Bryan Fischer
One of ours for one of yours
By Bryan Fischer
At the end of this column I've reproduced a post I wrote back in December of 2009, anticipating Newt Gingrich's much publicized call for reciprocity in the building of mosques.
I suggested then, as the former Speaker did a month ago, a simple formula: one of ours for one of theirs.
You let us build a church in Saudi Arabia, we let you build a mosque in America.
The mere practice of Christianity is a capital offense in The Kingdom, and Christians and Jews are not even allowed to set foot in Mecca. Can't even visit. Convert to Christianity, you die. Period.
Since Saudi Arabia money is behind 80% of the mosques in the United States, this tells us all we need to know about Islam's plans for America as the religion of jihad gains more power. Goodbye religious liberty, goodbye freedom of worship, goodbye freedom of speech, goodbye freedom of conscience.
In other words, where Islam takes root, it's goodbye freedom, period.
We are chumps and saps to think anything else.
I began a national conversation this week about whether any more mosques should be built in America at all. If we care about America, care about liberty, care about the values of Western civilization, the sane answer is no. It's a form of lunacy to allow our destroyers, those dedicated to the extermination of Western civilization, to establish any more beachheads on our soil.
This is particularly true at Ground Zero. Moderate Muslims from Canada are willing to go on Fox News to criticize the insensitivity of building a jihadist monument there. But notice that Fox had to go all the way to Canada to find a single Muslim complaint against the mosque of conquest. Couldn't find one American Muslim who would go on record in opposition.
The reason: while there may be moderate Muslims, but there is no such thing as moderate Islam.
Islam itself is a hateful, totalitarian, political ideology that is determined to extinguish the light of liberty from the face of the earth. Only a willfully stupid nation would invite them to set up centers for planning its own destruction in community after community.
But I'm an open-minded guy, and open to reasonable compromise. I will happily join with Mr. Gingrich in the one-of-ours-for-one-of-yours approach. It's a solution that expresses classic American values such as equal opportunity, fairness, and reciprocity.
As soon as we get a church in Mecca, they get a mosque in New York.
If Saudi Arabia won't take us up on it, fine. It's their call. One of ours for one of theirs. Can't get any more fair, even-handed, and American than that.
Here's what I wrote back on December 11, 2009:
There has been much screeching in the civil rights world over the decision by 58% of the Swiss to ban the building of any more minarets in their picturesque country.
This is not a ban on mosques, mind you, which can still be built, nor any kind of restriction of freedom of worship for Muslims, who remain at liberty to pray openly towards Mecca to their heart's content.
It turns out that Switzerland is far from alone in nurturing a genuine concern about the tidal wave of Islamic immigration into Europe. Polls have indicated that, by similar margins, residents of a number of European countries have had enough. They recognize that Islam represents a fundamental threat to European culture and values, and they'd like something done about that, since they love their countries as they are, thank you very much.
The solution to this controversy over religious freedom is simple: one of ours for every one of theirs. Every time they let us build a church with a steeple topped with a cross in Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Afghanistan, they get to build a minaret in the Western country of their choice. And to be sure we keep things fair, every time a church is destroyed in the Arab world, we shut down a mosque over here.
Right now it is a capital crime to openly worship Jesus in Saudi Arabia, and even house churches have been busted up and religious offenders either imprisoned or executed.
So, let's tell the Muslim world: we believe in religious liberty, but you don't. We believe in religious liberty, but we're not saps. Let's have a little reciprocity here. One minaret in the West for every steeple in the Muslim world. How about it?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
August 15, 2010
At the end of this column I've reproduced a post I wrote back in December of 2009, anticipating Newt Gingrich's much publicized call for reciprocity in the building of mosques.
I suggested then, as the former Speaker did a month ago, a simple formula: one of ours for one of theirs.
You let us build a church in Saudi Arabia, we let you build a mosque in America.
The mere practice of Christianity is a capital offense in The Kingdom, and Christians and Jews are not even allowed to set foot in Mecca. Can't even visit. Convert to Christianity, you die. Period.
Since Saudi Arabia money is behind 80% of the mosques in the United States, this tells us all we need to know about Islam's plans for America as the religion of jihad gains more power. Goodbye religious liberty, goodbye freedom of worship, goodbye freedom of speech, goodbye freedom of conscience.
In other words, where Islam takes root, it's goodbye freedom, period.
We are chumps and saps to think anything else.
I began a national conversation this week about whether any more mosques should be built in America at all. If we care about America, care about liberty, care about the values of Western civilization, the sane answer is no. It's a form of lunacy to allow our destroyers, those dedicated to the extermination of Western civilization, to establish any more beachheads on our soil.
This is particularly true at Ground Zero. Moderate Muslims from Canada are willing to go on Fox News to criticize the insensitivity of building a jihadist monument there. But notice that Fox had to go all the way to Canada to find a single Muslim complaint against the mosque of conquest. Couldn't find one American Muslim who would go on record in opposition.
The reason: while there may be moderate Muslims, but there is no such thing as moderate Islam.
Islam itself is a hateful, totalitarian, political ideology that is determined to extinguish the light of liberty from the face of the earth. Only a willfully stupid nation would invite them to set up centers for planning its own destruction in community after community.
But I'm an open-minded guy, and open to reasonable compromise. I will happily join with Mr. Gingrich in the one-of-ours-for-one-of-yours approach. It's a solution that expresses classic American values such as equal opportunity, fairness, and reciprocity.
As soon as we get a church in Mecca, they get a mosque in New York.
If Saudi Arabia won't take us up on it, fine. It's their call. One of ours for one of theirs. Can't get any more fair, even-handed, and American than that.
Here's what I wrote back on December 11, 2009:
There has been much screeching in the civil rights world over the decision by 58% of the Swiss to ban the building of any more minarets in their picturesque country.
This is not a ban on mosques, mind you, which can still be built, nor any kind of restriction of freedom of worship for Muslims, who remain at liberty to pray openly towards Mecca to their heart's content.
It turns out that Switzerland is far from alone in nurturing a genuine concern about the tidal wave of Islamic immigration into Europe. Polls have indicated that, by similar margins, residents of a number of European countries have had enough. They recognize that Islam represents a fundamental threat to European culture and values, and they'd like something done about that, since they love their countries as they are, thank you very much.
The solution to this controversy over religious freedom is simple: one of ours for every one of theirs. Every time they let us build a church with a steeple topped with a cross in Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Afghanistan, they get to build a minaret in the Western country of their choice. And to be sure we keep things fair, every time a church is destroyed in the Arab world, we shut down a mosque over here.
Right now it is a capital crime to openly worship Jesus in Saudi Arabia, and even house churches have been busted up and religious offenders either imprisoned or executed.
So, let's tell the Muslim world: we believe in religious liberty, but you don't. We believe in religious liberty, but we're not saps. Let's have a little reciprocity here. One minaret in the West for every steeple in the Muslim world. How about it?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
