To the editor:
Our President on Feb. 5 co
ndemned all current Christians for the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century and the Crusades in the 11th century. He also held the Christian religion responsible for slavery, even though most Africans enslaved were first enslaved by Muslim slave traders then sold to western slavers, and most Muslim nations did not abolish slavery until the 20th century, one in the 21st.
Only a politically correct president supported by the media could get away with blaming American Christians for what the Spanish did 284 years before the United States ever existed as a nation. Only the politically correct left could hold all Christians alive today responsible for the Crusades a thousand years ago. Only a politically correct extremist could make a moral equivalency to what ISIS is doing: comparing to ancient history the crucifying, burning alive, raping, and burying infidels and Muslims alive that ISIS is doing today.
The moral equivalency is so just plain stupid on the face of it that few can deny the left wing media’s blind and mute handling of our President’s insulting, outrageous and inflammatory speech.
Recruiters for radical Islam are cheering our President’s speech and no doubt handing out copies as a recruiting tool. Osama bin Laden before his death referred to you and I as Crusaders; President Obama added credibility to Osama bin Laden’s words when he placed responsibility for the 1000-year old-sins of the Crusades on all living Christians, confirming Osama’s teachings in the eyes of 1.6 billion Muslims.
Mr. President Sir, you state we cannot condemn all Islam for the actions of ISIS today, but you condemn all Christians for actions of the Crusades 1000 years ago? Please explain how that works?
Robert M. Traxler, Dorr
How do we do that? Well, one way is to take the time to read the entirety of Mr. Obama’s remarks. I won’t copy and paste them all here but I will include a substantial and pertinent portion; and pertinent that is to your criticism. I’ll include the link to entire text at the end of this passage.
For Immediate Release
February 05, 2015
Remarks by the President at National Prayer Breakfast
Washington Hilton
Washington, D.C.
9:13 A.M. EST
” We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.
So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities — the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends?
Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. 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. Michelle and I returned from India — an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity — but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs — acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.
So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try. And in this mission, I believe there are a few principles that can guide us, particularly those of us who profess to believe.
And, first, we should start with some basic humility. I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt — not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn’t speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn’t care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth.
Our job is not to ask that God respond to our notion of truth — our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments. And we should assume humbly that we’re confused and don’t always know what we’re doing and we’re staggering and stumbling towards Him, and have some humility in that process. And that means we have to speak up against those who would misuse His name to justify oppression, or violence, or hatred with that fierce certainty. No God condones terror. No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives, or the oppression of those who are weaker or fewer in number.
And so, as people of faith, we are summoned to push back against those who try to distort our religion — any religion — for their own nihilistic ends. And here at home and around the world, we will constantly reaffirm that fundamental freedom — freedom of religion — the right to practice our faith how we choose, to change our faith if we choose, to practice no faith at all if we choose, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination.
There’s wisdom in our founders writing in those documents that help found this nation the notion of freedom of religion, because they understood the need for humility. They also understood the need to uphold freedom of speech, that there was a connection between freedom of speech and freedom of religion. For to infringe on one right under the pretext of protecting another is a betrayal of both.
But part of humility is also recognizing in modern, complicated, diverse societies, the functioning of these rights, the concern for the protection of these rights calls for each of us to exercise civility and restraint and judgment. And if, in fact, we defend the legal right of a person to insult another’s religion, we’re equally obligated to use our free speech to condemn such insults — (applause) — and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with religious communities, particularly religious minorities who are the targets of such attacks. Just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t question those who would insult others in the name of free speech. Because we know that our nations are stronger when people of all faiths feel that they are welcome, that they, too, are full and equal members of our countries.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/05/remarks-president-national-prayer-breakfast
Mr. Salisbury,
I read the article five times; answer the question please. Posting a link and making a snarky comment is not an intellectual answer, far from it. How are the actions of the Crusades a thousand years ago and what ISIS is doing today the same? Are you responsible for slavery because you are a white American?
Mr. Salisbury you did exactly what you are accusing others of doing.
You opened your essay with this statement: “Our President on Feb. 5 condemned all current Christians for the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century and the Crusades in the 11th century.”
You concluded your essay with two questions: “Mr. President Sir, you state we cannot condemn all Islam for the actions of ISIS today, but you condemn all Christians for actions of the Crusades 1000 years ago? Please explain how that works?”
Keeping in mind I did not vote for Mr. Obama in 2012, I would argue that you’ve completely misinterpreted his Prayer Breakfast remarks based on the claim in your essay’s opening sentence. Furthermore, I suggested in my response that one method to secure an answer to what I’ll assume is your valid question might actually be to read the transcribed speech.
Even a cursory reading of that portion which I copied and pasted clearly reveals that Mr. Obama made no such statement nor even alluded to a blanket condemnation of modern-day Christians nor held them responsible for the actions of some Christians during the Crusades and the Inquisition. There’s simply nothing in his remarks to support such an erroneous conclusion. In fact, he drew on examples across other nations and cultures to further make prove his thesis which can be identified as this: “And so, as people of faith, we are summoned to push back against those who try to distort our religion — any religion — for their own nihilistic ends. And here at home and around the world, we will constantly reaffirm that fundamental freedom — freedom of religion — the right to practice our faith how we choose, to change our faith if we choose, to practice no faith at all if we choose, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination.”
The point is that our President made remarks that made the comparison between the crusades 1000 years ago and ISIS/ISIL today. Even some of the the good folks on MSNBC agree. Andrea Mitchell, a very left wing personality, being one of them. Dancing around this or denying the inconvenient facts or changing the subject, does not answer the question, why? What does it accomplish?
President Obama did more harm than good with his remarks to those of us in the mostly Christian world. His remarks gave aid and comfort to the Islamic terrorists, why? His remarks made Osama bin Laden’s’ charge that we are all crusaders creditable, why? You may see it a certain way through your eyes but I can tell you the Islamic world will see it differently than you. If your experiences within the Islamic world are greater than mine then I will bow to your expertise.
You wrote – “The point is that our President made remarks that made the comparison between the crusades 1000 years ago and ISIS/ISIL today.”
Yes he did.
You are correct.
The President also said, that from a historical perspective, “those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends” … “is not unique to one group or one religion.”
Furthermore he said, “There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups (like ISIS) have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try.”