Gaffney confronts top Bush official over Shariah

What the desultory townhall-style debate last night in Nashville between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama lacked in passion and focus on the most important issue of our time – the threat posed by Shariah (Islamic law) to our freedoms, way of life and form of government – was much in evidence in another debate held near Baltimore.  Under the sponsorship of The Harbor League, Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. squared off with Suhail Khan, the Bush Administration’s Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation for Policy.

As an article by Mr. Gaffney describing the highlights of "the Other Debate" (repoduced below) makes clear, Khan did little to dissipate serious concerns about his past associations with, and affinity for, those who minimize the threat posed by Shariah-adherent Muslims – including many who are prominent supporters of Shariah’s largely stealthy insinuation into this country.

Mr. Gaffney’s prepared remarks and accompanying slides are available. An audio file of the entire debate is available and a transcript will be made available as soon as it is completed.  In addition, a producer from Al Jazeera, which filmed the program in its entirety, announced that it would be broadcast gavel-to-gavel (consult your local listings).

Following the Other Debate, Mr. Gaffney observed:

"Americans and other freedom-loving peoples face a grave and growing danger from adherents to Shariah.  That danger is greatly exacerbated by those like Suhail Khan who either don’t understand Shariah’s true nature and the stealthy jihad being used to establish it as a parallel theo-political-legal code inside this country – or are deliberately misrepresenting the facts about both.  It is worrying in the extreme that the Bush Administration, in which Khan serves as among its most prominent Muslims, is in a position to influence not only assessments of the threat posed by some among his co-religionists but policy needed to address that threat."
 
It is highly regrettable that these issues were not featured in last night’s other other debate – the one featuring the presidential contenders.  Americans have a need to know about where the candidates stand on Shariah, and what they will do to counter this seditious program and the "soft" jihad being waged to advance its mortal assault on our freedoms and Constitution.

More from the debate

• Complete transcript
  
• "The other debate: Frank Gaffney vs. Suhail Khan"
• Mr. Gaffney’s prepared remarks
• Download or stream the audio
• Responses to the debate from CSP General Counsel David Yerushalmi and Robert Spencer