September 15, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI has apologized, not for making the comments he did about Muslims, but for how they were interpreted. There's a distinction. Citing 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos, the pontiff said, “The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'” He stuck to his guns when confronted with Muslim reaction only saying that he regretted the uproar over his remarks. In other words, the Pope said, in so many words, that Islam is not necessarily a religion of peace.
Muslims throughout the world insisted that the quote misrepresented their religion. They said theirs was, indeed, a religion of peace. And to demonstrate that, they took to the streets to riot and kill and burn the Pope in effigy. Two churches were set ablaze in the West Bank and a nun was murdered in Somalia.
Meanwhile, Rosie O'Donnell, the darling of the radical left, argued from her new perch atop the television show, The View , that “radical Christianity” is just as dangerous in America as radical Islam. Oh, really? How many radical Christians do you see cutting off the heads of those with whom they disagree, Rosie? How many radical Christians have you seen hijack jetliners and ram them into buildings?
Folks, we're at a crucial crossroad in this country. We have people like Rosie O'Donnell and her ilk making excuses for the Islamobots. Because she disagrees with Christians on a wide range of issues, she now equates them with the terrorists. Ironically, if the radical Islamists had their way, she'd be the first person they'd muzzle. (It almost makes Islam attractive.)
Same goes for the Hollywood left she represents. They scream and cry any time they think a terrorist is being mistreated at Guantanamo Bay yet they're conspicuously quiet when one of those terrorists beheads a journalist or blows up a bunch of soldiers.
The Senate continues debate over how to treat the terrorists we capture. Some, like Senator John McCain, believe we should afford them all the luxuries of the Geneva Conventions. There's only one problem. The Geneva Conventions specifically exclude those who wage war out of uniform and against innocent civilians.
We have a choice to make. Do we head down the road of appeasement and allow the terrorists to kill us with our own kindness or do we take the path to victory? President Bush reminded us recently that this was not a war between civilizations, but a war for civilization. The barbarians are at the gate. Rosie wants to open the door and reason with them, one can only assume from her attitude that they're no worse than Christian radicals. Or, perhaps, she's for exterminating all the Christian radicals. It's hard to tell which but one is as bad as the other. She has certainly equated the Christian radicals with terrorists so her argument is they both should be dealt with in the same manner.
This kind of talk is dangerous. Not just to Christians but to all peace-loving people. If the Rosie O'Donnells of this country manage to seize power, we're all in big trouble. Their solution to dealing with the terrorists is to treat them like any country with which we might find ourselves in disagreement. Osama bin Laden pointed out that terrorists cherish death as much as we cherish life. The Islamobots live to die for their cause. It's our job to oblige them.