Muslims

The AFA's Bryan Fischer has written a post designed to "set the record straight on a number of issues" regarding some of his more outrageous statements, particularly as its relates to the coverage he has been getting from Jeremy at Good As You.

We'll just let his admissions speak for themselves: 

- I have in fact proposed that homosexual behavior once again be made against the law.

- I have in fact suggested the same sanctions be imposed on homosexual conduct that are imposed on intravenous drug abuse.

- Adolph Hitler did in fact surround himself with homosexual thugs.

- I have in fact suggested that Muslims should be ineligible for military service.

- I have in fact suggested severe restrictions on Muslim immigration into the United States.

Interestingly, regarding his claim that Hitler was gay and so we all of his top soldiers, Warren Throckmorton got Lothar Machtan, the author of "The Hidden Hitler" - which was the book Fischer originally cited as evidence - to comment on Fischer's interpretation of his work: 

Machtan told me that he believes Hitler's (alleged) homosexuality influenced his political career up to about 1934-35. However, Machtan wrote in clear terms that Hitler's cruelty was not due to his sexuality, saying, "Hitler's atrocities primarily do NOT derive from his homosexuality." Regarding the Holocaust, Machtan added, "Of course you CANNOT blame Hitler's homosexuality for the Holocaust." (Machtan supplied the emphasis).

In his post, Fischer also disputes the way some of his statements have been characterized, especially his recent call for everyone to "be a Phinehas in our own world, and in our own generation":

I never advocated running fornicators through with a spear. I cited the example of Phinehas from Numbers 25 to draw attention not to his specific act but to the character, courage, decisiveness and boldness which drove him to intervene in a dramatic way to save his nation from a deadly plague. Accusing me of anything beyond that is as ridiculous of accusing me of saying I want people to put a bullet in the brain of the next German they see because I admire the courage our soldiers showed on D-Day.

As I asked before, what exactly does he think people should do in order to demonstrate their own Phinehas-like dedication to God, given that the one thing that set Phinehas apart from all the others was his willingness to murder for God?

Fischer's long history of attacking gays as sexually deviant pedophiles and degenerates is central to this issue.  He has made a career out of attacking and demonizing gays, and so when he starts approvingly citing a story of a man who murdered two people for their "sexual immorality" and urges people to show that same sort of courage and dedication, it raises questions. 

Imagine for a moment that Fischer has made a career out of attacking and demonizing Germans and then suddenly urged all Americas to show the same sort of courage as demonstrated by soldiers on D-Day. That would likewise raise questions ... and not because people are offering "ridiculous" interpretations of his statements but rather because Fischer's own history has created a context in which such statements raise legitimate questions about his intention. 

It is remarkable to watch right-wing commentators desperately trying to come up with new and convincing reasons why Don't Ask, Don't Tell should remain in place.  

In the last few days, we've seen the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg claims that it'll lead to widespread gay rape, while his colleague, FRC President Tony Perkins claims that it'll destroy the religious freedom of military chaplains.

At the same time, Cliff Kincaid’s America’s Survival has been warning that our soldiers will be destroyed by "disease-tainted gay blood" ... and he is now being outdone by Scott Lively, who has set out his own list of reasons, including his standard "the Nazis were gay" claims, along with warnings about the reinstatement of the draft, the ultimate takeover of the military by gays, and that we are endangering the lives of all Americans by outraging Muslims:

Once homosexuals are invited to serve, the authorities will be committed to integrate them into the ranks, which means “sensitivity” training, anti-discrimination policies, and all of the other “politically correct” nonsense that has been such a disaster in the other spheres of our society. These policies have smacked of pro-“gay” fascism in the civilian world; how much worse would it be in the rigidly-controlled environment of the military?

A sizable percentage of men would not willingly subject themselves to such an environment. So, ironically, reinstatement of the draft would be made necessary by “homophobia,” and for that reason the anti-war Lefties would suddenly become defenders of compulsory service.

...

Most people don’t realize that male homosexuality does not always lean to the effeminate. Historically, male homosexuality was much more often associated with hyper-masculine warrior societies which were usually very brutal and very politically aggressive. The most recent example was in Germany. Hitler’s initial power base when he launched the Nazi Party was a private homosexual military force organized and trained by a notorious pederast named Gerhard Rossbach. Rossbach’s homosexual partner Ernst Roehm, who was also Hitler’s partner in forming and building the Nazi Party, converted the “gay” Rossbachbund into the dreaded SA Brownshirts.

...

Next would come a severe drop in enlistments and re-enlistments, triggering the reinstatement of the draft. This would in turn begin a degeneration of the moral and ethical culture of the services as those with the highest personal values would be most likely to leave, being replaced, in many cases, by men whose motivation is to share a male-dominated environment with others of similar sexual proclivities.

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Lastly, and perhaps most serious is the loss of our moral authority around the world, especially in the Moslem countries. Until now, we have relied upon the partnership of moderate Moslems in our campaign to marginalize the extremists who already call us The Great Satan for our moral ambiguities. Yet how quickly will we lose the popular support of these people and governments when they know that the soldiers we are sending for “nation-building” on Moslem soil are overt, practicing homosexuals? We are handing the extremists an entirely new and powerful recruiting tool, and undermining the goodwill of every socially conservative nation on the planet, culminating in a net increase of danger for our troops and decrease of respect for our way of life.

A few weeks ago, we noted that Glenn Beck has been invited to deliver the commencement address at Liberty University's graduation ceremony and wondered if LU students would react negatively to the idea of having a Mormon deliver such an address, as students at Regent University did back in 2007 when Mitt Romey was invited to its graduation.

Well, the ceremony is tomorrow and we have to admit that we hadn't seen anything from Liberty students objecting to Beck's invitation ... until today when we saw this op-ed by Ryan Begue, who is being awarded the Master of Arts in Theological Studies, complaining that he is "perplexed as to why it seems more [students] are not as equally alarmed" about it as he is:

For those who may not be aware, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which has consistently been known for its strong conservative and Christian values as a Baptist school, has invited political talk show host Glenn Beck to give the commencement speech to its graduates this week. On the surface that may not seem alarming to many since he is conservative. But given the fact he is a Mormon there ought to be red flags and sirens going off all across Christian circles.

...

I have no beef with Glenn Beck as a person, but I certainly do with his religious beliefs ...If you were under the impression Mormonism is a Christian group you are greatly mistaken. Mormonism is a polytheistic religion which believes Mary had sex with one of their gods and became pregnant with Jesus. They do not believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone or many other critical truths of our faith. Christians sadly have more in common with Muslims if you really get down to it since at least they are monotheistic — and we know how far from the truth Islam is.

I must say how shocked and disappointed I was when I arrived for the commencement ceremonies to discover that a man who is not committed to the Gospel was speaking to a group of graduates who have committed verbally that they are. If I were a student at BYU I would expect it, but not at Liberty. Let's not fall into the trap that conservatism is the greatest need in America.

I consider all the men I have met at Liberty as brothers, but am very concerned about the future of the school. If Liberty is doing this because they are trying to build bridges to reach out to the lost community I applaud their hearts, but this isn't the right avenue. It is time for Liberty to get on track and make sure they send a clear message to the world that their commitment is first to the Gospel.

Franklin Graham is apparently under the impression that freedom of speech and religion means that he is allowed to say anything the wants and nobody has a right to disagree or complain, nor will there ever be any repercussions, because he was merely exercising his religious freedom,

That, at least, seems to be his stock response whenever he discusses being disinvited from the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer event, as he's now complaining to CBN's David Brody that Christianity is being "put down":

"I think it is a put down, because there seems to be that Islam gets a pass, that a couple of Muslims complain about a Christian event at the Pentagon, when there's been Christian events at the Pentagon for years. My father has preached there, I have preached there, many others have preached there, but yet a couple of Muslims can complain. They can have Ramadan, they have their prayer services there, I don't complain, I'm happy for them to do that, but for them to complain because I don't believe as they believe and I don't worship the same God that they worship. I worship a different God than they worship. But we love them, and I care for them, and I want Muslims everywhere to know what I know that Jesus Christ died for their sins the same way he died for mine and if they're willing to confess and repent of their sins and receive Christ in their hearts, then their lives, they can have that assurance of salvation, forgiveness of sin, and they can have that assurance of Heaven, and I want them to know that."

I wonder how Graham and the Religious Right if the Pentagon had invited a Jewish or Muslim speaker to the Day of Prayer event who had called Christianity a "very evil and wicked religion"?

I'm sure that they would have respected said speaker's religious and first amendment rights ... just like they did when a group of Muslims tried to hold a prayer rally on the National Mall last year.

In a move that comes as no surprise, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer uses news of an arrest of a suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing to reiterate his call to cut off immigration to all Muslims who refuse to renounce their religion: 

It's simply not possible to watch every Muslim with an SUV or a van 24/7. This same incident can be repeated anywhere at anytime in any American city, and we won't be able to do anything but scoop up body parts.

The objective observer who is not blinded by decaying concepts of multiculturalism can surely see it is wrongheaded for any nation to grant citizenship to people whose religion teaches them that they have a sacred obligation to kill their hosts.

So far, we have been saved only by the incompetence of the Christmas Day underwear bomber and by the incompetence of Shahzad, who mis-wired his bomb and used the wrong kind of fertilizer. In other words, we have been lucky rather than smart. It's time to get smart and close our borders to followers of a prophet who teaches them that their god wants them to kill Americans.

If they are willing to renounce their allegiance to the prophet and the religion of Muhammad, and disown the Koran and everything it teaches about killing infidels, wife-beating, and second-class citizenship for Christians, then they can become good Americans. Until then, it's impossible. Their religion teaches them a value system that is wholly at odds with American ideals. They will simply represent an element that will tear asunder what remains of our cultural unity and pose an increasing danger to innocent American lives.

Because we love people, we want Muslims to leave the deception, darkness and viciousness of Islam to find light and truth in the message of the Prince of Peace. In order to be for Muslims, we must be against Islam. We are pro-Muslim but anti-Islam.

If someone has a better idea, I'm all ears. Until then, I remain convinced that if we truly care about the safety and security of the American people, Muslim immigration must come to a halt. That's not Islamophobia, it's Islamo-realism.

Such a move, of course, will do nothing to protect us from the millions of Muslims who are already here, many of them clearly Amerophobes and already radicalized. But at least we'll have fewer of them to watch.

I don't know why Fischer is now saying that there is no way "to protect us from the millions of Muslims who are already here," since it was just a few weeks ago when he called for the deportation of every Muslim in America, including those who had become citizens, unless they "are willing to convert to Christianity and renounce Islam, Allah, Mohammed and the Koran [and] become not just good Christians but true Americans."

Dr. Ergun Caner, the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, has been a rising star on the Religious Right, entertaining audiences at major Religious Right gatherings with his hip, irreverent stories about his upbringing as a radical Muslim and his conversion to Christianity. Just this week, his story was featured on Focus on the Family’s broadcast, “From Jihad to Jesus.”

As we've noted before, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer is not overly concerned with appearing to be compassionate, declaring that telling those who have children out of wedlock that America is no longer going to provide money or services to help them raise their "bastard children."

And even on the occasions where he does claim to be showing compassion, he seems to have a rather odd definition of it, declaring that the "most compassionate thing we can do" is to ban all Muslims from immigrating to the United States and deport all Muslims already living here.

Along those same lines, today Fischer voices his opposition to illegal immigration and declares that if one immigrant is here illegally, the US should deport the entire family, as that is the compassionate thing to do ... plus, as an added bonus, wholesale deportation "makes vigilante justice unnecessary":

Plus, there is no reason why families must be separated at all. We can believe in family integrity and in sound immigration policy at the same time. We don't have to choose between them. It's perfectly possible for us to repatriate entire families to their land of origin to keep husbands and wives together and parents and children together. In fact, I would suggest compassion as well as justice demands no less.

And as long as we are talking about compassion, what about compassion for American citizens who are law-abiding but have to bear the cost and injury caused by uncontrolled immigration? One abiding scriptural principle is that justice and compassion are two sides of the same coin. Compassion is the obverse side of justice, and justice the obverse side of compassion.

What this means in practice is that justice is a way of showing compassion, particularly to victims. it gives them closure, a sense that justice has been done, validates the impact the crime has had on them, and makes vigilante justice unnecessary.

So even in situations where children may have been born in America, thus making them citizens, and one of the parents is here legally, if the other parent is here illegally, Fischer's solution is to deport them all in order to keep the family together ... in the name of compassion.

• Warren Throckmorton: The Call Uganda and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
• Towleroad: Uganda 'Kill the Gays' Bill Author to Be Banned from UK if It Passes.
• Think Progress: Bachmann: Bill Clinton Is Trying To ‘Celebrate’ The Oklahoma City Bombing And ‘Take [Me] Out’.
• David Neiwert: Sarah Palin's speech to Women of Joy reveals church-state separation denier, adherent of radical 'Prayer Warriors'.
• Daily Kos: Muslims Can't Be Foster Parents.
• Good As You is not moved by the news that Maggie Gallagher is stepping down as president of the National Organization for Marriage.
• Finally, Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen provides coverage from inside "The Awakening" conference which nicely compliments our coverage.

Last week, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer followed-up his call from last year to purge all Muslims from the US military with a call to purge all Muslims from the United States in general.

Today, Fischer has returned to defend his call for all Muslims in the United States to be deported immediately by claiming that every Muslim has a "solemn, sacred obligation to kill as many of their hosts as possible" and it is therefore "a form of suicidal insanity" to allow them to stay in the US .

Fischer admits that while not every single Muslim is out to destroy the US, since we can't know which ones are ahead of time, it only makes sense to view "every new Muslim immigrant [as a] potential threat to the safety and security of the United States" and to treat all Muslims citizens as traitors: 

Bottom line: every Muslim who enters the United States carries within his bosom the seeds of sedition. It is dangerously foolish for the United States to invite folks inside our borders whose god orders them, through his holy prophet, to murder American infidels. According to the latest Easter polling data, infidels comprise about 80 percent of our population, the 80 percent who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, came to earth to die for our sins, and rose from the grave. Each of these beliefs is regarded in Islam as a heresy which ultimately merits the death penalty.

And if the government won't impose this death penalty on the infidels, the Muslims themselves will be happy to impose it on their own initiative, as 9/11 and Fort Hood amply illustrate.

If we separate ourselves for a moment from the rampant and mindless political correctness and multiculturalism which controls the thinking of the elites, and the ordinary Americans who allow the elite to do their thinking for them, it is obviously and plainly nuts to throw out the welcome mat to those who have a religious obligation to obliterate us. It is beyond comprehension that we have become so brain-addled that we regard it a positive virtue to blindly embrace our own destroyers.

Muslims who have become naturalized citizens, of course, would need to commit an act of treason to forfeit their citizenship and become eligible for repatriation. Based on the Constitution's definition of treason in Article III Section 3 ["adhering to (the) Enemies (of the United States), (or) giving them Aid and Comfort"] treasonous acts are likely committed on virtually a weekly basis here in the U.S. in many mosques and Islamic organizations.

Fischer concludes that the goal of every Muslim is to "establish a virtual Islamic homeland in our midst" and that instead of spending money on eventually incarcerating them, we should use that money to deport them:

Is this xenophobia? Nope, just common sense and a love of the United States and its exceptionalism. In fact, what we must protect ourselves from are Amerophobes, those who hate us because of who we are and what we believe. It's time for a wake-up call.