Congressman LTC Allen West once again states the uncomfortable, politically incorrect truth (all emphasis mine):
West said the political correctness intimidates people from saying what he believes is true about Islam.
"If we continue down this road, as I call it multiculturalism on steroids, then we're going to present a gap by which we can get exploited time and time again. So I think that we have to start kind of like in baseball the umpire calls a ball a ball and a strike as strike and it's time that we start calling some strikes out there."
"I am not sitting up here and condemning people who call themselves Muslims," West said. "Now is the time we have to challenge this ideology. If we are to peacefully coexist they have to come into the 21st Century and push aside a lot of these 7th Century ideas they still hold."
West said he thinks that makes Islam a particular threat.
"We have to understand that the major religions of the world, Judaism and Christianity did go through reformations. Now when you look at this next major religion, I call it a theocratic political construct ideology, they need to go through a reform of the process as well.
"Ever since Muhammad left Mecca and took his Hijrah to Medina there was a violent turn to this faith that is called Islam. And we must confront that and we must understand that….
The last paragraph touches on what I wrote in comments under Howie’s post about the Taliban.
There are peaceful verses in the quran, and there are violent verses, as there are in other Holy Books. Muslims are free to select which of those verses they choose to embrace. But the quran has one distinguishing feature that other holy texts don’t have – the quran states which of those conflicting verses are valid and which are abrogated. One only needs to do simple research about the chronological order of the quran to understand how certain verses have become more relevant than others.
Are there peaceful Muslims who choose to only embrace the peaceful aspects of Islam and dismiss the violent aspects? Certainly. A majority do. But we cannot, in good conscience, ignore the truth that Islamic extremists do have religious justification to commit the atrocities they commit.
This is something Muslims, as a whole, need to address. They should be the first to challenge radical ideology of Islamic extremists. Since it would be impossible to dispute justification the quran (and Muhammad's own example) supports, West correctly states, there is a necessity for reformation.
But in the absence of their collective condemnation and reformation, it is imperative that all people who recognize the barbarity and inhumanity of terrorism to stand up for the truth. Knowledge is the greatest weapon of all. And as long as there is a brave few willing to speak out truthfully, however politically incorrect, there is hope.
~Thomas Mann
(Hat Tip: Jihad Watch)
Cross-posted at The Jawa Report
