PFAW Calls on Values Voter Summit Speakers to Denounce Fischer’s Extremism

This weekend (Sept. 17-19), conservative luminaries including Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and 2012 presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Pence, will be speaking at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit. Sharing the stage with them will be the American Family Association’s Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer. Fischer has an AFA-sponsored radio program, which he uses to spout anti-gay and anti-Muslim propaganda. (The AFA is also a sponsor of the Summit).

“Reasonable people can, and do, have reasonable differences of opinion. Bryan Fischer is not a reasonable person,” said Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way.

“By sharing a stage with Fischer, public figures like Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, Bob McDonnell, and Michele Bachmann don’t necessarily endorse Fischer’s shameless anti-Muslim and anti-gay propaganda—but they do acknowledge its credibility. Any candidate thinking seriously of running for president in 2012 should think twice about standing alongside a man who has called for the deportation of all Muslims in America; insulted Muslim servicemembers; claimed that brave Americans died in vain because Iraq was not converted to Christianity; and called gay people deviants, felons, pedophiles, and terrorists. Bryan Fischer is no mainstream conservative. And neither is any person who shares a platform with him while refusing to denounce his hate-filled propaganda.”

People For’s RightWingWatch.org blog has tracked Fischer’s career over the past several years. His long and prolific record of hate speech and extremism includes the following recent statements:

On American Muslims:

• Demanded that no new mosques be built anywhere in America. (8/10/2010)
• Argued that inbreeding has caused Muslims to be stupid and violent. (9/10/2010)
• Says that Muslims should be banned from serving in the U.S. military. (11/9/2009)
• Insisted that all Muslims are traitors, called for the deportation of all Muslims from the U.S. (4/10/2010)
• Claimed that U.S. service members died in vain because the U.S. failed to make Iraq a Christian nation. (8/19/2010)

On Gays and Lesbians:

• Said that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office.” (8/5/2010)
• Insisted that gays are biased, sexually deviant felons, not to mention pedophiles, and should never serve on the Supreme Court. (4/15/2010, 4/16/2010)
• Called gay adoption “a terrible, terrible, inexcusable, inhumane thing to do to children.” (8/10/2010)
• Argued that we should“impose the same sanctions on those who engage in homosexual behavior as we do on those who engage in intravenous drug abuse." (2/3/2010)
• Wrote: “The inescapable conclusion is that gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism.” (6/10/2010)
• Said: “Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals.” (5/25/2010)

On Hispanic Americans:

• “Also, the illegitimacy rate among Hispanic women is over 50%. I’m not sure pro-family values are as strong in the Hispanic community as Dr. Land wants to believe.” (7/23/2010)

On President Obama:

• Called the President a “fascist dictator” for taking steps to hold BP accountable for the Gulf oil spill: “And remember the President’s been a fascist … he says ‘I’ve been a fascist from day one. They can’t blow their nose without asking permission from me, they can’t clean the wax out of their ears unless they get a sign-off from me.’ That’s what fascist dictators do!” (6/18/2010)

On the Animal Kingdom:

• Lamented that a whale at SeaWorld wasn’t stoned to death for killing its trainer. (2/25/2010)
• Oh, and by the way: God is cursing us with bear attacks for failing to follow the Bible. (6/21/2010)

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