Sure, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo’s call for the next president to warn the world’s Muslims that a terrorist attack on the U.S. “would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina” is a footnote in a presidential field dominated by political celebrities. But comments like these, popular with a large swath of the GOP’s evangelical base–many of whom see the war on terror as a battle against Islamic radicalism or even Islam itself– could force the field’s more serious candidates to take harder line stances against the Muslim world.

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