by Chris Hedges
Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges-a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy-to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called “Why We Want to Kill You,” promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims.

These men are frauds, but this is not the point. They are part of a dark and frightening war by the Christian right against tolerance that, in the moment of another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, would make it acceptable to target and persecute all Muslims, including the some 6 million Muslims who live in the United States. These men stoke these irrational fears. They defend the perpetual war unleashed by the Bush administration and championed by Sen. John McCain. McCain frequently reminds listeners that “the greatest danger facing the world is Islamic terrorism,” as does Mike Huckabee, who says that “Islamofascism” is “the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced.” George W. Bush has, in the same vein, assured Americans that terrorists hate us for our freedoms, not, of course, for anything we have done. Bush described the “war on terror” as a war against totalitarian Islamofascism while the Israeli air force was dropping tens of thousands of pounds of iron fragmentation bombs up and down Lebanon, an air campaign that killed 1,300 Lebanese civilians.

The three men tell lurid tales of being recruited as children into Palestinian terrorist organizations, murdering hundreds of civilians and blowing up a bank in Israel. Saleem says that as a child he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights, although no incident of this type was ever reported in Israel. He claims he is descended from the “grand wazir” of Islam, a title and a position that do not exist in the Arab world. They assure audiences that the Palestinians are interested not in a peaceful two-state solution but rather the destruction of Israel, the murder of all Jews and the death of America. Shoebat claims he first came to the United States as part of an extremist “sleeper cell.”

“These three jokers are as much former Islamic terrorists as ‘Star Trek’s’ Capt. James T. Kirk was a real Starship captain,” said Mikey Weinstein, the head of the watchdog group The Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The group has challenged Christian proselytizing in the military and denounced the visit by the men to the Air Force Academy.

The speakers include in their talks the superior virtues of Christianity. Saleem, for example, says his world “turned upside down when he was seriously injured in an automobile accident.”

“A Christian man tended to Kamal at the accident scene, making sure he got the medical treatment he needed,” his Web site says. “Kamal’s orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist were also Christian men whom over a period of several months ministered the unconditional love of Jesus Christ to him as he recovered. The love and sacrificial giving of these men caused Kamal to cry out to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acknowledging his need for the Savior. Kamal has since become a man on a new mission, as an ambassador for the one true and living God, the great I Am, Jehovah God of the Bible.”

This creeping Christian chauvinism has infected our political and social discourse. It was behind the rumor that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama reassured followers that he was a Christian. It apparently did not occur to him, or his questioners, that the proper answer is that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, that persons of great moral probity and courage arise in all cultures and all religions, including Islam. Christians have no exclusive lock on virtue. But this kind of understanding often provokes indignant rage.

The public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the country since the 9/11 attacks. It makes dialogue with those outside our “Christian” culture impossible. It implicitly condemns all who do not think as we think and believe as we believe as, at best, inferior and usually morally depraved. It blinds us to our own failings. It makes self-reflection and self-criticism a form of treason. It reduces the world to a cartoonish vision of us and them, good and evil. It turns us into children with bombs.

These three con artists are not the problem. There is enough scum out there to take their place. Rather, they offer a window into a worldview that is destroying the United States. It has corrupted the Republican Party. It has colored the news media. It has entered into the everyday clichés we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. It is ignorant and racist, but it is also deadly. It grossly perverts the Christian religion. It asks us to kill to purify the Earth. It leaves us threatened not only by the terrorists who may come from abroad but the ones who are rising from within our midst.

Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.“
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6978/

Hmmmmm...let me think here...4 of the 9-11 pilots were registered democrats, 9 others were members of the United auto workers, three were members of Bill Clintons campaign staff, and the last three were members of the Israeli parliament, right? But, none were anything close to muslim affiliated.

Unfortuinatly none of them were Iraqi

This rhetoric sounds like a hate speech against Christianity

You reap what you sow...

and that dang christian that used to run Iraq, what was his name, Moses Hussein, and the cconservative christians that ran Afghanistan, they were so kind and gentle to their populace, and Osama Bin Hiding nurtured nothing but good will toward americans and america for years before that evil america hating fascist and genocidal Bush took over the country. I GOT THE SOLUTION!!! Lets pardon bush provided he allows the detainees in Guantanamo to replace the US congress and make the laws for us to live by. What a good idea.Dude, get a life. If you think life is so bad here and we are all so screwed up, move to Somalia, or maybe Darfur, or even the deltas of Nigeria...life would be so much more pleasant for you there, I am certain

Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.“
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6978/

I think he is one of yours

no one is one of mine, except me...

The point being he is a graduate of harvard divinity School I would hardly label him as a prime candidate for, how did you put it "religouse hate speach"

"This creeping Christian chauvinism has infected our political and social discourse. It was behind the rumor that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama reassured followers that he was a Christian. It apparently did not occur to him, or his questioners, that the proper answer is that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, that persons of great moral probity and courage arise in all cultures and all religions, including Islam. Christians have no exclusive lock on virtue. But this kind of understanding often provokes indignant rage."


This is the biggest concern for me. That the prejudicial right has infected our government so badly that being a muslim is a bad mark against someone. Prejudice is wrong, we judge people on their personal actions not their similarity to others, race, culture, background, religion, sexual orientation, economic stand, etc...... This is not a good thing and should not be allowed by any American.

Radical religious people are dangerous, I don't care what religion it is. Christian terrorists exist also. Abortion clinic bombers are one such terrorist. There are more than just that but that is a good example.

The point here is radical extremist are the problem not a certain religion. Muslims are a peaceful people if not radical as christians are peaceful people if not radical.

That is my biggest concern in this area.

tolerance is itself a fraud.
think about a pest in your life that you tolerate-
because you have to.
it gets nothing solved, its fake, its pretending to do
something that you don't mean, and would rather not do.

its called acceptance-thats what needs to happen. accept that people are different. accept that i don't need to like you-and you don't need to like me...but i have to accept that you have a right to be, and you must accept the same.

i don't want to be tolerated.none of us should.
if tolerance is all you aspire to, thats a pretty sad state of affairs.

I agree...I would rather be hated than tolerated. Nothing pisses me off more than to just be tolerated...get emotional at least...lol

Tolerance to me is when you live and let live.
when i tolerate someone its only because its against the law to run them over with my car

Madisonman has a narrow view buddy!

Have you ever met any of these twisted souls that believe they are doing the will of God by blending into Amwerican society and waiting on their moment of glory?

I have. ANd they were carrying box cutters in the mid 80s as one of their essentials, even then.

The Lord got a hold of one of these, because we had become friends and inevitably we found ourselves in conversations about our faiths and our zeals, though quite different.

But this one, a friend of the S..... family found himself believing in Jesus Christ and said an angel visited him. It was enough for him to renounce Islam.

His family didn't like it. To say the least.

But his warrior spirit lead him ti strongly embrace Christ with a greater zeal and humble himself while facing the rejection and anger of all that was his life.

I wonder if you can actually comprehend how difficult such a change of heart is.

One thing I can safely assure you of, is that his austere and empoverished personal life by choice was well honed to equip him for such a daring change in his way of life, and not one he regretted or could have ever foreseen, but nonetheless, he boldly embraced a greater truth with the courage of a warrior that had disciplined himself to recognize authority where it was present.

Have you?

Safely ensconced in your comfortable life, I suspect you have not considered the vile depravity of man outside your coddled world, only to find that your safety and security as an American is an illusion that evades your awareness.

The world of man is at war with itself and there are many fronts to this war. It is nothing new.

It's been this way for thousands of years and each generation thinks itself so enlightened.

I assure you, that such enlightenment is only a parsed reality that is sequestered by warriors on all sides living to make, in your case, your life so comfortable and safe.

Should you doubt that many seek to destroy your world, and your right to express your self-righteous indignation for things you don't personally experience, I invite you to live in a Moslem nation for a spell and see what is so very different about their worldview and your own.

Please don't become one. I would be greatly disappointed in you if you did.

First of all, how many thousands of Muslim US citizens were beaten, killed, tortured, and such by the 'evil Christian right' following 9/11? You go over to the Middle East and look at a woman you're likely to be whipped.

The only quote is from a guy who started a group called: The Military Religious Freedom Foundation

"These men are frauds"

Couldn't have said it better myself, however anyone who starts a paragraph off in such a fashion should have the words examined upon them first.

Willy,

Do you feel that some people confuse "pacify" with "tolerate"?

Just wondering.


Lindyy

Oh, Dear Crafty:

Are you familiar with 'spiritual warfare'"

A border collie? Great in agility.

Lindyy

I agree with the comment that the terrorist mentality infiltrated this country at least 30 years ago. I remember having an accidental encounter with that propaganda back in college. I didn't have a clue what the meaning was then, but I am certain that's what it was, now. Do I now believe that every Muslin I met in college is a terrorist, NO! The commenter that said no Muslin was targeted after 911, has their head in the sand or up Bush's bu... Even after the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, a Muslin was the first suspect. He, and his family was terrorized in the process. When people found out that it was a red blooded American boy that did it, well, they just could not believe it! Some probably still don't!
"The only thing we have to fear is fear iself!" I believe we need to fear intolerance. What will it be next? Fat people? Red-heads? The French? People from Wisconsin? Our resources should be focused on real threats, not percieved ones.
Nan