Catholics Then, Muslims Now [NYT Op-Ed on why Muslims deserve our trust]

The New York Times ^ | 09/18/2012 | DOUG SAUNDERS

[Alex Murphy]

During the Republican primaries, Muslims were accused of harboring plans for “stealth Shariah.” A group of five Republican House members, led by Michele Bachmann, groundlessly accused two prominent Muslim federal officials of loyalty to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Another Republican representative, Joe Walsh of Illinois, used a campaign rally to suggest that Muslims in the Chicago suburbs were plotting to commit terrorist attacks. In New York City, the police spied on thousands of Muslims for six years without producing any evidence that could lead to an investigation....

....From the 19th century on, distrust, violence and, eventually, immigration restrictions were aimed at waves of Roman Catholic immigrants.

As late as 1950, 240,000 Americans bought copies of “American Freedom and Catholic Power,” a New York Times best seller. Its author, Paul Blanshard, a former diplomat and editor at The Nation, made the case that Catholicism was an ideology of conquest, and that its traditions constituted a form of “medieval authoritarianism that has no rightful place in the democratic American environment.”

Catholics’ high birthrates and educational self-segregation led Mr. Blanshard and others — including scholars, legislators and journalists — to warn of a “Catholic plan for America.”

Many Americans shunned such views, but some liberals did not. Mr. Blanshard’s book was endorsed by the likes of John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, and respected scholars like Seymour Martin Lipset, Reinhold Niebuhr and Sidney Hook debated Catholics’ supposed propensity toward authoritarianism.

Then, as now, there seemed to be evidence supporting the charge. Majority-Catholic countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Austria, had fallen into fascism or extremism. Crime and educational failure were rife among the children of Catholic immigrants. In the years after World War I, Catholic radicals carried out a deadly wave of terrorist attacks in the United States.

[ArrogantBustard]

RCIA in the Archdiocese of New York ...

For those with a great interest in the doings of the Catholic Church.

We don't want them to feel unwelcome.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Here we go.. the guy writing the column won't even grant us the courtesy to acknowledge that there is a difference between Muslim and Islamist. Many do not see a difference but I do from having worked with Muslims and living in Ankara for almost a year -- though long before the current Islamist AK party that rules Turkey today. Turkey of course is not an Arab country.

Does the author argue that all Christians are Christian Identity believers?

From an Internet source:

"If there are two things that characterize Islamic culture, they are terrorism and inbreeding. The latest research shows that these two things might be closely connected . . . First cousin marriages have been the tradition in many Muslim families for innumerable generations. Such marriages increase the risk of negative mental and physical consequences . . . Risk of mental retardation increases with 400 percent (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 1978 “Effect of inbreeding on IQ and mental retardation”). Research shows that the IQ is 10-16 points lower in children born from blood related parents and that abilities related to social behavior and empathy develops slower in inbred babies (Indian National Science Academy, 1983 “Consanguinity Effects on Intelligence Quotient and Neonatal Behaviours of nsari Muslim Children” [pdf]). Such facts might make several pieces fall into place for many people . . . People with low intelligence (because of inbreeding) might also be easier to brainwash with fundamentalist Islam. "

[My emphasis] Nicolai Sennels author.

[Irenic]

Bachmann should ask McCain if those Libyan rebel fighters are still his heroes and if he still wishes to bring them to Arizona.

Perhaps when they come to Az. they will gift his lovey daughter a burqa?

With all the illegals and Islamic rebels, Az could become the mecca of cultural diversity.

The cartels and rebels could really put on some KILLER public events!

The rebels could chop ‘em up and the cartels could string ‘em up or have head-bowling events(when they’re not to busy picking that lettuce)!

[Alex Murphy]

Ryobi power tool catalog

Because dull tools are more hazardous than sharp ones. I wouldn't want the priests to make any more mistake.

[Alex Murphy]

Let's say everything written by the slimes here about Catholicism is true. BFD. It has nothing to do with Shariah and is irrelevant. Shariah law cannot be reconciled with our traditions, institutions and especially our Constitution.

Nailed it in one!

[353FMG]

For those who do not know what took place in Beslan, Russia.

http://www.islam-watch.org/Others/Sexual-Terror-Untold-Stories-of-Beslan-Jihad.htm

[backwoods-engineer]

The New York Times building should be sold, demolished, and the ground salted with toxic waste so that nothing may ever be built or grown there again.

But there I go, dreaming again...

[Mike Darancette]

Muslims are not Christians.

[ArrogantBustard]

Oh, Bosch!!!!

[Mrs. Don-o]

The historic record does not substantiate your claim. Constantine was not even baptized until he was on his deathbed, and then by an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia, not a Catholic. Whether he considered himself being in communion with the Bishop of Rome is debatable.

True, baptism is baptism. He was baptized. But calling Constantine a Catholic in the sense you mean is, shall we say, off on a tangent.

As for St. Peter, to him was granted the power of the keys, whose high significance is foreshadowed in Isaiah 22 (Link). It's worth reading. The Lord God bestowed authority in the King's house ("master of the palace"), upon a man appointed to be "a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah". The Lord says, "I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open."

This OT type was fulfilled with Peter:

"I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)

Which is why Peter is always listed as the first Pope, before Linus, Clement, Cletus, Sixtus, some 13 or 14 Popes before Constantine was even born.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Muslims were accused of harboring plans for “stealth Shariah.”

Nothing stealth about it.
CAIR regularly pushes an agenda to our Government that brings their laws to this Nation.
Now the muslims want us to repeal the 1st Amendment!
They can KMA.............

[SECURE AMERICA]

The Catholic Church never declared war on America nor did it ever attack this Nation and kill our citizens.

[Will88]

Just more 'journalism' from the New York Times in the tradition of Walter Duranty, the Times great Stalin apologist.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I think it’s something he made up. :o|

[GOPJ]

Here’s all we need to know about the New York Times:

The Top 50 Liberal Media Bias Examples

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2932931/posts

[bronxville]

New York Times praised Piss Christ, (Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary) and condemned Muhammad movie...

As Tim Blair notes, Islam has earned that “respect” at the point of a gun.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/09/new-york-times-praised-piss-christ-condemned-muhammad-movie.html

[bronxville]

Great post about St. Peter. Thank you. This Constantine story is all over the net scattered between some Islamic, Secular, and Christian sites.

[AmericanHombre]

I emailed the author earlier, and wrote a blog piece on this.
He mistakenly or perhaps intentionally equates Catholics with Italian immigrants who became anarchists.

http://area43.net/2012/09/the-new-york-times-equates-catholics-with-anarchist-radicals/

[a fool in paradise]

It is a pillar of Sharia Law to outlaw blasphemy against Mohammed and Islam. The EUSSR and USSA are both looking to support this restriction on free speech. Just look at the US Hate Department’s handling of a supposed controversy over a supposed “film” on youtube.

[a fool in paradise]

All I need to know about Islam in the modern world I can learn by looking at the global capital of the Islamic empire.

The cities of Mecca and Medina are segregated “muslims only” with a death penalty for any non-muslim who’d dare enter.

All muslims bow five times a day every day to Mecca without considering the intolerance in Mecca or Saudi Arabia for other faiths.

The Saudi theocratic government seizes all Bibles and other non-Islamic religious texts and burns them with no outrage from the world’s muslim population who insist that all religions are due respect (lie to the kufir).

Saudi Arabia in the 21st century banned (since officially lifted because of global blowback) Jews from visiting the country.

Islam still practices slavery and the experts at Ask the Imam said that the laws of Mohammed are not repealed, it is unwise to question the wisdom of Mohammed even if we do not understand it or find it politically incorrect today.

And this is how Islam has been for over 1000 years. It is the death cult political system of a long dead conquering warlord who hijacked the Judeo-Christian biblical writings and rewrote them to suit his whims. It is OCD writ large. Fart while doing your cleansing ritual in the bathroom? Have to start all over again. Don’t eat pork because you will soon have the morals of the pig...