Posted on 12/09/2002 7:38:48 AM PST by 1bigdictator
US Conservatives dispute Bush’s portrayal of Islam
Dana Milbank
Washington, December 8 PRESIDENT Bush finds himself in a rare disagreement with Conservatives in his party over his efforts to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that is not responsible for anti-American terrorism. In a score of speeches since the September 11, 2001, attacks, Bush has called for tolerance of Muslims, describing Islam as ‘‘a faith based upon peace and love and compassion’’ and a religion committed to ‘‘morality and learning and tolerance.’’
But a large number of foreign policy hawks — some of them with advisory roles in the Bush administration — have joined religious conservatives in taking issue with Bush’s characterisations. While most of them understand the political rationale for Bush’s statements — there’s no benefit in antagonising Muslim allies such as Pakistan and Indonesia — they say the claim is dishonest and destined to fail. For Bush and for the country, the outcome of the argument is crucial.
The administration, and moderate governments in Arab and Muslim nations, are struggling to prevent the war on terrorism from becoming what Osama bin Laden wants: a war of civilisation between the Judeo-Christian West and a resentful and impoverished Muslim world. Calling Islam a peaceful religion ‘‘is an increasingly hard argument to make,’’ said Kenneth Adelman, a former Reagan official who serves on the Bush Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.
‘‘The more you examine the religion, the more militaristic it seems. After all, its founder, Mohammed, was a warrior, not a peace advocate like Jesus.’’ Another member of the Pentagon advisory board, Eliot Cohen of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, wrote an article on the Wall Street Journal editorial page arguing that the enemy of the US is not terrorism ‘‘but militant Islam.’’ ‘‘The enemy has an ideology, and an hour spent surfing the Web will give the average citizen at least the kind of insights that he or she might have found during World Wars I and II by reading Mein Kampf or the writings of Lenin, Stalin or Mao.’’
Cohen acknowledges it is impolitic and ‘‘deeply uncomfortable’’ for the administration to say such things. ‘‘Nobody would like to think that a major world religion has a deeply aggressive and dangerous strain in it — a strain often excused or misrepresented in the name of good feelings. But uttering uncomfortable and unpleasant truths is one of the things that defines leadership,’’ he said.
At the same time, social conservatives are resisting Bush’s efforts to portray Islam in a favorable light. ‘‘Islam is at war against us,’’ Paul Weyrich, an activist who is influential in the White House, wrote recently.
‘‘I have had much good to say about President Bush in recent months. But one thing that concerned me before September 11 and concerns me even more now is his administration’s constant promotion of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance just like Judaism or Christianity. It is neither.’’ — LATWP
Make up the facts as you go along. Typical of your type.
Why don't you leave FreeRepublic and go to a site more conducive to fiction.
Typical of his/her type? Seems you are the one professing your love for Islam. I dare say there is plenty of proof to back up those claims. Never fails how you "Islam is Peace" types always want to sidestep the issues with falsehoods, but then that's what Islam is all about.
Any religion that follows a Pedophile, that considers young boys chattel, and preaches death to all non-Muslims is evil in my book. And don't even try that "The Bible" also preaches "death to non-believers", last time I checked Christians followed Christ, thus the name Christian. You know, the one that died for our sins? Care to tell us who came after the Pedophile Mohammed?
Never underestimate the power of wishful thinking.
Tsk, Tsk, I would expect that from someone who supports illegal immigrants and the "Islam is Peace" doctrine. So its proof you want huh? Even though plenty is to be had on the internet, please refute the following taken from a Muslims translation of the Koran.
Already, when Aisha (the daughter of Abu Bakr, Mohammad's closest friend and unquestioning ally) was about 4-5 years old Muhammad started dreaming of a union with her [Ref: SAHIH BUKHARI, 5:235]
When she was 6, Muhammad asked Abu Bakr, Aisha's father, for her hand. Abu Bakr thought it was improper, because, as he said "I am your brother"; Muhammad brushed aside Abu Bakr's reservation by saying that it was perfectly lawful for him to marry Aisha [ Ref: SAHIH BUKHAR I7:18].
So, Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad, and 3 years later, i.e. when Aisha was 9, the marriage was consummated. And Muhammad was 53 then [SAHIH BUKHARI 5:236,7:64,7:65,7:88].
Aisha became Muhammad's favourite wife. And the sexuality in the relationship was predominant [ SAHIH BUKHARI .1.270, 3:36, 7:6, 3:148, 3:149, 3:150, 7:142, IbnSa'd 1pg165 ]. Later, Aisha was to be called the "mother of believers".
Amazing what a little searching for truth will do huh?
The members here are conservative and logically thinking. When they look at EVERY mulsim government in ALL history and read the Koran itelf, there is a clear conclusion - Isalm is a religion of war, intolerance, hatred to "infidel" jews and christians, - they believe it is a positive ethic to lie to the infidel or do anything else - all to their end of a world government run by Islam - the "Islam is a religion of peace" is in his narrow sense true - they believe they will have world peace when all the infidels have been killed or converted.
On the other hand, the CHRISTIAN founders of America insituted LIBERTY and GOD GIVEN RIGHTS to ALL men as the basis for govt. "We hold these truths to be self evident that ALL men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - You will not find that sentiment in ANY Muslim nation now, in history - or in the future.
Islam is a religion foounded by a terrorist pedophile and for hate filled intolerant totalitarian supporting slaves that think its ok to publically shoot a woman in the head for being accused of adultery. "Religion of peace... my ass."
And don't give me any "slavery slavery, whote men and slavery bs" - Our founders INSTITUTED Liberty as a basis for govt in the face of the WORLD practice of slavery. Our founders built the FIRST government insitution that laid out the logic and legal arguement against slavery.
Nevertheless, it would be ludicrous to suggest that the existance of numbers of relatively blameless Germans therefore absolves National Socialism as a movement of all guilt, to label it as an "ideology of peace" merely because a few people under its sway did not do bad things. No, we judged National Socialism by its fruits, and those fruits were horribly evil. That evil was not a random accident, but the inevitable and intentional consequence of its founding documents and leadership's direction. We correctly judged National Socialism as evil, an ideology of war and of crimes against humanity, because this is what it was all about, both in thought and in deed. And beacuse it was not just a matter of thought, but also of deed, the rest of the civilized world eventually had to fight it, first for our own defense and self-preservation, and then to defeat and abolish this scourge of humanity. We justified not just defeating National Socialism, but in undertaking a systematic "de-nazification" of Germany, because the evil thoughts inherently led to evil deeds, and the evil deeds could not be tolerated, ever again.
Whatever applies to National Socialism must apply to Islam many times over, for Islam's fruits are even more evil than National Socialism's. The evil fruits are not accidental, but derive inevitably as the result of faithful Muslims obeying the dictates of authoritative Islamic documents. Islam is a religion that condones and commands war, murder, rape, slavery, pilage, destruction, persecution, intolerance, and a host of other evils, directed against ALL of humanity that has not submitted to the Islamic ideology. Are there Muslims that do not do these things? Of course. There is no doubt that one can find many Muslims who go about their daily lives as peaceful and productive members of society, just as one could have found such Germans in Nazi Germany. But the existance of such in no way absolves Islam as a whole. When one weighs the evidence of Islamic history as a whole (a history which already far surpasses Hitler's dream of a mere "thousand-year Reich"), then one has no alternative but to conclude that this is a history of unprecedented and unequalled evil deeds. And one is forced to draw some conclusions regarding the source of the thoughts from which these deeds were motivated.
With all due respect to our President (for whom I have voted, support, and admire in all other aspects), I am forced to conclude that he is either ignorant or is being grossly mis-informed and badly served by his advisors. The fact is that Islam is not a "religion of peace", but rather is an ideology of war. Islam is not good, but evil. And Islam is an evil far worse than National Socialism, and far more dangerous both to the U.S. and all of humanity. Crimes against humanity routinely and repeatedly have been and are continuing to be committed by the followers of Islam and in the name of Islam, not because they are marginal and misguided lunatics, but because they are faithful followers of Islam, obeying the explicit commandments and principles of Islam. Just as there is a clear cause-and-effect relationshp between Mein Kampf and the death camps, there is just as clear of a cause-and-effect relationship between the Quran and the Hadiths on the one hand and fourteen centuries of war, murder, rape, slavery, pilage, destruction, and persecution of the "infidel kafir" at the hands of Muslims. And those of us who are not Muslims are fully justified in making a judgement even more severe against Islam than we have made against National Socialism.
No, only those God told you specifically to kill (and He hasn't made such a pronoucement since the children of Israel came back to the promised land) or those who were provably guilty of certain crimes (which we should be doing anyway and remember that most of those crime sentences are modified by the NT also)
The Koran however does not make any allowance. It commands the muslim to kill any nonbeliever if that nonbeliever doesn't convert. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Islam is obviously an evil cult.
Islam is the enemy
GSA(P)
GSA(P)
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