So I was sitting in a restaurant today at lunch. I was by myself, just eating and checking emails on my iPad.
I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I could not help overhearing a conversation between two young men sitting in front of me. There was a TV on in the restaurant, and it was tuned into some news channel that was covering the aftermath of the Istanbul airport bombing. These young men were watching the coverage.
A young, well-dressed, and well-spoken African-American male (with a mohawk) was explaining to his buddy, a young white male, who was a worker at the restaurant, that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that the airport bombers were ISIS members. He explained:
“You see, the problem with the Orlando shooting was that the shooter wasn’t a member of ISIS. He pledged ALLEGIANCE to ISIS, but he wasn’t an ISIS MEMBER. I mean, why would someone who is already ISIS pledge ALLEGIANCE to ISIS?”
Go figure.
The young white male was nodding in agreement absent-mindedly, although I couldn’t decide if he actually agreed with his buddy, didn’t care, or couldn’t articulate an argument. In any case, it didn’t take me long to discern that the young black male was a classic victim of today’s liberal ideology.
What he was saying, in essence, was akin to saying, “I’m not a Christian, but I pledge allegiance to Jesus.”
How stupid is that?
But that is indeed what many — especially in the media — want us to believe. I’ve heard many, and read many on social media, who have made the argument that not only can we not jump to conclusions when yet another radical muslim kills a vast majority of people, but that we cannot also assume that these radicals represent all the other “peace-loving” Islamists.
The problem is — and this is where we usually get ourselves into big trouble with Liberals — Islam is not, by it’s very nature, a peace-loving religion. A cursory reading of the Koran clearly reveals that it is the desire of the religion to eliminate anyone who doesn’t comply. Even to the point of killing off dissidents. Sorry, but that’s what the religion teaches.
Most of us, however, know one, a few, or even many Muslims who are not interested in blowing up airports, shooting up gay bars, or hi-jacking planes and flying them into buildings, all in the name of Islam. So we assume that most Muslims are a peace-loving folk who just want to be left alone. But that doesn’t change the fact that Islam is NOT a “peace-loving” religion.
And while the argument that every religion has it’s radical fringes is true, the problem lies in the response to those radicals and their actions by the larger, overall religion base.
Let me explain: Christianity, by nature, is indeed a “peace-loving” religion. By that, I mean that nowhere in the Bible does it advocate it’s followers to kill off those who don’t believe like them. (Don’t confuse this with going to war to protect our beliefs, freedoms, property, family, etc. That’s a different matter.) The truth is that we are taught in the Bible to love our enemies, and to pray for them that they might someday come to know the redemptive love of Jesus. Nowhere does it say we should kill them if they don’t come around. Final judgment is left to God Himself.
That’s why each time a nutbar “Christian” goes on some rampage and bombs an abortion clinic, leads hundreds of the cult followers to kill themselves, or otherwise breaks the law and causes harm to others in the name of God is roundly denounced by the larger Christian community as a whole. Those of us who know what the Bible really teaches are quick to publicly denounce those on the fringe, and stand up to show that these are not true, Biblically-sound Christians. (The weirdos at Westboro Baptist Church would fall into this fringe category!)
But that doesn’t happen with Islam. When was the last time you saw or heard Muslims publicly go on the record as denouncing these ever-growing number of terrorist attacks?
As I’m sure many do, I watch much of the news coverage, from different outlets, following these terrorist attacks. But I’ve been listening for something, and I haven’t heard it. In fact, I watched very closely the press conference the morning immediately following the shooting in Orlando last week. The normal officials spoke — law-enforcement, emergency responders, etc. — and then they invited the highest-ranking Muslim leader of the city to speak.
He said all the normal things: They don’t want people to jump to conclusions, they want to love people of all religions, and they hope people don’t retaliate against other Muslims. But not once did he say he denounced what the shooter did. I watched for it, and he didn’t say it. He never said something like, “Hey, this guy is a nutbar, and doesn’t in any way represent other Muslims. He’s crazy, and we don’t believe in killing people.”
Never said it.
And they never do. What we DO hear every time an attack of this nature takes place is cheering in the streets. Not here, in the States, of course, because that wouldn’t be prudent to their overall safety. But certainly overseas. And we see signs that say, “Death to America!” and “Down with the Infidels!” And we watch them pitch homosexuals off of rooftops. We watch them burn alive women who somehow embarrassed their husbands. We watch them behead Christians, and anyone else, for that matter, who they feel disparages Islam.
All the time. And you never hear a Muslim official stand up and say, “Sorry, but this is just wrong.”
And I’m not sure what we’re trying to protect here anyway. First of all, religious freedom, at least how our founding fathers envisioned it, is just a myth. It doesn’t exist anymore. The amendment that was written to forbid government from stopping the free exercise of any religion has been, by a court that was never created to make law in the first place, bastardized it into preventing anyone from exercising their religion unless the government says it’s OK. Which is not often.
A clause that doesn’t exist anywhere in our Constitution has been created out of thin air, its sole purpose being to avoid offending anyone. (And to avoid lawsuits.) Putting a nativity scene in the public square doesn’t establish anything, any more than putting up a statue of Stonewall Jackson makes people be racists. But that’s what today’s Liberal has brought us to, and somehow claims we’re all better for it.
And for what? Name me one Islamic Humanitarian organization? Name me one Muslim Relief organization? Name me one Islamic charity?
Anyone?… Bueller?… Bueller?…
Every — and I mean EVERY — significant Humanitarian, Relief, or Charity organization in the WORLD is either run by a Christian, or Godly faith-based group, or has it’s foundation in a faith in God. Did the local Islamic Society of North America send any help at all in the form of money, goods, or people to aid the people of Orlando? No? The Red Cross did. Other local charities did. Local firefighters held a blood drive. What did the Muslims do?
This is not a hate column, although I suspect some readers may have already checked out and are in the process of outing me as a hater, bigot, Islamaphobe, or whatever other nonsense they can conjure up. Rather, I’m just making a point. The reality is what it is. Every major terrorist attack in the last 20 years has been carried out by a Muslim, or a group of Muslims. That’s just the truth. And the more we try to play it off as something it’s not, the more we try to downplay the end goal of Islam, and the more we limit the message of Jesus, we do so at our own peril.
Remember, they’re not REALLY killers, they just pledge their ALLEGIANCE to them. No worries.
Sadly, the young black man (and his mohawk) in the restaurant today is in for a rude awakening someday.
