I’m a little late on this, but, if you’re interested in the some of the polemics and politics around the Ground Zero Mosque, it’s well worth reading the piece published earlier this week on the New York Times website by the author and writer, Robert Wright, who is also associated with the New America Foundation.

One of the main characters in this episode is Stephen Schwartz whose ties to Daniel Pipes I wrote about in 2004 and again in 2005 when Pipes was seeking funding for Schwartz to head a new “Islamic” Institute. I guess the exposure didn’t help the funding effort, because Schwartz subsequently sent me probably the most profane and abusive emails I’ve ever received. Fortunately, it’s in an old hard drive that’s gone irretrievably bad.

In the meantime, check out Newt Gingrich’s utterly bizarre contribution to the debate. Gingrich is giving a speech next Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) with the (appropriately) pompous title, “America at Risk: Camus, National Security, and Afghanistan.”

UPDATE: Arabist blogger and Egypt-based journalist Issandr El Amrani posted a nice take down of Gingrich on his blog. He also speculates as to the motivations of anti-mosque campaign leader Pam Gellar’s Muslim-bashing — as evidenced by her, well, whole career — but he might be giving too much credit to her ability to synthesize information and trends.