The war on Islam

This title was carefully selected and I hope readers will get the point from what follows.

Barack Obama didn’t release his birth certificate in 2008 to prove he was not born in Kenya; he released it to counter the equally silly claim that his middle name was Mohammed amid stories that he was Muslim. Since that time and up to the present video from Wayne Allyn Root, the claim has been leveled against Barack Obama that he is Muslim and not Christian.

While Obama doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve, it’s no secret that he attended a Christian church. At an Easter prayer breakfast in 2011 [link to entire remarks]:

I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason — because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection — something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective

I know about the text because it was quoted by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America presiding bishop Mark Hanson. That, and what accompanied it, did not sound like it came from a Muslim. To Muslims, Jesus was a prophet, not divine.

I used to argue religion on USENET, and what I learned is that you can pile up examples on one side of an issue and get a different perception of something than if you pile up examples on the other side of the issue. There were arguments against Christianity based on its excesses and abuses, and those for it based on laudable activities. The same thing is playing out today about Islam, some tying to paint Islam in the best possible way, and others the worst. There are some who are trying to portray Islam as a venerable religion with lofty ideals, and some as an oppressive religion that is violent at its core.

One of the professionals promoting Islam negatively is Lebanese-born Brigitte Gabriel, author of the books: Because They Hate and They Must Be Stopped. Gabriel characterized the soft pedaling of Islamic atrocities as “political correctness.” In an interview with CNN, Gabriel was quoted as saying “America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America. They have infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department. They’re being radicalized in radical mosques, in our cities and communities within the United States.” CNN pundit Eliot Spitzer pointed out how much this sounds like Joe McCarthy and his Congressional war against Communists in the government. To me it sounded as much like the anti-Semitism directed against Jews.

Some of that is being played out in the arena of school textbooks. A search for keywords like “Islam,  textbook,  controversy” returns results largely from right-wing sources who make the claim that the country is being infiltrated by Muslim agents who are trying to indoctrinate our children to be Muslims and take over the government. Mainstream sources treat the textbook topic infrequently, although I found a few articles.  The Muslim bogeyman is the Council on Islamic Education.

Florida representative Ritch Workman expressed the views of his side, saying:

[The textbook is] remarkably offensive to me. This book very much sugar-coats the rise of Islam to be this wonderful new world order while teaching Christianity as dogmatic.

There are two essential issues with textbooks: the relative amount of treatment given Islam and Christianity (two groups look at the same book, and see a different side getting more coverage) and the definition of certain terms, specifically “jihad” and “sharia.”

Jihad literally means “struggle” in Arabic. I think most people know the term as “holy war.” We use the word war in many ways, both as a violent military confrontation (Iraq war) or as a struggle (“war on poverty”). A textbook, then, that uses the more generic meaning of jihad displeases those who want to portray Islam as an essentially violent religion. In the same way, sharia can be described as a moral code, or a fundamentalist theocratic rule where women are property, and things get cut off a lot.

A complicating factor is that world history texts treat topics less harshly in junior high school texts than in high school texts, and this plays out in the coverage of Islam, to the disapproval of some who would want harsh treatment in all texts.

Ironically, there is a companion controversy over textbooks used in Saudi Arabia, with the US pressuring them to “remove material perceived as spreading intolerance and hatred.” [Wikipedia]

My own view is that extremism, intolerance and fundamentalism is the real thing to be worried about. This where the atrocities come from.1

Articles relating to the controversy over Islam in textbooks:

Read more:

1I read a really great book called Fundamentalisms Observed edited by Martin Marty and Scott Appleby from the Fundamentalism Project at the University of Chicago. It has an eye-opening chapter about where Islamic fundamentalism originated. Christian fundamentalism is also covered as well as fundamentalist movements in other world religions.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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48 Responses to The war on Islam

  1. Daniel says:

    All three Children of Abraham have been killing each other for thousands of years for the favor of Sky Daddy.

    Well to be fair the extremists have been killing each other, and the politicians have been pulling the strings. The common people, by and large, would rather just stay out of it, as I have found, having in both America and in the Middle East.

    Still, one cannot help wonder how much better off we might have been without this family, with it’s ongoing family feud.

  2. Daniel says:

    One thing I don’t get is what the teabaggers and birthers think is the relevance.

    Do they think somehow it’s illegal for the POTUS to be Muslim? Is there something I missed in the Constitution that requires POTUS to be Christian (not that teabaggers and birthers are Christian,,, far from it, but they like to claim they are the only Christians left apparently)?

  3. I think the point here is that the birther movement is not really about eligibility, but who Obama is and the political party he belongs to.

    Daniel:
    One thing I don’t get is what the teabaggers and birthers think is the relevance.

    Do they think somehow it’s illegal for the POTUS to be Muslim?Is there something I missed in the Constitution that requires POTUS to be Christian (not that teabaggers and birthers are Christian,,, far from it, but they like to claim they are the only Christians left apparently)?

  4. I think it just would have been something else with the same essential result.

    Daniel: Still, one cannot help wonder how much better off we might have been without this family, with it’s ongoing family feud.

  5. Readers may note that I gave links to Breitbart.com and the Christian News Network. Both of these sites do a better than average job providing depth on the stories they cover, and they sometimes cover things that others don’t.

  6. Mary Brown says:

    What about the name Mohammed? I have a nephew with that middle name. His dad is from Pakistan- whoops that is bad too- right. He has never practiced his dad’s religion or any. Sometimes the silliness is ridiculous. It seems to me as I almost reach 70 that some things never change. Bigots always sound alike. You are right in that Ms. Gabriel could have been any American talking about Jewish people at the beginning of the 20th century and beyond.

  7. CarlOrcas says:

    Doc writes: My own view is that extremism, intolerance and fundamentalism is the real thing to be worried about. This where the atrocities come from.

    Another thoughtful piece. Thanks.

  8. Slartibartfast says:

    Before the 2008 election I thought that Colin Powell was the only one who got this right—the correct answer to people who were asking if President Obama was Muslim should have been “does it matter?”

    Daniel:
    One thing I don’t get is what the teabaggers and birthers think is the relevance.

    Do they think somehow it’s illegal for the POTUS to be Muslim?Is there something I missed in the Constitution that requires POTUS to be Christian (not that teabaggers and birthers are Christian,,, far from it, but they like to claim they are the only Christians left apparently)?

  9. The missing hyperlink to the NY Times article has been added and a couple of wrong words corrected.

  10. Rickey says:

    The links which Doc provided demonstrate how shoddy much of today’s journalism is. Charges are made about how much space the Prentice-Hall textbook gives to various religions and cultures, but it does not appear that even one of the reporters took the time to examine the book to see if the complaints have any validity. Instead they are content to merely report that “one side says this” and “the other side says that.”

  11. dunstvangeet says:

    Doc, Barack Obama actually released it to cover both the rumor of his middle name, and the birth place.

    The birther rumors were just starting to appear. There were columnists that suggested that he do it to counter these rumors. Out of these rumors that they listed, they listed that his middle name was Mohammed, and that his birth place was Kenya. His official website actually listed that it was for the middle name, but he actually released it for both his middle name, and his birth place.

  12. dunstvangeet says:

    One thing I never understood about the middle name is that somehow it’s worse (according to the birthers) to have a middle name of Mohammed, than it is to have a middle name of Hussein.

    Personally, I’d much rather be identified with Mohammed, than Saddam Hussein…

  13. Lupin says:

    Daniel: All three Children of Abraham have been killing each other for thousands of years for the favor of Sky Daddy.

    The way I put it myself is usually: “my invisible friend is stronger than your invisible friend”.

  14. Lupin says:

    While extremism, intolerance and fundamentalism are indeed things to be worried about, the impact of seemingly “reasonable” policies in allegedly America’s self-interest should not be overlooked.

    Your drone campaign has been killing dozens of innocent families in a region of the world known for their forgiving spirit (not).

    There were numerous reasons that motivated the 9/11 hijackers, but Americans often conveniently forget that revenge was one of them.

    When one is conducting a more or less undeclared war on most of the rest of the world for 50 years, you can’t act too shocked when your victims land one punch back.

  15. The Magic M says:

    Daniel: One thing I don’t get is what the teabaggers and birthers think is the relevance.

    As usual, before the 2012 elections it was all about propaganda value – the belief that Christian America would never vote for someone who was (suspected to be ) Muslim. Swiftboating and stuff.

    Today only the looney true believers still bother.

    Besides, it seems to be a more politically correct reason to hate him than for being black.

  16. RanTalbott says:

    Rickey: Instead they are content to merely report that “one side says this” and “the other side says that.”

    Yes, one of my pet peeves, too.

    Also the subject of a great monologue by one of my favorite comedians.

  17. Pastor Charmley says:

    dunstvangeet:
    One thing I never understood about the middle name is that somehow it’s worse (according to the birthers) to have a middle name of Mohammed, than it is to have a middle name of Hussein.

    I’ve never understood it much either, but then typically Birthers tend not to have much actual understanding of the complexities of Islam such as the Sunni/Shia divide that is one of the main factors involved in the current conflicts in Syria and Iraq. This means that it is incredibly common for Birthers to point to Obama’s relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia as though these demonstrated some Islamic allegiance, despite the fact that Iran and Saudi Arabia represent opposing schools of Islam. In fact of course the Obama is as willing to work with Sunni leaders as he is with Shia suggests the opposite, that he is NOT a Muslim.

  18. Pastor Charmley says:

    P.S. This also means that Birthers tend to eat up anything that is supposed to prove that Obama is a Muslim, even when it has been made up from whole cloth, such as the infamous “Islamic Prayer Curtain” claim. Much of it comes down to a fear of the foreign, with Obama being perceived as a foreigner, somehow “not really American”. This perception works itself out in both claims that Obama was born in Kenya and in claims he is Islamic, a religion perceived as both foreign and dangerous.

    In part of course because “Muslims go about their daily lives without killing people” is not news, while “Boko Haram kidnaps 200 schoolgirls” is. Thus if you don’t actually have any daily contact with Muslims there will be a tendency to form one’s ideas of them based on what one sees on the news media, which is always a distorting mirror.

  19. RanTalbott says:

    Pastor Charmley: In fact of course the Obama is as willing to work with Sunni leaders as he is with Shia suggests the opposite, that he is NOT a Muslim.

    I dunno about that: are there not “ecumenical” Muslims, like “ecumenical” Christians, who strive to at least bridge, if not necessarily heal, sectarian divisions?

    There are groups that make the news occasionally for trying to make/keep peace with us infidels. Surely there must be some “Heal the Umma” types, too.

    (Countdown to BR “Obots Think Obama is the Hidden Imam” story starts now…)

  20. Pastor Charmley says:

    RanTalbott: I dunno about that: are there not “ecumenical” Muslims, like “ecumenical” Christians, who strive to at least bridge, if not necessarily heal, sectarian divisions?

    There are groups that make the news occasionally for trying to make/keep peace with us infidels. Surely there must be some “Heal the Umma” types, too.

    True, I missed a step in my reasoning above. Basically, the Birthers who believe Obama is a Muslim believe that he is concealing his Islamic beliefs, and is in fact an Islamic extremist (because otherwise why hide his religious beliefs). And THAT is quite impossible to reconcile with the facts that he is seeking allies on both sides of the great divide.

    The reality of course is that Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two great regional powers, and anyone trying to achieve anything in the Middle East has to talk to both.

  21. Lupin says:

    Pastor Charmley: I’ve never understood it much either, but then typically Birthers tend not to have much actual understanding of the complexities of Islam such as the Sunni/Shia divide

    They also have no understanding of the differences between communism, Marxism, Marxism-leninism, socialism and social democracy — and don’t want to learn, as I found a couple of days ago when I tried posting a short primer on BR.

  22. The Magic M says:

    Lupin: They also have no understanding of the differences between

    Why would they? They need to believe “the enemy” is the one thing that embodies everything they consider evil. Just like Satan himself.

  23. The European says:

    This guy’s middle name is “Muhamad”. He was baptized “Karl-Heinz” – the most German of all German names. Chose his new name – guess what – after Muhammad Ali.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Huber

  24. Thomas Brown says:

    It is being mad that other people don’t follow your religion.

    It is being mad that other people don’t follow your religion.

    It is being mad that other people don’t follow your religion.

    That is the whole of the problem.

    The solution is simple: practice your religion yourself and STFU about everybody else.

  25. bgansel9 says:

    In an interview with CNN, Gabriel was quoted as saying “America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America. They have infiltrated us at the CIA, at the FBI, at the Pentagon, at the State Department. They’re being radicalized in radical mosques, in our cities and communities within the United States.”

    Gee, that’s funny! I’ve seen it at the workplace water cooler and have read about it on Tea Party blogs.

  26. bgansel9 says:

    No, this isn’t harming America, is it? – http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/garrow-rush-obama-should-be-tried-and-executed-over-mythical-emp-plot

    Idiots plotting the assassination of a president are not wishing to harm America, they are actually plotting to do so!

  27. bgansel9 says:

    Thomas Brown: The solution is simple: practice your religion yourself and STFU about everybody else.

    Good reminder of the reason why Jesus said to pray in a closet away from other people, and not to stand on the corners exhibiting how prayerful a person is. The person in a closet is truly concerned about their faith in God. The person on the street corner is only concerned in how his behavior effects other people.

  28. bgansel9 says:

    Daniel: All three Children of Abraham have been killing each other for thousands of years for the favor of Sky Daddy.

    According to scripture, Abraham had one son (Ishmael) by his concubine Hagar, another son, Isaac by Sarah, and six sons (Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah) by Keturah after the death of Sarah. (Genesis 25)

    Noah had three sons, Ham, Shem and Japeth. Is that whom you mean?

  29. slash2k says:

    @bgansel: “Children of Abraham” is a reference to the three great Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

    (Okay, there may be more than three, but Ba’hai and Druze and Rastafarianism, etc, are relatively tiny.)

  30. Crustacean says:

    The theory I really like: Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim; he’s a secret atheist.

    If that were true, would it make the haters hate him more, or less?

  31. Benji Franklin says:

    I have learned from the Birthers, that no matter what religion one subscribes to and no matter which God one worships, we are all eventually going to die. Thanks, Obama.

  32. The European says:

    bgansel9: Good reminder of the reason why Jesus said to pray in a closet away from other people, and not to stand on the corners exhibiting how prayerful a person is.The person in a closet is truly concerned about their faith in God. The person on the street corner is only concerned in how his behavior effects other people.

    Well, he commanded to “preach” to other peoples as well – which is understood as a commandment to convert people of other faiths. One of the worst things that can be done.

  33. The European says:

    Crustacean:
    The theory I really like: Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim; he’s a secret atheist.

    If that were true, would it make the haters hate him more, or less?

    I guess more like Agnostic than Atheist …..

  34. Thomas Brown says:

    The European: Well, he commanded to “preach” to other peoples as well – which is understood as a commandment to convert people of other faiths. One of the worst things that can be done.

    Not that I would speak for Him, but I find no evil in making sure everyone who hasn’t considered joining a religion has at least heard about it. But that’s it. Stop right there, with the preaching part. It’s the next step that is fraught with suck: being mad when they don’t, threatening them if they don’t, torturing them if they don’t, discriminating against them in work, housing, and other facets of life, etc.

    No. Air your beliefs and be on your way.

    This is embodied in what I consider one of the wisest spiritual movements ever: AA. Their focus is on, and this is important: Attraction rather than Promotion. Why? Because that’s all that works. It is worse than useless to go around getting in the faces of drinkers and shouting “My friend! You should be ashamed of yourself! You need to stop drinking, and quickly.” The only thing that works is to live a sober life to good purpose & mind your own business, and then when a drunk comes to you and says “I’m tired of this life. You seem to have a really nice life. How do you do it?” That’s when you mention AA.

    I had a friend once who was a unique guy; an existentialist intellectual from Saskatchewan who was muscles from head to foot. It was assumed he didn’t have a religion because he never said anything about religion. But when someone commented as much one day he said “No. I do. But if you can’t figure it out from my actions, I figure it doesn’t matter.”

  35. A problem with the Christian religion is that its sacred writings were written by different people at different times, and most originated in oral traditions. The “Great Commission” that ends Matthew’s gospel has Jesus saying:

    “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
    (ESV) Mat 28:18-20

    The authors of “The Five Gospels: What did Jesus Really Say?” conclude that Jesus is very unlikely to have said that, but rather that this was the program of the early church put into Jesus mouth 40 years later. That said, the statement is part of the Christian religion whether Jesus actually said it or not.

    The way early Christians made disciples, so far as the Bible says, is that folks went to public forums where things were disputed and preached, or they went to Jewish synagogues and spoke.

    The justification for coerced conversion comes from a parable of Jesus:

    “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready. ‘ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. ‘ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. ‘ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. ‘ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. ‘ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room. ‘ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”
    (ESV) Luk 14:16-23

    The European: Well, he commanded to “preach” to other peoples as well – which is understood as a commandment to convert people of other faiths. One of the worst things that can be done.

  36. The European says:

    I recall the Catholic Katechism as saying that one can not be saved outside the church (“Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.”) The actual Papa seems to think a bit otherwise.

  37. The Catechism says, at 841, “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold to the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.” That is footnoted to Lumen Gentium 16; cf Nostra aetate 3.

    Of the quotation you gave, it says:

    Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his body. …

    “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience–those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

    The European: I recall the Catholic Katechism as saying that one can not be saved outside the church (“Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.”) The actual Papa seems to think a bit otherwise.

  38. Benji Franklin says:

    Lupin: The way I put it myself is usually: “my invisible friend is stronger than your invisible friend”.

    I’m afraid the wingnut extremists add teeth to the model you describe. For them it’s more like:

    “MY inconsistent interpretation of the ambiguous “sacred” writings unverifiably authored by my invisible friend compel me to destroy your invisible friend by destroying you.”

    My personal fear is that a religious-extremist harnessed genetic engineer will create a deadly plague, one that will make the plague of Birthers seem like a whiff of bad air. Irrationality is an almost limitless danger given the reach and lethality of even current technology and scientific knowledge.

    More than a few notable Sci-Fi writers have mourned the menacing presence of religious superstition, armed with technology’s expanding kill-ratios, threatening to steer civilization over a cliff of self-destruction.

    For some, such a fear was not the whimsical conclusion arrived at while developing a particular futuristic story’s plot device, but was a kind of profound and frightening conclusion that seemed, in light of superstition’s frequent role in civilization’s continuing tribal warfare, inevitable in the thoughtfully contemplated, near future.

    Arthur Clarke was such a writer. He left us with a few quotations that address this topic.

    “It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him.”

    “The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.”

    The rash assertion that ‘God made man in His own image’ is ticking like a time bomb at the foundations of many faiths, and as the hierarchy of the universe is disclosed to us, we may have to recognize this chilling truth: if there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they cannot be very important gods.”

    (All by Arthur Clarke)

    For persons who live safely in relative freedom with adequate food, shelter, and are usually reasonably free from pain, I personally find the fascination with an “afterlife” an appalling indication of a profound failure to appreciate what an astonishing helping of good fortune we have experienced, just in being self-aware sentient beings capable of contemplating our best estimate of what we can discover about reality.

  39. bgansel9 says:

    The European: Well, he commanded to “preach” to other peoples as well – which is understood as a commandment to convert people of other faiths. One of the worst things that can be done.

    Actually, in one place he commanded his followers to only go to the Lost Sheep of Israel and in another he stated Christians were to convert people from everywhere. I think there are so many contradictions in Jesus words that it’s hard to believe he said all he did. I tend to believe his first message was the correct one.

  40. bgansel9 says:

    Thomas Brown: No. Air your beliefs and be on your way.

    And Jesus commanded that: Matthew 10:14 – And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

  41. bgansel9 says:

    slash2k: “Children of Abraham” is a reference to the three great Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

    I’ve heard them called the Abrahamic religions but never heard the religions themselves described as the Children of Abraham. Many Christians have no actual lineage to Abraham at all (unless one believes in the Armstrong British Israel theory).

  42. Lupin says:

    Benji Franklin: More than a few notable Sci-Fi writers have mourned the menacing presence of religious superstition, armed with technology’s expanding kill-ratios, threatening to steer civilization over a cliff of self-destruction.

    Robert Heinlein’s IF THIS GOES ON which I foolishly dismissed as a teenager as wholly unbelievable is becoming more and more frightful every day.

  43. Lupin says:

    Crustacean: The theory I really like: Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim; he’s a secret atheist.

    According to the birthers, he is both: Marxist (atheist) AND muslim!!!

    If Wiley E Coyote existed, I figure he’d be a birther.

  44. RanTalbott says:

    bgansel9: I’ve heard them called the Abrahamic religions but never heard the religions themselves described as the Children of Abraham

    Keep in mind that the term comes from folks who call the most prominent non-procreative person on the planet “The Holy Father”.

    They seem to see paternity in odd places…

  45. I tend to think both inauthentic.

    bgansel9: I tend to believe his first message was the correct one.

  46. bgansel9 says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I tend to think both inauthentic.

    Being the non-Christian that I am, I don’t have any reason personally to believe Jesus actually existed, but if a large part of our society is going to pretend he did, I think they need to stick with the messages that comport with “his” mission, not assign contradictions as truth when they are at odds with the rest of what “he” said.

  47. Sef says:

    Lupin: If Wile E Coyote existed, I figure he’d be a birther.

    FIFY

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