Posted on 09/09/2008 11:56:28 AM PDT by stockpirate
John McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the "transcendent challenge" of the 21st century, "radical Islamic extremism," contrasting it with "stability, tolerance and democracy." But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.
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(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Palin argued when running for governor that creationism should be taught in public schools, at taxpayers' expense, alongside real science. Antipathy to Darwin for providing an alternative to the creation stories of the Bible and the Quran has also become a feature of Muslim fundamentalism. Saudi Arabia prohibits the study, even in universities, of evolution, Freud and Marx. Malaysia has banned a translation of "The Origin of the Species." Likewise, fundamentalists in Turkey have pressured the government to teach creationism in the public schools. McCain has praised Turkey as an anchor of democracy in the region, but Turkey's secular traditions are under severe pressure from fundamentalists in that country. McCain does them no favors by choosing a running mate who wishes to destroy the First Amendment's establishment clause, which forbids the state to give official support to any particular theology. Turkish religious activists would thereby be enabled to cite an American precedent for their own quest to put religion back at the center of Ankara's public and foreign policies.
The GOP vice-presidential pick holds that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape, incest or severe birth defects, making an exception only if the life of the mother is in danger. She calls abortion an "atrocity" and pledges to reshape the judiciary to fight it. Ironically, Palin's views on the matter are to the right of those in the Muslim country of Tunisia, which allows abortion in the first trimester for a wide range of reasons. Classical Muslim jurisprudents differed among one another on the issue of abortion, but many permitted it before the "quickening" of the fetus, i.e. until the end of the fourth month. Contemporary Muslim fundamentalists, however, generally oppose abortion.
Palin's stance is even stricter than that of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2005, the legislature in Tehran attempted to amend the country's antiabortion statute to permit an abortion up to four months in case of a birth defect. The conservative clerical Guardianship Council, which functions as a sort of theocratic senate, however, rejected the change. Iran's law on abortion is therefore virtually identical to the one that Palin would like to see imposed on American women, and the rationale in both cases is the same, a literalist religious impulse that resists any compromise with the realities of biology and of women's lives. Saudi Arabia's restrictive law on abortion likewise disallows it in the case or rape or incest, or of fetal impairment, which is also Gov. Palin's position.
Theocrats confuse God's will with their own mortal policies. Just as Muslim fundamentalists believe that God has given them the vast oil and gas resources in their regions, so Palin asks church workers in Alaska to pray for a $30 billion pipeline in the state because "God's will has to get done." Likewise, Palin maintained that her task as governor would be impeded "if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God." Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran expresses much the same sentiment when he says "the only way to attain prosperity and progress is to rely on Islam."
Not only does Palin not believe global warming is "man-made," she favors massive new drilling to spew more carbon into the atmosphere. Both as a fatalist who has surrendered to God's inscrutable will and as a politician from an oil-rich region, she thereby echoes Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has been found to have exercised inappropriate influence in watering down a report in 2007 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Neither Christians nor Muslims necessarily share the beliefs detailed above. Many believers in both traditions uphold freedom of speech and the press. Indeed, in a recent poll, over 90 percent of Egyptians and Iranians said that they would build freedom of expression into any constitution they designed. Many believers find ways of reconciling the scientific theory of evolution with faith in God, not finding it necessary to believe that the world was created suddenly only 6,000 ago. Some medieval Muslim thinkers asserted that the world had existed from eternity, and others spoke of cycles of hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Mystical Muslim poets spoke of humankind traversing the stages of mineral, plant and animal. Modern Islamic fundamentalists have attempted to narrow this great, diverse tradition.
The classical Islamic legal tradition generally permitted, while frowning on, contraception and abortion, and complete opposition to them is mostly a feature of modern fundamentalist thinking. Many believers in both Islam and Christianity would see it as hubris to tie God to specific government policies or to a particular political party. As for global warming, green theology, in which Christians and Muslims appeal to Scripture in fighting global warming, is an increasing tendency in both traditions.
Palin has a right to her religious beliefs, as do fundamentalist Muslims who agree with her on so many issues of social policy. None of them has a right, however, to impose their beliefs on others by capturing and deploying the executive power of the state. The most noxious belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should import into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so. That is the point of her pledge to shape the judiciary. Such a theocratic impulse is incompatible with the Founding Fathers' commitment to tolerance and democracy, which is why they forbade the government to "establish" or officially support any particular religion or denomination.
McCain once excoriated the Rev. Jerry Falwell and his ilk as "agents of intolerance." That he took such a position gave his opposition to similar intolerance in Islam credibility. In light of his more recent disgraceful kowtowing to the Christian right, McCain's animus against fundamentalist Muslims no longer looks consistent. It looks bigoted and invidious. You can't say you are waging a war on religious extremism if you are trying to put a religious extremist a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Well this is fair and balanced!
How about a Barf Alert?
What’s the difference between the author of this article and an “asshat”. NONE!
What’s the difference between a liberal hack and this author? Oh....I can’t think of one (maybe he wears lipstick?)
susie
Salon - pillow biter central.
Leftist meltdown at its best.
However, I'd definitely go with hole instead of hat ... you are a lot nicer than me. ;^)
Someone remind me when the last time a Christian blew up a building/car/pizza shop in the name of Christ...
I've seen this twisted thinking before. My brother the moonbat tends to explain it this way (he's serious):
The Constitution demands a wall between church and state [CCG: it doesn't] and therefore, no Christian or other member of a religion should ever be president. George W. Bush is a Christian, which makes the US a theocracy. So we're exactly like Iran.
Conservative Christian = Extremist?
Yup, the Rabid Left has gone completely off the rails.
Really? If they answer this qusetion, they'll see who has more in common with Hamas and Saudi Arabia. Now libs, Which party is savaging Gov Palin for being a successful woman?
Roger that. You gotta admit it’s kinda funny, when their candidate is the one named Hussein.
we should be sending thank you emails to salon for driving more people towards McCain/Palin.
How does this guy know so much about the “unknown” Palin? He needs his assumptions challenged.
Because as we all know, Muslim fundamentalists are so famously in favor of allowing women into positions of authority.
By the way, I think “Solon”.com was a inspired misspelling on your part.
More of the same excrement from Colon.com.
Dear liberals,
Please keep up the smears on Gov. Palin, it’s doing wonders for our poll numbers and donations.
Regards,
Your future President,
Sen. John S. McCain
In contrast, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it."
Palin argued when running for governor that creationism should be taught in public schools, at taxpayers' expense, alongside real science.
Ok, curse words cannot be banned but students can't have creation theory even mentioned? Total nonsense.
Now I find evolution a convincing scientific theory. That does not mean that I want it taught as anything other than science. A factual survey of religions should also be taught. The trick is to have the teachers teach rather than indoctrinate. My experience with my daughters education has been that many, but not all, teachers indoctrinate their students with an environmentalist, leftist "theology".
On the other hand, I don't mind having child inappropriate books reserved for adults.
Just in an examination of the continuum of Religious to Secular, starting with the Founders,
we’ve never been more secular than we are now,
and never more religious than we were at the Founding.
At what point was this country ever a “theocracy”?
(If you want some real insight into his REAL reason, here it is, if not, skip it)
John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
Every human knows what is right and wrong;
every human has a conscience that convicts him when tickled with reminders of what is right and what is wrong;
every human is a sinner.
He doesn’t want to be reminded of his shortfalls, so it’s better to remove all reminders from public life. Any such reminders in public life will be viewed as “imposing religious beliefs” when in fact, they just exist, and it’s the person’s conscience that is making him feel uncomfortable.
Nice going MSM tool, you’ve just made us a little bit more angry at your side.
The difference between Obama and a Muslim extremist? Not much!
Palin inquired of the local librarian how to go about banning books that some of her constituents thought contained inappropriate language. She tried to fire the librarian for defying her.
Sarah Palin asked the library about would be done IF the librarian was asked to remove books. It was a question about policy, not a request to remove books and no attempt was made to fire the librarian.
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Man does not change the climate and restricting the freedoms of man will not prevent the climate from changing anyway.
Anyone who knows anything about science knows that the Earth has gone through a series of radical climate changes that predate mankind's existence.
Even in the span of man, there have been significant climate changes pre-industrialization.
But those who believe in the Green Fairy want us to give up our light bulbs, our cars, and our meat so that the Green Fairy won't frown on us.
Juan Cole is a scumbag and has been an apologist for Muslim terrorists for years.
On top of that the banned books list reportedly includes books that hadn’t even been written at the time of her “request”.
It’s all a stalinist smear.
And yet McCarthy is the one who is “discredited”.
Name names. WHO CREATED THIS SMEAR?
Seems like it was just yesterday that I read another FReeper posting this very same argument...
....oh wait, it was yesterday!
CEO of the Democratic National Convention, Black Liberation Theologist
"... The head of the DNC's religious outreach, Leah Daughtry who, in addition to believing that God finds abortion acceptable ...is a believer in the same Marxist "Black Liberation Theology" preached by Reverend Wright. ...From the New York Times:
Behind her as she preached, a simple wooden cross hung on a brick wall in the vaulted and sizable sanctuary of the church, which is headed by her father, Herbert Daughtry. A prison convert who served time in his early 20s for armed robbery and passing bad checks, Herbert Daughtry whose father founded the church and whose grandfather and great-grandfather were also ministers became the church’s pastor 50 years ago, and today Leah was delivering the sermon as part of an anniversary celebration. Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, “They Owe Us.” Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry’s arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her.
bttt
They both have friends who bombed the Pentagon.
That’s what drives them nuts. They want to express their hate for her but it backfires. If she was some ugly old fat conservative, they would be able to demonize her effectively.
Sounds like an atheist wanting to make ATHEISM the official state religion by making any other faith a litmus test.
African American Pastor James David Manning, PhD “The Last 100 Days” (before the ‘08 election)
Video: “Obama is destroying the legacy of Martin Luther King” http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/ndnr07-28-08.html
Oops. Looks like they found out she didn't sell that jet on E-bay after all. She flew it into a building. Of course, being Sarah Palin, she walked away without a scratch. ;^)
We could come up with these comparisons all day since there’s so much material at hand.
Topic; Sprint's advertizing in Salon.com
Please read this vile hit piece which you have paid for so you understand why I will never do business with Sprint. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/09/palin_fundamentalist/
I will be spreading the connection between Sprint and Salon's filth as long as you continue to advertize on their slime filled pages.
Newsweek has already debunked those lies. Sarah Palin never asked anyone to censor books from a library. Nor did she espouse teaching creationism in schools. These are LIES.
Liberal desperation is ceaselessly hilarious!
H
“Any such reminders in public life will be viewed as “imposing religious beliefs” when in fact, they just exist, and it’s the person’s conscience that is making him feel uncomfortable.”
I think you’ve correctly identified the base cause of the left’s “outrage” at religion (well, at least against Christianity), really...
I’ve seen this very thing in my own children (at its most basic level). I’ll ask them to do something (help wash dishes, change the laundry, etc...). I won’t nag, but after a while if they haven’t done what I’ve asked, I will ask them again. Sometimes I get - “Gosh, I’m SO sorry... I just FORGOT! Quit trying to make me feel guilty, MOM!!!” and I will explain to them I’m using the same words (and tone of voice) as I used the first time when I asked, the only difference is that now your conscience is telling you I shouldn’t have to keep asking - you KNOW in your heart you should have done it the first time.
I think this is EXACTLY why people don’t want to be reminded that there are others who live a certain moral code. It is their own actions, and some basic fundamental understanding at play that makes them feel as if they are being “hounded” even when no-one is talking to them in particular. As you said — it’s their conscience — not anything anyone is doing TO them.
“Not only does Palin not believe global warming is “man-made,” she favors massive new drilling to spew more carbon into the atmosphere.”
You’ve posted another lesson from offspring concerning our spiritual relationship with God.
My children have taught me more about the fallen sinner’s rebellion to God than anything else in my life ever has.
Is it any wonder that the Left, and Satan, are anti-children and anti-family?
They are such a great personal growth tool and a blessing from God.
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A VERY good idea. We should hit all of their major advertisers.
Obama’s fight the smears site should be retitled fight WITH smears...
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