Hate in the Mainstream

“If you had any intelligence, you wouldn’t be a Christian.”
—California-based, Afghan-born Muslim cleric SHEIK HASSAN ALLAHYARI, in a 2012 comment publicized by the Anti-Defamation League on Jan. 8, to an Iranian Christian who called into his globally broadcast show on San Diego-based Ahl-e-Bait satellite TV

“Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?”
—Michigan Republican National Committee member DAVE AGEMA, in a widely condemned Jan. 17 Facebook comment that led to calls for his resignation

“[S]ubhuman mongrel.”
—Rocker-cum-right-wing pundit TED NUGENT, characterizing President Obama in a Jan. 18 interview with Guns.com for which he later offered a half-hearted apology

“Why does the media want a gay player to succeed?”
—Radio host RUSH LIMBAUGH, reacting on his Premiere Radio Networks show Feb. 11 to NFL draft prospect Michael Sam’s announcement that he is gay

“These immigrants, legal and illegal, coming in don’t really understand our country and will probably vote Democratic.”
—PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY, founder of the ultraconservative Eagle Forum, in a Feb. 14 comment on the Internet’s Dove TV

“[O]nce a child does exist in your womb, I’m not going to assume a right to kill it just because the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers) doesn’t want it to remain alive.”
—Virginia state Sen. STEVE MARTIN (R), who later changed “host” to “bearer of the child,” in a Feb. 17 Facebook post defending his anti-choice views

“[M]y Dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who the r [sic] Daddys are. … My dogs get their first checks Friday.”
—A 2010 E-mail, first made public Feb. 19, to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s then-Deputy Chief of Staff KELLY RINDFLEISCH, who described the comparison of dogs and welfare recipients as “hilarious” and “so true”

“Family violence is so, so overrated.”
—LLOYD WAYNE OLIVER, Democratic candidate for district attorney of Harris County, Texas, which has that state’s highest domestic violence rate, defending his call for drastically decreasing efforts to prosecute such cases on Feb. 19

“Suppose we repealed the civil rights laws and fired the bureaucrats enforcing these laws.”
—White nationalist pundit PAT BUCHANAN, in a Feb. 25 column for Townhall magazine in which he described civil rights protections as Orwellian