WASHINGTON, July 20: A US congressman who suggested the United States might consider bombing Muslim holy sites, including Makkah, has drawn apology demands from US Muslim and Arab groups but rejected a request to meet one leading organization.
Rep. Tom Tancredo made the comment on July 14 in answer to a radio host’s question about a possible response to any hypothetical nuclear terrorist attack on the United States.
“If this happens in the United States and we determine that it is the result of extremist fundamentalist Muslims, you could take out their holy sites,” the Colorado Republican said.
“You’re talking about bombing Makkah?” the host asked.
“Yeah,” Tom Tancredo responded, according to an audio excerpt posted online by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. A spokesman for the congressman confirmed the substance of Mr Tancredo’s remarks.
The council called for Mr Tancredo to apologize and said in a statement that council officials were working with leaders of the Colorado Muslim community to set up a meeting with the congressman.
Mr Tancredo’s spokesman, Will Adams, said on Wednesday the lawmaker had no plans to meet the council because ‘we don’t think they reflect the majority moderate Muslim community in the United States’.
Mr Adams said Mr Tancredo’s staff was seeking meetings with ‘moderate’ Muslim groups.
The Arab American Institute also called for an apology.
“This kind of speech from an elected official is harmful to the war on terror and does not represent the sentiments of the American people,” James Zogby, the Washington-based institute’s president, said in a statement.
Asked if Mr Tancredo planned any further reaction to the response from Muslim groups, Mr Adams said: “He’s not advocating that (a strike on Muslim holy sites) as his policy or US policy. I think if he made a mistake in this thing, it was answering an extreme hypothetical.”
This is not the first time a US official has touched off controversy by offending Muslim-Americans. In 2003, Army Lt Gen William Boykin sparked a brief firestorm after making speeches while in uniform that referred to the ‘war on terrorism’ as a battle with ‘Satan’ and said America had been targeted ‘because we’re a Christian nation’. —Reuters
