Last summer, when there was an anti-Islamic campaign to deny Muslims in Temecula a building permit for their mosque, I got a crash course in a dangerous group of people who want to undermine our American way of life and destroy our freedoms – and they are not Muslims.
There is an organized, vocal and willfully ignorant group of people who believe in a conspiracy called “Creeping Sharia.” These people support illegal surveillance of US citizens, the torture of “enemy combatants” suspected of terrorism, and will even attempt to interfere with the First Amendment guarantee to the free exercise of religion. The Bill of Rights was a condition of our Constitution, it was part of the social contract this country and is a major part of what makes this country great. In an irony lost upon them, there is a group of self-professed “patriots” who want to deny constitutional rights to Muslims in this country in order to “preserve the American way.”
Based on the level of paranoia, the belief in“Creeping Sharia” ranges from “Muslims are infiltrating the United States to undermine it from within” to “Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and part of a global conspiracy to fly the Muslim flag above the White House.” Yes, there are misguided – and quite frankly impious – Muslims out there who use their faith to justify hate and aggression. But the vast majority of terrorists are not United States citizens and have failed repeatedly to weaken America in any significant way. What concerns me far more than American Muslims and “creeping Sharia” is the creeping ignorance of certain Americans who want to destroy basic civil liberties and constitutional protections because of their hatred and fear of Islam.
America is too great a country to be ruined by foreign forces. As Abraham Lincoln famously said, “if destruction is our lot, America must be its author and its finisher.” It’s US citizens that choose willful ignorance above religious freedom and social inclusion that will weaken this country. It’s cowards who let the fear of Islam and terrorism drive their citizenship, instead of love and equality, who pose the greatest threat to the home of the brave.
This weekend Lowe’s pulled its advertising from a fairly benign Learning Channel show called “All-American Muslim.” The show is about Muslim families in the United States who are proud of their citizenship and are in many respects average Americans. There are a couple “family values” groups, that ascribe the the “Sharia conspiracy” that feel this show is too favorable to Muslims. The depicted Muslims are not radical or scary, so instead of acknowledging that some of the 1.8 billion Muslims in this world might be honest Americans, they protest the show and convince advertisers to remove support.
What is significant about Lowe’s decision is not that it directly undermines freedom of religion – Lowe’s isn’t actively destroying the fabric of our society. But they are bowing to pressure from, and taking the side of, people who are actively seeking to persecute Muslims and undermine the true American way of life – liberty and freedom for all people. Lowe’s not only made a cynical and unprincipled decision in pulling their ads, I’m sure ultimately it will be a poor business decision as well. But Lowe’s was responding to a growing group of people who present a far bigger threat to America than terrorism – the ignorant. Willfully clinging to false and destructive beliefs, and becoming an activist for the forces of hate and division as opposed to peace and unity, that can be far more dangerous than bombs or guns.
The worst part about all this is it associates hate with two great religions. The clash between “Christians” and “Muslims” is primarily geo-political, not theological. Muslims are supposed to respect Jews and Christians as “people of the book” and revere Moses and Jesus Christ. Christians, a persecuted religious minority in Rome, were instructed to treat non-Christians with kindness, and “as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12.18). Nothing in either tradition justifies violence or bigotry toward each other. In fact, when you ask Muslims in other countries if they support violence against American civilians, those who support violence give political reasons (war and occupation) while those who oppose it give religious reasons (Islam has strict rules about conduct in warfare, and targeting unarmed civilians, women and children is forbidden).
True piety does not involve persecution. Christian anti-Islamists should be more concerned with their own faith’s values than those of Islam. Followers of Christ should always follow the path of love, and should not only support but advocate for the rights of minorities in this country.
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Tags: All American Muslim, bigotry, bill of rights, Freedom, ignorance, interfaith, Islam, liberty, Lowe's, Muslim, Sharia
December 13, 2011 at 11:30 am |
And you can sign a petition telling Lowe’s not to be such cowards and to stand for something!