Hugh Hewitt's off... and so is Jed Babbin

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-3_6_06_JB.html ^

[stand4somethin]

Radical Islam (unlike the actual religion) tolerates no other religion, and demands that its adherents give up the basic human freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

[stand4somethin]

Jed Babbin is filling in for Hugh Hewitt who is on vacation. Babbin just produced an article for RealClearPolitics.com He was yammering about his own article on today's HH show. Problem is many of his callers called him on the carpet. He... along with so many others... keep telling us that there is such a thing as "radical Islam." You can see it all through his article. But as callers pointed out... the people who comprise the "radical Islamists" are in fact the ones actually following that crazed prophet Mohammed. Several listeners tried getting that across to Jed... but talk show hosts rarely make good listeners themselves so he just blew them off.

[REDWOOD99]

I guess you missed caller "Michelle." Fanatical Islamists are following an ideology, not a religion.

[stand4somethin]

thats what he was saying all night... to several callers. Then when pressed he would say "it doesn't matter." It certainly does matter if you want to defeat their ideology as he says we must. Then if figures you ought to know about the ideology you want to defeat. Islam is the problem! Sorry to say... but Mohammed himself WAS a terrorist.

[CBart95]

Babbin is a "fill in"...not a substitute.

He often starts off rational and ends up "wrapped around the axel"

Perhaps if he was not covering for Hugh Hewitt the contrast ratio would'nt be so severe.

He's a decent enough sort who needs the work...I just don't listen when I hear his voice.

[elhombrelibre]

Yours is a good point. I don't see how one can be true to Islam and yet ignore the Koran's murderous edicts against infidels.

It was fine when people wanted to talk about good Russians and bad communists during the Cold War. And it may work to separate devout Islamic fanatics from assimilated Muslims who are content with the post modern world. But it's simply intellectually dishonest to pretend that Islam is a religion that is pluralistic and or tolerant in any way. People should read history and see how Muslims have always obliterated any other religion and culture, like totalitarians always do. It's not a Religion of Peace. That's poppycock.

[REDWOOD99]

I guess I heard it differently. I heard that a portion of Islam has been polluted by an extremist sect. True, the sect is very large within the religion. However, and you can write this off to an inherent belief in the goodness of man, I do not believe that all of Islam is evil. You and I will have to disagree on this point. I pray you are wrong.

[moonhawk]

I prefer to think of the "radical" Muslims as the "Observant" ones

[highlander_UW]

Several listeners tried getting that across to Jed... but talk show hosts rarely make good listeners themselves so he just blew them off.

Ah, I heard that part...it was right before I pushed in a tape to listen to. If he's not interested in the truth that's his problem.

[Fledermaus]

How's the sand in that hole?

[Reagan Man]

The religion of Islam is comprised of Muslim's who are by nature, "jihadists", "islamofascists", or both. The religion of peace, isn't so peaceful.

[unfortunately a bluestater]

"I prefer to think of the "radical" Muslims as the "Observant" ones"


Precisely.

[taxesareforever]

Fanatical Islamists are following an ideology, not a religion.

What is the difference? Ideology or religion? Doesn't matter, it is all hate.

[dalight]

Jeb Babbin.. had a very interesting guest, General McInerney who he cut off just as he was telling Jeb he was living in a fantasy land..

Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney discussing "The Roots of Jihad" by Dr. Tawfik Hamid... "And what he is in fact saying, that even the moderate parts of Islam are a major problem, because they do not have separation between Church and state, and it is an ideology moreso."..

McInerney went on to say.. "Well, I think what we've got to do is have...Islam need a reformation. And the world leaders, Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Merkel, and Japan, all of these world leaders need to get together and say to Islam, you need a reformation, or there will be a clash of civilization."

And Jeb cut him off as the segment ended and went on to the next segment without coming back to this very crucial point.

For the whole transcript check out RadioBlogger.com

[taxesareforever]

Some people just do not want to hear the truth. It just may give them a title of "intolerant" and their egos would suffer. It won't be egos that suffer if they stick their heads in the sand and act like everyone will get along.

[dalight]

The problem is that in the West, we see religious people as tending to being gentle and calm, accepting and oriented toward goodwill and the promise of love or our fellow man, even when we don't necessarily understand them. This is a very Christian view, but it is also seen in Buddhism and Hinduism so we are used to this.

And, when you meet someone who is a very religious Muslim, you will also notice that they are also sweet gentle people. So one generalizes that Islam brings one to the same understanding of the oneness of mankind as other religions that we have experience with, but Islam has very strong strictures about seeing nonbelievers as "people" and thus being other than "real people," the suffering and destruction of nonbelievers is to be welcomed and even directly caused by the believer.

This was a common approach during the Conquest of the New World.. by European Christians so we cannot say that Islam is necessarily any worse than Christianity has been at some points.. but Christianity doesn't have the instruction in it saying that unbelievers are not human. Christianity says that unbelievers have not been saved. Where as in Islam, the unbeliever is specifically to be killed or made to submit by the faithful, never to be treated as an equal or a friend.. and this is the core problem that people of the west face when they try to cast Judeo-Christian values onto a very foreign system called Islam.

[taxesareforever]

Agreed.