“Islamic terrorism has embarked on a Holy War-Jihad-against the West, especially the United States,” wrote Yoseff Bodansky, former staff director of the Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
Former Rep. Paul Findley (R-Illinois), in his book “Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam,” accused Bodansky of embarking on a “flight of fancy” that attacked “imaginary foreign villains.” Findley’s book hit the press in July 2001. Planes hit the World Trade Center in September.
In the post-Sept. 11 world, the foreign villains are no longer imaginary. Yet any verbal attack on those groups that have physically attacked us is still condemned.
Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, a Christian, has been the subject of such recent attacks for his beliefs regarding the nature of Islam and Islamic terrorists. He claims that terrorists attacked America because we are a “Christian nation.”
Boykin is right in the sense that this war is religious. Osama bin Laden has made this much clear: “Our primary mission is nothing but the furthering of this religion (Islam).”
Boykin is wrong if he thinks bin Laden has singled out Christians. He has singled out any faith that is not bin Laden-style Islam.
“The first thing we are calling you to is Islam,” he wrote in a “letter to America” circulated in the British press in late 2002. This includes the “discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict,” he adds. The foundation of the terrorist attacks is the dutiful conversion of un-Islamic America.
Boykin equated the Muslim terrorists with idol worshippers whose god doesn’t measure up to the Christian God Boykin worships. He has received unjust criticism for his characterizations because the comments he made were within the confines of church meetings.
Even as a government official, he has a right to these convictions regardless of his engagement with the enemy.
Until Boykin begins biding his time searching for a little red creature with horns and a pitchfork, he’s doing no harm to the American defense effort and shouldn’t be demoted or asked to resign.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has come to his aid saying, “We’re a free people.” President Bush has offered nothing but criticism.
Bush quickly pointed out that Boykin’s views do not “reflect (Bush’s) point of view or the point of view of this administration.” Bush claims that terrorists have “hijacked a great religion.”
Were Bush a non-religious man himself, I would take no issue. Yet, he is a self-proclaimed Christian and is abandoning his religion’s teaching that Christianity is exclusive in that it is the only path to God.
Nor would I have respect for any self-proclaimed Muslim who might suggest that there are paths to God other than the ones outlined in the Quran.
Christianity and Islam have different things to say about God and the ways to interact with him. Either one is correct or both are not. These opposed religions cannot both be “great” as Bush has said.
Boykin and bin Laden seem to understand that there is no riding the fence on this issue.
Bush may criticize, but Boykin’s comments will have little effect on the war on terror and are not worthy of the president’s attention.
Bin Laden told ABC News in 1998, “It does not worry us what the Americans think. What worries us is pleasing Allah. …We do not worry about American opinion. … We as Muslims believe that our fate is set. If the whole world decides to get together and kill us before our time has come, we will not die; our livelihood is set.”
If there is to be victory in the war on terror, then the Bush administration needs not to focus on the religious beliefs of one military officer, but on finding bin Laden-who could care less what any of us has to say about religion.
Michael Stewart is a senior philosophy and religion major. He can be reched at [email protected].