Editor's Note:This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison.
You probably cannot find a more scholarly, measured, and careful writer than Michael Barone. This Resident Fellow at the respected American Enterprise Institute is not given to exaggeration. Let others set their hair on fire to get a headline, Harvard-educated Michael Barone makes news because he’s one who knows.
He has been the co-editor since 1968 of The Almanac of American Politics. It has been referred to as the “Bible,” but usually by those who don’t have another. Still, when Michael Barone says the Obama administration views “Christianity bad, Islam good,” people sit up and take notice.
Can this be true? Let’s try a test. Could these columnists [Blackwell and Morrison] be admitted to this White House? It’s doubtful under the Obama administration. That’s because, respectful as we are of the high office of the presidency, and of the unique and historic role of Barack Obama as our first black president, we have nonetheless publicly criticized this president’s policies. And we’ve done so for years.
But a jihadist gained entry to the heavily-guarded White House, apparently without difficulty. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah is touted as a “Muslim scholar.” His boss, Yusuf al Qaradawi, is the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi cannot even enter the U.S. But bin Bayyah gets a kumbaya from this administration.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy laid out the case against bin Bayyah’s admission to the White House in a powerful column in National Review Online.
Bin Bayyah’s group has called for the killing of U.S. soldiers. That should be enough to keep him from entering the United States, much less being honored with a White House visit.
In his June column, terrorism expert McCarthy informs us why bin Bayyah came here:
This marks a new low for the administration that, in brazen violation of U.S. counterterrorism law, previously invited a member of the Blind Shiekh’s terrorist organization for consultations at the White House.
Notably, bin Bayyah lobbied the administration to “take urgent action” to help the Syrian “rebels” (i.e., the factions opposing the Assad regime, which are dominated by Islamic supremacists and violent jihadists – more accurately described as the Syrian mujahideen than as “rebels”).
As if to prove, to underscore, Michael Barone’s bold statement—Christianity bad, Islam good—consider the contrast between the Obama administration’s handling of bin Bayyah’s visit and its determination to boot the German refugee homeschoolers out of this country. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied these Evangelical Christians’ pleas to be allowed to stay in this country. The Romeike family now faces the danger of deportation.
It would be hard to imagine a more harmless, “gentle as doves” group of people. They came here seeking only to train up their children in the love of God. But the Obama administration wants them out.
Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama administration reject the idea that home schooling is a protected right. Home schooling does not comport with their cramped view of “freedom of worship.” And the view they take of these German refugees cannot help but bleed over into their view of home schooling generally.
We should all be alert to this case, for in this case the Obama administration is telling us what a limited and cabined view of religious freedom it holds.
And the overall picture is alarming to be sure. In these two cases, we see the Barone Rule being played out: “Christianity bad, Islam good.” That’s the record of the Obama administration.