As I keep saying, over...

...and over again, anti-Islam is the new anti-Semitism. From people (mostly) on the right, like Glenn Beck, to those (even) on the left, such as Bill Maher, it's socially acceptable these days to be anti-Islam. (Can you believe I found a picture of those two together?)

Example number "infinity" is from today's New York Times, "Muslims Sue Over Denial of Bid to Build Mosque in New Jersey Suburb" (my emphasis):

In November 2011, the group, the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, led by the former mayor, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, bought a four-acre plot in an area of Basking Ridge where zoning permitted houses of worship. The group’s architects and engineers argued that the plan complied by a wide margin with every conceivable building requirement.

What followed were 39 public hearings, and nearly four years of demands by town officials and planning board members for one change after another. Each solution proposed or agreed to by the Islamic Society led to objections on other grounds. Often, members of the public raised issues — some saying that a bucolic area was not the right setting for a mosque, or that it might interfere with a volunteer fire department station across the road.

A leading opponent of the mosque project, who has said that Islamic Shariah law is “one of the greatest threats to American values and liberties,” led a relentless campaign of challenges to virtually every aspect of the project.

The application to build the mosque was finally denied in December by the planning board of Bernards Township, which includes Basking Ridge. The site remains as it was when the Islamic Society bought it in 2011.

During the process, one blogger opposed to the mosque explained that the strategy was to wear out the mosque proponents.

“Our goal is to force the township planning board to put a stay on the decision, order new studies, and drag the issue into neverland,” the blogger wrote, under the name weiminlu99.

I wonder if we'll all look back on this era and be ashamed, or at least a little embarrassed?