6.06.2006 | "The Elephant in the Room"

Andrew McCarthy has a necessary piece today at NRO: "The Elephant in the Room". Here's my response to him:

Many on the Left love to throw around the trite phrase, "talking truth to power." You've actually done it in your piece today.

The truth is that Islam is a religion, not of peace, but of conflict. A religion of the sword, which it's been since its very founding.

The Times and other left-leaning mass media have what I call the "guilty white liberal syndrome." Wherein those of us in the affluent and free West must make amends for all wrongs ever done to our little brothers and sisters in the developing world. All wrongs. Ever. And no amount of apology is sufficient.

One of the favorite tactics of those who would apologize for Islam and its violence is to raise, yet again, the bloody shirt of the Crusades. And note, correctly, that Christians have violence in their history as well.

But there's a very important difference. Those who profess Christ as Lord and commit murder in His name have violated some very explicit direction He gave us when He was with us in the flesh. Christians who murder in God's name are simply not Christian.

The difference, as you allude to, is that Muslims who murder in the name of Allah and Allah's prophet Mohammed are simply following instructions.

Violence is in Islam's very DNA. In contrast, peace is in Christianity's DNA. Doesn't mean we're always, or even usually, successful. Just means that we have to keep on trying. In sharp contrast with Islam, where they don't even seem to be trying to change.