The Issue of Islam

By: Jeff Katz, March, 2105

The President recently delivered a powerful speech in which he called for a reformation within Islam. He pointed out over and over again, that certain parts of the Koran which call for Muslims to slaughter or conquer non-Muslims were simply outdated and needed to be consigned to the ash bin of history. The radical thinking within Islam is “making enemies of the whole world. So 1.6 billion people (in the Muslim world) will kill the entire world of 7 billion? That’s impossible … We need a religious revolution.” The President called for that revolution and reformation within Islam so that it could thrive in the modern world and its adherents could live in peace with others. The president to whom I refer is Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the leader of Egypt. El-Sissi is a proud practicing Muslim who fully understands the challenges of the extremists within his own faith.

The President of the United States, in stark contrast to the President of Egypt, does his best to ignore the realities of Muslim terrorists. Barack Obama, despite incontrovertible evidence, continues to wear a self-donned blindfold to the presence and activity of Islamic terrorists. While Obama invokes the Crusades of a thousand years ago to provide a moral equivalence to modern day terrorists, el-Sissi continues to press for his stated goal that everyone choose to live in the twenty-first, not the seventh century.

President Obama would have us believe that Islam has been a powerful force in building and guiding the United States of America since the birth of the nation. While there have certainly been those who practice Islam present in this country for a long time, it is simply not true that Islam was part of the founding fathers vision in the same way that they viewed Judaism, Christianity and even theism. The United States has a clear Judeo-Christian underpinning, and pointing out that there have been Muslims living in the country for a long period of time does nothing to change that. Nor does acknowledging the Judeo-Christian roots of this country serve to diminish or attack our Muslim citizens. The truth is the truth.

No matter your political allegiances, it becomes clearer and clearer each day that Barack Obama is either willfully ignorant or intentionally too blind to see. Does he really believe that those who are committing acts of jihad are in no way influenced by Islam? If he does, he stands in opposition to any number of Muslim leaders, both secular and religious, who are willing to acknowledge that truth.

While President Obama chooses to ignore the truth about what is going on the world around us, Zaid Nabulsi was brave enough to write these words, “We have to muster the courage to identify the specific texts that actually defame Islam, denounce them and permanently cleanse Islamic tradition of them.“ Nabulsi is an attorney, a resident of Jordan and a proud practicing Muslim.