Lulua
13-12-2002, 00:06
Assalaamu alaikum.
Please do read this article thru to the end, and take up on the suggestion and write even the shortest message of approval and support to this writer. I am sure he will appreciate any act of support that he will get.
Lulua.
-----------------
Even the Quakers had Nixon
December 11, 2002
It is a religion whose scriptures advocate military conquest.
It is a religion whose adherents have dominated nations, making war on other nations.
It is a religion of fanatics who have died happy knowing they were taking infidels with them.
It is Islam.
It is Judaism.
It is Christianity.
Can we please stipulate and move on?
Sadly, 9/11 won't let us.
More specifically, the opportunists who have used that atrocity to advance pre-existing anti-Islamist agendas won't let us.
A fair, realistic appraisal of centuries-old, human-developed, inevitably inconsistent religious systems should produce at least a grudging tolerance on the part of non-members. That is pretty much what two of the three great Abrahamic faiths are enjoying nowadays in the American political arena.
Judaism is allowed its David, who slew his tens of thousands. Christianity is not called to account every day for its witch hunts and Crusades. Jews aren't suspect because of the spy Jonathan Pollard. American Christian clergy aren't required to denounce the Lebanese Phalangists. The pope isn't blamed when Notre Dame can't cover the spread against Navy.
But for Islam, notwithstanding its teachings of peace and charity, it is open season.
Never welcomed by conservative America, despite the rather conservative lifestyle followed by many of its devotees, Islam has been dragged through the blood and rubble of terrorism with less and less subtlety since Muslim madmen flew airliners into American buildings last year.
At first, lip service was paid to the legitimacy of the religion and the presumed loyalty of 6 million American Muslims. President Bush asked that this law-abiding minority not be made to feel guilty by association. But the rumblings on the right began immediately, and now they're at an all-out roar.
From evangelists Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart came half-baked swipes at Muhammad in terms worthy of Yasser Arafat or Bill Clinton.
From Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board: "The more you examine the religion, the more militarist it seems."
From columnist Cal Thomas: "The real nature of Islam is a religion of war and conquest."
Thomas, actually, was quoting his fellow Christian conservative Paul Weyrich, who has written a book interpreting the Quran for us. That's a little like Dan Burton auditing the ledgers of the Democratic National Committee.
It's not just conservative Christians or hardcore hawks, either. How about a Jewish moderate? The New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning Middle East expert, Thomas Friedman, chides Muslims to clean up their cultural act, even calling for an "Islamic Protestantism" to bring them into the civilized world. His authority: the conservative Cato Institute, published in William Buckley's National Review.
When even the reliably liberal Times moves to the nativist right, a good Muslim in today's America must feel a lot like a good Jew or Catholic did in the last century. And well he should. Reported hate crimes against Muslims and people who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent increased 1,600 percent last year over 2000, according to the FBI.
Perhaps Bush, support for whose policies is the common denominator of all the Muslim-bashers, should go beyond platitudes and rebuke them by name as a way to protect people's necks. Or does that suggestion imply guilt by association?
Carpenter is Star op-ed columnist. Contact him at 1-317-444-6172 or via e-mail at dan.carpenter@indystar.com
Please do read this article thru to the end, and take up on the suggestion and write even the shortest message of approval and support to this writer. I am sure he will appreciate any act of support that he will get.
Lulua.
-----------------
Even the Quakers had Nixon
December 11, 2002
It is a religion whose scriptures advocate military conquest.
It is a religion whose adherents have dominated nations, making war on other nations.
It is a religion of fanatics who have died happy knowing they were taking infidels with them.
It is Islam.
It is Judaism.
It is Christianity.
Can we please stipulate and move on?
Sadly, 9/11 won't let us.
More specifically, the opportunists who have used that atrocity to advance pre-existing anti-Islamist agendas won't let us.
A fair, realistic appraisal of centuries-old, human-developed, inevitably inconsistent religious systems should produce at least a grudging tolerance on the part of non-members. That is pretty much what two of the three great Abrahamic faiths are enjoying nowadays in the American political arena.
Judaism is allowed its David, who slew his tens of thousands. Christianity is not called to account every day for its witch hunts and Crusades. Jews aren't suspect because of the spy Jonathan Pollard. American Christian clergy aren't required to denounce the Lebanese Phalangists. The pope isn't blamed when Notre Dame can't cover the spread against Navy.
But for Islam, notwithstanding its teachings of peace and charity, it is open season.
Never welcomed by conservative America, despite the rather conservative lifestyle followed by many of its devotees, Islam has been dragged through the blood and rubble of terrorism with less and less subtlety since Muslim madmen flew airliners into American buildings last year.
At first, lip service was paid to the legitimacy of the religion and the presumed loyalty of 6 million American Muslims. President Bush asked that this law-abiding minority not be made to feel guilty by association. But the rumblings on the right began immediately, and now they're at an all-out roar.
From evangelists Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart came half-baked swipes at Muhammad in terms worthy of Yasser Arafat or Bill Clinton.
From Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board: "The more you examine the religion, the more militarist it seems."
From columnist Cal Thomas: "The real nature of Islam is a religion of war and conquest."
Thomas, actually, was quoting his fellow Christian conservative Paul Weyrich, who has written a book interpreting the Quran for us. That's a little like Dan Burton auditing the ledgers of the Democratic National Committee.
It's not just conservative Christians or hardcore hawks, either. How about a Jewish moderate? The New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning Middle East expert, Thomas Friedman, chides Muslims to clean up their cultural act, even calling for an "Islamic Protestantism" to bring them into the civilized world. His authority: the conservative Cato Institute, published in William Buckley's National Review.
When even the reliably liberal Times moves to the nativist right, a good Muslim in today's America must feel a lot like a good Jew or Catholic did in the last century. And well he should. Reported hate crimes against Muslims and people who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent increased 1,600 percent last year over 2000, according to the FBI.
Perhaps Bush, support for whose policies is the common denominator of all the Muslim-bashers, should go beyond platitudes and rebuke them by name as a way to protect people's necks. Or does that suggestion imply guilt by association?
Carpenter is Star op-ed columnist. Contact him at 1-317-444-6172 or via e-mail at dan.carpenter@indystar.com