Al Jazeera Now Quoting NY Times

An editorial in al Jazeera today quotes Jesus Christ as the basis for why Christian fundamentalists are just like Muslim fundamentalists. The gist of the editorial is that all religious fundamentalism is basically equivalent.

Citing religious scriptures serves as an illustrative example. Prophet Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Mathew 5:9), but he also warned his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on Earth, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Mathew 10:34). Prophet Muhammad affirmed: "I am the Prophet of Mercy", but he also said: "I am the Prophet of War".

Most Christians the world over, view Jesus as the Prince of Peace, a belief shared also by Muslims, but Christian fundamentalists in America look at him differently.

In their view, he is not the Jesus known for turning the other cheek (Matt 5:39) but a Jesus "from whose mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations; he will rule them with an iron sceptre" (Revelation 19:15).

As I have argued for some time now, there is a link between Islamic fanaticism and the American left. Not that the left agree with the remedies of Islamism, but they do share the same belief about the source of the world's problems. Hence, it is not surprising that many Islamist diatribes attempt to link the criticisms of the American left with their own. See, they say, even many in America agree with us. The editorial goes on to quote Nicholas Kristoff (who is called a 'courageous journalist) in the New York Times:

We have quite properly linked the fundamentalist religious tracts of Islam with the intolerance they nurture, and it is time to remove the motes from our own eyes. We should be embarrassed when our best-selling books (the Left Behind series) gleefully celebrate religious intolerance and violence against infidels.

The piece really gets silly from there claiming that since Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School that his rule was no different than that of Mullahs in Iran.

If a professor of tafsir (exegeses of the Quran) becomes a president of any Muslim country today, the American media would fiercely condemn him and his rule as a "regime of mullahs", and the French media would condemn him as a "regime des barbus" (regime of the bearded ones).

But President Jimmy Carter was teaching tafsir (exegesis of the Bible here) in one of the churches of Washington DC during his White House years. Carter's book, Source of Strength, is a collection of his biblical lectures at that church; another instance of how religion and politics are intermingled in America today.

The silliness continues as he takes a Baptist minister out of context. The words of Charles Colson which show how Christians do not believe in forced faith are at odds with Islam's explicit fascist tendencies are used to warn Muslims against Christian fanatacism.

While Islamists want to enforce a theocracy, most Christians live peacefully with competing value systems. Christians believe in winning people through love, not conquest.

Right. Equivalence.

Posted by: Rusty at 02:29 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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