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 The War Against TolerancePosted on Feb 11, 2008
By Chris Hedges Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges—a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy—to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called “Why We Want to Kill You,” promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims. These men are frauds, but this is not the point. They are part of a dark and frightening war by the Christian right against tolerance that, in the moment of another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, would make it acceptable to target and persecute all Muslims, including the some 6 million Muslims who live in the United States. These men stoke these irrational fears. They defend the perpetual war unleashed by the Bush administration and championed by Sen. John McCain. McCain frequently reminds listeners that “the greatest danger facing the world is Islamic terrorism,” as does Mike Huckabee, who says that “Islamofascism” is “the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced.” George W. Bush has, in the same vein, assured Americans that terrorists hate us for our freedoms, not, of course, for anything we have done. Bush described the “war on terror” as a war against totalitarian Islamofascism while the Israeli air force was dropping tens of thousands of pounds of iron fragmentation bombs up and down Lebanon, an air campaign that killed 1,300 Lebanese civilians. The three men tell lurid tales of being recruited as children into Palestinian terrorist organizations, murdering hundreds of civilians and blowing up a bank in Israel. Saleem says that as a child he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights, although no incident of this type was ever reported in Israel. He claims he is descended from the “grand wazir” of Islam, a title and a position that do not exist in the Arab world. They assure audiences that the Palestinians are interested not in a peaceful two-state solution but rather the destruction of Israel, the murder of all Jews and the death of America. Shoebat claims he first came to the United States as part of an extremist “sleeper cell.” “These three jokers are as much former Islamic terrorists as ‘Star Trek’s’ Capt. James T. Kirk was a real Starship captain,” said Mikey Weinstein, the head of the watchdog group The Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The group has challenged Christian proselytizing in the military and denounced the visit by the men to the Air Force Academy. The speakers include in their talks the superior virtues of Christianity. Saleem, for example, says his world “turned upside down when he was seriously injured in an automobile accident.” “A Christian man tended to Kamal at the accident scene, making sure he got the medical treatment he needed,” his Web site says. “Kamal’s orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist were also Christian men whom over a period of several months ministered the unconditional love of Jesus Christ to him as he recovered. The love and sacrificial giving of these men caused Kamal to cry out to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acknowledging his need for the Savior. Kamal has since become a man on a new mission, as an ambassador for the one true and living God, the great I Am, Jehovah God of the Bible.” This creeping Christian chauvinism has infected our political and social discourse. It was behind the rumor that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama reassured followers that he was a Christian. It apparently did not occur to him, or his questioners, that the proper answer is that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, that persons of great moral probity and courage arise in all cultures and all religions, including Islam. Christians have no exclusive lock on virtue. But this kind of understanding often provokes indignant rage. The public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the country since the 9/11 attacks. It makes dialogue with those outside our “Christian” culture impossible. It implicitly condemns all who do not think as we think and believe as we believe as, at best, inferior and usually morally depraved. It blinds us to our own failings. It makes self-reflection and self-criticism a form of treason. It reduces the world to a cartoonish vision of us and them, good and evil. It turns us into children with bombs. These three con artists are not the problem. There is enough scum out there to take their place. Rather, they offer a window into a worldview that is destroying the United States. It has corrupted the Republican Party. It has colored the news media. It has entered into the everyday clichés we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. It is ignorant and racist, but it is also deadly. It grossly perverts the Christian religion. It asks us to kill to purify the Earth. It leaves us threatened not only by the terrorists who may come from abroad but the ones who are rising from within our midst. Previous item: Social Terror Networking Next item: There's a Republican Under My Bed Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
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By bogi666, February 11 at 1:23 pm # Chris Hedges reporting on Larry, Mo and CurlyIt it possible that these 3 are paid for their performances!DUH. The pretend christian churchianity-religionists and the phony preachers who are the Biblical Harlots[kjv] and their false doctrines[the rapture]which are the Fornications of the Bible,who sponsor this travesty are subsidized by the American taxpayers as they receive government services and are tax exempt. They also get captive audiences such as at the Air Force Academy.Their congregations of fools whom the preachers insult and abuse and then beg for money and the fools give them money. These donations are tax deductible. The gullibility and ignorance of American can’t be overestimated for allowing this to happen without a whimper.
By lawlessone, February 11 at 11:55 am # The primary problem with most Christians is that they don’t really believe in or regularly practice the “Golden Rule” Christ advocated when he was alive. To their shame, all they adopted is his name.
By Jim Yell, February 11 at 9:01 am # yes and noTolerance must be a two way street. If we have people who dislike the very idea of a Bill of Rights that protect not just themselves, but people with other and perhaps opposed value views, than we can not pretend that they are not dangerous to those who live with the values of a Bill of Rights. I am very opposed to rigid Christian political action. We find ourselves at present with an ambitious fundamentalist preacher wanting and saying, “he would restructure the Constitution, which includes the Bill of Rights” to follow the commands of the Bible. The scary thing that even Christian’s should realize about this type of announcement is he means not just a Fundamenalist view of what the Bible says, but his own selective view of what it says. Sadly the Bible contradicts itself with in its scriptures. Anyone trying to follow it literally will soon find themselves up to their knee caps in hypocrisy, or backed into a corner. Saying this I have yet to see in Islam any ability to deal with multiculturalism. The Multiculturalism that has existed in the political history of Islam was not Islam, but political reality. Islam is consistent, if you don’t agree with them than you should be killed. Only a fool, and many fools did read Hitler’s Mien Kampf and dismissed it as venting. We need a clear distance between our secular government and religion and sadly that means some sects and some religions are so hostile to the idea that they should not be allowed. But I mean that for both Christians and Moslems and any others that can’t bear to live in a democracy, moderated by a Bill of Rights.
By Ed Amos, February 11 at 8:41 am # Chris Hedges, who I admire greatly, helps us to see clearly which way “the wind is blowing”, writes an insightful article, but when he refers to the men as “scum”, he is being dramatically unhelpful. We should always seek to humanize rather than dehumanize the other. How does calling them “scum” help us to understand them and name what seems to be going on with them. When we call the other person scum dialogue breaks down and wars break out.
By Katinka, February 11 at 8:28 am # The world would be a better place if people who pursue religion with such vigor pursued education instead. This country is led by a bunch of idiots!
By Rodger Lemonde, February 11 at 8:11 am # Religion, billions practice, dozens get it right.
By Carrie, February 11 at 7:22 am # intolerant against intoleranceThis is a classic example of the conundrum in which liberals become ensnared. In an attempt to point out the intolerance of some Christian groups toward other religions and segments of society people engage in intolerant speech. And the snide and quite frankly ignorant comments about Christianity only further exlemplifies the shallow understanding of the Church. While groups such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council currently have a public voice they do not represent the whole of Christianity. And yes while there are historical examples of “christians” hating and even killing non-christians, it can also be argued that this is not the true history of the Church. In fact (historically speaking) the rise and assertion of the nation state as a dominant force is far more bloody and hate filled than the Church has ever been. Yet I do not see a discussion here about the legitimacy of the nation state. Rather the violence of the nation state is seen as legitimate and an acceptable tool in order to achieve “peace”. I venture to say that what scares people most about Christians,Muslims and Jews is that they might actually beleive too much in their “religion”, causing them to pledge allegience to it rather than the nation state in which they reside. This as you know would be a challenge to the nation-state and may cause instability. What it boils down too is they are free to worship as long as they do not take who they are worshiping too seriously. Furthermore, it is not as if liberals are atheistic and have some how risen above the ideological struggles of religion. They have simply replaced “religious” practices with “liberal” practices. The sacred cow is now democracy which is embodied through “human rights”, “freedom of speech”, “tolerance”, and “freedom of religion”. And all good liberals know that these truths are to be protected at all costs and in some cases require the killing of others. I do not say this to make fun of or to degrade the importance of things such as human rights and other freedoms. What I do wish to convey is that it is not as if Western, liberal, democracy is simply representing the obvious truth. The problem that Christians, Muslims, Jews and Democracy has is that all who are involved believe what they possess THE absolute truth. You cannot uphold the principles of liberal democracy while at the same time working to defang and make impotent all the worlds religions. If one were to succeed in doing this it could not be done without breaking a democratic principle. For these reasons there are huge problems within liberal democracies themselves.
By LiberalDemocracy?, February 11 at 4:28 pm # Re: intolerant against intoleranceSo, we should replace a “liberal democracy” that protects human rights and freedoms with… what exactly? A conservative one? ... I don’t follow your argument that LIBERALS have a problem. If you have a problem with someone, call them out. Say the name of the person who wrote this article. Don’t lump all LIBERALS into your tirade. If you respond to this please tell us what we should have instead of a liberal democracy, which, by the way, gave everyone those rights you are expressing now. Because a conservative government surely wouldn’t have.(going back to the Revolution, our Constitution was radically liberal) Also, it is fine to hate haters. Do you hate Nazis who killed millions? You probably do, so does that put you in a conundrum? No? Didn’t think so. It is perfectly fine to condemn those who wish death and suffering upon others.
By Carrie, February 11 at 11:30 am # Re: Duh! Buddhism is a religionIt’s James Dobson not Dobbs. Your credibility within an argument will improve if you are able to accurately name your adversary. Add Your Comment |
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