Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times
SAN DIEGO, February 25, 2012 While a 34 year old Christian pastor awaits execution in Iran for the “crime” of converting to Christianity from Islam, other Muslims demonstrate their holiness in Afghanistan.
After all, only a devout follower of God would kill those mean and nasty Americans for an accidental burning of Koran copies. Never mind that America liberated Afghanistan from an oppressive Taliban rule. Speaking of Taliban, they responded rather predictably to President Obama’s apology, offered to Afghanistan’s president and people:
“The error was inadvertent,” Obama explained. “I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible” (ABC News, February, 23, 2012).
These beautiful, heart felt words did not exactly bring a tear to the eye of the Taliban. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said to Taliban fighters and others whom he called “zealous and faithful:
“We should not be satisfied with mere protests and empty slogans but the military bases of the invaders, their military convoys and their troops should become a target of our courageous attacks…Kill them, beat them, take them as prisoners and teach them such a lesson that they never summon the courage to abuse the Holy Qur’an again” (CNS News, February 24, 2012).
And so, Obama’s apology is working about as well as his diplomatic gestures toward Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who was asked nicely to stop developing a nuclear bomb. Just as Iran’s smiling public servant seems more interested in extinguishing Jews than extinguishing nuclear development, the Taliban and other Afghan citizens find their own way to demonstrate appreciation for Obama’s olive branch.
Such thankfulness expresses itself with guns, bricks, and flag burnings. In all fairness, they are not the first to showcase their gratitude in a somewhat eccentric fashion. Palestinians thanked Israel for the Gaza Strip by burning down Jewish synagogues and firing missiles into Israel. Missiles, synagogue burnings, flag burnings, and dead American soldiers do not concern radical Muslims.
Burning a book by accident? That concerns them!
While it might seem obvious to confront such hypocritical evil, Political Correctness shields Islam like a mother bear protecting her cubs.
President Obama never tires of defending the religion: “The phrase jihad has a lot of meaning within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations, but I will say that first Islam is one of the world’s great religions. More than a billion people practice Islam and an overwhelming majority view their obligations to a religion that reaffirms peace, fairness, tolerance. I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted by violence,” (The Hindu, November 7, 2010).
Our government needs to speak up for peaceful Muslims a little less and instead demand that these self proclaimed peaceful Muslims speak up a little more by condemning the violent relatives in their family.
This is not accomplished by attaching long, patronizing lectures about Israel or oil to a quick three second denunciation of violence. It is done by condemning the violence period! While some peaceful Muslims certainly do speak out heroically, the high majority are turning in a dismal report card.
In fact, the Organization of the Islamic Conference will actually outlaw derogatory talk of Islam if they ever get enough muscle from the U.N.
“For over a decade, the OIC has systematically worked to criminalize the “defamation of Islam” and to protect Islam from “blasphemy.” In yearly resolutions at the UN on “combating defamation of religions” the OIC complains “Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism.”
“Professor Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu, head of the OIC, said the issue of Islamophobia has been placed “at the top of our priorities and preoccupations, while conducting a large-scale worldwide effort to confront it” (American Thinker, January 30, 2012).
Human rights violations and terrorism associated with Islam? Where oh where would anybody get a stupid idea like that? Yes, CLEARLY, to even suggest such a thing is “Islamophobia.”
Intolerant voices continue to lecture the rest of us about tolerance. With every outbreak of new violence, an obligatory disclaimer takes center stage, explaining how most Muslims are actually quite peaceful. This song and dance has had more performances than Cats.
Enter Obama from Stage Left, (Left being the operative word). When he continues to soothe Muslims in the midst of riots and other violence, it comes across as if he is apologizing to the violent Muslims along with the peaceful ones. Such effort puts out fires about as well as liquid gasoline on a barbeque. We need more from our fearless leader. We need more from the peaceful Muslims he defends. When distilled down to bare facts without all the nuance and Newspeak, a pretty weak case remains:
“Honestly, Islam really is a peaceful religion. We can see where it may not look always look that way.”
No it does not look that way when churches are burned down in Egypt, or Bibles are forbidden in Saudi Arabia, or children in Palestinian schools are taught that Jews are devils. But don’t assume alternate religions to Islam are the only targets. Homosexuals are executed in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. And when those fun, loving Taliban ran Afghanistan, they went after homosexuals with special cruelty. Of course this did not catch as much news attention as their inhumane treatment of women. One of the more creative punishments sliced off the top of a woman’s thumb for having the audacity to wear nail polish. The religion of peace hard at work!
With such persecution of women and homosexuals, one would think these Muslim countries would be more frequently denounced by liberals. But in an ironic twist of fate, Islam managed to become a Politically Correct religion. It took 9/11 to make this happen. After slitting the throats of stewardesses, ramming planes into buildings, and then (in the months that followed) beheading people like Nick Berg while chanting to Allah and then posting the whole thing on the Internet where all could share in the joy, somehow, Islam became known as an extremely peaceful faith. Woe to any who say otherwise! Of course, it’s still open season on Christianity. An American artist portrays Christ in a bottle of urine without worrying about a group of monks or nuns putting out a hit contract. Meanwhile, film director, Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim for daring to make a film about Islamic violence. That ought to teach us to stop calling Islam a violent religion!
The peaceful wing of Islam needs to make a better case. They can start by admitting that their cousins in the violent wing are indeed religious, not merely people who hijack religion for political gain. Why else would they be going ballistic when a Koran is destroyed, the same Koran which instructs them to make war against infidels? (Surah 9) It is not about oil. It is not about Israel. It is not about America. If it were, Obama’s Magical Mystery Apology Tour would have produced better results. Instead, those we liberate feel free to kill our soldiers, and those we ask nicely to stop building bombs continue the bomb building while sentencing “apostates” to death and drawing new maps with Israel conspicuously omitted. Obama functions less like a leader of the free world and more like a battered wife who enables her violent husband. Had he been president during World War Two, Obama might have apologized for the fall of Berlin. Hitler would not have followed suit by offering remorse about little projects such as Ausztwich.
What’s next, Mr. President? Should we offer Iranians and Afghans a free Slurpee at 7/11? How about an all expense paid trip to Disneyland? The Taliban would get a kick out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh wait! They’d also execute Tinker Bell for her scantily clad outfit. Never mind.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
1) Other articles of mine have offered wider discussion contrasting violent Muslims with peaceful Muslims. There are many peaceful Muslims in our world and I have had the honor of interacting with them. Here is one such column that talks in more detail about why some Muslims are peaceful and others are not. Ironically, it was inspired by a similar news story:
Pakistani court sentences Christian woman with capital punishment
2) There are also Christian Palestinians who take issue with Israel but most are Muslim, and the influence of organizations like Hamas abounds. The Israel-Palestinian situation has been dealt with in other articles. The finer tuned details are beyond the scope of this present column but for those interested in the subject, see:
A rare history lesson: The truth about Israel and Palestine
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