Earlier I posted about Soledad O’brian’s interview of Imam Rauf. I suggested that Soledad was functioning well below her level and I wondered why she seemed ill-prepared and kept repeating the same questions, not to mention her dismissive attitude.

In my bewilderment, I discovered that Solidad had not planned a one-on-one interview for the entire hour.

There were guest panelists waiting to be brought into the discussion. In other words, an on-the-fly decision was made to extend the interview phase and scrap the panel.

Catholic priest and author Father Edward Beck shares this in a very interesting article written for CNN online.

Last night I was sitting in the green room at CNN headquarters in New York waiting to go on Larry King Live to join the discussion with Imam Rauf about the proposed Islamic Cultural Center to be built two blocks from Ground Zero. The more the man spoke, the more apparent it became that I and the other guests would not be needed after all. The Imam had a lot to say. And I was content to sit and listen.

In other words, Soledad came prepared for a half-hour or so of interview, followed by the remainder (less the time for commercials); the Imam came prepared to say much more.

So in an ironic twist, Soledad provided the Imam more time while attempting to frame it in the worst context possible.

Actually, the Catholic father also had some useful insights which unfortunately we never heard, but which he shares in his article.

Let’s be clear: The controversy surrounding Cordoba House is laden with discrimination, xenophobia and irrationalism. To say that the fundamentalist murderers who flew planes into the Word Trade Center represent Muslims is like saying Hitler’s Christianity is representative of all Christianity.

Most would find the reference to “Hitler’s Christianity” a bit perplexing. Father Beck undoubtedly was referencing the complex religious sentitments of Adolf Hitler, as expressed in 1922 in response to one Count Lerchenfeld’s statement that anti-Semitism was unchristian:

I say: My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. .. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. Wikipedia: Adolf Hitler’s Religious Views

I understand that many of the strong feelings are real, if somewhat irrational. A fear of a particular race of people (xenophobia) is always real and irrational, whether in Nazi Germany or in America today.

I have been a Christian for nearly 50 years.  I know that it is possible for a religion to be “hijacked” by hateful opportunists who would make religious discrimination politically correct.

Too bad that we did not get to hear Father Beck on the issue of “Christian Racism”. Please read his article, What’s at stake near Ground Zero?