October 18, 2012
Column #1,625
Is Obama A Muslim?
By Mike McManus
President Obama says he is a Christian, and I’d like to believe
him. Yet he often shows far more sympathy to Islam than to
Christianity, which is puzzling.
During the 2008 campaign Obama was overheard criticizing
Christians who “cling to guns or religion” and have an
“antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
In 2009 he discontinued hosting the National Day of Prayer, but
does host White House dinners in honor of Ramadan. In fact,
Franklin Graham, the Christian activist son of Billy Graham, was
disinvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer in 2010.
In 2010 Obama spoke out on multiple occasions in favor of
building an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, while he remained
silent about a Christian church being denied permission to
rebuild at that site.
His White House avoids traditional Biblical holidays and events
but regularly recognizes major Muslim holidays such as Ramadan,
Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.
In 2009 Obama announced plans to revoke conscience protection
for health workers who refuse to participate in medical
activities that go against their beliefs.
When he spoke at Georgetown University, he insisted that a
crucifix be covered up. (Why did this historic Catholic
institution agree to it?)
In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three
pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican – all of whom were
subsequently rejected by the pro-life Vatican.
On seven occasions, in reciting the Declaration of Independence,
the President omitted the phrase “endowed by their Creator.”
Here is what he should have said, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”
I saw one of these speeches. After
Obama said men “are created equal,” he paused for a long time,
scowled, blinked and added: “Endowed with certain inalienable
(sic) rights: life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The most important achievement of
the American Revolution was the insistence of the Founders that
God is the giver of rights – not the state. What the state
grants, it can take away. The Soviet Constitution includes a
grand tribute to human liberty, but declared the state was the
origin of individual rights. Result: Russia suppresses freedom.
By declaring God to be the origin
of rights, the Founders deliberately gave government a
subordinate role. President Obama is the first president in
American history not to acknowledge that all rights stem from
God. One omission might have been inadvertent but not seven of
them.
After a federal law was passed to
transfer a World War I Memorial in the Mojave Desert to private
ownership, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the cross in the
memorial could continue to stand. However, the Obama
Administration has refused to allow the land to be transferred
as required by law, or to permit the cross to be re-erected, as
ordered by the Court.
The Administration is forcing
Catholic universities and archdioceses to offer free
contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs,
though that violates their religious beliefs. Even Baptist
colleges have joined Catholics in suing for religious freedom.
The Administration says that
churches are exempted, but not Catholic hospitals which operate
a sixth of America’s hospital beds.
Cardinal Wuerl of Washington
asserted, “For Catholics, the practice of faith has always
required not just acts of worship, but also – necessarily –
loving charitable service to others…Jesus Christ taught that
obeying the first great commandment – loving God – must impel us
to fulfill the second great commandment – loving our neighbors
as ourselves.”
Richard Land, president of the
Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, put the
issue trenchantly: “This is a debate about coercion, not
Catholics; conscience, not contraceptive; and freedom not
fertility.”
On the anniversary of 9/11 the
U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya was destroyed by mortars,
killing the U.S. Ambassador and others. The President asserted
in Monday’s debate, that one day later he called this “an act of
terror.” However, Romney correctly disputed that assertion,
noting that five days later, our UN Ambassador Susan Rice went
on talk shows declaring this was a “spontaneous” uprising
sparked by an anti-Muslim video, as did Obama at the UN two
weeks after Benghazi.
Obama took umbrage
that “anybody on my team would play
politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor,
is offensive. That's not what we do. That's not what I do as
president.”
Nonsense. That is exactly what he was doing. For years,
Obama’s Administration has removed all terms that are offensive
to Muslims, including jihad, terrorists or radical Islamists.
For 30
years Obama has worn a ring inscribed with the words, “There is
no God but Allah.”
Apparently, that’s
where his loyalty lies. |
