“Islam may be more of a geopolitical movement than a religion.”
Started by ilona trommler
Jun. 9, 2016 6:32pm Tré Goins-Phillips, The Blaze
For American Christians, religious freedom is the hot topic of the day, but in they eyes of one Georgia Southern Baptist official, that liberty doesn’t apply to Muslims.
Gerald Harris, who earlier this week sounded off about
religious liberty at the Christian Index, is now facing the prospect of
a Ramadan meal with local Muslims who have invited him in order to get
to know them better.
The
Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has
extended an invitation to Harris, asking him to participate in an
interfaith dinner in Atlanta June 18, which is the end of the Ramadan fast that is a key tenet of the holy month observed by Muslims.
Harris told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that
a prior family commitment may prevent him from attending the June event
but said he plans to attend another one at some point.
“While
Muslims around the world and in our own country are shouting ‘Death to
America,’ should we be defending their rights to build mosques, which
often promote Sharia Law and become training grounds for radicalizing
Muslims?” Harris asked in his controversial column.
Defending
the bold opinion, Harris suggested, “Islam may be more of a
geopolitical movement than a religion.” But even if it were a religion,
in his eyes, “religious freedom for Muslims means allowing them the
right to establish Islam as the state religion, subjugating infidels,
even murdering those who are critics of Islam and those who oppose their
brutal religion.”
He
went on to say that Americans “kept Communism in check” during the Cold
War by “guarding our borders against those who wished to dismantle our
way of life.” Those comments begged the question: “Will we do the same
when another political ideology endangers our future?”
The
Georgian Baptist called out Russell Moore, leader of the Southern
Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who
co-signed a legal brief on behalf of a New Jersey Islamic community that
is facing opposition over plans to build a mosque.
Moore, a frequent commentator on current cultural issues, was quick to fire back,
invoking Roger Williams, a colonial Christian theologian, who, he said,
“stood up for the right of an unpopular minority in early New England,
the Baptists, not to christen their babies.”
“[Williams] explicitly
said such freedom ought to extend to ‘the most paganish, Jewish,
Turkish’ consciences as well since we are not to extend God’s kingdom by
the sword of steel but by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God,” Moore added.
Moore
asserted that not guaranteeing religious liberty for all people,
regardless of faith, would create an opportunity for the government to
step in and exercise control over religion.
“When
we say — as Baptists and many other Christians always have — that
freedom of religion applies to all people, whether Christian or not, we
are not suggesting that there are many paths to God,” Moore wrote. “[W]e
are saying that religion should be free from state control because we
believe that every person must give an account before the Judgment Seat
of Christ.”
Despite Harris’ strong criticism, CAIR-Georgia told the Journal-Constitution that
they “look forward” to meeting with him, because “Americans who meet
and greet their Muslim neighbors tend to hold far more tolerant and
positive opinions about Islam.”
But it appears it will take a little more convincing before the Baptist leader fully commits.
“I
would be interested in finding out more about the Council on
American-Islamic Relations,” Harris said. “I’ve read about it. It
professes to be for religious liberty. I would like to know if they
would be willing to have a Christian church built in Mecca. That would
be a demonstration of religious liberty, I think.”
Laura J Alcorn
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Friday, June 10, 2016
ISLAM IS NO RELIGION!
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