DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: MUSLIM MISINFORMATION, LINCOLN & THE GOP

Letter to the Editor: Muslim misinformation

Editor: Keith Law is at it again, bashing Christianity and accusing Republicans of being evil Christians. I've attended church and noted all political parties attending. And why is he displaying Abraham Lincoln as an atheist, or a non-Christian?

I also attended a week of evening programs Law sponsored at Merced College a few years ago, and there was nothing except anti-American materials, especially events taking place during Republican administrations. Everything depicted how wicked Republicans and Christians were, and the last few nights Muslim professors from Fresno State and Cal State Stanislaus bashed America, plus a Muslim woman, so wrapped up in cloth her face was barely visible, tried to convince everyone how wonderful the Islamic religion is.

For some time I've been studying Islamic history and what Muslims have done in the past 1,400 years in their domination of about a third of the Earth's habitable lands, and it isn't a pretty picture. Muslim children are taught from infancy that they must hate all who believe other than a Muslim, and their surest way to paradise, their version of heaven, is to kill a nonbeliever, even if it takes their own lives. That's why we see so many young Muslim suicide bombers. And, I'm afraid the same tactics are used in Keith Law's classes to convey vile untruths about the United States; especially Republican administrations.

Muslims believe the entire Earth must become Muslim or die. Extreme Muslims are the ones causing the terrorist acts in so many countries, such as those here on Sept. 11, 2001, the bombing of two of our middle east embassies, the USS Cole, and bombings in Spain, England, Russia, Indonesia, and Kosovo, before Clinton aided the Albanian Muslims with our military in taking territory from Yugoslavia. There are so many Muslims in Germany, France, and Great Britain that I fear one or more will soon fall to Muslim domination. Nonviolent Muslims dare not protest or they also become targets. I recall Anwar Sadat of Egypt making peace with Israel and then being assassinated by one of his own.

And, speaking of countries the Muslims want, we've been told in very plain language by bin Laden and others that Muslims intend to take over the United States. Sept. 11 was to be the beginning, but they failed to disrupt our economy, take out the top military leaders, and disrupt the government as they had intended, or we would have seen more attacks by now. It's time we all realize we're faced with a very serious threat. Personally, I prefer the battle remain in Iraq and elsewhere, rather than come here. Thank you. President Bush.

MARVIN R. WALLACE


The above "letter to the editor" was in response to the following "letter to the editor":


Letter to the Editor: GOP lost its way

Editor: Utilizing what used to be the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln as their willing tool, fundamentalist ministers have been pushing legislation and court appointees that curtail the full enjoyment of our civil liberties. It is naive to assume this will not resume in the 2008 election. The Christian right's agenda is evidenced in President Bush's home state wherein the platform of the Texas Republican Party asserts that "the United States of America is a Christian nation," and the need to "dispel the myth of the separation of church and state."

The Christian right's manipulation of our Founders to legitimize this agenda is most loathsome. Rev. J.W. Chadwick expressed the irony of this appeal in his 1872 response to a similar movement: "Of the six men who have done most to make America the wonder and the glory she is to all of us, not one could be the citizen of a government so constituted; for Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin ...were heretics in their day, Deists, as men called them."

Deism stems from the philosophical movements of the 18th century that many of the Founders professed: Deists believe in a creator as first cause, but not in divine intervention as expressed in the Bible. Other important Deists included James Madison, John Adams, and more recent leaders such as the GOP's very own Abraham Lincoln.

Aside from the fact that they never referenced Christ in any official document, the Founders' beliefs are reflected in The Declaration of Independence wherein Jefferson referred to "Nature's God" and a "Creator" as the source of our rights, and asserted that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" instead of the previous notion that governments derive their powers from God. Their secular views are also reflected in the Constitution that says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Finally, and most clearly, this is expressed in Article XI of the Treaty of Tripoli (1797), which opens with these words: "As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..." The Treaty of Tripoli was penned during Washington's presidency; it was ratified unanimously by the Fifth Congress, wherein Thomas Jefferson presided, and signed into law by then President John Adams.

The shameful use of Lincoln's "Grand Old Party" as the vehicle for the Christian right's agenda is an insult to Americans of all stripes, including genuinely conservative ones. By pandering to the Christian right in order to win votes in the South, Karl Rove, Bush and the rest have not only sold out our Founders on the church-state issue, they have sold out the GOP as well. Of course, along with some questionable electoral shenanigans by family and friends in the key states of Florida and Ohio, this strategy has paid off at the polls, and may again in 2008. But, these victories come at a great price, for we not only risk the loss of civil liberties, but a loss of collective soul as well. One is tempted to refer to Bush's favorite philosopher, who is alleged to have warned: "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

KEITH LAW


Pertinent Links:

1) Letter to the Editor: Muslim misinformation

2) Letter to the Editor: GOP lost its way