Peter Beinart: Republicans are "McCarthyite" When It Comes to Muslims

Beinart's piece in Ha'aretz underscores the alternate reality/Twilight Zone in which leftists dwell. Here, for instance, is what Pete considers to be "McCarthyite":

In January, the Republican presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal argued that “it is completely reasonable for [Western] nations to discriminate” against some Muslims in their immigration policies, on the grounds that radical Islamists “want to destroy their culture.”  

In February, another GOP contender, Mike Huckabee, declared, “Everything [President Obama] does is against what Christians stand for, and he’s against the Jews in Israel. The one group of people that can know they have his undying, unfailing support would be the Muslim community.” In March, after New York City announced that public schools would close for two Muslim holidays, Todd Starnes, a Fox News contributor, lamented, “The Islamic faith is being given accommodation and the Christian faith and other religious faiths are being marginalized.”  

This is strange. Why are conservatives more hostile to Muslims and Islam today than they were in the terrifying aftermath of 9/11? And why have American Muslims, who in 2000 mostly voted Republican, apparently replaced gays and feminists as the right’s chief culture-war foe?

You know what's really strange? The fact that Pete doesn't appear to be at all concerned about Christians being slaughtered by Muslims or ISIS making greater inroads in Iraq and Syria or the very real possibility that all too soon Iran will have nuclear weapons.

Is it "McCarthyite" to have such fears? Or is it, you know, a function of knowing what's what and not being an insane, out-to-lunch leftist?