Obama in Turkey: Falsity Never Helps

The Manhattan cocktail circuit is surely sleeping easier, now that Obama has bowed to Muslims in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and has delivered his message that America is not at war with Islam.

Never mind that this is the exact same message that the evil President Bush delivered repeatedly. This is different; this is a guy whose father was a Muslim, who attended Muslim schools, who even has the middle name of Hussein. Surely they’ll love America now. Even more so, since Obama also offered these gracious words:

"We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country."

Our politically correct, Pravda media will instruct us on the proper mindset for admiring the great Obama and his courageous, outreaching rhetoric. And surely we must all agree that this is what a President must say to ‘ease tensions’, bring about a ‘new era of reconciliation’, and ‘build bridges of understanding.

Just a few questions, please.

What exactly has the Islamic religion done to shape the United States of America for the better?

What was the influence of the Islamic faith on the founding of America?

The Constitution includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion (to worship as one chooses, or not worship), and freedom of the press. What forms do these freedoms have under Islam?

Is the “Creator” of man who is acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence and who endows man with inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness the same as the Allah of Islam?

These are important questions. We addressed them in an earlier Brushfires essay, here. Many Americans intuitively know the answers, and almost all do NOT want to discuss either the questions or the answers, at least not in public. There is a volatile and uncomfortable feel to all of them. They sense the trigger-happy element of thought out there that is just waiting to pounce on anything critical of Islam as hateful, intolerant, inciting violence, etc., etc. And so we want to believe the questions can be swept aside, and if we just adopt a ‘can’t we all get along’ attitude, everything will work out just fine.

Nothing could be more ignorant and foolish. But to state the obvious point that forever gets muddled in these discussions: in every faith, there is and always has been a difference between theology and adherents. To question the theology is not to hate any individual. Indeed, it is at the individual level where experience shows we find the most examples of actual reconciliation, mutual respect and true brotherhood.

We don’t think it’s helpful when Obama speaks untruths about the positive influence of Islam on America. There hasn’t been any. The American standard of living, the American standard of interracial and interethnic and interreligious harmony, and the American standard of treatment of men and women far exceeds that of any other nation on earth, and the reason for that derives from the uniqueness of the America’s founding ideals, which most assuredly sprang from Judeo-Christian teachings. They have proven to be better than anything else humanity has come up with; we need to be clear on this; and we need to say so, unapologetically.

Most would react to Obama’s comments to Turkey with at most a shrug of ‘no big deal…what else could he say?’ There are many other things he could have said, including a reminder that American soldiers have liberated 50 million Muslims from tyrannical rule in Iraq and Afghanistan, with no demand for anything in return except a cessation of threats against America and its allies. He could have invited his counterpart in Turkey to speak of his great admiration for the predominantly Christian faith of those American soldiers, who have laid down their lives for the betterment of Muslims. That would be the beginning of a bridge of understanding.

Whatever good there is in Islam must be made to speak for itself. Let the world see the thriving, joyful, example-inspiring Muslims of excellence and achievement and love for all their fellow men and women, regardless of religious affiliation. The world is tired of hearing only of how offended Muslims can be over cartoons and other perceived slights that Christians endure on a regular basis, and Jews endure on a near daily basis as a matter of institutionalized anti-Semitism throughout the world. The world is also tired of having western politicians speaking of the ‘religion of peace’ instead of imams and mullahs demonstrating to the world how Islam can be trusted as a religion of peace.

If terrorism were threatening the entire world, and if virtually all terrorism in the world were being carried out by ‘radical’ Catholics, and if the Pope and other Catholic authorities were not visibly taking steps to rebuke it and rein it in, a confident world would not spend time singing the praises of Catholic doctrine. The world would be putting the burden of proof on Catholics as to why the world should not question that religion, if not turn from it altogether.

We need a more confident world led by a more confident and competent American President.

Paul Gable

Posted April 7, 2009