Obama's 'High Horse': IS, the Crusades and Moral Equivalency

BBC AMERICA: Behold the perils of invoking moral equivalency - even, or perhaps especially, when some of the events in question are separated by 800 years.

During a speech Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama leavened his condemnation of the Islamic State's recent atrocities with a word of warning to his fellow Christians who wish to conflate the militant group's actions with Islam as a whole.

"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," the president said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."

Murderous extremism, he continued, "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."

The comments prompted an angry reaction - bordering on apoplexy - from many on the right.

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer called the president's comments "banal and offensive" and "adolescent stuff".

"Christianity no longer goes on Crusades," he said on Fox News "The story of today, of our generation, is the fact that the overwhelming volume of the violence and the barbarism that we are seeing in the world from Nigeria to Paris all the way to Pakistan and even to the Philippines, the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, is coming from one source, and that's from inside Islam."

Others, such as conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, took issue with the president's contention that IS is not reflective of Islam as a whole. "Sharia law is the present day threat to individual and civil liberties all over the world," he said. "Sharia is not a narrow cult. Sharia law is Islam." » | Anthony Zurcher | Editor | Echo Chambers | Friday, February 06, 2015

President Obama Speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast

On February 5, 2015, President Obama delivered remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Tony Blair in Submission to God at Obama’s Prayer Breakfast
Have no fear, guys! God loves you both! God always loves the smuggest of His creatures! Obama and Tone in a God-love-fest at the National Prayer Breakfast. Photo courtesy of the Mail Online
MAIL Online: Tony Blair famously 'didn't do God' during his decade in Downing Street, fearing he would be viewed as a religious fanatic.

But the former Prime Minister lectured the world yesterday on the need to put faith at the heart of global affairs.

In an impassioned 'sermon' in the U.S. he made no fewer than 31 mentions of God, and declared: 'In surrendering to God we become instruments of his love'. Blair Hails 'God's Love' in Extraordinary Speech as He Stands Alongside Obama at Prayer Breakfast >>> By Michael Lea | Friday, February 6, 2009

TED IDEAS WORTH SPREADING: "An Atheist's Call To Arms" - Richard Dawkins



Hat tip: European Alliance for Rational Thought >>>

YOUTUBE: God Bless Atheism!


YOUTUBE: The Rise of Atheism in America



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Obama Talks God at National Prayer Breakfast
Watch ABC video: Obama: “Faith should not divide us” >>>
ABC NEWS: At the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel this morning, President Obama spoke about the discovery of his own faith and went into his religious heritage in more detail than he generally did on the campaign trail.

“I was not raised in a particularly religious household," the president said. "I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion.”

The president described how he found faith while working as a community organizer in the south side of Chicago and how it grew to be an important part of his life.

“I know this breakfast has a long history in Washington," the president said at the annual event, held the first Thursday in February since 1953. "Faith has always been a guiding force in our family’s life, so we feel very much at home and look forward to keeping this tradition alive during our time here.”

Mr. Obama said that in history, faith has too often been wielded as a tool to divide, or as an excuse for prejudice or intolerance. “There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next –- and some subscribe to no faith at all," he said, making a nod to atheism that was unusual for the setting.

"But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate," he said, perhaps a wishful notion more than a factual one, given religious fanaticism seen from Topeka to Riyadh. >>> Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller | Thursday, February 5, 2009

PR NEWS WIRE: CAIR Welcomes President's Islamic Reference at Prayer Breakfast

WASHINGTON -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today welcomed President Barack Obama's use of a quote from Islam's Prophet Muhammad in his remarks at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast.

In his prepared remarks, President Obama quoted the prophetic tradition, or "hadith," which states: "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.*" That hadith may be found in Sahih Al-Bukhari, one of the most respected collections of the Prophet Muhammad's statements and actions. >>> | Thursday, February 5, 2009

*Yes, but did you notice what the Hadith states: “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. “His brother”, here, meaning his brother in Islam. So who are you trying to kid, Obama? – ©Mark

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