Muslim Protesters

A group of Muslims gathered outside the federal courthouse in Detroit Friday to demonstrate as the Christmas day airline bomber was arraigned. They were there to demonstrate against radical Islam. They carried signs saying that Islam is a religion of love not hate. One demonstrator went on camera for a national news organization to say if the terrorists want to kill him, he is there and available.

Every news outlet in the country needs to make note of these brave Americans. They know, maybe better than most, the risk they take to speak out against the desecration of their religion by jihadists. The silence from Muslims has been a concern to me and a source of condemnation of the entire religion among many. If they haven’t been silent, if it has been the lack of news coverage that has made us unaware of their protestations, then the news media is largely to blame for much of the anti-Muslim sentiment in the country. Nobody thinks that white supremacists represent Christianity. We all know enough about the teachings of Christianity, and we know enough Christians (if we aren’t Christian ourselves) to know that the ideals of white supremacy are anathema to Christians. But that same distinction isn’t as clear for Muslims. It is people like these demonstrators that will isolate radical Islam from Islam as much as white supremacists are isolated from Christianity.

These brave people should be heralded and encouraged. Their being there to proclaim to the world their opposition to the use of their faith to promote hatred and murder will give others the courage to stand up and be counted. I thank them for letting me know they are out there.

Rumors

Remember when senators, congressmen and celebrities stood up and declared that President Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? I was not a fan of President Bush, but I remember how angry I was when liberals claimed that he lied about WMD. He was wrong. He may have been more eager to go to war against Iraq than he should have been. His idea of spreading democracy in the mid-East may have been naive, arrogant or both. But he had not lied about the weapons. Many in our intelligence agencies, as well as intelligence agencies around the world, let alone Saddam’s own generals, believed he had WMD. And Saddam did nothing to dispel that impression. Those that claimed he lied were lying themselves. It convinced me that they were not patriots, but partisans. They were willing to say or do anything for political expediency. They let their hatred for the President dictate what they chose to believe, or say about him. They knew, or should have known, the difference between lying and making a mistake. They seemed to be so blinded by partisanship, that they deemed the Bush Administration unworthy of either honesty or critical thinking. The way President Bush was treated was unfair, and won few, if any converts.

I have been getting emails for some time now showing President Obama standing with his hands folded in front of him, while men and women in uniform around him are saluting. The email accuses the President of showing lack of respect to the flag. If you watch a video of that scene, you will see that the President has just taken the stage to the band playing “Hail to the Chief”. It turns out his behavior is absolutely appropriate.

That is one example of many accusations circulating on the Internet. When I get these I usually do some research before passing them on. I often find them to be ill-founded and they go into my deleted files folder. I can give a litany of things I believe the President has done and is doing badly. With all that ammunition, why do we bother with accusations that he isn’t an American by birth, or that he is a Muslim. When these or other hate filled accusations are circulated, it may fire up the converted, but only puts the more provable and substantial arguments in a bad light. Let’s assume that he is a Muslim, communist, who was not born in the United States. If you don’t have multiple credible sources, which cannot be impeached by his defenders, circulating those accusations just gives those who are on the fence less reason to believe the other, more mundane arguments against the President’s policies. You know…those things that would sway the undecided.

When Senator Kennedy stood up in the senate & called President Bush a liar, he only proved to me that he was not honest in his criticism. Michael Moore may get something right every now and then, but I will never know it, because his bazaar accusations keep me from ever giving him an objective hearing. He past that point in 1989 when he produced “Roger & Me”.

If you think that President Obama is bad for the country, stop spreading rumors that only inflame his defenders and damage your own credibility. You may be right, but if you are too quick to pass on rumors and emails that don’t pass the smell test, you hurt your cause.