Defend America Or Defend Islam?

On September 11, 2012, angry Muslims in Cairo,  Egypt, stormed the American embassy and ripped down the American flag, replacing it with one that said "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet."  The anger stemmed from video clips that had been placed on the internet in Egypt that depicted a trailer from a movie which ridiculed their prophet, Mohammed.

In Benghazi, Libya, a few hours later, a group of terrorists stormed the American consulate, setting off explosions, burning buildings and killing four Americans, including our Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.  Security forces at the embassy were overrun in a planned and coordinated attack believed to be perpetrated by a known Islamic terrorist group closely associated with Al Quaeda.

Our President and our Secretary of State condemned the attacks but also condemned the freedom of speech of whoever created the video.  The U.S. Embassy in Cairo initially responded with the following statement:  "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims -- as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

Following the violence and murders at the consulate in Libya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:   "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," Clinton said.  "Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

Yesterday morning, President Obama remarked on the incident stating:   "While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally opposed the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants." 

I call these remarks to attention because it seems our administration will defend Islam regardless of their actions but never have I seen them defend Christianity when it is attacked or ridiculed.  Last year a movie entitled "Red State" was released to American audiences.  The movie depicts Christians as haters, gay bashers and bigots, seemingly using the Westboro Baptist Church as it's model for Christianity.  Another movie, "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" ridicules Jesus Christ. 

Not once did I hear President Obama or Hillary Clinton decry either of these movies as being assaults on someone's religious beliefs.  At the same time, not once did I hear of a large group of Christians attacking or destroying anything, let alone murdering someone, because of them.  It seems in this world Christianity is the only religion that is fair game for anyone to attack without repercussions from our government.  People ridicule Christianity, God or Jesus Christ and it is perfectly acceptable.  Let someone say something about Islam or Mohammed and they are attacked by....  our own administration.

Libya's government has condemned the attack on our consulate and the murder of our citizens and has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.  I hope that comes to fruition.  There has been little response from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and I doubt there will be.  The Muslim government that President Obama helped to bring about in Egypt seems uninterested in  preventing the attacks or defending the U.S. embassy.  Granted, the damage so far has been mostly superficial but when these types of attacks go unchallenged by the authorities is speaks volumes about their government's  commitment to the United States.

We as a nation are told by our leaders that we need to be tolerant of Islam.  Yet Islam, on a daily basis, proves over and over that they are not tolerant of any and all who disagree with their religious beliefs.  The protesters in Cairo say they are simply reacting to the depiction of their prophet Mohammed as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester.   Many Muslims are willing to kill people for disrespecting their prophet and their religion yet history shows that the depiction of Mohammed is more truth than fiction.  So Muslims want to kill people who tell the truth about their prophet.  And we, as a nation, are supposed to respect that?    Sorry - not me.

OK, not sorry.  When the world has to stop telling the truth for fear of being politically incorrect or for fear of innocent people being killed over it then the world has bowed to terrorism and evil.  I agree with my friend, Frank, that putting warships off the coast of Libya might be a bit premature, depending on the actual  response of the Libyan government.  But condemning Americans' right to free speech is the wrong answer to the problem.  Let us hope our President determines that protecting the lives and Constitutional rights of all Americans takes precedence over being politically correct with terrorists and fanatics.