By John M. Rogitz

Another year, another CPAC.  Here we go again with dishonest coverage and the usual Sarah Palin bashing.  One event in particular has drawn fierce criticism from many Muslim groups.  The only problem is that they are protesting what happened at an event yet to take place.

On Friday morning, the Conservative Political Action Conference will be holding a panel discussion entitled “Jihad: The Political Third Rail.”  Note that the title does not say “Islam: Let’s All Crash and Die” or “Why All Muslims Are Bad.”  The title itself indicates the discussion will revolve around violent, radicalized Islamic holy war.  That doesn’t seem over inclusive to me, but apparently it does to the media and to a handful of pro-Muslim groups.

Those groups have already seemed to find it in them to take offense to a discussion they know nothing about because it has not occurred yet.  Somehow the term “Jihad” gives them cause to think every one attending this CPAC session will laughing hysterically, patting each other on the back, and encouraging the next person to be even more venal and racist than the last.

CPAC is not meant to be a KKK meeting.  It’s meant to be an honest discussion on radical Islam, Islamo-fascism, Muslim extremism, or whatever else you want to call it these days.  Sure, I may not know for sure either because I have also not seen the panel set for Friday.  But what I just said may be logically surmised from both the title and what CPAC organizers have said in response to the protests.  The protesters have nothing to go on.

Not surprisingly, one of the most vocal opponents to the CPAC Jihad discussion is CAIR – the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  A CAIR spokesmen told FoxNews yesterday that, “It’s unfortunate that a conservative conference would be in any way associated with Muslim bashers and Islamophobes.”  CAIR Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper continued, “It’s a free country. They’re free to be anti-Muslim bigots if they like, but it’s really up to the organizers of CPAC to determine if they’re going to allow their conference to be associated with the hate-filled views of those who will be speaking.”

How are we the bigots?  Bigotry comes from ignorance and CAIR doesn’t even know what will be discussed yet.  All they can do is jump to conclusions at this point.  That makes them the judgmental bigots.

Besides, what are these hate filled views of which he speaks?  Because we know there are Muslim extremists out there trying to kill us and think it would be informative to have a discussion on it?

I hate to break it to you, but all of the actions Osama bin Laden has rationalized through the Koran are actually supported by the text.  Seriously.  There is clearly discernable support in the Muslim holy book for Jihad and the killing of infidels.  The Koran itself is a very mixed bag of love and anger, which makes sense because its chapters were written at different points of Mohammed’s life.

Still, even that doesn’t mean the people attending the violent Jihad panel at CPAC hold it against all Muslims.  We know not all Muslims are violent people seething with hatred for the United States and its allies.  We live with them, work with them, heck I’ve even drank with them and I didn’t think they were supposed to do that.

This is yet another example of how the champions of tolerance over on the left cry foul at the slightest hint of prejudice without realizing how utterly prejudicial and ignorant they are being themselves.  I hope there aren’t any CAIR protesters outside CPAC during the discussion.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to help myself.  Let me let my fellow conservatives in on a little secret: If you ever want to get liberals hoppin’ mad, there’s nothing more fun than calling them the intolerant ones.

COPYRIGHT 2010 JOHN M. ROGITZ