WASHINGTON — President Obama may have thought
he was giving a straightforward history lesson at the National Prayer Breakfast
on Thursday when he compared the atrocities of the Islamic State to the
bloodshed committed in the name of Christianity in centuries past.
But that is not how many of his longtime critics saw it.
“The president’s comments this morning at the prayer
breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my
lifetime,” said Jim Gilmore, the former Republican governor of Virginia. “He
has offended every believing Christian in the United States.”
Jim Gilmore
Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment of his show to what he
said were the president’s insults to the “whole gamut of Christians” and
Twitter’s right wing piled on. Guests on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show spent 15
minutes airing objections to the president’s comments.
“Lest we get on our high horse and
think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and
the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Mr.
Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was
justified in the name of Christ.”
Still, the president
went on to focus on the terrorism carried out under the guise of Islam, saying
that the last few months have shown the degree to which faith can be “twisted
and misused in the name of evil.”
“From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we
have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for
faith — their faith — professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact are
betraying it,” he said, describing the Islamic State as “a brutal, vicious death
cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of
barbarism.”
Bill Donohue, the president of the
Catholic League, said in a statement that Mr. Obama was trying to “deflect
guilt from Muslim madmen.” He said the president’s comparisons were “insulting”
and “pernicious.”
Mr. Gilmore said the comments go “further to the point
that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.”
The White House had no comment on Thursday night about the
criticism.
In his speech, Mr. Obama said the use of religion to
justify violence and killings “is not unique to one group or one religion.”
“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency, that can
pervert and distort our faith,” he said.
The talk of terrorism was the sharpest note in a speech
that was otherwise a reflection on religion and humility, and it was Mr.
Obama’s latest effort to avoid branding recent violence by the Islamic State or
those professing common cause with it as “Islamic” extremism. His team has said
that doing so would play into the hands of terrorist organizations,
legitimizing their message.
What do you think?
Culled from The New Times
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