Known By the Company They Keep?

But I do believe it is noteworthy that many secular liberal Democrats selectively decry the Christians' exclusive truth claims as intolerant and exclusive, while giving the proponents of other religions and worldviews a pass. And they wonder why they have difficulty attracting "values voters."

How about the political implications of the imam's prayer? Ferraro copped the intellectually indefensible position that the imam could have been referring to any war or any oppression. "He may have been talking about Darfur. He might about talking about [unintelligible]. He might have been talking about what's going on in Afghanistan. … Talk about oppression? He may have been talking about China and Korea."

Since many Democrats have referred to Americans as "occupiers" in Iraq or the Israelis as occupiers of Palestine, perhaps they were not uncomfortable with the imam's words. But one thing is for sure: The former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro knows that in referring to "the war" the imam was not talking about Darfur. In referring to "oppression and occupation" he was either talking about America, Israel or both.

The upshot of this is that Democrats were joined in prayer with a Muslim spiritual leader who at the very least sympathizes with the terrorist group "Hezbollah," who was characterizing the United States or its ally, Israel, or both, as an oppressor and occupier, and who, evidently, was affirming the Muslims' exclusive truth claims. Was the imam not -- right in front of the Democrats' noses -- rooting for our enemies?

Were Democrats not bothered upon realizing they had given this imam a platform to seek guidance from Allah to follow "the path of the people you bless, not the path of the people you doom?" Any guesses as to which groups are blessed and which are doomed under this formulation?

Is this the type of spiritual message with which Democrats want to identify?

Can you imagine what kind of hell there would be to pay if a Christian pastor were invited to a Republican meeting and delivered a similarly pointed spiritual and political prayer? We'd hear about it for weeks.