“The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie.”
Today Obama made a speech to world leaders in which he made the preceding quote in regards to the war being fought with ISIS. Whether the statement is true or not is insignificant. Obama has committed doublethink and is going to have a tough time peddling his message to the people of Islamic faith. From an outsiders perspective [non-christian], the U.S. appears to be a christian nation. The line One nation under God is in the national anthem, and In God we trust is etched into U.S. currency in circulation around the world. The Fox news channel, “America’s most trusted news source,” bombards the airwaves with stories of muslims fighting a war against Christians. George W. Bush once told the Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath that God said to him, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan…and end the tyranny in Iraq.” ISIS beheaded a couple of Americans to which the response was a few harsh words and a threat of retaliation, but when ISIS killed 21 Coptic Christians, Obama made a call to arms. The timing is almost certainly a coincidence, but it doesn’t help the case. To the world and a few American citizens, the country seems to be at the cusp of an epoch. The nation appears to be making the transition from secular republic to christian theocracy.
The media and government officials generally refer to ISIS as a group of religious extremists, but they are more like Islamic fundamentalists or Koran literalists. The war ISIS is fighting is a holy war against infidels which includes non-muslims and muslims with a perceived “weak faith in Allah.” The U.S. involvement in this war, especially while having an outward appearance of being a christian nation, is a real conundrum. To use a metaphor, Obama is like a speaker at a PETA convention denouncing the mistreatment of animals while wearing a fur coat. The statement is sound, the speaker believes it to be right, but the audience isn’t buying it, not for one second.
The Rational Exchange 