Tancredo fires back at Rep. Salazar, aide

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 22, 2006 at midnight

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Rep. Tom Tancredo challenged one of his Colorado colleagues but drew no response Thursday in a flap touched off by the pope's recent comments about Islam.

On Wednesday, Tancredo sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI urging him to resist calls to apologize over a recent speech in which he quoted a 14th century emperor who suggested that the Prophet Muhammad had inspired "things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Tancredo's letter, which included criticisms of specific passages in the Quran, drew a strong response from Nayyera Haq, the communications director for Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo.

Haq, who is Muslim, said she was speaking only for herself when she accused Tancredo of using "hateful," irresponsible words that will alienate progressive Muslims and merely "throw more fuel on the fire."

Tancredo fired back in a written statement directed at Salazar, saying he needed to clarify whether or not he agreed with Haq.

"Either he believes that forced conversion, the suppression of religious freedom and threats to kill 'non-believers' are wrong, as I do, or he agrees with his spokesperson, who seems to think that Americans should simply sit down and shut up when radical Islamofascists threaten to kill us if we don't become Muslims," said Tancredo, whose note also referred to Haq as a "political hack."

Salazar's office declined to respond.

Carlos Espinosa, a Tancredo spokesman, later pressed the issue.

"The constituents of the 3rd District elected and pay for Congressman Salazar to represent them, not to provide a platform for one of his staffers to push a personal agenda," Espinosa said.

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