Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

WHAT DID OBAMA REALLY SAY AT THE MOSQUE?

Dennis Prager has provided us an invaluable service in reporting what Obama actually said at the Baltimore mosque.  The media gets an "F" for not reporting even 5% of what Prager comments on below.  Prager's article is MUST READING.  He writes:

If you seek to understand Barack Obama and his views, the best place to go is his speeches. But you have to read them in their entirety, not rely on hearing them or on the media's summary of them. When you do, you realize how often what Obama says is morally and intellectually confused and even untrue.

The most recent example was his speech last week at a mosque in Baltimore. In addition to reassuring Muslim Americans that they are as American as Americans of every other faith -- – a point that any president, Republican or Democrat, would and should make – President Obama spoke a lot of nonsense, some of it dangerous.

President Obama: "So let's start with this fact: For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam's message of peace. And the very word itself, Islam, comes from salam -- peace."

Why did Obama say this? Even Muslim websites acknowledge that "Islam" means "submission" [to Allah], that it comes from the Arabic root "aslama" meaning submission, and that "Islam" is in the command form of that verb.

That's why "Muslim" means "One who submits," not "One who is peaceful."

Obama: "Jefferson and John Adams had their own copies of the Quran."

The reason Jefferson had a copy of the Quran was to try to understand it in light of what the Muslim ambassador from Tripoli had told him and John Adams. When asked why Tripoli pirates were attacking American ships and enslaving Americans, the Muslim ambassador explained that Muslims are commanded to do so by the Quran: "It was written in their Quran that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman [Muslim] who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to Paradise."

That's why Jefferson and Adams had Qurans.

Obama: "And how do we move forward together? ... It can't be just a burden on the Muslim community -- although the Muslim community has to play a role."

Most Americans would say that the American Muslim community has to play "the" role, not "a" role in preventing violent Islam from capturing the minds of American Muslims, and in helping authorities identify extremist Muslims.

DAVID LIMBAUGH ON OBAMA'S RELIGIOUS FAITH

Limbaugh writes (my bolding)

. . . . I see no point in raising Obama’s Christianity anymore, but the media are forcing it. Forgive me for not falling all over myself to affirm Obama’s Christianity. It’s true we can’t know for sure what’s in a person’s heart, but we can observe his statements and behavior. Obama’s assertions mean little to me these days. He emphatically asserted not too long ago that he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. He told us we could keep our doctors and insurance plans when he knew that wouldn’t be true. This is not a man with a track record of authenticity. And he is not a person who has shown any allegiance to Christian values.

For 20 years, he attended Wright’s church, where black liberation theology and anti-Americanism were preached with abandon. It shouldn’t shock you – as I’ve said before – that Wright’s church was more race- and Marxist-oriented than Christ-centered.

Additionally, throughout his presidency, Obama has gone out of his way to belittle Christianity. He demeaned “bitter” Midwesterners who “cling to guns or religion.” He mocked Scripture by saying: “Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith.” It’s hard for me to believe that any God-fearing person would ridicule God’s Word like this.'

Obama likened the Christian Crusades to present-day Islamic terrorism. He trampled the conscience rights of Christians when he forced employers to provide abortion-inducing drugs under their Obamacare health plans. He invited a host of anti-traditional Catholics to the White House to meet Pope Francis. He paved the way for the Supreme Court’s fiat legalizing same-sex marriage, knowing that it would lead to further assaults on Christians’ religious liberty.

He has taken Christmas themes out of White House Christmas cards, has removed references to religion from his Thanksgiving speeches, has omitted “the Creator” when quoting from the Declaration of Independence, supports abortion on demand and protects the abortion factory Planned Parenthood. His administration has sought funding for all kinds of sexual education but not those reflecting traditional values.

Obama has also shown preferential treatment toward Islam, from apologies for the U.S. military’s accidental burning of Qurans to blocking Middle Eastern Christians’ access to the White House, effusively praising Islam and overstating its role in America’s heritage, supporting the building of a mosque at Ground Zero, refusing to attribute terrorist attacks to radical Islam, rewriting government documents to remove terms potentially offensive to Muslims, such as “jihad” and “radical Islam,” turning NASA into a Muslim outreach effort, labeling the Fort Hood shootings “workplace violence,” and so much more.

If you want to see whether Obama embraces the precepts of the Christian faith, research the many curious statements he’s made on the subject. . . .

U.S. State Department won't allow Sister Diana into the country to tell Americans about ISIS persecution of Christians.

  Nina Shea reports:

Why is the United States barring a persecuted Iraqi Catholic nun — an internationally respected and leading representative of the Nineveh Christians who have been killed and deported by ISIS — from coming to Washington to testify about this catastrophe?

Earlier this week, we learned that every member of an Iraqi delegation of minority groups, including representatives of the Yazidi and Turkmen Shia religious communities, has been granted visas to come for official meetings in Washington — save one. The single delegate whose visitor visa was denied happens to be the group’s only Christian from Iraq.  . . .  [More...]

Update:  Nina Shea stands by her story in the face of State Department intimidation.

. . .  As an articulate, English-speaking Iraqi Christian, who is not only personally a victim of ISIS but also an aid worker with a broad perspective on the suffering of the Christian community there, Sister Diana would make an exceptional witness.

Whether conscious or not of her high value in that regard, those who decided to block Sister Diana from entering this country on a visitor visa acted in a manner consistent with the administration’s pattern of silence when it comes to the Christian profile of so many of the jihadists’ “convert-or-die” victims in Syria, Libya, Nigeria, Kenya, and Iraq. In typical U.S. condolence statements, targeted Christians have been identified simply as “lives lost,” “Egyptian citizens,” “Kenyan people,” “innocent victims,” or “innocent Iraqis.”

Me:  It's certainly true that the Obama administration cares not a fig about religious persecution around the world, but in addition to that, it has developed a particularly strong animosity toward reporting atrocities and persecutions committed against Christians.   I have almost finished reading the remarkable story of Bob Fu [God's Double Agent], who as a Chinese advocate for religious freedom secured wonderful cooperation from the George W. Bush White House and President George Bush himself.  The contrast between Presidents Bush and Obama could not be more dramatic.  GWB put religious freedom high on his list of foreign policy concerns.  From all the evidence, the current occupant of the White House despises Christians.

OBAMA: NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ISIS AND CHRISTIANITY

 

In his address yesterday to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. President Obama essentially said Christians have a violent history so they had better not get on their "high horses" and criticize Islam.   He drew moral equivalence between the Crusades/Inquisition and  ISIS atrocities.  Such a comparison is asinine and irresponsible, but sad to say, they were made by the current occupant of the White House.  In Obama's own words:

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history,” Obama told the group. “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

In an important history lesson and commentary, Ralph Peters says "The president knows as little about history as he does about warfare, and even less about religion."   

Mark Levin-  "Obama’s speech today sent two messages, one to our enemies that this is not a serious man, they are gut laughing, and one to all those people who are suffering, whose families are being slaughtered that they cannot count on the President of the United States for help.”

David Gelernter,  "His remarks were meant to establish his own moral superiority. . .   no littler man has ever been president."

Bobby Jindal - "The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.”  

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, cites two problems with Obama’s comparison:  “When Christians act violently they are acting in opposition to the teachings of their founder, Jesus Christ. . . On the other hand, radical Islamists can point to a number of verses in the Koran calling for Muslims to ‘crucify the infidels.’”

Jonah Goldberg cites Bernard Lewis, the greatest living English-language historian of Islam:  “The Crusades could more accurately be described as a limited, belated and, in the last analysis, ineffectual response to the jihad — a failed attempt to recover by a Christian holy war what had been lost to a Muslim holy war.”   (Note:  more facts on the Crusades can be found here).

Especially detailed responses citing Muslim scripture authorizing terror and brutality and murder can be found in reading Raymond Ibrahim and Robert Spencer.  History lessons can be found in Victor Davis Hanson and Ralph Peters.

I'll end with Ben Shapiro 's fine article: 

PROTEST AT WHITE HOUSE OVER PRESIDENT'S SILENCE ON IMPRISONED MOTHER SENTENCED TO DIE

Paul Strand, CBN News, reports:

WASHINGTON -- Protesters from some 40 groups marched and rallied outside the White House Thursday, accusing the president of not doing enough to push Sudan to free Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old mother of two who's been sentenced to die for her Christian faith.

 Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, attended the rally and pointed out Ibrahim, who is a daughter of a Muslim father, has been sentenced to die because she herself is a practicing Christian.

"Very simply the fact that she is a Christian, that she attends a local Catholic church, is deemed a crime there," Cruz said of Sudan. "And for that crime, she has been sentenced to 100 lashes and then to hang by the neck till dead."

Meriam's young son is imprisoned with her, as is her newborn baby daughter. Some of the protesters calling for their freedom wore red links as they marched and demonstrated.

"These represent the chains that Meriam Ibrahim has been wearing since she was imprisoned in Sudan," Penny Nance, with Concerned Women for America, told CBN News.

"She actually was forced to give birth while wearing them. So we wanted to wear them today in solidarity with our Christian sister, who was imprisoned only because of her faith," she added.

AMERICA'S MOST BIBLICALLY-HOSTILE U.S. PRESIDENT

Some time ago David Barton compiled a list of Obama's Biblically hostile statements and actions on his website, WallBuilders.  (HT: Tom)   The list of hostile actions is even longer now and needs updating, but as it stands it remains a MUST-READ reminder of the views of the man currently occupying the U.S. White House.

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President

America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general and Israel in particular. So perhaps the most accurate description of his antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical. And then when his hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor. In fact, there have been numerous clearly documented times when his pro-Islam positions have been the cause of his anti-Biblical actions.

Listed below in chronological order are (1) numerous records of his attacks on Biblical persons or organizations; (2) examples of the hostility toward Biblical faith that have become evident in the past three years in the Obama-led military; (3) a listing of his open attacks on Biblical values; and finally (4) a listing of numerous incidents of his preferential deference for Islam’s activities and positions, including letting his Islamic advisors guide and influence his hostility toward people of Biblical faith.

1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith:

• April 2008 – Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they “cling to guns or religion” and have an “antipathy to people who aren't like them.” ¹
  
  
• February 2009 – Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011. ²
  
  
• April 2009 – When speaking at Georgetown University, Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name be covered when he is making his speech. ³
  
  
• May 2009 – Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House. ⁴
  
  
• April 2009 – In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three. ⁵
  
  
• October 19, 2010 – Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence – an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions. ⁶

PRESIDENT OBAMA INVOKES THE BIBLE WHEN IT SUITS HIM

And he uses his own narrow ideological lens in doing so.  The Family Research Council nails the issue (and President Obama) in writing the following:  [my bolding]

Cause God Blessed Taxes with His Own Hand...

President Obama isn't selling the bracelets, but he is asking the question: WWJT? What Would Jesus Tax? Speaking at yesterday's National Prayer Breakfast, the President invoked everyone from Jesus to Mohammed to push his universal welfare state. "It's hard for me to ask [people]... who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who's been extraordinarily blessed and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that's going to make some economic sense... For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that to whom much is given, much shall be required. It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration of others. It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others."

How ironic. Liberals accuse us of trying to create a theocracy, when they're the ones trying to attach biblical significance to big government! The Left engages God when it's convenient, and draws a line between church and state when it isn't. Unfortunately, that's the reality of an a la carte belief system. God can easily conform to public opinion. And this isn't the first time the White House has recruited Jesus to support its policies. Back in November, President Obama said God "wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work." "Isn't it a bit much to bring God into the jobs debate?" a reporter asked? Press Secretary Jay Carney fired back, "I believe that the phrase from the Bible is, 'The Lord helps those who help themselves.'" Only that phrase wasn't from the Bible. It's usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin (and I doubt he'd support the legislation either!)

The problem here is not that the President references Scripture. The problem is that he's interpreting it through a narrow ideological lens that isn't aligned with the Truth. Sure, Jesus hung out with the tax collectors, but no serious student of the Bible would construe Luke 12:48 as a call for big government. The Bible is clear that we should care for the less fortunate, but not once does it imply that it's government's job to do so. When Jesus wanted to help the orphaned or widowed, he didn't hire bureaucrats. He called on His followers, the Church. We can ask ourselves What Would Jesus Tax? but without taking Scripture wildly out of context, we may never know. What we do know is that the same God who supposedly "supports" Obama's tax hikes is the One who condemns abortion, sexual immorality, and religious persecution.

OBAMA REIGN - SUBVERTING AMERICA'S GREATNESS

I view President Obama as undermining America's uniqueness and greatness.   Two examples (conscience and religious freedom, and undermining military preparedness) appear in today's Wall Street Journal.

--  See Timothy Dolan's article - "ObamaCare and Religious Freedom."  Dolan appropriately subtitles his article, "How about some respect for Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease?" (Dolan is archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops.)

--  See also Margaret Eaglen - Defense Cuts and America's Outdated Military   Her concluding paragraph reads:

 What the Obama Pentagon will lay out this week is the final nail in the coffin of our national contract with our all-volunteer military—that if they fight, they'll have the very best to win. It marks the beginning of the end of America's unquestioned international military dominance. Our soldiers will increasingly go into combat with aged equipment, lacking assurance that they'll prevail against any enemy.

Update 1/27/12 : - Arthur Herman - "Obama's Strategy for Disaster"
    Me: One weeps at the self-destructive forces at work in the United States.  It seems God has given us over to delusions, a way of bringing destruction on ourselves through ourselves.

OOPS! PRESIDENT OBAMA FORGOT SOMETHING

Can you guess what?  Barack Obama dropped “that are endowed by our Creator” from the Declaration of Independence in a speech he gave this past week.

Was it just a slip?  A lot of commenters don't think so.

OBAMA AND ISLAM: ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF OBAMA'S IGNORANCE OF HISTORY

Jim Hoft offers a daily stream of must-read posts on his blog, Gateway Pundit.   Of today's many posts, I cite but one:  "Obama’s NASA Muslim Strategy Echoes His Nutty Cairo Speech."

Hoft writes:

Student of history, Barack Obama, spoke to the Muslim World in Cairo last year.
During his speech Obama congratulated the Muslim World for their many accomplishments.
Obama’s Cairo Speech – The Transcript:

“As a student of history, I also know civilisation’s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Unfortunately, Dear Leader was once again repeating Far Left talking points and not facts.
Here is what he forgot to mention:

** The compass- The use of a magnetic compass as a direction finder occurred sometime before 1044, but incontestable evidence for the use of the compass as a navigational device did not appear until 1119 in China. The earliest reference to an iron fish-like compass in the Islamic world occurs in a Persian talebook from 1232- Wikipedia.

** The pen- Ancient Egyptians developed writing on papyrus scrolls when scribes used thin reed brushes or reed pens. The quill pen was used in Qumran, Judea to write some

NONIE DARWISH: PRESIDENT OBAMA STEADYING AND SUPPORTING A TOTTERING ISLAM

Nonie Darwish, the courageous former Muslim raised in Egypt and now a U.S. citizen, has written two books, Now They Call Me Infidel (2007) and Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law (2009).  She is co-founder of Former Muslims United.  Today she penned an important article: Obama's New Year Gift to the Saudi King.  (HT: Atlas Shrugs)  (my bolding)

The West is not fully aware of what is happening in the Muslim world today where taboo topics are being discussed by brave Muslim reformists and former Muslims. There are ground braking Arabic TV and internet shows aired inside homes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, etc, discussing what ordinary Muslims were never allowed to heard before. The brilliant Rachid Hmami, a Former Muslim turned Christian and originally from Morocco, has a show, Suaal Garii ‘Daring Question,’ that is making shock waves across the Middle East. Another equally effective show, is that of the brave Coptic priest, Father Zakareya Botros, who was imprisoned in Egypt for proselytizing to Muslims. Father Botros’s show is a huge success in exposing

IF BILL CLINTON WAS THE FIRST "BLACK PRESIDENT," THEN BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS THE FIRST AMERICAN "MUSLIM PRESIDENT"

Frank Gaffney Jr. makes the analogy.  Gaffney's reasoning and arguments are irrefutable.   Worth reading.  (Gaffney is president of the Center for Security Policy.)

CAROLINE GLICK - OBAMA'S CAIRO SPEECH FRAUDULENT, DISAPPOINTING AND FRANKLY OBSCENE

- Update 6/8/09: see also Anne Beyefsky's reflections.   Anne Bayefsky is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and at Touro College. She is also editor of www.EyeontheUN.org. 

- Update 6/8/09: Joseph Puder - "Obama's Lost Opportunity to Address coptic Persecution"

- (Original post) - I blogged two days ago on her Glick's column, "The End of America's Strategic Alliance with Israel?"   Now, in her second column on Obama's speech, Glick really lets loose.  She calls Obama's speech "fundamentally and consciously fraudulent," and terms his rhetoric "disappointing and frankly obscene."    She cuts through the cant and political rhetoric to expose Obama's worldview for what it is.   Glick's article appears in the Jerusalem Post.  For what it's worth, I think she's right.  The bolding is my own.

US President Barack Obama claims to be a big fan of telling the truth. In media interviews ahead of his trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt and during his big speech in Cairo on Thursday, he claimed that the centerpiece of his Middle East policy is his willingness to tell people hard truths.

Indeed, Obama made three references to the need to tell the truth in his so-called address to the Muslim world.

Unfortunately, for a speech billed as an exercise in truth telling, Obama's address fell short. Far from reflecting hard truths, Obama's speech reflected political convenience.

Obama's so-called hard truths for the Islamic world included statements about the need to fight so-called extremists; give equal rights to women; provide freedom of religion; and foster democracy. Unfortunately, all of his statements on these issues were nothing more than abstract, theoretical declarations devoid of policy prescriptions.

He spoke of the need to fight Islamic terrorists without mentioning that their intellectual, political and monetary foundations and support come from the very mosques, politicians and regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt that Obama extols as moderate and responsible.

He spoke of the need to grant equality to women without making mention of common Islamic practices like so-called honor killings, and female genital mutilation. He ignored the fact that throughout the lands of Islam women are denied basic

GOOD QUESTION REGARDING OBAMA AND RELIGION

Andy McCarthy raises the question:

President Obama has vowed to be a no-show for today's National Prayer Day. Does that mean he is also cancelling the annual Iftaar dinner the Bush White House took to holding to mark the end of Ramadan?

Me: Excellent question.  It will be interesting to see.  And possibly quite significant.