Historian? Theologian? Or Apologist? *Open Thread*

Obama’s absurd comments at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday are having a major ripple effect. Just in case anyone has missed what Obama said Thursday, here it is:

If you prefer NOT to watch it, and I can truly appreciate that sentiment, Legal Insurrection presented the text as recorded by the AP News:

[…] President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned those who seek to use religion as a rationale for carrying out violence around the world, declaring that “no god condones terror.”

“We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilistic ends,” Obama said during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. He singled out the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, calling the militants a “death cult,” as well as those responsible for last month’s terror attacks in Paris and deadly assault on a school in Pakistan…

Obama had a more non-denominational message for the audience that also included prominent leaders of non-Christian faiths. The president said that while religion is a source for good around the world, people of all faiths have been willing to “hijack religion for their own murderous ends.”

“Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. “So it is not unique to one group or one religion,” Obama said. “There is a tendency in us, a simple tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Wow. Just freakin’ wow. Clearly, neither Obama nor ANY of his speechwriters have ever bothered to actually read any HISTORY on the Crusades. Hell, they coulda just gone to Wikipedia to learn just a little bit before making this insane comparison, and perhaps learn the ORIGINS of the Crusades.

Honestly, these comments by the president are absurd on oh-so-many levels. It is astonishing that Obama would make these comments, that he would compare events from a THOUSAND years ago, ones that were in response to centuries of Muslim invasions, not to mention the Inquisition, Jim Crow, etc., to the barbaric, insane, inhumane, horrific acts by radical Islamic extremists. Charles Krauthammer discussed all of this on Special Report Thursday night (via Legal Insurrection):

And clearly, Obama is no theologian. He has proven that point repeatedly, too. But his claims about how Christians acted centuries ago, including last century in our country, as a way to get off our “high horse” on the murderous terror attacks by radical Islamists is astonishing. As Robert Jeffress noted, Christianity does NOT preach killing others, nor are there any prescriptions in the New Testament to that end. The same cannot be said, he explained, in the Koran, where there are numerous such calls against “infidels.”

No kidding. And that is why Obama has shown he is neither a historian nor a theologian. Either one worth their salt would NEVER make such a pronouncement without considering the historical, cultural, sociological, theological mores of the time. Obama clearly did NONE of those things before equating Christians to ISIS/Islamic extremists. It continues to be a false equivalency and says WAY more about him and how he thinks than he might have wanted to reveal. Or maybe he did.

Then again, maybe he was just doing the beck and call of whoever the “Muslim leaders” were who were meeting with Obama on Wednesday. We can’t know, though, since the “Transparent” White House won’t tell us even who they WERE. Thankfully, intrepid sites like the Detroit Free Press and Breitbart have ferreted out some of them. And just wait until you see who they are. You’ll understand why Obama kept it quiet, AND why he came out blaming Christians for retaliating against Muslims a thousand years ago. From Breitbart:

[…] Breitbart News has uncovered the names of seven of the American Muslim leaders in attendance.

Comedian and left-wing pundit Dean Obeidallah revealed that he was one of the fifteen Muslim-American “leaders” brought to the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

“The No.1 issue raised: The alarming rise in anti-Muslim bigotry in America,” Obeidallah said of the meeting with the President. Their chief collective concern was not the rise of the Sunni Islamic State, nor the expansion of the Caliphatist Shiite Iranian regime and its messianic drive towards nuclear weapons, but instead, “anti-Muslim bigotry in America.”

Also at the event was Hoda Elshishtawy of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). MPAC was founded by members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The group has written a position paper rejecting the United States’s designation of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations, and has insisted that the Jewish state of Israel be added as a state sponsor of terrorism. The group’s former president, Salam al-Marayati, has also publicly entertained that Israel should be considered a suspect in the 9/11/01 attacks against America. He has said that Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel should be seen as “legitimate resistance,” according to Ryan Mauro of the Clarion Foundation.

Elshishtawy revealed that Dr. Sherman Jackson, who serves as the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought at the University of Southern California, was also at the meeting. One lecture Dr. Jackson gave has been described as a “call to battle” between Muslims and the West.

The Detroit Free Press revealed the names of three additional individuals who were in the meeting: Azhar Azeed, president of the Muslim Brotherhood-founded Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); Rahat Hussain, the Legislative Policy Director for Shiite advocacy group UMAA; and Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a women who played college basketball while wearing an Islamic hajib.

The Detroit Free Press also revealed that senior Obama advisers Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes were present in the Muslim leaders’ meeting. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

It has all become a little clearer now, hasn’t it? Sure has made it clear to me. That people from Muslim Brotherhood-based groups were in our White House is beyond disturbing. And it sure does explain Obama’s Apologist comments yesterday and other times previously. It is just mind-boggling that this is the President we have. WOW.

This cartoon by Branco at Legal Insurrection really does sum up Obama’s comments and policies better than I ever could:

Yep – that says it all. Now it’s time for your say!

Tags: Barack Obama, Legal Insurrection, Muslim leaders, National Prayer Breakfast