The subject of Islam in America needs to open up to a new and fresh discussion.
Anyone who makes a serious study of the Bible and of the founding of America cannot fail to see the link between Judeo-Christian teachings and values, and the principles upon which America was founded. Just as clearly, there isn't a trace of Islamic influence on America's founding principles.
There is a reason there is no mixing of the two, and foundational conflict is one we're going to have to face this more directly than we have so far, and we're going to have to do it without the blinders of political correctness.
America's Judeo-Christian heritage of self-government, reason and conscience gave America its First Amendment right of free speech, and its First Amendment protection against the establishment of an official state religion. Those same Judeo-Christian principles teach Americans to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. All of this has caused America as a nation to react initially to Islam in America and to individual Muslims in America with the hand of friendship and respect.
But September 11 changed things, and shame on us if we don't stay focused and serious about understanding and identifying the nature of the threat facing America, and about defeating it. The current administration's policies of refusing to name the enemy as Islamic jihadists, and instead calling terrorist attacks 'man-caused disasters', and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 'overseas contingency operations', represent an irresponsible farce of political correctness.
One does not have to be an expert on Islamic theology to know that many aspects of Islamic doctrine, including the inseparability of church and state (known as sharia law), enforced polygamy for men and monogamy for women; genital mutilation of young girls, generally oppression of all women, the stoning of homosexuals and rape victims, honor killings of female children, the hatred of Jews as apes and pigs deserving to be killed because they are Jews-these are absolutely irreconcilable with America's Judeo-Christian culture and legal system. At an even simpler level, sharia law would criminalize even a cartoon depiction of Mohammed. How can that be reconciled with freedom of speech and freedom from the establishment of a state religion?
The American instinct is never to question or interfere with their neighbor's religion; and Americans' historical ignorance of Islam leads many to just assume there must be a way to live and let live among all religions. But Islamic jihadists' publicly stated objectives to kill or convert all infidels and to impose sharia law, is antithetical to Americans' instincts and a 'live and let live' way of life.
All of this leads to discussions about how many Islamic jihadists there are vs. 'moderate' Muslims; What exactly 'jihad' means; and who actually speaks for Islam. The hope of all these debates is that somehow, some way, we can convince ourselves that the practice of Islam can be reconciled with the US Constitution.
The problem with almost all of these discussions is that most of the so-called 'experts' who claim Islam is a 'religion of peace', discount the number of jihadists, and tell us the meaning of jihad is merely personal spiritual struggle and not violence toward non-believers-are not Muslims. What Americans need to hear are Muslims in positions of religious authority in America who speak publicly, clearly and without duplicitous intent that the tenets of Islam have changed to eliminate the ways in which they are manifestly irreconcilable with America's Judeo-Christian culture and legal system. Unfortunately, Islamic doctrine includes the concept that the Koran is the perfect word of Allah which can never be changed, and the unmistakable sense from what is actually said and written by most Imams is that they aren't looking to change or moderate or reconcile-their goal is to impose sharia law wherever they can, and to require others to accommodate them. Some are content to do so more incrementally than others, but their end goal is the same: sharia law governing all.
Americans generally have no desire to tell Muslims or anyone else what they must believe (nor to have them or anyone else tell Americans what to believe). But the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees that American citizens are to be free of the unification of church and state that is the essence of sharia law. Sharia law appears to comprise much of the essence of Islamic doctrine, and the imposition of sharia law is the purpose of Islamic jihadists. While some tactics of Islamic jihadists toward achieving this purpose are condemned by some Islamic religious authorities, the purpose itself is almost never unequivocally condemned by these authorities.
Every elected official in Washington has a duty to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America as the supreme law of the land in every part of this land. So something's going to have to give.
Before there was any such thing known as Islam or Christianity, the Bible records to parting of the ways between Abraham and Lot, when Abraham said, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen;" "for we be brethren." The prevailing Judeo-Christian theology of America, at its deepest level, can be understand to stand for the idea that all of us here on earth are ultimately brethren as the children of one loving God-i.e., "all men are created equal". But until Islamic theology and doctrine changes, it may be best to encourage to peaceful parting of the ways, so that Muslims can live in their own country where they can practice sharia law. America is not that country.
Some readers of this statement may, through their own biases and misinformation, falsely characterize it as unloving toward Muslims and Islam, and therefore un-American. They are wrong. Americans-especially American Christians-love individual men and women, whatever their faith, and the Christian faith teaches that the working out of salvation is an individual task. While Christians believe Christ's way is the way of salvation, they tend toward letting each individual work out his or her salvation in their own way and at their own pace. But these are theological concepts which belong to the realm of faith and religion. They are not, in America, the business of the state or of any other human form of coercive power. Under sharia law, they are entirely the business of the state, enforceable by penalty of death.
American government is premised on the consent of the governed-the consent of free people freely given. Sharia law, or sharia government, is premised on the supremacy of Allah and the Koran, without regard to anyone's consent, now or in the future. That's the essence of the conflict we must face, and the cause of world peace and human progress will not be served if we pretend otherwise. There isn't to middle ground between these two concepts of government. Where there is such an irreconcilable conflict, the most loving gesture that can be made is to depart from one another peacefully, and let each go their own way in their own lands. No need to force a war over which is right; Let them be judged by their fruits.
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