Islamic hysteria

Before some reader thinks I’m not a “true patriot,” let me remind you that I flew as a Marine Corps pilot for 12 years, through WW II and Korea and was personally decorated by the Commandant of the Marine Corps for valor in Korea at his famous “sunset” parade in Washington, D.C. That should put to rest the “patriotism” issue.

Now, we are living in a right wing media-created environment of Islamic hysteria or Islamophobia fueled daily by radical religious and political television and radio entertainers and commentators, including Fox “news,” along with the Limbaugh-type clowns.

The only statesman-like eloquence that has cut through this cloud of misinformation and twisted hogwash is the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who reminded Americans of WHO we are, and WHAT we stand for and represent in America, with complete approval of the Mosque Center. Since then, dozens of New York City organizations have joined him in a “New York City supporting American Values.” Bloomberg led the way for them to speak up for what America represents. And, what does America represent? In the words of the poet Stephen Vincent Benet, “Liberty…Equality…Freedom. To none will we refuse, sell or deny right or justice. What if these words pass and are no more? It took a long time to buy these words, and much blood and much pain. Liberty…Equality…Freedom. We hold these truths to be self evident.”

THAT is what America represents and what America will stand for around the world, said Bloomberg, and now many supporting groups from New York City.

The Islamic hysteria contributors forget about the “sins” and violence of Christianity, in many cases far greater than Islam. An exchange on National Public Radio (NPR) brought this to light and to national attention several years ago. I wrote a weekly column for the Flagstaff, AZ newspaper for 15 years. A reader of that column was Judith Fishback, who was a regular contributor to NPR. The following quotes an entire letter she wrote to NPR. The letter was read over National Public Radio, and highlights the crimes, cruelty, violence and horror of Christianity. What a blessing it would be if those feeding the Islamic hysteria would look at their own Christian history.

THE LETTER:

“You interviewed a woman this morning whom you described as “baffled” about the liberal fear of Christianity. “We’re good neighbors,” she said. “What could they possibly be afraid of?” Well, I can justify my own fear of Christians.

It’s about their history, beginning with the Crusades, when the most devout Christians galloped around the Old World slaughtering whoever failed to accept Jesus Christ as the savior of mankind. The word “heresy” was coined and in the ensuing centuries millions have been summarily executed for it… beheaded… hanged… drawn and quartered… burned at the stake… drowned… stoned… buried alive. Later it was New World Christians who snatched Africans from their huts and shipped them in chains to America, bought and sold them as livestock, tortured and raped, flayed, murdered and lynched them and their descendants and fought for the right to do so. Then they exterminated the bison, passed out contaminated blankets, waged war and systematically eradicated entire tribes of indigenous Americans… introduced the survivors to alcohol and confined them to reservations, robbing them of their native religions. Back in the old country, German Christians with singular efficiency gassed and cremated six million Jews and the majority of the world’s Gypsies.

Good-neighbor Christians have for more than a millennium sailed the globe seeking riches, laying waste the land and nullifying the cultures of aboriginal peoples. They are so compelled because Christianity is founded on the incontrovertible concepts that their God is the ONLY God, their book the ONLY book, their faith the ONLY faith and anyone who fails to buy what they sell is doomed for eternity to the flames of hell. They will go to any lengths to “save” each and every human being until we all are exactly like them in thought, word and deed, not to mention clothing and hairstyle.

Currently, according to your interviews this morning, Christians have the solution to all contemporary problems facing mankind, and if they could only have more absolute power in Washington, everything would be peachy. For centuries Christians have burnt women alive for keeping cats as pets, dancing, undressing, enjoying sex, speaking out, refusing to marry, missing church, staying out late in the woods, failing to love Jesus, wearing a hat, not wearing a hat, talking to strangers, and virtually any eccentricity. As an eccentric who repeatedly has committed all these capital crimes, I’m not just afraid of Christians, I am TERRIFIED OF THEM.

As a survivor of fifty years of their relentless pursuit, I still have an opinion to call my own, which is that Christianity is not the solution to anything. IT’S THE PROBLEM.”

Yours sincerely,
Judith Fishback
Flagstaff, AZ

I am remembering those two young men in Seattle, pictured on the front page of the Seattle Times, who came home from a bible class where the bible was taught as the “literal word of God,” and in the Gospels, it says “if your eye offends thee, pluck it out, and if your hands offend thee, cut them off” and so in their “faith” and their “ignorance,” they went home believing the “without-error bible” and they cut off their hands with a kitchen knife. It made the front page of the Seattle Times.

Goethe wrote that “Evil is militant ignorance”…and so it is.