What naïve teachers need to know about Islam

I attended an ACT for America chapter meeting yesterday.  The topic was “Islam and Women” presented by Dr. Jonathan Matusitz, Ph.D.  a professor in the School of Communication at the University of Central Florida.  After Dr. Matusitz spent an entire hour detailing the vast array of hostile behaviors against women commanded in the Qur’an, promoted by Islamic leaders, and practiced by Muslims around the world, a local school teacher rose to comment.

He appeared to excuse Islamic-informed Muslim behaviors by reminding us that the Bible, too, contains verses that appear immoral in the context of civilization today.  Well, I have to say, that ignorant attempt at moral equivalence got the discussion going.

We were all amazed that after hearing fact upon fact of vile actions promoted by Islamic ideology today around the world, this man had the kahunas to attempt to excuse Islam by proclaiming Judeo-Christian religious texts equivalently evil.

Near the end of the meeting, our teacher friend left the meeting after he accused us of being a “hate group.”

Not wanting him to remain ignorant, I emailed him the following:

Dear ___:

Hi. I also attended the ACT for America meeting Tuesday afternoon.

You stimulated some interesting discussion by presenting your views to the group. We appreciate that because your opinions are typical of the understanding of many well intentioned people in the media, academia, and frankly, in the general population.

I would like to address a few points you made.

You expressed moral equivalence between some of the verses in the Bible and in the Qur’an, I guess as the basis for excusing Islam or perhaps to suggest we should not judge others because “we, too, have sinned.”

Concerning your claim of moral equivalence between the content of the Bible and the Qur’an, here are several points for your consideration:

1. You declared moral equivalency between texts of the Bible that have not been literally interpreted for hundreds of years (and even then not representative of the teaching of Christ) with texts of Islamic holy books that are filled with hate and prejudice (that are representative of the teaching of Muhammad) that are literally interpreted daily in dozens of countries and taught and promoted in thousands of Islamic schools and mosques –even in the US. The Bible texts you quoted are universally taught as being limited in place and time in the distant past millennia, while Islamic texts are present-day mandates in the main stream of Islamic thought. I consider your comparison to be either ignorant of one or both texts and their present day interpretation, or utterly disingenuous.

2. The overriding messages of the Bible and the Qur’an are starkly different from one another. The essence of the Bible message is man’s sin and redemption with subtopics of God’s love and forgiveness. The overriding message of the Qur’an is submission of self and others to the will of Allah through political activism to convert or constrain the inferior infidel. Please refer to this “Political Islam” website which analyzes the proportion of the Islamic trilogy devoted to how the infidel shall be treated.

3. The essence of Christianity is presented via the life of Christ. The essence of Islam is presented in the life of Muhammad. Study and contrast the lives of these two men to discover the core differences between the teachings of Christianity and Islam. Again, your attempts at moral equivalence come across as uninformed or subject to an agenda I am not aware of.

You described our meeting as a “hate group” because of the response of several people to your question “would you deport Muslims.” Some of the answers motivated you to walk out of the meeting.

You posed the question, “would you deport all Muslims?” I must say, you posed an extreme question. There are certainly more moderate proposals that you could have proffered to address culturally incompatible and aggressive forms of Islam. And in reply to your extreme question you got a few extreme responses. Some said “yes”; some said “only those who prove seditious”; others said “enforce the laws of the land.”

However, our problem is this: Too few people in this country, apparently yourself included, fail to understand the nature of Islam, the ideology. They fail to understand Islamic taqiyya and abrogation, and Islam’s teachings about the infidel, and the distinctions between Muhammad’s Meccan and Medinan experiences and actions. They fail to understand the nature and implications of Sharia law and the consequences to allowing or enabling a dual legal system in this nation. They fail to understand the extent of infiltration of Islamists into our government, academia, and media.

I don’t have a problem with Muslims. I have a problem with the ignorance of our people about Islam, its ideology, political intent, and Islam’s methods of furthering its supremacist agenda through political means and equally, through lying, intimidation and terror to supplement political means. Muslims come in all stripes. Some are benign, usually because they are ignorant of the Islamic ideology they proclaim or because they are more interested in raising their family and melding into our culture. Many are not benign and feign moderation and friendship to further their supremacist agenda. Generally, the more devout they are, the more their values differ from western culture and morality. And the more they tend toward deception and various forms of jihad to further their Islamic ideology.

Islam is at least as much a political ideology as it is a religion. Bill Warner has analyzed the Islamic Trilogy and determined that the great majority is devoted to how Muslims must treat the infidel, making Islam every bit as much a political ideology as Communism or Fascism. Many of the best informed about Islam are convinced Islam is more dangerous to this nation than either Communism or Fascism because it demands the same form of top down submission coupled with religious fervor – a very potent combination. Increasing numbers of experts are concluding (and I agree) that the coercive, supremacist, Sharia aspect of Islam is more a political ideology than a religion and should not be afforded the protections of the first amendment as if it were a religion.

Those among us at the meeting you attended who agreed with your “deportation” question most likely see that as a last resort if and when the situation becomes so dire that other options to save our government and preserve our freedoms appear futile. Several European countries have reached the point of such action being seriously officially discussed, e.g. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Here is the view of an Iraqi Muslim on this topic. I certainly hope we don’t let ourselves get to that point. I hope we can feel secure without that action being necessary. But given the record of terror acts in the US and around the world where 99% are committed by Muslims in the name of Islam while shouting Allahu Akbar, I don’t hold out much hope for that miracle. Here is a site that tracks acts of Islamic terror around the world – the link lists such acts committed in just the last 30 days. How many billions has the US spent since 9-11 defending ourselves against Lutherans, Presbyterians, Jews and Mormons compared to Muslims?

Our group is a reality awareness group, not a hate group. Those who ignorantly refer to us as a hate group are not admitting to reality. To some, apparently you included, truth is the new “hate speech.” Yes, there are nice Muslim families, nice Muslim children, and friendly Muslim neighbors. No one denies that. That should not excuse us from identifying the reality of the Islamic ideology, its aims and methods.

I welcome your response to the points I have made.

I would like to have addressed this to: “Dear ignorant, Islam-coddling, clueless excuse for a teacher.”  But the better part of me prevailed.