Greg Krehbiel
Do you believe what this guy is saying?
by Greg Krehbiel on 23 January 2012
See Muslim without sharia? from the reliably misinformed Washington Post blog on religion.
Harris Zafar is taking Gingrich to task saying that he would not support a Muslim presidential candidate unless he publicly renounced sharia. (Which seems perfectly reasonable to me. Gingrich is not, so far as I can tell, talking about creating a law or a new requirement. He’s simply saying that he would not support such a candidate.)
Zafar then goes on with the “Muslims are nice and no threat” schtick.
How many nations have been taken over by Muslim extremists in the past couple decades? Does this guy really expect us to believe his platitudes, like “Sharia teaches freedom of conscience and religion.”
It reminds me of a comment by Lt. Commander Worf. “You must think me a fool to make your lies so transparent.”
Even if there are Muslims who believe as Zafar claims, that’s clearly not the whole story, and it’s dishonest for him to pretend that it is.
2012-01-23 » Greg Krehbiel
23 January 2012 @ 2:02 pm
I don’t know why, when it comes to Muslims, we’re not allowed to read texts and examine history in order to evaluate things.
I’m just as much on board with “don’t judge the nice Muslims next door by what Mohammad Atta did” as the next person, but that doesn’t mean that it makes any sense for Ron Paul to say that Muslims don’t bother people who leave them alone (tell that to the entire population of North Africa in the 7th century, or show me what has changed either practically or theologically that would make the difference) or that sharia is not something any moral person could find undesirable as national policy.
And you’re right, if someone tries to set up an official litmus test like that as a qualification to hold office, that’s a problem. If someone simply says, “I can’t support a person unless I know he doesn’t believe in X,” that’s every bit as legitimate as any other position a potential endorser might take.
23 January 2012 @ 3:12 pm
And we don’t have to go back to the 7th century. Muslims have been taking over countries and imposing crazy laws in very recent history.
23 January 2012 @ 5:20 pm
Right, I just brought up the 7th century because it was a very clear case of all those people from Persia to Spain just minding their own business, and the Muslims just coming in and saying, “Mine.” More modern cases are more subject to disputes over whether the people “wanted” them in charge or whether they had some “claim” to the place, or whatever. But the earliest history of Islam is a pretty open and shut case of Islam as (at least originally) being inherently conquest-oriented.