Let me make one thing perfectly clear: President Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim.
Except that he quotes the “Holy Quran” more easily and accurately than he quotes the New Testament, he speaks nostalgically of hearing the early morning Call to Prayer, and, unlike most Christians, seems to wish Israel would just go away.
President Obama went to a Muslim school in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, during his formative years, and so is very conversant with Muslim teaching and practice. On the other hand, he has only experienced Christianity at the feet of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a pastor in one of the most politically liberal denominations in Christendom and a disciple of radical Liberation Theology.
That’s a little like your only exposure to Western Civilization being the Three Stooges.
Let me be just as clear about something else: In my opinion, Islam is a false religion.
I don’t say this lightly. I’m a conservative Christian, but Christianity at its best promotes freedom of religion, speech and thought, so I also believe Muslims should be able to practice their religion as their consciences dictate. Unless their religion causes them to kill people who disagree with them. Then we need to talk.
But never mind the radical Islamists, who fly passenger jets into buildings, maim and kill our soldiers and Marines and strap bombs to women and children in order to kill other women and children in Israeli pizza parlors. Look instead at the way Islam is practiced. Whereas in nations where Christianity has permeated the culture, all religions are allowed to flourish, in Islamic nations, persecution, incarceration and execution are the fate of anyone wishing to convert to Christianity or Buddhism, the two most likely routes for people in the 10-40 window seeking to leave Islam. (see”Arab Spring is Winter for Christians”)
And, to our Western minds, the biggest affront is Islam’s abominable treatment of women. A few years ago, the Saudi Arabian moral police (it’s a real police force) forced young girls to remain in a burning dormitory because they were not properly covered, resulting in their horrific, fiery deaths. The event is emblematic of the dysfunction of Islam regarding sexual matters. In Africa, female genital mutilation to prevent intercourse is common and in Afghanistan under the Taliban, at least one soccer stadium was converted into a public execution arena, where women were given brutal capital punishment for crimes such as driving or appearing on a public street unaccompanied by a man.
To be “fair” (one of the president’s favorite words), Christians are not always tolerant, and if you go back 300-600 years or so, you can find brutal persecution and intolerance in, not just the Catholic Inquisition, but by official state Protestant denominations in America.
But that was then. On the other hand, Islam seems to be stuck in the eighth-century gear in regards to barbaric intolerance, superstition and persecution.
By contrast, my daughter and son-in-law have traveled extensively in Southeast Asia and they talk about the gentle, loving natures of the Buddhists in those countries. While Buddhism doesn’t have a monotheistic, anthropomorphic God like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it does have some good philosophical ideas and does produce good fruit in its adherents.
It’s difficult to say the same thing about Islam. Proponents make a point of saying it is the “Peaceful, Loving religion”, but maybe if you have to say it…
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