? Whether that becomes the definition of the Islamic faith may be a deciding factor in the presidential primary campaign of the Republican Party.

The race to see which candidate becomes the Republican nominee to face President Obama in November 2012 is just as likely to turn on debate over “sharia law” or which contender can take the most aggressive shots at Muslims as it is to be affected by the economy or foreign policy.

A reminder of the importance that the right-wing base of the GOP places on discussion and debate over the place and purpose of Muslims in American society was given by Herman Cain, one of the earliest declared candidates for the Republican nomination in 2012, although deemed a long-shot with little chance to win the nod.

But Cain’s bid may be picking up steam thanks to a string of extreme statements he has made criticizing President Obama and also with over-the-top rhetorical assaults on Islam and Muslim-Americans.

In an interview with “Christianity Today,” Cain was asked for his “perspective” on the “role of Muslims in American society.” He responded by stating  that “I resent” Muslim-Americans that try to “convert the rest of us to the Muslim religion.” Cain said that he believes that followers of the “Muslim religion” have ” an objective to convert all infidels or kill them. ”

But Cain himself admits that his views are based on ” the little knowledge that I have” of Islam and Muslim-Americans.

The role of Muslims in American society is for them to be allowed to practice their religion freely, which is part of our First Amendment. The role of Muslims in America is not to convert the rest of us to the Muslim religion. That I resent. Because we are a Judeo-Christian nation, from the fact that 85 percent of us are self-described Christians, or evangelicals, or practicing the Jewish faith. Eighty-five percent. One percent of the practicing religious believers in this country are Muslim.

Herman Cain is not the only Republican presidential contender that has made false and dangerous assumptions about Islam or Muslim-Americans based on their “little knowledge” of the faith.

• Sarah Palin recently visited Israel and offered her take on the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The former half-term governor of Alaska asked why the Israeli government is “apologizing all the time” for internationally recognized atrocities inflicted upon Palestinians. A conservative Israeli lawmaker following Palin said she “…knows that we are right and that the Muslims are just claiming things for provocation and they’re not right.”

• Rick Santorum,, a former US Senator from Pennsylvania and another possible GOP presidential candidate, echoed a growing trend by condemning the specter of “sharia law” in the United States and said that sharia is “evil” and that the federal government needs to “say what it is.” Oklahoma became the first state to officially ban judges from considering sharia law in a referendum last November.

• During the hated controversy over the location of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan last year, Newt Gingrich compared the Muslim-Americans that were behind the effort to build the center to Nazis. Gingrich, who has formed an exploratory committee to consider a 2012 presidential bid,  said that “Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the holocaust museum in Washington,” so Muslims should be barred from building a community center near the World Trade Center site.

• And Rep. Peter King (R-NY) (not running for president, but chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee) held hearings this month in Congress to explore the threat he says America faces from “radical” Muslims that are US citizens and living within American society. But even before the controversy of his decision to hold such a hearing, King told Politico in 2007 that there are “too many mosques in this country” and the US government should be “finding out how we can infiltrate them.”