I’ve said it repeatedly – radical Muslim fundamentalists and the American Right agree on more than they realize. Truth be told, they agree on a lot more than they disagree on. Take today’s CNN item, which begins predictably enough:

An Internet recording claiming to be from wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi condemned democracy as “the big American lie” on Sunday and said participants in Iraq’s January 30 election are enemies of Islam.

Typical fundie nutcase fare, right? But three grafs further in we get this tidbit:

“Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion,” he said, and that is “against the rule of God.”

Fascinating, because this is pretty much exactly how a disturbingly large (and apparently growing) number of Americans seem to think, if we can infer anything from the way their duly anointed political representatives are lining up to spend the “capital” they earned in November’s massive 50.1%-49.9% landslide.

This is worrisome stuff for those of us who put some stock in that whole First Amendment thing, you know?