THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 144, June 18, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RESPECTING THE FAITHFUL VERSUS RESPECTING THE FAITH
By Raymond Ibrahim
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO THE MEDIA: LET'S NOT DISTORT THE WORDS OF THE POPE -- REALIZE THAT HAVING
"DEEP RESPECT FOR THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY" IS NOT THE SAME THING AS HAVING "DEEP RESPECT FOR ISLAM" --
RECOGNIZE THE WORLD OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RESPECTING A RELIGIOUS GROUP & RESPECTING THEIR RELIGION -- WHY
SHOULD CHRISTIANS & JEWS RESPECT ISLAM, A HIGHLY POLITICIZED RELIGION DAILY ASSOCIATED WITH VIOLENCE,
BEHEADINGS, MISOGANY, CHILD MARRIAGE, & HOSTILITY FOR NON-MUSLIMS & THEIR WAYS? WHY SHOULD
ISLAM, A SET OF POLITICAL AS WELL AS RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES & PRACTICES, BE SHIELDED FROM OPEN ANALYSIS?
FULL STORY:
During the Pope's recent Mideast visit, the media reported that he has "deep respect for Islam." That exact phrase
appeared in the Associated Press, AFP, BBC, the Jerusalem Post, the Washington
Times, and Al-Jazeera.
Yet, he said no such thing; instead, he mentioned his "deep respect for the Muslim community." There's a world
of difference between respecting a religious group and respecting their religion, and the Pontiff knows this.
As a Christian — indeed, as Pope — by evoking his "deep respect" for Muslims, Benedict probably meant that
Muslims, who believe in one God, pray, fast, and follow a strict set of moral principles, are, from a religious
perspective, worthy of "deep respect."
Even the non-religious uphold this position. In fact, that is what makes the secular West unique: the right to
follow any (or no) religion is guaranteed, is "respected."
Due to this, however, a subtle conflation has come to dominate our way of thinking: respect for people's right to
believe any religion has somewhere along the line — and thanks to political correctness — morphed into respect
for the religion itself (excluding, of course, cheek-turning Christianity, the secular West's "punching bag"). It was
therefore only natural for the (increasingly sloppy) media to portray Benedict's respect for Muslims as respect for
Islam.
But is this logical? Does respecting a person's right to believe necessarily lead to respecting what they believe?
Consider: billions of non-Muslims adhere to other religions or are simply atheistic; by default, this means they do
not believe in the veracity of Islam. A Christian following Christian doctrine, such as the Trinity, cannot also
believe that the Koran, which fiercely denounces the Trinity, is the word of God, while an atheist believes
all religions and their scriptures are not divinely inspired (i.e., all euphemisms aside, are built on lies).
At the same time, however, Christians and atheists cannot "empirically" prove their position; faith is required —
even for the atheist (accounting for the origins of the universe requires "faith"). As such, it is only logical that
non-Muslims should respect Muslims' right to believe what they will — and, ideally, vice versa.
But, short of truly believing Islam's first premise — that the Koran is the verbatim word of God and
Muhammad is God's messenger — how can one "respect" Islam itself, considering it is entirely built around this
assumption? In other words, if you yourself believe a particular system of belief is built atop lies, how can you
personally respect it?
If the Koran was not dictated by an angel to Muhammad, what is it? If Muhammad was not sent by God,
who was he? As with all who profess to be men of God, Muhammad must have been either who he said he was
(prophet of God) or else the antithesis: a false prophet, a fraud. The first possibility is not a logical option for
active non-Muslims. Nor are silly "postmodern" mantras — "just because I do not believe something does not
necessarily mean it is not true, in its own existential way" — very meaningful.
Of course, this position applies to all religions and their founders. Without believing that the Bible is the
inspired word of God, everything contained therein becomes suspect, including the person (and nature) of Jesus.
As Christians themselves have long maintained, Jesus can only be viewed as Lord, liar, or lunatic — nothing in
between. Likewise, Muhammad was either messenger, mendacious, or moonstruck. Admittedly, most people are
not comfortable thinking out such thoughts to their logical conclusions; they're happy to end it with an "it's not
for me" attitude, without any further ado.
So why scrutinize Islam and its founder in the first place? Because, unlike all other major religions, Islam is daily
associated with violence, beheadings, misogyny, child marriage, and hostility for infidels and their ways.
Pseudo-respect from non-Muslims shields it from open analysis.
Moreover, though non-Christians must ultimately conclude that either Jesus or (as Islam maintains) the Gospel
writers were deceivers or delusional, the fact remains: As with most religions, Christianity revolves around the
spiritual, the metaphysic; true or false, it does not intrinsically impose itself on politics. Islam, on the other hand
— as embodied in Islamic law — is politics, indeed, dominates all aspects of human affairs.
As such, Islam's connection to "unpleasant" daily headlines becomes clear, once non-Muslims allow their
thoughts to develop logically and sequentially. Stripped of its hagiographic veneer, the history of Islam is the
history of a warlord and his followers who conquered, subjugated, and plundered much of the old world, insisting
that God told them to do it. For Muslims, it is only logical to rationalize this 1,400-year jihad as a means to an end
— the establishment of Islamic law, from a Muslim perspective, the embodiment of all good. Non-Muslims do not
have this luxury and must interpret the origins and essence of Islam a bit more cynically.
But why this philosophical exposition in the first place? To show that, while there have been countless talking
heads, books, debates, seminars, and hearings dedicated to evaluating whether Islam is intrinsically at odds with
the modern world, good old-fashioned common sense could have put the matter long to rest:
After all, do you really find it shocking that a comprehensive way of life, where right and wrong are meticulously
based on the improvised "law" of a Seventh-Century warlord — who, according to your own inevitable conclusions,
was an opportunistic liar or deluded megalomaniac — just so happens to be riddled with complications, especially
vis-à-vis the Twentyfirst Century?
This seemingly simple consideration has profound implications. Former Al-Azhar Muslim scholar and imam Mark
Gabriel abandoned his faith by simply musing on such matters:
"Did the true God of heaven give him Islam, or did
Muhammad invent it? Did Muhammad express the
heart of the true, merciful God, or did he merely
express the dark corners of his own faulty human
heart? The implication shook me to the core: If the
true God never spoke to Muhammad, then I am a
slave to the manipulative imagination of a desert
tribesman from the Seventh Century! These were
dangerous thoughts, and I had crossed a
dangerous bridge in my mind that all Muslims are
taught to walk away from."
In closing, let us respect everyone's right to believe what they will; however, let us at least be sincere to our own
convictions. It's one thing to let political correctness stifle free speech; it's quite another to let it stifle the
development of our very own thought processes, to the point that we fail to connect such clear dots in the
privacy of our own minds.
And while we're at it, let's not distort the well-measured words of the Pope, who most surely knows the distinction
between respecting the Muslim community and respecting Islam.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum and the author of The Al Qaeda Reader
(New York: Doubleday, 2007).
The foregoing article by Ibrahim was originally published in Pajamas Media, June 3, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2164/respecting-faithful-respecting- faith)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 18, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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