Rod Dreher of The American Conservative writes: “I am more concerned today, in 2015, post-Indiana and post-Brendan Eich, with secularist threats to religious liberty and religious tolerance than I am with Islam in America — and if you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that’s a big shift for me.” Indeed it is. Way back in 2002, Dreher wrote a favorable review of my book Islam Unveiled in National Review (now apparently scrubbed from the NR site, but available here) that got the book widespread notice and led to my continuing to do this work. Dreher and I kept in sporadic and always friendly contact over the years, but that review was a very long time ago, and when I started asking him why The American Conservative was embracing the Islamic supremacist imperative to destroy the freedom of speech and echoing Muslim Brotherhood-group talking points about “Islamophobia,” he clammed up.
Now we see why: he says it is a “relief” that a correspondent named Matthew, who I take to be his son, has a Muslim RA at his college dorm, and praises another correspondent for being happy that her daughter’s RA is a hijab-wearing Muslim girl. I am sure these RA’s are wonderful people, but Dreher’s point is that it is better for a young Christian in college to have a Muslim RA than an aggressive secularist who will push the Christian to accept gay marriage, transgenderism, abortion, and whatever else the secular Left is pushing at the time.
This is a common argument among Christian social conservatives. It proceeds, however, on the false assumption that Christian and Muslim moral teaching are essentially identical. Yet there are serious differences that have up to now received far less attention than the similarities, although they are no less important. For although fornication and adultery are indeed forbidden in Islam as in Christianity, and there are other apparent moral similarities between the two religions, the Muslim understanding of marriage and sexual morality differs so greatly from the Christian understanding that it renders those similarities void of meaning. Islamic morality allows for numerous practices that Christianity abhors and that manifest a completely different understanding of marriage and the dignity of the human person, including child marriage, polygamy, female genital mutilation, and even sexual slavery of non-Muslim women.
It’s the same situation with abortion, as well: many Christians, and Catholics in particular, believe that Muslims are pro-life and thus reliable comrades-in-arms on life issues, but this is also a false assumption. The contemporary Islamic scholar Azizah al-Hibri sums up the prevailing view: “The majority of Muslim scholars permit abortion, although they differ on the stage of fetal development beyond which it becomes prohibited.” Furthermore, says al-Hibri, all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence “permit abortion for exigencies such as saving the mother’s life.” Another Islamic scholar, the American convert to Islam Sherman Jackson, explains that only a “minority of jurists” believe that Islam forbids abortion “even during the first trimester,” and counsels Muslims against engaging in any kind of pro-life activism: “While abortion, even during the first trimester, is forbidden according to a minority of jurists, it is not held to be an offense for which there are criminal or even civil sanctions. On this understanding, Muslim-Americans who oppose abortion should assiduously limit their activism to the moral sphere and avoid supporting positions that favor the imposition of criminal or civil sanctions in an area into which Islamic law itself never contemplated injecting these.” (Sherman Jackson, Islam and the Blackamerican: looking toward the third resurrection, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 151.)
This is not to say that Matthew’s RA, or the hijab-wearing RA, are going to be hosting an FGM Night or a Sex Slave Auction in the dorm. They may not even be aware of the sanction such practices have in Islamic texts and teachings. But the fact that they do have such sanction calls into question Dreher’s idea that Christian social conservatives have a reliable ally in Muslims. I wonder if Dreher knows that American Muslim advocacy groups, already firmly aligned with the Left, generally supported gay marriage, for the obvious reason that it will lead to the legalization of polygamy. There can be little doubt that he knows about Islamic law’s classic provisions for the subjugation and institutionalized second-class status of Christians and other non-Muslims; as he is an Orthodox Christian, one would think that even a glancing knowledge of the history of his Church would give him a healthy awareness of what that means for religious freedom and the chance to live a full Christian life.
In light of his shift in direction, and of the friendly relationship we once had, I am offering Rod Dreher a gift: a free ticket to Mosul or Raqqa, or any other Islamic State stronghold of his choice, so that he can experience in undistilled, undiluted form what life is like for Christians under Islamic law. I’ll even throw in another free ticket for Kelley Beaucar Vlahos. I wonder if, after a day or a week or a month of that, Dreher would still think secularist threats to religious liberty and religious tolerance to be greater than the threat of Islamic jihad. But he might not be able to speak from his severed head to explain the latest evolution of his views.
“The New ‘Ecumenism of the Trenches,’” by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, June 9, 2015:
A reader says something fascinating:
The things you have been writing about lately on your blog made me realize something today. My daughter, a high schooler, is spending a good part of her summer off at college. It’s not really college, but a program for gifted & talented kids administered by [name of secular university]. When I moved her into the dorm, I was startled to see that the RA on her hall was a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. She was very polite. I liked her right away, but I have to confess that as a conservative Christian from a non-diverse part of the country, it made me nervous to think about my Christian daughter in the care of a Muslim woman, even a Muslim woman that was really nice.
Now I have come to be so grateful for that Muslim RA, and I want to tell you why. In hearing from my daughter about what the other kids are like at that summer program, and the things they talk about and believe, I am comforted that there is at least someone in her dorm who shares her belief in God, and in moral sanity. My daughter is not having a bad time at all, and I’m not worried about her. If things do go south in some way, or if she has questions or concerns, it is a relief to know that the woman in charge of her residence hall is someone whose moral instincts I can trust. I had to write to tell you about this revelation, and how it made me confront my prejudice. I never imagined that I would be living in a world where as a conservative Christian in America, I am surprised to discover that when it comes to the care and raising of our children, I have more in common with believing Muslims than I do with seculars who look like me. On the other hand, I never imagined I would be living in a nation that has lost its sense of right and wrong. How weird it is to think about my minor daughter far away from home, in an “in loco parentis” situation, and to be able to say as a Christian parent, and mean it, “Thank God for that Muslim.”
That’s really interesting, and I completely agree with this reader. This note brought to mind a 2012 story The New York Times did about Muslim students from abroad choosing US Catholic colleges.…
It is important to realize that not all Christian colleges really have a Christian ethos on campus. Still, it occurs to me that post-Christian America will likely bring about surprising practical alliances between small-o orthodox Christians and believing Muslims, in the same way that post-Sixties America facilitated practical alliances between conservative Evangelicals and conservative Catholics.
Who will be the Chuck Colson and Richard John Neuhaus of the Christian-Muslim rapprochement? What I mean is, which Christian and Muslim leaders have the status and the vision to bring small-o orthodox Christians and believing Muslims together to stand side by side in the public square on social issues of mutual concern? I’m not talking about goo-goo ecumenism that ignores meaningful differences. I’m talking about what came to be known (in Colson’s phrase) as the “ecumenism of the trenches” — a practical coalition of divergent believers who will not yield on theological distinctives, but who recognize a certain theological commonality and need to work together on public issues of mutual concern.
What would need to happen for this to work on a broader level than just episodic situations like a college dorm? Me, I would need to be confident that the American Muslims with whom I was working were not part of a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood. I could imagine that Muslims would likely object to working with Evangelicals who were heavily involved in promoting Israel. Other obstacles are not hard to foresee. Nevertheless, I am more concerned today, in 2015, post-Indiana and post-Brendan Eich, with secularist threats to religious liberty and religious tolerance than I am with Islam in America — and if you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that’s a big shift for me….
UPDATE: What do you know! Got a text from Matthew saying that his RA is, in fact, a Muslim man. That’s a relief….
Angemon says
Nice as those muslim RA might be (whether genuinely or acting on stealth jihad), it doesn’t change islamic orthodoxy or the islamic texts and their interpretation, no matter how much Obama wishes it. Religions are defined by what their texts say, not by how their professed adherents act.
eib says
Do not judge Islam by noting the actions of its adherents. Read the text. The Quran, Hadith, Tafsir and Reliance of the Traveller. I trust the text. The Muslim is no guide to the propitiary magic he practices.
zaba says
The Muslim is no guide to the propitiary magic he practices.
au contraire!!
We see daily examples of muzlims acing out their favorite verses.
In turn, some to take a closer look at islam.
eib says
And where do the verses come from? The text, the text, the text!
BillWalker says
By their DEEDS ye shall know them.
nacazo says
Even a ticket to lesser islamic paradises such as Tunisia or Turkey (more secular) would do for a rational mind. But for less rational beings, the perfect sharia paradise of isis may be required.
Concerned Citizen says
I just saw this on YouTube and thought I would share. I know it has nothing to do with what was posted but didn’t know how to get it to Jihad Watch?? Thanks!
http://youtu.be/q7ePFollQQE
jihad3tracker says
THANKS MUCHLY FOR THIS LEAD TO THE VIDEO — I will describe it because you did not :
An American of southern heritage asks a Walmart store to make a cake with icing showing the Confederate flag + words saying “HERITAGE NOT HATE”. Walmart refuses.
The next day, this fellow goes back and asks for a cake with icing depicting the ISIS flag. WALMART DOES BAKE THAT CAKE. OK, sure, we can come up with excuses —- employees don’t recognize the symbol, they can’t read Arabic, blah blah blah.
But perhaps some Jihad Watch readers here would like to contact Walmart’s website to get the corporate culture educated in current reality.
Completely separate from thorny issues blended into the Confederate flag situation, Walmart might want to advise national staff that because Islam’s front line here in the United States monitors what happens regarding our cluelessness,
Hundreds of thousands of networking Allah worshippers around the country with nothing in their homes but a few pieces of furniture and Arabic cable channels spewing anti-U.S. jihad hatred (as a neighbor of one especially aggressive “victimhood-narrative family” discovered) will soon be aware of that ISIS cake incident, and could easily have lots of stooges ask Walmart to bake one for them too.
Drop by drop — so the erosion of our nation goes, sliding into dhimmihood. Hey, after working at a restored caliphate for all these centuries, what is another 20 or 30 years ???
Concerned Citizen says
@ Jihad3tracker…Thank you for reposting this and explaining the content! You are exactly on point! Thanks again!!
Cecilia Ellis says
Just had a chance to view video. Views now at 123,961. Thanks Concerned Citizen and
jihad3tracker for providing this link. Expect that viewing number to rise. Guess Walmart bakers have been told that the Confederate flag represents, according to Obama, “the original sin of America” – slavery – but somehow were not told that Islam, the source of that “original sin,” has institutionalized slavery for 1400 years. The PC train only stops at Christian and Jewish depots; Muslim stations are bypassed.
Unlike the Confederate flag, the ISIS flag is not politically incorrect because, as Obama has stated, “Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not “Islamic.” No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state.”
Video and transcript may be viewed at:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/10/politics/transcript-obama-syria-isis-speech/index.html?hpt=po_c1
In contrast, it appears that Obama’s insight has changed significantly since his March 2008 campaign speech at Constitution Center. During that speech, he addressed Rev. Wright’s controversial statements about America and characterized Wright’s view as follows:
“a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”
http://constitutioncenter.org/amoreperfectunion/docs/Race_Speech_Transcript.pdf
jihad3tracker says
********** HOLY SH***TTTT ********* This video went from 13,787 viewings at around 3:30 (when I put up my comment here) to over 30,000 right now (around 7:08).
THAT IS WHAT WE KNOW AS —– GOING VIRAL ! ! ! !
Concerned Citizen says
WOW!!! That is crazy!! I was so mad when I saw that video!! I hope it goes way beyond our expectations!!
jihad3tracker says
As of midnight — 84,250 views . . . ISIS does not seem to be a big hit with Americans.
Keith Ellison & Andre Carson must be shedding bitter tears on their opened copies of the Qur’an. As the brilliant David Wood wrote recently about the two scumbagS who got shredded before wreaking havoc at Pam’s cartoon carnival :
MAYBE ALLAH IS NOT AS POWERFUL AS MUSLIMS THINK HE IS !
somehistory says
When a secularist tries to convince someone that abortion, etc. are good things, acceptable things, and that Christians should not fight them on these issues, it isn’t the time that muslims are going to be a safe haven for a Christian in a storm. Sometimes, each one must *stand alone*….for a Christian, standing alone would mean relying only…solely… on their belief and trust in The True God and His Son.
islam is a snake, a wild beast from satan. Those who trust in and practice it, are worshipping the devil and even if they may *seem nice*….they should not be trusted for help in making moral decisions. Their *religion* is as far from Christianity as is the belief that there is no God, and that there is no Christ, Son of God.
revereridesagain says
Ultimately, it must be difficult to commit to opposing Islam’s persecution and mistreatment of women if one does not even believe that a woman owns her own body.
revereridesagain says
Or when one holds “scripturally” mandated views of women so closely aligned with those of Islam.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=christianity+view+of+women&view=detailv2&&&id=ECEAC5F9B96F227E4138C1260BF49C93E2F3AEF0&selectedIndex=0&ccid=wd6XIlzY&simid=608002747932606728&thid=JN.efSk0xjY0vNgjI0OkMhYWw&ajaxhist=0
somehistory says
Since you don’t know what my views of *women* are, your post from some website means nothing to me.
And no one *owns* his/her body as far as this person is concerned. It is my belief….and it’s fine if you reject it….that our Creator owns each one.
What is more, if a *woman did own her body*…it still would not be that she also *owns the body of her baby that is as yet unborn* any more than she would *own* it once it is born and breathing without any connection to her breath.
If a *woman owns her body*, then any child born from her also *owns* his/her body, so therefore, even if she can do as she wishes with her *own body*, that *license* would not extend to the child.
The baby has his/her own separate and distinct DNA from the very moment of conception. Part from the mother, part from the father, but distinct from both. Therefore, she has no *right* to kill the baby. She does not *own* the baby or the baby’s body.
The baby is a child from those first cells meeting and she has no *rights* not given by God, which are more responsibilities than they are rights, regarding the child. If she kills it, has someone else kill it…God will hold her responsible for the death.
Now, I have said to you what I have said and will not go over this again.
“Who are you to judge the servant of another (Romans 14:4.”
Western Canadian says
“revereridesagain says
June 27, 2015 at 10:03 pm
Ultimately, it must be difficult to commit to opposing Islam’s persecution and mistreatment of women if one does not even believe that a woman owns her own body.”
This is typical of the average pro-abort… The child’s body is no more her own body while in her womb, than it is while walking down the street 20 years later. A different and distinct body at all times…… It does show just how shabbily educated pro-aborts (hard leftists) really are. Or how hate filled.
JIMJFOX says
“a secularist tries to convince someone that abortion, etc. are good things”
Typical religious bigotry. Nobody with normal [religious or non-religious] human
feelings says that abortion is good. Where do you get this repulsive idea?
As for god owning a life, you are with the muslims on this one; they also believe
their life is Allah’s to do as he wishes— “Insh’Allah” meaning ‘if god wills it’.
somehistory says
You, fox, are the bigot. You are never one to be anti-jihad, as you are too busy being anti-Christian.
You have no way to know whether someone ever says *abortion is good* so as to say no one ever says or has said it. You are not, nor have you ever been, privy to every conversation that has taken place. And since you are so bigoted of eye against Christians and Christianity, you wouldn’t admit to having heard someone say it.
And who’s necessarily writing here of “normal human feelings” when it comes to abortion?
How could anyone with “normal human feelings” ever say anything about abortion but that it is wrong, and bad, and evil and should not be happening? And yet, many would likely say they have “normal human feelings” and yet openly approve of abortion being available to any woman, or girl. who goes to get one.
The evil raper of children, murderer of innocent people, took a lot of what he wrote, or others wrote for him, from the Bible. The fact…fact, fact, fact….that our Creator owns each one is clearly in the Bible. Whether you like it or not.
If you get the materials, or make the materials, and then use the materials to create something, you would say that you, fox, “own it”
And one last thing, foxy, the Christian wanting to do things according to the commandments of Christ, and saying if “God wills” it, may be with similar words, but the meanings are as far apart as your thoughts and God’s thoughts. Greater than the greatest distance from any star to another..
Champ says
In light of his shift in direction, and of the friendly relationship we once had, I am offering Rod Dreher a gift: a free ticket to Mosul or Raqqa, or any other Islamic State stronghold of his choice, so that he can experience in undistilled, undiluted form what life is like for Christians under Islamic law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s a splendid idea, since this man needs a wake-up call!
Champ says
Rod should see this invitation as a one-way ticket to *paradise*! 😀
Cheers, Rod!!
And I see what you’re drinking …but hey man, what are you smokin’, Dude?!
wildjew says
“This is a common argument among Christian social conservatives. It proceeds, however, on the false assumption that Christian and Muslim moral teaching are essentially identical…..”
I have heard radio talk show Laura Ingraham argue this. “Muslims (like conservative Christians) are pro-life….”
Well aren’t they pro-life?
gravenimage says
Wildjew, *of course* people who openly proclaim they “love death” are pro-life! sarc/off
Savvy Kafir says
As a progressive religious skeptic, I can assure all Jihad Watch readers that Christian America has MUCH less to fear from us than from Islam — just as we left-wing secularists have MUCH less to fear from right-wing Christians, compared to Islamists. Islam is in a class by itself, in terms of the threat it poses to all of us.
Kaffirtastic says
As a left-winger and atheist who reads this site, I would tend to agree, even through I seem to be at odds with most of the readership here and cringe at a lot of the commentary. And it’s nice to see a fellow progressive on here. I wish more liberals saw Islam for what it is and the danger that the ideology poses to the free world.
wildjew says
What does it mean to be a liberal today? If by liberal you mean Classical Liberal, I am a Classical Liberal. I find myself using the term progressive to define most on today’s left who sympathize with the global jihad and Islamic totalitarianism. What is the difference between a liberal and a progressive? Don’t most self-professed liberals / progressives support Barack Obama. Obama makes Bush look like a dilettante when it comes to his lies about the religion of Islam.
Kepha says
Kaffirtastic–as someone whose comments probably make you cringe, let me ask you this:
In your secular liberal state, do people like me have the following rights:
1. Support our own schools for the education of our children in values we uphold without the state demanding x percentages of various demographics to keep our tax exemption?
2. To refrain from celebrating behavior we believe to be sinful if we own a bakery, wedding services, or catering business?
3. To refuse to perform abortion on demand if we are in the healing professions?
4. Freely speak our mind rather than insincerely sing Kumbaya when we believe someone’s beliefs or behaviors are wrong? And I am not asking for the right to be in your face about things.
5. May we spank our erring children without a gubmint “expert” who’s never changed a diaper in her life or dealt with an unruly pre-teen offspring writing us up for abuse? No, I don’t mean hang them up by the thumbs and poke them with a hot iron. I mean a a short swat with a wooden spoon to the buttocks.
6. Freely evangelize non-believers and make our beliefs and viewpoints known in public fora? I mean using speech and persuasion.
7. Not have to support with our taxes “art” that we find highly offensive?
8. Not to support through legally mandated employee benefits behaviors we find abhorrent (such as abortion)?
9. If students in a public institution, organize and participate in student-organized religious groups with members and leaders chosen from among those who agree with the groups’ stated goals and beliefs?
Saying this, let it be understood that I’m not going to refuse you service in my store simply because you don’t believe as I do; demand you convert at gunpoint (or swordpoint); or censor your publishing house. I believe that the issues I have raised here are real concerns among many Christians in America at this time.
And, keep in mind, I’m not one who sees the Muslims as “allies”.
wildjew says
“And I am not asking for the right to be in your face about things….”
Kepha, why do you want to be in someone’s (anyone’s) face?
wildjew says
OK.. Sorry, you say you are not asking for the right to be in his face about things. I sure see lots of people here in the South in people’s face about a racist, white supremacist flag. Why is it?
JIMJFOX says
“6. Freely evangelize non-believers and make our beliefs and viewpoints known in public fora? I mean using speech and persuasion.”
Nope- ever heard of freedom FROM religion? I’m betting you would object strongly to Muslims proselytising… as I do.
Savvy Kafir says
Kepha — For myself, the short answer is I’d like to see religion stay out of government, and government out of religion.
And no, I don’t think you should have to make a gay wedding cake if you don’t want to. Gays can boycott your bakery if they want to, and that’s enough. The government doesn’t need to step in on every little issue.
Bradamante says
Hey, I’m another liberal here. Or at least I used to be a liberal. Now I guess I’m more of a centrist. Ever since I began learning about the jihad threat, I’ve moved to the right on issues of national security, immigration policy and gun control. But on other issues, like marriage equality and help for the poor (like food stamps), I’m still the same lifelong liberal I always was. Nevertheless, I’m now willing to vote for the GOP, or for anyone who will talk sense about jihad. These days I listen to and respect the opinions of people who I used to dismiss as “crazy right wingers” — and no doubt I could still find plenty to disagree with them about if we got onto any issues other than the 3 I listed above. But I’m way past worrying about local tribal loyalties like Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, etc. I think people on the left and the right need to come together to face this threat. We can go back to squabbling about tax policy and what-not later.
voegelinian says
It’s not anti-liberal to oppose Islam, since Islam is the most anti-liberal ideology on the planet. But when that ideology has millions of Brown People for followers, the liberals let their irrational fear of “racism” (with sneer quotes to distinguish that from genuine racism which should, indeed, be eschewed by all enlightened people) trump all their other values and let Muslims get away with murder.
Angemon says
voegelinian posted:
“But when that ideology has millions of Brown People for followers, the liberals let their irrational fear of “racism” (with sneer quotes to distinguish that from genuine racism which should, indeed, be eschewed by all enlightened people) trump all their other values and let Muslims get away with murder.”
Are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, or African Christians, to name a few, also allowed to get away with murder because of the color of their skin?
Savvy Kafir says
Yeah … what she said!
Actually, I guess I don’t really think of myself as a centrist — but more of a hardcore environmentalist and animal rights advocate … who’s also a a hardcore counter-jihadi and gun rights advocate.
Hardcore about things that actually seem important; chill about the rest.
Savvy Kafir says
Me too, Kaffirtastic. It’s really distressing to see your fellow progressives defending, tooth and nail, the most ultra-conservative, retrograde ideology on the planet — a religion/political system opposed to everything we supposedly stand for. It’s so incredibly f**ked up, it just seems surreal.
It’s good to know that Bradamante and I aren’t the only left-leaning types who visit Jihad Watch!
Don McKellar says
Rod Dreher has become more concerned with people who want you to keep your religion out of their business, than those who want to make their religion your business — upon threat of death if you don’t. Maybe, Rod Dreher, you need to start thinking about where your capacity for critical thinking went off the rails.
mortimer says
Agree with this excellent perception. Is someone who promises to kill me for drawing a cartoon NOT of concern to Rod Dreher? Islam’s blasphemy laws are per se discriminatory and promote VIGILANTISM.
He has lost his power of analysis!
What’s he smoking these days?
underbed cat says
Just sent a comment, got a bad request 404 whats up?
gravenimage says
I get those fairly frequently, underbed cat. It is best to copy your comment to the clipboard before you post, so you’ll have it to repost if you run into an error.
underbed cat says
To repeat comment briefly. About the statement that a mother went to her daughters Christian school and found a RA respectable who was a muslim, The RA knows that the mother does not know the doctrine in the “religion of peace”, the deadly commands, the peace words, which may be most likely what is said to non muslims to spread islam without concern. The RA is doing her job to deceive, it almost worked on me except the first muslim I met told me the truth.
Renee says
Muslims “pro-life”? LOL
mgoldberg says
I don’t think a free trip to the Islamic State is needed at all. How about a trip to Cairo egypt, or damascus syria, or to Beirut Lebanon. How about a trip to Karachi Pakistan, or to Afghanitan. How about he just walk about in any European muslim Enclave ain any european city and wear a nice big shiny Cross outside his shirt. Better yet, let him wear a Star of David, and or a wereka, and better yet, do this in a couple of the muslim enclaves right here in the good ole’ U.S. of A.
Then let us have a complete report on that moral conservative viewpoint that he finds in those lands.
Forget going to Isia where you’re a dead man, or dead child, if you eat anything on ramadan. Forget the muslim countries- just let him walk thru all those graciously supported wellare communiteis of muslims in Europe who spit on christians and jews and let them know what a real welcome feels like in the world of muslims and Islam.
Yes those RA’s sure can be nice folks. Try one in Syria, or Turkey, or Lebanon, or Pakistan.
mgoldberg says
forgive my lack of spelling correcting: that would be Enclave ain any european city ( in any european city)
let him wear a Star of David, and or a wereka, ( let him wear a Star of David and or a yamulke)
jewdog says
While Westerners debate abortion in the context of defining when life starts, there is no penalty if a Muslim parent kills a child if the child commits apostasy or blasphemy (see Al Azhar’s manual of Sunni jurisprudence, Reliance of the Traveler, o1.1-2, which justifies honor killing.
gravenimage says
*Very* important point, Jewdog.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Islamic morality allows for numerous practices that Christianity abhors and that manifest a completely different understanding of marriage and the dignity of the human person, including child marriage, polygamy, female genital mutilation, and even sexual slavery of non-Muslim women.
Small nit, but I don’t see temporary marriages on this list. Is that only an accepted de facto practice among Moslems, does it not have any authorization in the holy Islamic scriptures or the Sharia codes?
I know that if a wealthy Moslem checks into his penthouse at a glamorous Abu Dhabi hotel, he can have the Bell Captain order him up a bride or two for his weekend pleasures. My impression has always been that this is done to preserve the sanctity of the institution of marriage among Moslems, whatever that is.
gravenimage says
Excellent point, APF. I mentioned polygamy, but not temporary “marriage”, which is basically just a form of “religiously” sanctioned prostitution.
jewdog says
Good point. Interesting how immoral practises become moral when sanctioned by Sharia.
Kepha says
Speaking as a traditionalist Christian conservative, I also have very large concerns about the LGBTQ agenda, now that it has won the SCOTUS, and they are intertwined with my concerns about the spread of Islam.
Our SCOTUS has just enshrined a “right” found only in the so-called penumbra of the Constitution, and that “right” has already been used to nullify the rights to free exercise of religion and freedom of speech that are spelled out in the black and white text of the First Amendment. We’ve seen it in the legal ruin of Christian bakers, wedding planners, and florists who won’t celebrate something they see as a repulsive sin–and, worst of all, the same lawyers and judges pushing this would probably never dream of entertaining a suit against a halal caterer who refuses to barbecue a pig for someone’s event.
Further, after having sanctioned SSM, how will our brilliant and humane liberal justices be able to say “no” to polygamy–with all of its implications for Muslim immigration? The last thing that the USA needs is a demographic race between Muslim polygamists and Original Mormons–two religions which Uncle Kepha confesses to be an abomination before God?
Further, I see the SCOTUS flicking the bird at the Christian God continuously since the mid-1960’s. I do not know when it will happen, but I know that God is not mocked, and when I see the power structure of my country encouraging irresponsibility, dependence, and degeneracy while being very “understanding” of the plight of the murderer on death row or some murdering jerk whom a magazine has put on its cover, I fear that we are in for a very big fall.
somehistory says
There are so many, many things to cause a Christian like I try to be, a lot of anguish when reading or listening to the news.
The *judge* who cancelled a ban on abortion procedures said to *dismember* the unborn because….it is used a whole lot more than other procedures. Dismembering the unborn is *acceptable* to many who might find a problem with what isis is doing…I have a big problem with all of it.
When the lawyers go before the courts to argue for the lifting of the ban, did any of them consider that the drugs used for lethal injection of criminals on death row, that have been used in this country for years…ever since lethal injection became the norm…that are now no longer available because the companies that make them are in Europe and they don’t approve of capital punishment for murderers have been banned by states….and no judge is making them keep using them because they *are used a lot.* If a particular state wishes to ban those drugs, no judge is going to say they can’t do so.
And yes, I believe that the *state* has the responsibility to protect the innocent even if it means putting murderers to death….the Bible says it bears the sword for this purpose.
Christians will no longer be able to refuse anything to homosexuals even when it means going against our conscience….even though we could refuse to allow them to come inside our business if…they are carrying a gun…and carrying a gun is in the Constitution…although marriage is not defined therein.
No atheist has any reason to fear me as a Christian unless he/she has come into my home to do my family harm. I am not here on earth to dictate to them what to believe or not believe.
I agree with you that our Creator will soon demonstrate the fact that He will not be mocked, or exercise Patience indefinitely.
deja vu says
Very well said, Kepha.
Here in New Zealand our pastor has vowed that if it comes about that Christian ministers will be forced by law to marry homosexuals he will close the church.
I’m reminded of the passage in Acts 5 when the apostles were seen as a threat to the ruling Sadducees and were brought before them for teaching in the temple. In response to their threats Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” That is as true now as it was then. We must choose this day whom we will serve and take the consequences just as Paul and the apostles did, and millions of persecuted Christians are today.
Wellington says
I agree with all that you wrote, Kepha, except your implicit equivalency (or God’s) between Mormons and Muslims. I mean, after all, Mormon suicide bombers are rather scarce and given the choice between all Mormons waking up tomorrow devout Muslims or all Muslims waking up tomorrow devout Mormons, I would take the latter in a heartbeat even though it would mean well over a billion Mormons out there, but I say that a billion plus Mormons is far preferable to a billion plus Muslims any day, any week, any month, any year, any century, any millennia.
Hope you are doing well. Take good care, my Christian friend.
Kepha says
Granted the Mormons don’t have suicide bombers.
However, both Mormonism and Islam foist on us “Scriptures” penned after John wrote the “Amen” at the end of Revelation.
But in further support of your point, I’ll also note that if Mormon prophets are to be believed, the Mormon God changes his mind on a lot of things, especially if Uncle Sam is breathing down his neck–polygamy, keeping blacks out of the priesthood, etc.
I admit I’m rather hard-nosed and fundamentalist on there being no new prophets.
voegelinian says
Kepha’s argument contains a tendency I’ve seen many times — a tendency to think a pernicious idea has the same weight as pernicious activity (atheists do it too, by the way, when they make Christianity equivalent to Islam — since the ideas of both they find repellant — thus ignoring the mountains of data indicating an astronomic gulf of differences in actual bloody, deadly mendacious practice).
This is a tendency that will impede our ability to rationally manage the problems Muslims are causing us.
Angemon says
voegelinian posted:
“Kepha’s argument contains a tendency I’ve seen many times — a tendency to think a pernicious idea has the same weight as pernicious activity”
Huh? You do the exact same thing.
Savvy Kafir says
Kepha — Gay people will not take away your rights or freedom. They will not kill you. Islamists will do one or the other, given the opportunity. Big difference in agenda. Seeing gay people as any sort of threat just seems silly.
Mo says
@ Savvy Kafir
“Gay people will not take away your rights or freedom.”
Uh, they already have done so to many people. And with the SC decision, that will open the floodgates do it legally and freely. (Honestly, what planet do you live on?)
“They will not kill you.”
Believe me, some of them hate Christians so much that they would love to see us dead! Go look at social media if you don’t believe me.
Wellington says
I agree, Mo. I am not religious in the least but most every post I have seen on one website after another by those who are for gay marriage is characterized by pure hatred towards those opposing the idea that gender distinction should not be an absolute where marriage is concerned. And such antipathy towards those (like me) who believe that marriage requires gender distinction (as it has until very recently for millennia) is evidence, I would argue, of where the true bigotry lies (other than with Muslims) in today’s world.
Particularly venomous sentiments I have noticed not directed towards an agnostic like me who thinks gay marriage a great error (though I have had my fair share of such venom), but rather to Christians who think gay marriage a huge mistake. It’s sickening to see such mindless, bigoted animosity towards so many devout Christians who do not hate gays in the least but who have taken a principled stand on the matter of marriage. Meanwhile, and in a direct proportionality, those most hating Christians for their take on gay marriage (and other matters) again an again prove themselves apologists for the spiritual totalitarianism which is Islam.
I can respect those who are for gay marriage but who do not demonize those who, without any blind hatred towards gays, are against it. Sadly, such people are in the minority. Seems to me right now that there is not one but rather two totalitarian systems very much alive out there——–Islam and Leftism. And both mean to destroy the traditional West before, quite inevitably, they turn on each other.
Oh yeah, mad world. Goofy world. Stupid world.
Savvy Kafir says
I stick by my assertion that there’s a HUGE difference between the Islamist agenda and the agenda of gay rights supporters. And if we infidels can’t chill out about things like gay marriage, we’ll never be able to focus on the real danger — the ideology that threatens to enslave or kill all of us.
You’re still free to marry someone of the opposite sex. Why is it so damn important to you that gays can’t marry each other? I resisted the idea of gay marriage for years, and now I feel like an idiot for having done so. I also thought that marriage should be between a man and a woman — not for religious reasons, but because, in some ways, I’m still a traditionalist, and that’s just the way it’s always been done. But I’m still free to marry a woman, and make that marriage as sacred a union as it ever was, regardless of what gays do.
If people can’t learn to FOCUS on the most important issues — the things that pose an actual and serious threat, such as Islam and various environmental dangers — we’re doomed. Game over.
Wellington says
Gay people do not have to be seen as a threat to conclude that their ideas on what should constitute marriage is invalid. Following your logic, those who are for polygamy or polyandry should not be looked upon as people who want “to take away your rights of freedom.” Ditto for someone (and yes this is highly theoretical) who would want to marry their dog.
For Christ’s sake (and I am not religious in the least), can’t a person oppose gay marriage and maintain that gender distinction must be a sine qua non for marriage without being lectured about how “Gay people will not take away your rights of freedom?” BTW, I would assert that many of those who are for gay marriage will eventually move to take away the rights and freedoms of those who oppose gay marriage by eventually going after the churches as hate organizations.
Wake up, Savvy Kaffir. Actually, so far you have not clearly demonstrated the “Savvy” part of your moniker.
Savvy Kafir says
I was responding to someone who seems to feel threatened by the gay rights movement. If someone finds that sort of thing personally distasteful, that’s one thing. But to feel threatened by it, and to conflate it with the threat posed by Islam, is absurd.
Gay marriage does not spell doom for our society, as many right-wing Christians seem to believe. If your marriage is somehow threatened by the fact that gay dudes are marrying each other, you need to do some work on your marriage.
Kepha says
No, they won’t kill me. They’ll just ruin me through legal harassment if I refuse to celebrate their lifestyle choices.
Savvy Kafir says
If they hassle you or try to ruin you because you’re not throwing them a party, I’ll back you up.
And if you decide not to make that gay wedding cake, and the gays boycott your bakery because of it, lots of right-wing Christians will come flocking to your business to show their support. It will all work out.
On the other hand, if we’re so busy squabbling over little sh*t that we can’t deal with the BIG, looming danger that Islam presents for all of us, the Allah junkies will end up making ALL of our decisions for us.
We infidels all need to come together to deal with the real enemy. Right now — before it’s too late.
mortimer says
Having Muslims in charge on campus…what could go wrong?
Of course, the separation of Muslim students from kafirs will go easily if the dorms are managed by Muslims. They will help the jihadists to single out Christians, Jews, agnostics and various ‘others’ whom the jihadists consider vermin to be exterminated.
Great idea…great idea.
nacazo says
This brings to mind the Garissa university massacre where 148 people were killed including 142 students. Allegedly the perpetrators targetted christian students and let the muslim students go. Hopefully your muslim RA will defend all students and not let the perpetrators in as allegedly some of the muslim security guards did.
gravenimage says
Rod Dreher of The American Conservative writes: “I am more concerned today, in 2015, post-Indiana and post-Brendan Eich, with secularist threats to religious liberty and religious tolerance than I am with Islam in America…
…………………………
Well, this disturbing—and all the more so since it appears that Dreher was, at one time, at least comparatively Islamo-savvy.
Sadly, quite a few conservative Christians make this mistake, believing that “conservative” Muslims share their belief in God and family values.
But what does this actually mean?
The “God” in question is *nothing* like the Christian deity—the conception of Allah is of a vengeful, malevolent god who hates and punishes Infidels and women.
And what about that “moral sanity”? Muslims may reject liberal secularism—which is the attraction for Christians like Rod Dreher—but their “family values” also encompass FGM, forced marriage, pedophilia, forced veiling, wife beating, the “Triple Talaq” summary divorce (to be used by men only), and, most horrific of all, “Honor Killing”.
The Muslimah RA in question may or may not condone all of the above—but her faith certainly does.
Does Rod Dreher know any of this? Did he know it once, and then choose to forget it? Though it startled me for some time, I have run across this last phenomenon often enough by this time to see how powerful this sort of denial is.
And Robert Spencer is quite right about that ticket to the Islamic State, where conservative Christians are regarded just as, say, radical anarchist bisexual polyamorous strippers would be—as “filthy Infidels” worthy only of oppression and murder.
Rod Dreher’s poor daughter would be used as a sex slave there, and he himself would likely be beheaded.
Muslims are *not* allies of conservative Christians, and present a far greater threat to them than do secularists and gay marriage advocates.
deja vu says
gravenimage: ‘Sadly, quite a few conservative Christians make this mistake, believing that “conservative” Muslims share their belief in God and family values.’
I think the word ‘conservative’ is just a milder-sounding adjective to use in place of ‘fundamentalist’. The latter is always used in a pejorative sense, which fundamental Islam richly deserves, but Biblical (fundamental) Christianity emphatically does not.
As you know, the definition of a religious fundamentalist is simply an individual who believes in the fundamentals of their faith. What this broad brush obscures is that the attributes and commandments of the God of the Bible and the entity of the Qur’an are as opposite as day and night, truth and deception, life and death. Likewise, the Bible and the Qur’an are the original and the plagiarised, the loving and the hateful, the forgiving and the condemning, the genuine and the counterfeit.
There is little that Muslims and Christians share in common except that we are all made in the image of God. Perhaps it’s up to us to enlighten our conservative Christian colleagues and friends of this fact. The best thing they can do for Muslims is to obey the command of Jesus and share the Gospel with them, remembering that they are often not Muslims by choice.
Kepha says
@deja vu and gravenimage:
I’m not sure which is a bigger threat–the pervs or the Jihadis.
You’re both right that Rod Dreher misses too much. Islam is a danger. This is a conclusion I did not wish to make, but I think anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear has probably learned too much about Islam to make any other conclusion–save for those in that huge squishy middle who may be thinking that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. These last-mentioned squishy middlers may be the real worst enemies of both Christianity and “secular” liberty out there, for they will rally to whoever shouts the loudest and makes the bigger fuss.
Deja vu, you have given a wakeup call when you say we need to share the Gospel. Perhaps failure to be salt and light in this fallen world may be one reason why Christianity today is so weak, and why we find ourselves caught between sexual perverts who wish to corrupt (and often have corrupted) our children on the one hand and Muslims who wish to enslave or convert them on the other.
But are the Muslims the bigger threat? We Christians are already starting to see the cracks in Islam, and defections from it wherever there is liberty to defect. After 1400 years, the Muslim who hears the Gospel is like a virgin being courted; the LGBT supporter, a child of the Silly ‘Sixties and Sillier ‘seventies, is more like a spiteful, vengeful, and thoroughly angry divorcee who has willfully and deliberately walked out on Christ. This, perhaps, is why we have seen the harassment of Christians in various businesses and the pointed failure of the Supreme Court majority to mention Free Exercise (as opposed to the holding of opinions).
As a self-destructive lifestyle, the LGBTQ’s will probably burn out in a generation; and perhaps God will grant the perseverance that will allow us to slowly and painfully rebuild our lives. But we will probably have a huge task of rebuilding shattered lives–especially of the children who were raised by two “daddies” (whether the biological one plus the creepy guy who nudged out mommy or two who bought an “adoptee” from traffickers, whether shady or supposedly legal).
I’ll also fault Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Yes, he made some pointed defenses of freedom of speech, but he also said, “If the country wants to go to Hell in a handcart, I’m here to help it.” That tells me that the jurisprudence of perhaps the last century or so has been horribly poisoned, thus cheapening the whole idea of the rule of law.
Joseph says
A reader says something fascinating:
I am comforted that there is at least someone in her dorm who shares her belief in God, and in moral sanity.(this is about the Muslim RA)
__________________________________________________________________
If this guy was REALLY a Christian he would know that the god of Islam is Satan and NOT the GOD of Christians. This is faith 101. He needs to study his enemy more.
If things do go south in some way, or if she has questions or concerns, it is a relief to know that the woman in charge of her residence hall is someone whose moral instincts I can trust.
___________________________________________________________________
Trust how? by lying to your daughter about Islam and trying to get her to convert? There can only be evil that comes out of a match-up like this, young impressionable teenagers in the care of a person who has totally different viewpoint on faith.
This guy better wake up or there is a good chance he will loose his daughter and she will loose her soul.
Marty says
Any serious Christian must know that Islam is truly satanic.
It is the total opposite of all that Judeo Christianity stands for, while stealing some of that
religions ideas.
“By their fruits shall ye know them” and anyone who cannot taste murder, slavery, misogyny
and deceit must be very seriously handicapped.
yuval Brandstetter MD says
I am surprised to discover that when it comes to the care and raising of our children, I have more in common with believing Muslims
Mr, you must be unhinged. It is the muslim practice to train their children early on, with their mother’s milk, to do Jihad on the infidel and the Jew. It is the Muslim practice to get the children used to atrocities early on, by decapitating chickens (as obama did as a child in Indonesia) or the family slaughter of a lamb for Id al Adha when the young child holds the animals legs as his father is sawing at the animal’s neck. The loss of empathy is the essential of Islamic upbringing.
Kepha says
Yuval, I’m not so sure that animal slaughter is just to get kids used to atrocity.
Although I am not Jewish under rabbincial reckoning, my grandfather on my father’s side was the son of a kosher butcher in Germany; his first work in America was in a kosher slaughterhouse in NY, although he later became a draftsman on the Brooklyn Bridge and later a salesman of everything from chintz curtains to mining equipment. While a sort of wild man fit for the Wild West where he worked, I understand, he was very far from being a criminal sort. My in-laws in Taiwan are Daoist, and they raised and slaughtered their own chickens–a sort of food freshness fetish that is very common among Taiwanese who are not too far removed from rural roots. Although they and their generation remembered both the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War and all the men were veterans of either the Japanese or Nationalist Chinese forces, they were basically quiet and peaceable folks. Also, one of my own uncles was a retired US Army colonel with lots of combat experience in WWII and Korea, but while he (and one of my uncles-in-law who got drafted just in time to keep the Communists from overrunning Jinmen) would talk about their service, he and most other vets who were actually involved in shooting enemy troops rather than animals were also basically peaceable.
Indeed, I think that memories of butchering one’s own meat were rather common among a lot of fundamentally inoffensive people in the not-too-distant past. Indeed, while we talk about the “violent” Cowboys and Hillbillies of rural America (who keep guns! And go to church! Eeeeek!–or, at least the reaction of too many of my better-bred East Coast landsmannen), those people are generally dangerous only to deer in season and varmints bothering the livestock or to cans on fenceposts–or, when put in uniform, to America’s enemies. I understand there are even Amish and Old Order Mennonites who;’d die before hurting a fellow human who do their own butchering. Your average never-saw-an-animal-slaughtered American urban dweller is far more likely to see a violent crime or gratuitous brutality than someone of an American rural background. I also have a very sneaky suspicion that the sons of butchers in America’s Orthodox Jewish enclaves are probably pretty decent guys for the most part, too, and unlikely to appear in a police lineup of suspects.
I think that the dangerous part of Islam is its division of the world into the Dar-al-Islam and the Dar-al-Harb, the latter being the part that is safe to pillage, rob, and enslave. This, far more than do-it-yourself butchering of animals, desensitizes conscientious Muslims towards human life, especially of the Kufr variety.
Keith W. Jordan says
I’m having a hard time reading this article, as I don’t know what RA stands for.
Joseph says
@ Keith W. Jordan
RA stands for Resident Assistant
Jack Gordon says
American conservatives have failed generally to understand what is going on around them. For example, many of them still think there is hope in the worthless GOP….at this late date! (Of course, no sense even mentioning the other party, the Demoniacs.) Our Right lacks the ability to analyse situations and come to anything but exaggerated conclusions like the one you highlight here, viz. “superficially Mohammedans seem to be a little like us conservatives, and anyway the enemy of my enemy….” By forming this kind of emotional coalition, though, the conservatives risk something you don’t mention here: it won’t take long for the lying American Left to accuse them of wanting to throw sodomites off tall buildings just as their new-found allies are fond of doing. Dreher and others who think of themselves as conservative had best learn quickly to navigate better the waters separating Scylla and Charybdis.
Guy Macher says
Any “nice” Muslim can go devout. Islam is a mental illness caused by worshipping evil.
voegelinian says
Ron Dreher proves (as have others) that Conservatives can be, just as any Leftist can be, reckless boneheads who through their Useful Idiocy endanger our lives.