Leadership Quote by Newt Gingrich

Gingrich is trying to smuggle a culture-war reflex into the language of mutual respect. He frames his argument as an ecumenical baseline: every religious person should honor other people’s texts and symbols. But the phrasing quietly narrows the audience to “religious person,” hinting that the real constituency is faith communities aggrieved by secular liberalism, not pluralism as such.

The rhetorical engine is the Taliban comparison. By pairing Koran-burning with the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, he yokes an act of private political provocation to an iconic episode of theocratic tyranny. That move isn’t just moral condemnation; it’s strategic escalation. If burning a book can be rhetorically upgraded to the same category as a regime erasing world heritage, then opposition to it stops being a free-speech debate and becomes a civilizational line in the sand.

The subtext is bipartisan bait: the Taliban example flatters Western audiences (“we were deeply opposed”), inviting them to see themselves as guardians of tolerance, then nudges them toward a position that sounds like respect but can justify restraint. “Ought to all oppose” is carefully chosen: not “ban,” not “criminalize,” yet still a call for collective policing of expression, especially expression that offends Muslims. In the post-9/11 atmosphere Gingrich often inhabited, that’s also a bid to appear responsible about Islam without abandoning the politics of fear: condemn the insult, keep the suspicion. The result is a moral argument that doubles as a permission structure for social pressure - and potentially policy - dressed up as civility.