I can't imagine why any random person off the street or
in the MSNBC tweet-writing room would get the idea that Republicans were still
gigantic freaking loud-mouthed bigots.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) took to Facebook last Friday to inform his constituents that he had heard their concerns about the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro being permitted to construct a cemetery on its grounds loud and clear and shared their worries.
“Friends, I have received numerous calls over the last couple of weeks regarding the Murfreesboro mosque cemetery,” DesJarlais wrote. “Although this is a state issue, I am deeply concerned over the impact it might have on our community.”
Yeah, can't be too freaking careful of those
church mosque cemeteries. If the zombie apocalypse comes and the dead claw their way out of the ground, the last thing the good people of Murfreesboro want to be faced with is an army of zombies with slightly different religious beliefs than the people they're chewing on. "Oh noes," the good people will cry, "we have been bitten by Muslim zombies and now we are turning into Muslims. And zombies."
I do enjoy how DesJarlais flat-out complains about the stupid "religious freedom" law his stupid state passed, since it's stopping the good Not-Bigots of Murfreesboro from withholding that freedom from, you know, the wrong religions:
“Unfortunately the Tennessee Religious Freedom Act, passed by the TN General Assembly, may have played a key role in allowing this cemetery to be approved,” the two-term representative wrote. “There is a difference between legislation that would protect our religious freedoms and legislation that would allow for the circumvention of laws that other organizations comply with on a daily basis.”
The "circumvention of laws" bit referring to the more usual process of deciding which laws to follow based on how much you like the person, then inventing new laws if the old laws aren't enough for the people you don't like to get the hint. And the Mursfreesboro mosque has been the target of vandalism, arson and protests from fine white folks who are not at all bigoted assholes for years, now—this portion of the country has a bit of a history as to what happens to the churches of people they don't like, and that's all we're going to say about that lest Reince Priebus demand another public apology for somebody pointing something out.
The Republican’s newfound opposition to the bill was seen as surprising to Saleh Sbenaty, a board member of the Murfreesboro mosque. “Republicans in particular call for smaller government and the local government to manage itself,” she told to The Daily News Journal. “So now here he is interfering with a local process that has been following all rules and regulations [...] There are 514 cemeteries in Rutherford County. None of them have gone through the scrutiny we have gone through.”
It is because Rep. Scott DesJarlais is a bigot. There is no great mystery here: Scott DesJarlais would run over his own mother in an attempt to sign most things purporting to enshrinken government, but wide swaths of the Republican Party are currently up in arms—again, my
deepest apologies, Reince, you may want to cover your ears for this part—that allowing any Muslim American the same
religious freedom that we drone on about incessantly the other 99.99 percent of the time, or allowing even a single mosque to go un-arsoned, will result in Sharia law overtaking us all. I am not making this up: the party is
absolutely batshit crazy on this subject.
Vocally “anti-Sharia law” GOP lawmakers in Tennessee had their fears quelled this week when they were assured that a mop sink in one state Capitol building was not secretly installed for use as a Muslim foot-washing station.
DERP, as the children say these days. A big, fat, Tennessee bigot DERP.
So yes, the issue is bigotry, and the specific issue is that Rep. Scott DesJarlais needs to court that bigotry if he wants to stay in the good graces of the very Republican—take deep breaths, Mr. Priebus—bigots in his deeply batshit party. Of course the stupid Tennessee Religious Freedom Act was not supposed to apply to those people and their religion, as Reince Priebus would no doubt happily tell us if he was not busy wallowing in self-pity over people in America pointing this shit out.