Monday, July 18, 2005
Tom Tancredo - In the lead for Stupidest thing said this year?
In case you didn’ hear, one of our Colorado Congressmen, Tom Tancredo (R) implied, in a “hypotetical scenario” that maybe we should have plans to bomb Mecca should a U.S. city be nuked. No, really…
I didn’t get clued into this today until I checked Hugh Hewitt’s website and found out what Rep. Tancredo said. Beyond dumb. Just plain stupidly silly. Tom, here are a few major things to consider:
1) Mecca is a holy site to Muslims in a way that no Christian city can be or should be. The closest connection is the orthodox Jewish appoach to Jerusalem and the land of Palestine. But that is a tiny minority within worldwide Judaism. The Haj to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Isalm to all of the world’s 1 Billion Muslims.
2) The United States military includes thousands of Muslims soldiers. Are you seriously suggesting they should be ordered to bomb one of their two most holy sites?
3) Such a bombing would be a declaration of war against all 1 billion Muslims, and I dare say, that it would be a war that could not end. You think the Crusades make the Muslims mad (which occured almost a millenium ago), you ain’t see nothing yet!
4) Such an action would do nothing to inhibit the radical elements in Islam. You must remember that for the Muslim, the will of God is absolute, so should Mecca be destroyed, it would be seen as the will of Allah, and cast as part of Allah’s plan to reinspire all Muslims to bring all Infidels under the rule of Islam.
Now, as an evangelical Christian, I do not share the squishy concept of all religions are the same. I have great respect for Islamic culture, history and even, to some degrees, theology. But, as a Christian, I believe that no one comes to God except through the Son, Jesus Christ (but that is another topic). That does not mean, and cannot mean, that I would ever accept the use of military force on Islam’s (or any faith’s) most holy sites. I suport the Global War on Terror, which is in reality, a war on the Fascists elements of Islamic extremism, but this will not help, it will only hurt, and would be an obomination to all the United States stands for.
Tom Tancredo, apologise...to the U.S. Muslim soldiers, to our allies in the Islamic world, to your party and to the nation at large. And none of this, “Sorry if my words upset you” kind of apology. Say it boldly, “I was wrong. We have no reason to ever consider such a course of action. Muslims of the world have nothing to fear from us, unless they try and impose their will by the use of terror and oppression.”
