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The fondest hope of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other terrorist groups is to convince their followers that the world is divided into Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) and the Dar al-harb (the House of War), and that the job of pious Muslims is to wage unrelenting war on “kafirs” (unbelievers) who refuse to accept the teaching of the Prophet.
By going out of their way to denigrate Muslims, some leading Republicans are playing right into the terrorists’ hands.
As former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson has noted, the list of Republicans who have insulted Muslims is a long one, and growing longer all the time. It starts with some of the contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination.
Newt Gingrich warned that sharia law — i.e., the religious law of Islam, which is similar to the religious laws of Christianity or Judaism (from which Islam is derived) — is “a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and the world as we know it.” Herman Cain first said that he would not appoint any Muslims to his administration, then said he would so but only if they took a special loyalty oath.
This noxious theme has been carried on by some of those contending for the 2016 GOP nomination. Bobby Jindal has warned that Muslim immigration to the U.S. amounts to “colonization” and an “invasion,” and has said that the idea of a Muslim president is an “absurd hypothetical.”
Before exiting the race, Scott Walker said there are only a “handful of reasonable, moderate followers of Islam who don’t share the radical beliefs that these radical Islamist terrorists have.” Mike Huckabee has called Muslims who commit violence after Friday prayers “uncorked animals.”
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who has previously described Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “murderers,” did not correct a questioner at a town hall meeting who said, “We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. Our current president is one.”
Ben Carson, who is polling in second place behind Trump, has flatly rejected the idea that a Muslim should ever become president, saying, “I would not advocate that we ever put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” Apparently he’s never heard of the Constitution’s Article VI: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
This is nothing more than rank bigotry of the kind that once confronted Catholics who sought the nation’s highest office. Before John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, there were many dark insinuations that Catholics were guilty of dual loyalties because they followed the Pope and therefore they could not follow the Constitution.
Similar accusations of “dual loyalties” have long haunted American Jews who are accused by anti-Semites of being disloyal to the United States because they support the state of Israel.
More recently, Mitt Romney faced some degree of opposition, especially from evangelicals, because of his Mormon faith. Now it is the turn of Muslims to feel the wrath of the intolerant".....
The fondest hope of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other terrorist groups is to convince their followers that the world is divided into Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) and the Dar al-harb (the House of War), and that the job of pious Muslims is to wage unrelenting war on “kafirs” (unbelievers) who refuse to accept the teaching of the Prophet.
By going out of their way to denigrate Muslims, some leading Republicans are playing right into the terrorists’ hands.
As former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson has noted, the list of Republicans who have insulted Muslims is a long one, and growing longer all the time. It starts with some of the contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination.
Newt Gingrich warned that sharia law — i.e., the religious law of Islam, which is similar to the religious laws of Christianity or Judaism (from which Islam is derived) — is “a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and the world as we know it.” Herman Cain first said that he would not appoint any Muslims to his administration, then said he would so but only if they took a special loyalty oath.
This noxious theme has been carried on by some of those contending for the 2016 GOP nomination. Bobby Jindal has warned that Muslim immigration to the U.S. amounts to “colonization” and an “invasion,” and has said that the idea of a Muslim president is an “absurd hypothetical.”
Before exiting the race, Scott Walker said there are only a “handful of reasonable, moderate followers of Islam who don’t share the radical beliefs that these radical Islamist terrorists have.” Mike Huckabee has called Muslims who commit violence after Friday prayers “uncorked animals.”
Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who has previously described Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “murderers,” did not correct a questioner at a town hall meeting who said, “We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. Our current president is one.”
Ben Carson, who is polling in second place behind Trump, has flatly rejected the idea that a Muslim should ever become president, saying, “I would not advocate that we ever put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” Apparently he’s never heard of the Constitution’s Article VI: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
This is nothing more than rank bigotry of the kind that once confronted Catholics who sought the nation’s highest office. Before John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, there were many dark insinuations that Catholics were guilty of dual loyalties because they followed the Pope and therefore they could not follow the Constitution.
Similar accusations of “dual loyalties” have long haunted American Jews who are accused by anti-Semites of being disloyal to the United States because they support the state of Israel.
More recently, Mitt Romney faced some degree of opposition, especially from evangelicals, because of his Mormon faith. Now it is the turn of Muslims to feel the wrath of the intolerant".....
