Because Christians are just as likely to blow buildings up and kill thousands of non-Christians, a Democratic congressman says he’s cool with investigating the radicalization of Muslims as long as we also investigate Christians.
Texas Congressman Al Green (D) says he wouldn’t mind Rep. Peter King (R-NY) repeatedly calling hearings on “radical Islam” if he would also conduct a “hearing on the radicalization of Christians.”
During a Wednesday House Homeland Security Committee hearing on “The Radicalization of Muslim-Americans,” Green wondered why the chairman had only focused on one religion.
“If you agree that radicalization exists within all religions to some extent, would you kindly extend a hand into the air,” Green, who is the grandson of a Christian minister, asked the witnesses testifying before the committee. He noted that “all the hands are raised.”
“I don’t think that most people oppose hearings on radicalization,” the congressman explained. “I do not, not — N-O-T — oppose hearings on radicalization. I do oppose hearings that don’t focus on the entirety of radicalization. And if you agree that we have Christians, as has been mentioned by more than one member, Christians who become radicalized, they become part of Islam and they become radicalized as is being said, why not have a hearing on the radicalization of Christians?”
This kind of equivalence rises easily to the level of stupidity on its face because Christians aren’t strapping bombs to themselves or hijacking planes.
Just for a brief rundown, here’s Robert Spencer at Pajamas Media:
On the one hand we have recent jihad plotters in the U.S., including Naser Abdo, the would-be second Fort Hood jihad mass murderer; Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; Nidal Hasan, the successful Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; Naveed Haq, the jihad mass murderer at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle; Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh, who hatched a jihad plot to blow up a Manhattan synagogue; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber. All of them and many others invoked the Qur’an and Sunnah to explain and justify their deeds.
That’s a pretty good reason why what Congressman Green said it just plain stupid.
But what makes it more than stupid and actually offensive is that all throughout the world Muslims are killing Christians by the hundreds. Equating the two is just so tired and dumb and I really wish they’d stop it. It’s like when the media reports that 100 Muslims slaughter a Christian family and they call it a “clash.” It’s not a clash. It’s a slaughter.
To not see it, you have to be willfully ignorant or just naturally dumb.
June 25, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Yep. Got up this morning and prayed and read some Scripture. Then went to work. Going to do the same thing tomorrow. Might say some Hail Marys and an Our Father along the way – pretty radical stuff.
June 25, 2012 at 10:38 pm
That statement from congressman Green was one of the most inarticulate, confusing things I've ever read. It SOUNDS like he's saying Christians are being "radicalized" by converting to Islam. If that's what he's getting at, then it IS a problem that needs to be investigated. But if they convert to Islam they're not Christian terrorists. They're Muslim terrorists. That means there's all the more reason to investigate radicalization of Muslims.
June 25, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Huh, it sounds like he's saying that there are radical people in every religion. Of course, I'd raise my hand to that too. Everyone has their crazies. The important question to ask is what does the religion encourage the crazy person to do? Strap a bomb to themselves or forgive 70×7?
June 25, 2012 at 11:36 pm
I'm a surgeon and a Catholic. I keep the Prayer to St. Michael taped to the inside of my locker door in each hospital OR where I work. I say the prayer each time I open the locker door. I know, he's an archangel with a sword and a violent, victorious history. He's the patron of police officers and paratroopers. What on earth does that make me? I feel so radical. What will become of me now?
June 26, 2012 at 4:48 am
Surely, he can't be a native Texan…
June 26, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Bring it on. Maybe we could call some of the sister's of Charity as witnesses. Or some brothers form the Friars for Franciscan Renewal. They are some of the most radical Christians I know. Then we can talk about how we are persecuted
Brad
PS posted as anonymous because I don't belong to any of the other groups.
June 26, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Texas Congressman Al Green (D) is more than ‘willfully ignorant or just naturally dumb.’ He reveals he is an enabler of Islamically inspired terrorism. He pretends to be concerned about balance but the effect of his proposal is that any investigation becomes unworkable due to too many topics being investigated. He is an enabler of terror because he refuses to prioritise limited resources on the most credible threats in the world today. Allah and the Muslim Brotherhood would be proud of him.
June 27, 2012 at 10:16 am
But US Christians are in Muslim countries killing Muslims by the thousands, countries that did not attack the US!! You expect no reprisals for this against Christians??
Define "radical". Christ was "radical".
June 27, 2012 at 10:22 am
"But US Christians are in Muslim countries killing Muslims by the thousands"
Really? Did you hear that on al Jazeera or something? Do your homework. Those busy killing Muslims are Muslims.