I like hearing what Howard Dean has to say, because he will say openly and freely what people on the left are thinking. And he did just that Wednesday on MSNBC. Here’s his reaction to the attacks in Paris by Muslim terrorists:
“I stopped calling these people Muslim terrorists. They’re about as Muslim as I am. I mean, they have no respect for anybody else’s life, that’s not what the Koran says. And, you know Europe has an enormous radical problem. … I think ISIS is a cult. Not an Islamic cult. I think it’s a cult.”
This is helpful in that it’s a clearer statement of what the Left is doing but doesn’t explain. John Kerry won’t call them Muslim or Islamists either. Neither will Pres. Obama.
(See his comments here, and hear the response by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.)
Of course the terrorists are Muslim, but Howard Dean is doing what Leftists do: He starts with what he wants to believe and then works the facts around that.
Dr. Dean, let me tell you. I just finished reading the Koran and that is exactly what it says.
Early in the book it lays out Mohammed’s own twist on the story of Noah. In the Bible version, the world was full of violence, and that was the motivation for God sending the flood. In the Islamic version, it was simply because none of the people were believers–that was their sin, not violence. That was God wiping out the non-believers. But from the time of Mohammed forward, God wanted the Muslims to do that dirty work. Here is an excerpt from Sura XXI:
“And when we willed to destroy a city . . . when they acted criminally therein, just was its doom, and we destroyed it with an utter destruction
. . . And since Noah, how many nations have we exterminated!”
Violence is not condemned in the Koran, only “unjust violence” (Sura XXXIV). Violence, if it is against the wicked, is okay. And you have to understand the Koran’s definition of wicked. Nonbelievers are wicked, and will go to hell. But if you believe, God is not just forgiving, but lenient, even indulgent.
In Sura IX, it explains the doctrine:
“And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious, Merciful.”
No, Dr. Dean, the problem is that this is exactly what Islam is about. What we have in our day are Muslims who have moderated and believe in getting along with non-believers, and they are pitted against those who take the Koran literally–we would call them fundamentalists.
And a parenthetical comment about this quote—the reference to “those who join other gods with God” refers to Christians who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And violence is not only codified in the Koran, but it permeates the history of Islam. When Mohammed was alive, he gathered a group of followers and they spread their religion through war. After that, Muslims made great progress in attempting to take over the entire world, but they were stopped at the Pyrenees. Then they were relatively dormant for a while and tried again with the Ottoman Empire. They view this as a religious duty.
Look for more information on Islam coming on this blog. Reading the Koran was fascinating, and helps me understand Islam, and I will share my insights with you. Subscribe to this blog, if you’d like to read that.
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