In a speech delivered last week, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney asked:

“How about people in settings, mosques for instance, that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror? Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what's going on? Are we seeing who's coming in? Are we seeing who's coming out? Are we eavesdropping, carrying out surveillance on those individuals from places that sponsor domestic terror?”

As a result, several Muslim organizations, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and others, are calling on Governor Romney to apologize. In a letter urging the Governor to retract his comments, these organizations argued, “Your willingness to profile and scapegoat an entire community based on religious affiliation only serves to erode trust and increase fear.” The state's ADC chair added, "When you do blanket surveillance without specific intelligence, then the whole community becomes suspect."

Governor Romney, however, remained defiant and refused to apologize: “When it comes to protecting our citizens, there is no place for political correctness.” He continued:

Most mosques are teaching doctrines of love and consideration, but there have been places of extremism where certain teachers have been identified as having been involved in or led to terrorist attacks. Let's not pretend that's not the case.

The National Review Online's Andrew C. McCarthy defended Governor Romney, stating that he simply "told the truth" and that "we should be giving him a medal."