“Wow, that’s a pretty incredible graphic,” said Pappy.
“That’s right, XO. I think you can see that Muslims have infiltrated every Western democracy to some extent.”
“Yeah, it looks like some of these countries in Europe may be as much as ten percent Muslim, but look at their spread through Asia and the Far East! I never would have guessed Islam had spread like that.”
Lieutenant Johnson continued, “A basic flaw in democracies, no… not a flaw, but a weakness in the system, is that people can choose their own form of government. So over time, they are free to change it. It’s like the old saying about democracy being bound to fail because if you give people the right to vote, they’ll vote themselves so many entitlements, the government will go bankrupt.”
“And Lord knows we’ve become a nation that expects entitlements,” said the chaplain. “There’s a whole subculture in this country dedicated to getting as much free stuff from the government as possible.”
“That’s interesting, Chaplain, but not the point I was really trying to make. My point was, if you just think about it, democratic governments are bound to change over time. People change… the times change. In legal circles, if you listen to the so-called ‘strict constructionists,’ they’re always harping about the fact that our current laws and Supreme Court decisions are not consistent with the intent of the Founding Fathers. Well of course they aren’t! The Founding Fathers lived in a time when it was important to limit federal powers. They had just fought a revolution against a powerful central government. So the Constitution enumerated certain limited federal powers and reserved the rest of the powers for the states.”
“Well, times have certainly changed,” interjected the XO.
“That’s right. The Civil War did away with States’ rights for the most part, and the rest of the powers have gone to the federal government over the years because that’s what the people wanted. Today, whenever any need for government action arises, people’s first response is to demand that the federal government do something about it.”
The chaplain added, “It’s true the country has changed, but I think the country is changing now in ways no one ever anticipated, and one of the main reasons is the influx of Muslims. When the Founding Fathers talked about freedom of religion, the only thing they meant was, “Let me worship Jesus the way I want to and not the way you want me to.” They never anticipated the rise of a totally different religion that rejected the basic tenets of Christianity.”
“Yeah,” said the XO, “I guess in 1776 they never imagined Muslims, not to mention radical Muslims, would ever live in America.”
“That’s true, and the basic teachings of radical Islam are counter to freedom of religion. We’ve talked about the fact that people in much of the Muslim world don’t understand Western democracy, but we don’t really understand Islam either. We think countries like Iraq or Iran can have freedom of religion, but it’s not so. Muslims don’t tolerate other religions. Heck, the radicals don’t even tolerate other sects of Islam. Even the moderates don’t tolerate too much of other religions. For the fanatics, the radicals, it’s Islam or death. So the real problem is how do you peacefully coexist with people whose religion says kill everybody that’s different? Not just their political beliefs, but their religion?”
Lieutenant Johnson responded by asking, “Do you find it strange that Muslims only fall into two categories, moderates and fanatics? I mean, where are the liberal Muslims?”
“No, I don’t find it strange at all,” said the chaplain. “There are no liberal Muslims, and it all stems from the Qur’an. If you’ll, allow me to get on my soapbox for a moment…”
Pappy interjected, “You mean your pulpit, don’t you?”
They all laughed.
“No, XO, in this instance I mean my soapbox, because this is a personal opinion. My studies of the world’s religions, and my own reflections and meditations, have led me to several conclusions. The first is this: God’s message has always been love. It’s a unifying theme of religions throughout the history of mankind. Second, the problem God’s messengers have always had with writing a religious text has been that they screw it up!”
Everyone laughed. “Don’t sugarcoat it, Chaplain. Tell us what you really think!”
“No really, it can’t be helped. By necessity, each messenger has to interpret God’s spiritual messages, which come to him in symbolic form, in the context of the human life he or she is currently living. Mohammed dictated the Qur’an while he was engaged in a thirty-year war against tribal lords on the Arabian Peninsula. So, of course, his interpretations of God’s messages were warlike. They were tainted by his human experiences.”
“Yeah, that’s for sure,” said Lieutenant Johnson. “I’ve read a little of the Qur’an, and it seems like almost every syrah begins with a warning about the vengeance that God will wreak upon the infidels and the enemies of Islam, and it ends with a command that the infidels be cast out or forced to submit to Islam.”
The chaplain noted, “If you study it closely, you will find that the Qur’an uses the word ‘love’ primarily in the context of loving Allah. Elsewhere, it says to love your fellow Muslim, but in practically the next verse, it says to join together to vanquish the unbelievers. So in my opinion, God’s message of universal love was almost totally obliterated by Mohammed’s interpretations, and unfortunately, before his death, he proclaimed himself to be God’s final messenger.”
“So are you saying Mohammed, the revered Prophet of Islam, was a fraud?” asked Lieutenant Johnson.
“No! Absolutely not! For a person to be a fraud, they have to intentionally mislead someone. I have no doubt Mohammed, like all of God’s messengers, truly believed he was properly interpreting God’s symbolic spiritual messages.”
“Yet the end result is that all his warped interpretations have been studied by dozens of generations of Muslims as God’s final and greatest message to mankind. Right?” asked Lieutenant Johnson.
“That’s right, but don’t think Mohammed was alone in his misinterpretations of God’s messages. Remember, I said all of God’s messengers screw it up. There’s no religion that’s perfect — not even Christianity! In many ways, the Bible is a lot like the Qur’an. They both describe a reward-and-punishment type of religion that’s not very consistent with an all-loving god.”
“Why are you picking on Christians?” Pappy asked. “We’re not against Christians on this mission.”
“I’m not trying to pick on Christians, XO. I’m just trying to point out that Muslims are not alone in not having a perfect holy book. We’re not pointing fingers at the Muslims and saying, “My religion is right, and yours is wrong.” That’s been done since the beginning of time, and it has never furthered the progress of peace. We’re trying to be objective and recognize that every holy book has been flawed by its human interpreters.”
“So what are you getting at, Chaplain?” Pappy pressed.