OBAMA, IMAM TO THE WORLD

We have it on the word of our President that ISIS "Is not Islamic.  In this he walks in the footsteps of giants.  Who can forget the words of President Buchanan who in 1859, declared, "Brigham Young is not a Mormon."  We Americans have always understood that people exercising their religious faiths are only doing so when we approve of the manner.  If they behave badly by our lights, they just can't be what they are.  Our President now holds the office of Supreme Pontiff of all faiths.  He may decide who is a Muslim and I suppose, a Christian, Jew or Buddhist.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we do this all the time with Communists.  The Commies that scare us must not be true Communists!

This is delusional.  Poor old Buchanan never affronted the public with the notion that Mormons were anything but Mormons who's interpretation of Devine will ran up against their government.  He managed to defuse his crisis over Utah without violence.  And he did it without  resorting to the gibberish employed by our Law School Professor President.  

I've noted something interesting in this and related calls for Muslim scholars to denounce ISIS and similar radical Islamic groups.  None of them follows the president's language.  

It's not impossible to find Islamic authorities who will denounce the actions and interpretations of their fellow religionists.  It is impossible to get them to read anyone out of Islam altogether.  There are very deep, ancient reasons for this that most Americans miss. 

From earliest times Muslims have only been required to perform the Shahada* to assert  their faith.  Say this and mean it, and you are a Muslim.  It's a very serious business to deny that anyone who says this is not a Muslim.  He may be a heretic, he may be mistaken, or a sinner who uses his status for sinful purposes, but, he is still a Muslim.

What this means in practical terms is that all Muslims are enjoined to cluster against we infidels. Grudging agreement with infidels over actions may be granted, but asking any Muslim to admit that anyone who proclaims their status as a nonbeliever is a fool's errand.

The President who spent some of his childhood among Muslims and his own Muslim relatives, must know this.  I can only suspect that he has no real faith, and so is comfortable dealing with all faiths as contingent word formulas without deep meaning.  

His quixotic mini-crusade again ISIS he will soon misfire over his lack of understanding.  Muslims are perfectly willing to kill each other, but only when they can delude themselves into the belief that the Muslims on the other side are heretics and bad Muslims.  Pronouncing ISIS out of the Umma, he just reenforces the perception that he is irreligious and Western.

Finally, why does he need to form a coalition when the regional forces of Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia far outweigh ISIS?  









*  There is no god but god (Allah), and Mohammad is is Prophet.