Confronting Radical Islam

I watched the coverage of last week’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino in stunned amazement. My concern for those who were victimized at the county Christmas party was predictable. The satisfaction that I felt when I saw that the two terrorists had lost their lives in a gun battle with police was also normal for me.

The female was an import from Pakistan. The male suspect was obsessed with ISIS and Israel according to his father. Both shooters immersed themselves in jihad theology.  As in the Paris tragedy, this sect of Islam uses its determination to install a global caliphate as the justification for the killing of innocents. There are over a billion Muslims worldwide and if only one percent ascribe to this belief, that is still ten million idiots trying to kill infidels. 

Interrupting my predictable emotions was a shock and disgust at the responses by some national politicians and media outlets. The verbal gymnastics employed while attempting to divorce the terrorist attack from radical Islam was astounding. We were treated to constant reminders that Islam is a religion of peace and the attacks shouldn’t be ascribed to radical Islam. We were also treated to an immediate attack on gun ownership. Never mind that the guns were purchased legally in California, which has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws. The couple could have engineered just as much carnage in their home bomb-making factory without access to a few guns. Perhaps if these and future attackers are identified as members of radical Islam, the Islamic community will be shamed into cleaning up their own house. Inevitably it is up to the Muslim community worldwide to stamp out this doctrine of destruction and bring its adherents out of their thirteenth century delusion.

Finally while we are being admonished to show religious sensitivity, the New York Daily News ran a front page proclaiming “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS” and mocking those who offered prayers of support for the victims of the San Bernardino tragedy.  The lack of outcry from the same quarters who caution the country against offending Muslims was deafening.

Original Sins

There are quotes from every U.S. president that become woven into the fabric of America. President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, President Franklin Roosevelt’s “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”, President Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” and President Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” are all inspiring messages from the Commanders in Chief.

Some of the less inspiring but equally memorable presidential utterances include President Nixon proclamation “I am not a crook” and President Carter’s “malaise” television address.

The worst utterance from a president came last week during a Prayer Breakfast speech when Mr. Obama lectured Christians to “get off their high horse” when condemning radical Islam. Dredging up the Crusades and the Inquisition as examples of white European excess, he declared that the country had no right to condemn the ideology of those who are decapitating or burning alive their captives because our ancestors had been bad too. He then threw in slavery as an additional example of white cultural sin.

What the President neglected to mention was that while all cultures have dark chapters in their history, Christians have paid a hefty price to correct theirs. The Christian reformation beginning with Martin Luther challenged the excesses of the Catholic Church. Internally, the Catholic Church corrected the excesses of a bygone era and shed the intrigue. Today, numerous Christian denominations thrive peacefully and retain no remnants of the Crusades or the Inquisition.

The United States fought a civil war to eradicate slavery, at the expense of many citizens’ lives. The nation’s sin was washed away in the blood of its citizenry.

What amazed me was that no matter how much work has been done to correct the historical abuses of Christians; it is never enough for those who rule by guilt or excuse the bad behavior of others.  Personally, I feel no guilt for the crusades or slavery. I participated in neither. I do feel anger and revulsion towards those who currently slaughter innocents in the name of whatever ideology they claim to serve.