Obama Defends Modern Day Islam / Attacks Christian History

Written by Gary L. Bauer

President Barack Obama used the occasion of the National Prayer Breakfast to once again defend Islam. (Talk about chutzpah!) He did it using a tactic he has used before, but never so boldly.

Speaking before an event sponsored by an organization which professes “that Jesus transcends all forms of government and belief,” Obama lectured his audience, saying “. . . people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” citing “the Crusades and the Inquisition . . . slavery and Jim Crow.”

Obama’s historical references have absolutely no relevance to today’s fight against radical Islam — except that the Islamists are still fighting the Crusades!

As usual the president used a few truths to create a distorted narrative. For example, it is true that some Christians claimed to find a biblical basis for the institution of slavery.

But what Obama failed to mention was that Christian reformers like William Wilberforce led the charge in explaining why one man owning another man was an affront to the entire message of the Christian gospel — that all are made in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

The president also failed to mention that some of the most efficient slave traders over the centuries have been Muslims, a slave trade that continues to this very day.

Wherever Christianity spread over the centuries, it tended to bring with it better treatment for women, respect for minorities, religious liberty and what we generally refer to as progress. The reason for this is that the central figure of Christianity, Jesus Christ, said nothing in his ministry that could in any way justify bigotry or the mass murder of those who did not accept him.

Christ rejected spreading the faith by the sword, even rebuking Peter, one of his disciples, who attempted to prevent Christ’s arrest. As the president surely knows given his time in an Islamic school in Indonesia, Muhammad had no such qualms. He was, in fact, a warrior and actually led armies to spread the Islamic faith.

There is plenty of material in the teachings of Muhammad that provides theological support for the kind of terrorism and extremism we are seeing all over the world. One can find ample quotes by historians and renowned leaders to this affect, including Winston Churchill, who wrote about the “dreadful curses of Mohammedanism.”

Of course, who can be surprised that the president would choose a Christian prayer breakfast to launch into a review of the worst aspects of Christian history.

Just a few weeks ago, Ayatollah Khamenei, in the wake of murderous attacks in Paris, released a letter to the youth of Europe and America urging them to ignore the news, study the Koran and convert to Islam.

Sadly, given Obama’s record and past statements, I had no expectation that the president would, at a Christian prayer service, defend the teachings and values of Judeo-Christian civilization. True to form, he lambasted Christian history while defending present day Islam.

By the way, the theme of today’s National Prayer Breakfast was “Remembering the Armenian Genocide of 1915” — the slaughter of more than one million Christians committed by Muslims.