The Pot Callin’ the Kettle Black
by: Rev. DanDuring the February 9 edition of MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president William A. Donahue pointed to a recent Turkish film to claim “people don’t trust the Muslims when it comes to liberty,” as opposed to the United States, where, Donahue said, “we are civilized.”
(from MediaMatters.org [which also has the video])
I think what William Donahue is neglecting to include in his analysis is that the Catholic Church and American Churchianity have long been advocates of the most Christ-like of values: Intolerance. Both have repeatedly stepped up to the plate to combat personal liberty and freedoms so often that it appears they’ve never left the plate. Roe v. Wade? Gay/Lesbian rights? Beuller, Beuller?
It’s very true that there is ongoing terrorism in the United States, and it must be stopped.
There’s also a commentary of Ann “Islam is a car-burning cult” Coulter here.
COLMES: Would you like to convert these people all to Christianity?
COULTER: The ones that we haven’t killed, yes.
COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian?
COULTER: That would be a good start, yes.
I particularly like this bit, wherein she repeats the same unsupported, inaccurate, and misleading phrase [emphasis added]:
One [cartoon] showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying “Stop, stop — we ran out of virgins!” — which I believe was a commentary on Muslims’ predilection for violence. Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims’ predilection for violence. The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular — oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims’ predilection for violence.
Perhaps Ms. Coulter has been reading a lot of Tony Robbins lately and believes that if she’s repetitive enough that perhaps someone will believe the ignorance she’s promoting.
Islam is a huge religion, akin to the hugeness of Chrisitianity. Suggesting that fringe hardcore Fundamentalist Muslims represent the religion as a whole is the same flaw of logic/reason as when one assumes fringe hardcore Religious Wrong nutters represent the Christian religion as a whole. (I’m guilty of not pointing this out more frequently… I lean towards focusing on the Religious Wrong nutjobs because they’re entertaining/irritating.)
Something I’m observed recently is that when these Right Wrongers are on these shows talking about “being civilized” or whatnot, they seem to be repeatedly yelling. Is that actually civilized?
While I’ve already probably scared/annoyed off most of the “Christians” who read this blog, I’d like to hear from you: Do these people actually represent Christ? Is this shifting of the political spectrum to the far, far right (so far that what we used to call “Democrats” are functionally the same as what we used to call “Republicans”) actually serving the Kingdom of God?
Do any of you actually care about this stuff, or are you convinced that you don’t need to get involved and stop the insanity because Jesus is returning soon?
[edit: 03/03/06] It seems that I’d managed to turn comments off for this entry. They’re now back on. :)
You must admit that Ann Coulter has at least some credence when she speaks of the Muslims’ predilection for violence. It is not necessarily that we have the 9/11 episode, or the HUGE riots over CARTOONS, but we likewise have a deafening silence regarding these ‘fringe groups’.
At least in Christianity when our wacko fringe groups step over the line, the rest of us normally speak up. You yourself show that here.
Whenever Robertson speaks his idiocy, I think it true that he gets more slack from the Christians than from anyone else.
But I don’t think you can see this same thing in Islam. Why are they so silent when the ‘fringe groups’ fly into buildings, or kill van Gogh, or have riots in almost every Muslim country over CARTOONS?
I think your point would be taken much better if the Muslim mainstreamers would speak out against the fringe wackos. It would be easier to believe that it truly is a religion of peace, where some are disobeying the Prophet; rather than what we typically see with the wackos simply obeying the ‘kill all infadels’ command.
I must concur that there is very little if any accountability from mainstream Islam to the extremists. I have talked to some Muslims at work who I consider to be moderate and reasonable people in general. They have lived in this country for a number of years and accustomed to the American pluralistic culture. When asked about their reaction to the cartoon backlash, they agreed with the rioters that the cartoon is an insult to Islam and should not be allowed. They don’t advocate violence openly, or think we all need to be converted to their religion. But they don’t seem to grasp the idea of freedom of speech when it comes to religion.