We need to go back to worktomorrowand we will. But we need to be alert to the fact that these evil-doers still exist. We havent seen this kind of barbarism in a long period of time. No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people and show no remorse. This is a new kind of a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand.
This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while
George W. Bush, Sept. 16, 2001
Most people probably recall that comment pretty vividly, as it provoked an outcry among Americas allies in both Europe and the Middle East for obvious reasons. The word crusade in that particular context is an explicit historical reference that places the war on terrorism in the category of a religious conflict. Bush, to his credit, never used the word again and went out of his way throughout his term to downplay any talk that he was waging a religious war.
Not that it stopped the usual suspects from saying so, of course. Ann Coulter issued a notoriouscri de guerreon behalf of the entire conservative movement in October of 2001 saying, We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity! Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, whose radio show is frequented by Republican officials and conservative luminaries, has been preaching this gospel for some time as well.He put it like this:
The only thing that will give us a shot at building a democracy in an Islamic land is a mass conversion of its people to biblical Christianity. So that means if we want to see freedom come to those darkened, benighted lands, we should be sending missionaries in right after we send in the Marines to neutralize whatever threat has been raised against the United States. So we say to them, look, if you dont want our missionaries, fine, thats your choice, well take our missionaries and our Marines, well take them home, but were gonna let you know we have no hesitation about returning with lethal force if the forces in your country threaten us again. This time its Marines and missionaries, next time itll be Marines and missiles.
Hes also for mass forced conversion here in the U.S.
But this has been a fringe position even among the right-wingers who bandy about phrases like dhimmitude and talk about the president being a secret Muslim. Most conservatives have been wise enough to endorse the fact that radical Islam is the problem not of Islam itself, which, after all, has 1.6 billion adherents around the world while only a tiny handful of extremists are engaged in violence.
Unfortunately, the idea of reviving the crusades seems to be gaining some steam in some surprisingly influential corners. They may not be openly advocating for forced conversions but the implication that the fight is between Christianity and Islam is obvious.
Perhaps the most startling is the contention that Pope Francis himself is advocating for a new crusade including a call for military force.Max Fisher at Voxcharacterized his comments about the threat of ISIS in exactly those terms:
View post:
The rights new religious war: Why they see ISIS as Christianitys big threat