“The bottom line is this – if the Koran is burned, our troops will be in greater danger. It’s that simple…”
That remark came from a certain military officer (an officer who will remain unnamed here), during a special press briefing I attended regarding upcoming foreign troop deployments.
The news of a threatened “Koran burning ceremony” to be held in Florida was being widely reported at the time, and a journalist had asked the Officer for comment.
In response to the Officer’s comment, I followed up by asking “if Americans didn’t exercise their Second Amendment rights, would the troops be safer?”
“ With all due respect, I think you’re politicizing the matter, sir,” the Officer said to me, “and I have no further comment…”
It was appropriate that the Officer had “no further comment.” But I wasn’t politicizing anything. I was asking a very serious, sobering, and legitimate question, a question that all Americans should be asking in the face of the Obama Administration’s disposition towards Islamic Radicalism.
For the entire duration of his Presidency, Barack Obama has articulated a vision of “the Muslim Word,” as he calls it, and practitioners of the Muslim faith, that conveniently ignores what is frighteningly obvious to most Americans: that some of the most horrific and gruesome murders and terrorist acts on the planet these days are committed by people who call themselves Muslims, and claim to be following the edicts of the Koran.
President Obama set this pattern of denial in motion back in June of 2009, when he made good on his campaign promise of delivering a speech in the capitol city of a predominantly Muslim nation.
Speaking at Cairo University in that month, the President said, in part, “I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings…”
Five months after that speech, the United States sustained what previously may have been unthinkable – a terrorist attack at an Army base in Texas, all at the hands of an Army Major who was – yes, you guessed it – a Muslim. Major Nidal Hasan, a Medical Doctor in the U.S. Army, shot and killed 13 other Army soldiers and wounded 30 other people. He claimed that he was operating in allegiance to the Koran, and his Muslim faith.
As President Obama spoke at the Memorial Service for the dead soldiers, he referred to the murders as “craven acts,” and insisted that “no just and loving God looks upon then with favor.” But how are we to take these remarks?
Was President Obama insinuating that the “God” of Islam is not “just” and not “loving?” This proposition is doubtful. More likely, the President’s remarks were intended to suggest that Mr. Hasan wasn’t really behaving as a “real Muslim” would, so, therefore, these “craven acts” were no indictment on Islam.
But since the massacre at Fort Hood, we have sustained two other terrorist attacks on American soil – the “underwear bomber” case on Christmas Day last year, and the effort to blow up Times Square in Manhattan last Spring. Both of these incidents were terrorist attacks (despite Homeland Security Secretary Janet Naplitano’s claim that “The system worked” last December – it did not), attacks that were both fortunately thwarted before they could be carried out to full fruition.
All three of these acts were carried-out by people who called themselves Muslims. And if these terrorists each called themselves a “Muslim,” who am I – and who is Barack Obama – to insist that they are not?
President Obama’s timid stance with “the Muslim World” stands in stark contrast to this undeniable reality: In America, we are a very diverse bunch, but we generally get along with each other pretty well.
We are Christians and Jews and Secularists. We are theologically conservative Protestants and Catholics and Jews, and we are theologically liberal Protestants and Catholics and Jews. We are Atheists and Buddhists and Mormons and Bahai’s and completely irreligious. “Church” and “synagogue” and “temple” happen every weekend in America, as do sporting events and naps and work and play. As Americans we go about these activities according to our own wishes, being disagreeable with each other at times, yes, but still living together and getting along.
But then, there is this one particular group in America and around the world that can’t seem to play by America’s “we all get along” terms. According to our President, our lives are jeopardized if we so much as state the obvious about this group.
If our President continues with his denial of the obvious, he will continue to alienate America, and weaken our nation abroad.
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