In January of 2010 Robertson extended his infamous repertoire of ill-advised outbursts by claiming the earthquake which devastated Haiti, killing 217,000 people, was in effect comeuppance for a pact they had made with the devil for freedom from French rule in the 1791 slave rebellion.
Although he ended the statement with a call for prayer for Haiti and in the following days delivered nearly two million dollars in aid via his charitable agency Operation Blessing, he was blasted from nearly every corner of the globe for effectively blaming Haitians for their own misfortune.
Since then Robertson watchers have had little entertainment. His official site www.patrobertson.com has not had a press release since their statement January 13th attempting to calm the storm of derision.
Robertson has made numerous outrageous statements over the past few years including:
• Praying to God to have more US Supreme Court judges die while George W Bush was in a position to appoint their replacements.
• Comparing the Jewish Holocaust in World War Two to the treatment of Christians by Democrats, liberal media and homosexuals.
• Threatening Orlando Florida with God’s wrath in the form of terrorist bombs, earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly even a meteor for hosting “gay days” at Disneyworld.
• Stating that feminism is “…a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
• Suggesting a “very small nuke” should be thrown on the State Department “to shake things up.”
• Calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Yet despite at least 71 natural disasters since the Haitian earthquake there have been no outbursts from Robertson on this front.
“This is incredibly disappointing.” Reports Steve Barclay, Robertson watcher and founder of the Facebook group ‘I Bet I Can Find 100,000 People Who Think Pat Robertson is a Douchebag.’ “I’ve been reduced to quoting myself in my own blog in an attempt to pump up the numbers of my Facebook group. Membership reached just over 25,000 after Haiti but has completely stalled and begun to decline since Robertson went silent.”
Given Robertson’s history it seems incredible that he hasn’t made some kind of statement condemning Pakistanis. Pakistan is an Islamic Republic, it has suffered a natural disaster that has displaced 20 million people and left 6 million entirely dependent upon humanitarian aid to meet their daily needs. This is the kind of material that one might expect to cause Robertson to salivate with self-righteous acrimony and religious intolerance.
Robertson’s silence may have actually been detrimental to aid donations for Pakistan. Following his remarks on Haiti many donated to the relief efforts of various charitable groups in part due to a sense of outrage over his distasteful remarks. Without his disagreeable statements to rally against many have not gathered the necessary indignity to pry their wallets open and donate to what is surely one of the greatest disasters in recent history.
New Zealand’s earthquake also received no invective from Robertson. Despite having legalized sex between men in 1986, and allowing civil unions in 2004 yet he has not publicly blamed their misfortune on their gay-friendly attitudes. But then they are, of course, predominantly white.
His only controversial comments of late have been with respect to Mosque building. In August he stated his objections about a mosque being built in Murfreeboro Tennessee, a city of 101,000 people. Prefacing his comments with the statement that he didn’t think anyone should interfere with the free worship of God by any group, he then slowly deteriorated into his normal patter of misinformation and intolerance. He suggested that it would cause an influx of Muslims that would overwhelm the town, take over the political structure, force people to pray 5 times a day, build facilities for foot washing in public restrooms and airport facilities, and ultimately “cow” the local residents in some fashion.
Much to the relief of controversy starved Robertson watchers he then continued by suggesting Muslims had “…the ability to bribe folks…” admitting that he didn’t “…know if anyone’s getting a payoff but it’s entirely possible…”
His co-presenter of this misinformation, Terry Anne Meeuwsen, went on to ask how “…a few hundred little people… could raise millions of dollars…” to build the mosque and asked why nobody was investigating the source of the funding.
Robertson replied, “Can you imagine what ten thousand dollars does to a small local politician in a little town?”
“Obviously a lot!” replied Meeuwsen.
“These fellow come in with pot loads of money,” continued Pat. “They don’t have restrictions of what they can carry in and out and they can bribe politicians…”
These statements were made despite there never having been any suggestion of impropriety on the part of any politician with respect to the building of the mosque.
“Clash of civilizations is what we’re looking at. It’s not just religion. It is a clash of civilizations.” continued Robertson. “One is like an eighth century desert view of the world, the other is the modern view of the world and those civilizations are clashing. It’s not just religious freedom.”
Apparently, in his philosophy, religion isn’t sufficient reason to restrict building a mosque but having a different world view is.
Robertson also reportedly has a legal team fighting the development of a mosque two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. They are using the tact that the building currently there should have been declared a heritage building and should not be allowed to be demolished to make way for the new center.
In this case it’s not religious intolerance, it’s a heritage building. It would seem unlikely that anyone would find Pat’s claims of religious tolerance believable.
If history is any indication, it should result in a windfall of donations to help build mosques across America.
Donations can be directed to:
http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/donate to donate directly to the Islamic community center two blocks from ground zero.
http://mosquebuilders.com/ - a non profit charity which works to build mosques in less fortunate parts of the world. Although they currently are building a mosque in India, I think few would disagree that the Unites States could be defined as less fortunate given the ignorance currently being displayed about the peaceful religion of Islam.
Thanks Pat. May Allah honour you and grant you peace. Keep talking.
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